PatrickT

So glad you’re enjoying this method! Your success with it certainly speaks for itself. Definitely going to try this more myself this year.

Beautiful! What was the hydration of your loaf?

Granite Ware is exactly my choice now too! 😃 Love it. Lightweight, cools off in a jiffy, and is every bit as effective as cast iron in my experience.

Gotcha. Many of the sourdough recipes I follow call for a preheated Dutch Oven. When I do my cold bakes, the loaf goes into a cold DO and the DO goes into a cold oven. So easy!

From my perspective, no differences that I can tell - other than a significantly lowered risk of burning your fingers when you load your loaf! 😂

Love the cold start method! 😍

90/10 Central Milling ABC+ and Einkorn at 75% hydration. Really love the sweetly nutty flavor of Einkorn flour. Will try an 80/20 mix next time.

I made this recipe quite a while ago and completely forgot about it. It’s absolutely wonderful. Thanks for reminding me! Definitely going to make it again - and you’re right… this is the perfect time of year for it! 😃

Absolutely! I made mine with sourdough starter - but you could easily substitute yeast for it. I also used my wife's sugared pecans for this, but regular toasted pecans would be fine as well. Let me know if you try it!

Tartine Country Loaf, with 16% chia seeds. Tom Cucuzza has a great baking sheet for the Tartine recipe and process here, which I followed for this bake. Forgot how straightforward and delicious this loaf is to make! Try it - you’ll love it… with or without the seeds!

Gorgeous, as always!

@Ann_T Thank you very much! If you love butterscotch, you’d really love this. You’d probably also really love Ann’s pumpkin butterscotch muffins. She makes them a couple of times every year around the holidays. This loaf is actually a riff off her recipe. Let me know if you want to try either one. Always happy to share. 😃

Pumpkin butterscotch sourdough with candied pecans. I baked a free-form version of this loaf last year. It turned out fine, but the Pullman pan and egg wash I used here made it so much better. It’s decadently sweet but one of my very favorite loaves to bake. 😍

What was the recipe?

Beautiful loaves, as always, @Ann_T. I'm really glad you mentioned the reduced salt again because I wanted to share something with you on that. When we were traveling recently, we ate at a restaurant that had this salt substitute right on the table. I immediately thought of you and Mo and tried it on my eggs. I thought it was delicious. Not sure if you can find it in your area or not, but if you can, give it a try. Cheers!

Gorgeous baguettes @Ann_T - and all in spite of your power challenges!

I found a recipe for sprouted whole wheat in a cookbook from the early 80’s and just knew I had to try it. I converted the original yeasted recipe to sourdough, which produced a wonderful loaf. The recipe calls for 50% whole wheat, whole milk instead of water, and alfalfa sprouts, of all things! The result is a deliciously tangy, nutty, and moist loaf worthy of any sandwich fixings. The original recipe was a first place winner at our State Fair - and I can certainly see why.

Apple and Sour Cherry sourdough, with Masala chai replacing the water. The flour combination is Central Milling Artisan Bakers Craft Plus, Rob’s Red Mill Whole grain Spelt and Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grain Dark Rye. Delicious flavor with a soft crust and crumb.

While I've never actually tried this before myself, reading his guide on the subject leads me to believe that you would use a given pate fermentee for baking another loaf of the same kind. In other words, while he says you can use this method with any kind of bread (regular, enriched, etc.), what I take from his explanation is that he will use that pate fermentee to bake the same kind of bread. I'm therefore assuming the same would apply to the hydration. If it was different, you would want to make the necessary adjustments when adding the pate fermentee to achieve the desired hydration of your final dough. Just my thoughts - hope that helps!

Thank you! The couple I made it for said it’s their favorite loaf I’ve made to date. Happy to post the recipe if you’d like to give it a whirl sometime for Matt. Your loaves are incredible!! That pate fermentee process seems to be working ideally for you. Very exciting - thanks for sharing and please keep updating us with your experiences! 😃🙏

Beautiful loaves @Ann_T! 😍 I hope to try Pate Fermentee this week or next. This morning’s loaf - Blueberry Lemon sourdough - baked for friends. Heavenly aroma!

WOW. Well that certainly worked well! 😂 I'm going to try to remember to do this for my next bake. To clarify, you didn't add any other leavening agent for these loaves - just the Pate Fermentee?

I'll be eager to hear your thoughts about it and see your results!

That looks fantastic!! Thanks for sharing this. Definitely going to try that one. 😍

Great! I’ll be curious to see your results and how it works for you. When I watched it, I immediately thought of you. 😃