Hamelman - Pain au levain

My starter became two years old. It still amazes me that some water, flour and natural yeast can make a dough rise. Here's the rather simple to make Pain Au Levain bread by Mr. Hamelman. I love the simpleness of this recipe. The taste is always superb, this picture isn't but hey, take your 'Bread' books and make this bread!

Country Bread - Hamelman

Pane Siciliano - Peter Reinhart

Mmmmm, Pane Siciliano made with a pre ferment and semolina flour. This is a golden, sweet, very tasty loaf!!! It took 3 days to finish but the result was awesome. You will like this, that is a promise.

Was there anything I did not like about this loaf? Well, staying overnight in the fridge benefits the taste, but I have to be very careful : the plastic that I use to wrap the dough in always sticks to the top of the loaves. That is why you will see flour on top of the Pane Siciliano, it has sesame seeds also (which are awesome on top of this loaf.) But like I mentioned, I need to use flour to avoid the plastic sticking too much to possibly deflate the loaves when I remove it.

I did enjoy making these, I guess I haven't made that many loaves that take 3 days from start to finish before, but it was worth it.

Pain a L'ancienne - Peter Reinhart

Pain a l'ancienne : the dough was kinda too wet to shape in a decent baguette style, so I made it more like a ciabatta style bread. I did not use 100% white flour though, I added some whole wheat. I do like just plain white bread, but I love some bite/crunch in it, so that is the reason why I altered the recipe. Also, it is way better for your health.

No large holes in the crumb here. I still need to manage to get a decent crumb with these flat breads, but the whole wheat might also be the reason why there are no large holes in the crumb. I do like the taste though, overnight retarding is always beneficial to the flavor.
I ate waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy too much of it today. I ate one loaf myself... I know, too much, but so delicious!

Hope you'll enjoy the pic, I am off working out now, that is the downside of eating too much, need to burn all those calories right now!