This weekend I tried to make sourdough bread with the home grown sourdough starter I made. It failed. The final dough never rose, so I suspect the mother starter had lost its power. Step by Step Following the directions in Reinhart’s “Artisan Breads Every Day,” on Saturday...

This is a follow-up attempt from Loaf 11, my French baguettes that only tasted okay. This time I used the same recipe, but corrected what I thought were the errors from last time. The dough came out too sticky again, so I added a bit more flour until it became tacky. I handled the dough more...

The recipe from “Artisan Breads Every Day” for French Bread is very similar to the Ciabatta recipe, without oil or stretch and folds. I was excited to try this so I could use the baguette pans that Sarah gave me. The end result looked nice (with some exceptions noted below),...

This is the same recipe as my prior ciabatta bread, minus the olive oil. This time I used a scale to measure the flour rather than a measuring cup. The recipe calls for 4 1/2 cups or 20 oz. of flour. Scooping from the flour bag measured 20 oz. with only 3 cups, so my flour is very compacted...

One of the reasons I decided to do this project is that Sarah gave me bread classes for Christmas. I attended the “2-Day Artisan Bread Workshop” with Chef Deanna Gin last weekend at Sur La Table in Palo Alto. The class was three hours each day. The first day we made English...