I just baked the last loaf of my 100 Loaves of Bread project. In addition to learning how to bake great bread, I learned a few things about myself and doing life projects. If you’re interested in a view of the project by the numbers, that can be found on my Analytics page. Slow Learning...

It’s been almost a year since I started my 100 Loaves of Bread project, and here it is: Loaf 100! I’m going to do a separate post with an overview of the entire project; in this post I want to pull everything together that I’ve learned about making my typical Lean loaf. The...

Batard, Banneton and Baguette: the three most common ways that I shape my bread. As the last sourdough loaf of my 100 Loaves of Bread project I decided to make all three shapes from one batch of dough. I was 67% successful at that. My sourdough starter, which is now almost seven months old,...

I’ve made these delicious cinnamon rolls before (Loaf 79). Unfortunately it’s a four hour process, so having the hot and fresh for breakfast isn’t a reality. I did a successful experiment this time to address that problem: I started mixing the poolish for the dough at 5:15pm...

I’m on a holiday bread-gifting roll. I baked these loaves for my Mom and sister. Happily I got the “pretty loaf mojo” back – these popped in the oven beautifully, making nice ears and a wonderful golden crust. I proofed them for 1:40, only 10 minutes less than Loaf 95,...

My first loaf of this project was Beer Batter Bread, almost a year ago. It’s a nice, hearty bread made without yeast. The recipient of this loaf can’t eat dairy products, so I used margarine on the top of the loaf instead of butter. This was a gift, so I didn’t get to try a...

Along with Loaves 94, these are gifts for family. I wasn’t real happy with these loaves from an aesthetic angle. They came out asymmetrical , rising more in the front than the back. I know my oven’s heat is pretty even, so it may be that I didn’t score them consistently...

This loaf and the next one are replacements for family gifts that we didn’t get to exchange earlier due to weather problems (See Loaves 91 and 92). I corrected my ciabatta mistake from Loaf 90, and proofed these loaves for an hour on a well floured breadboard before flipping them over...

Bread for Christmas dinner in the form of French epi rolls, and an extra loaf for leftovers sandwiches. This French bread is basically the same as the lean bread recipe, except not as hydrated. The extra stiffness makes it easier to shape for baguettes, or in this case baguettes snipped into...

These loaves and Loaves 91 were supposed to be holiday gifts for family members, but our trip got postponed due to weather. The upside of that is that we got to keep the bread. I wasn’t happy with the way Loaves 91 came out, which were made at the same time as these, but these loaves...

These loaves and the next batch (Loaf 92 – 9 Grain) were meant to be family gifts for the holiday, but our travels were aborted due to weather problems. From a gifting standpoint I was relieved, as these loaves didn’t turn out as visually pleasing as I would have liked them to be....

At the end of this adventure I will figure out how much bread I gave away – it’s been quite a lot. Here are three more loaves made as a year end gift for Sarah’s co-workers. Of course the fourth loaf stayed home with us. There was one mistake making these loaves that...