I used the Serious Eats recipe, since they're pretty reliable (if pretentious and bougie)

It has a surprisingly strong lemon flavor, from just the zest of one lemon, but overall the flavor is, i dunno, delicate? Like it isn't intense and is just really really pleasant

Basque Cheesecake Recipe https://share.google/xog7XJnBi6167KPXo

I put poly on it, then sanded it off, then procrastinated for a couple months, but today I decided it's going to be done.

So I put a quick coat of 50/50 beeswax and mineral oil and called it a day

I wanted a 2000s/ASCII-era vibe sign to put up when I have extra bread to give away, and my wife came through in spades

I like it a lot, gonna tile it onto four pages and call it a day

Edit: I completed it with a small handwritten note at the bottom:

I'm gonna try giving my bread away by hanging it on the giant skeleton in my front yard and putting up a sign, but i want the sign to be like, early internet quirky/funny

Any and all improvements are welcome

For reference, I'm gonna hang it from his hand and make the sign like 18×24 or something like that. Legible from the other side of the road is my goal for the top text

Update: my partner worked on it a bit it looks incredible

I'm still getting a feel for my be phone's camera. I don't like that I can't entirely turn off the "image optimization" bullshit, but i will admit it takes pretty pictures

This one is just a BEAUTY.

the flavor is kind of bland, so it's probably on the under-proofed side. I just baked two more that spent an extra 12 hours in the fridge, very curious how they look inside.

I also splurged and bought a good bread knife, the one in my henckels knife block suuuuuuuuuucks

It's a tojiro F-737 and cutting bread with it is sublime. It does like to drift left, but aside from that it's perfect and I love it more than life itself

Been making this for years, but recently buckled down and have been feeding my starter religiously, seems to be paying off. This is the best crumb I've ever made

The flavor is a bit bland though, so maybe could've left it in the fridge another 6-12 hours

I've been feeding my starter religiously, at least once, sometimes twice a day, and I've been seeing larger, but very irregular holes.

I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but it's a new development, so i need a lot of repetition before making any more major changes

These are from a week or two ago

Update: as I've eaten my way through the most recent loaf, I uncovered this gorgeous section Still far from perfect, but much closer to what i want

Just for fun, I made a 1.8× batch of the tartine country loaf, but still made two loaves.

Overall they're great, if a bit dense. I theorize that the mass of the dough makes a more open crumb difficult at this size, but it could also just as easily be any of the more normal reasons.

Amazing the difference photographing in sunlight makes

I've been making this recipe for years and it's just the best. Rarely fails, and if it does it's always because I fucked something up.

It looks great, tastes great, the process is easy and the dough is user friendly, I just love it.

Anyway, today's batch wasn't perfect, I tore one open because it was stuck in the Dutch oven, but the loaf i put up top was the best of the bunch and looked spectacular

That's the one that got torn up, fairly sure that's why it was so dense

Made a couple round loaves with this batch, but i ran out of parchment paper a few days ago, so I just dropped them on the Dutch oven. Both of them stuck, and after the first 30 minutes, when it came time to take out, this one was stuck TIGHT.

Instead of being rational and just putting it back in with the lid off, I brutalized it with a spatula and my oven mitts, then ended up just putting it in with the top off anyway.

It still turned out fine, just a little dense. Quite sour though, which i thought was interesting, since this recipe is usually very very mild

I'd imagine permanent magnets would be involved, which could alter the character of the tones, but i feel like the trade off could be worth it if you had like five hundred thousand dollars to burn

I've been making for a few years now, the urge ebbs and flows. Right now I've been baking like a madman, forcing my A/C to work overtime, with the goal of reproducing the crumb you see in the loaves they sell at the tartine bakery.

I don't know if it's possible, given that the recipe in their book is probably optimized for a home baker, but I'm giving it a good shot.

Right now I'm in the process of getting my starter as active as humanly possible, I believe that's the major weak point in my process.

I oiled it up according to the instructions, unfortunately it takes a month to cure.

I'm planning on putting polyurethane or some other film finish on top because the oil is quite dull as is. Maybe I'll try burnishing it. I dunno.

Turns out, 91% hydration and a very very weak starter isn't a recipe for success, who knew?

It was fun folding such slack dough, but honestly I didn't really learn anything from this experiment

This is the first loaf, I didn't even bother with the second half of the bake

Been perusing this again and it has inspired me.

I'm doing an experiment, the dough is 90% hydration and I'm going to let the autolyse go for 5-6 hours, then add salt and starter, bulk ferment and shaping in the evening, bake in the morning

I think it's likely to be more or less a failure, but i realized that the loaves I'm getting from the tartine recipe look almost nothing like the ones in the book, so i gotta shake things up

As usual, recipe is the tartine country loaf, this was another 1.5× batch. I shaped them a little on the early side, but left them on the counter another two or three hours, then they spent about 12 hours in the fridge. Aside from wanting a little more airy crumb, I have very little to complain about

Most stressful moments in my life:

1. Witnessing the births of my children
2. Gluing up woodworking projects
3. Combat in Syria

But actually, gluing is so goddamn stressful to me.

Leg #1, my golden boy, worked perfectly, the glue looked good, the toothpick went in with just the right amount of friction, just beautiful.

Then I go to do leg #3, the ugly-ass, stretch Armstrong looking motherfucker, and the toothpick snaps after it was already fully inserted into the leg. THEN, when I used a pliers to pull it out, the end just ripped off, so I ended up relying on the suction inherent in the joint and prayers.

I think it'll all turn out okay.

^this is #1, my golden boy

^top leg here is fuck-ass #3

Update: having taken the time to look at these pictures, I realize how horrifically uneven the tops of the legs are and I want to burn it. I did the gluing in a huge rush and it shows :[