silverbrow

I'm a bit worried that my bread is a bit too sour. I've made a leaven that seems to be working and developing fine. The first couple of loaves I baked were sourdoughs based on Dan Lepard's recipe. The outcome was pretty good for a first time and tasted excellent. I then baked the oats and apples bread from Dan's book. The bread itself was good, it rose properly and had what I think was the right texture - the air holes were smaller than those in the sourdough and the crust wasn't as thick, nor was it as chewy, the loaf itself was nice and moist. The problem is though that it tasted really quite similar to the sourdough, it was just slightly sweeter - or is this the right flavour for the bread? I'm therefore concerned that my leaven might have become too sour. Is this possible? Is there anything I can do to rectify it or should I start again? Last question, I've not refrigerated my starter but have been refreshing it daily, is it possible it's gone off? Just to clarify, no-one's had any adverse effects from the bread and frankly it looked pretty darn good - all I need to do now is sort out the taste.

Try Constantia Uitsig, the food is fantastic and IMO better than La Couronne

There's also Back to Basics on Fore Street, just off Great Titchfield Street - fantastic fish

Thanks for that. Far from going pro, just trying out something new. Not quite up to the standard to post the results here yet

Thanks for the various bits of help on that. To clarify, neither Selfridges or John Lewis had oven thermometers nor did the Shaftesbury Avenue specialty shops. It might just be the time of year. I'll try Divertimenti again, but I'm pretty sure that when I went in there was nothing. I eventually tracked down Rye Flour to the Fresh & Wild in Covent Garden. The one in Old St was pretty useless.

I'm new to this game so be soft with me - but there is something I want to have a quick rant about. I've decided to spread my culinary wings and try some real baking. Having read the eGCI thread and buying Dan Lepard's book I setout to buy my ingredients. I live in London, work in the City and know most of the good food shops - yet could I buy decent strong white flour (just about), could I buy rye flour (no way). Wherever I tried no luck, that includes: various Fresh n' Wilds; Selfridges; Waitrose; La Fromagerie and the list goes on. Given that bread is a staple it is utterly bizarre that it's so hard to buy the things that you need to make it. Second grumble, I've also tried buying an oven thermometer, again no luck and I've tried Prices on Shaftesbury Avenue, John Lewis, Selfridges. Am I going wrong somewhere, are there hidden shops that I don't know about? Why is it that you can buy frozen food any time day or night, but try to do a bit of home baking and you're stumped? What have food shops in the UK come to? rant over

A quick memory test. I think that Thomas Keller did a series of recipes from the Bouchon cookbook in the Times Saturday magazine a couple of months ago. However, I've been totally unable to find either my copy or see any reference to it in this thread. Can anyone remember what I'm talking about. Specifically I was after his recipe for potted salmon. Thanks