A sourdough variation

Rye flour and water starter, photo by Michael McKinney

 I have been following the Thom Leonard sourdough recipe from Artisan Baking Across America.  The recipe begins with a simple rye flour, mixed into a levain, and builds off of three or four subsequent mixtures of General Purpose flour and Bread Flour.  The recipe is notable in its lack of yeast, which I added, as well as raisins and walnuts.

Sourdough Levain, Photo by Michael McKinney

Risen Sourdough Raisin Walnut dough.  Photo by Michael McKinney

 

Finished bread.  Photo by Michael McKinney

Matching parts

Rear Derailleur riding the freewheel.  Photo by Michael McKinney

About a month ago, my rear derailleur started showing signs of wear.  It is an Ultegra 600 component I have been using reliably with my current configuration on a daily basis.  Granted, the riding is not extreme in distance or environment, (I'm not riding through front range blizzards, Afghanistan sand storms or Alaskan nights of the Midnight sun or anything), regardless, the derailleur has been running smoothly and without great trouble since resolving this particular issue, about a month ago - here's what happened.
If you notice the picture on the right, you'll see that the chain is slack, the cage of the derailleur is riding on the rear sprocket freewheel and something just seems wrong.  After correctly diagnosing that something was indeed wrong, (a few days of hearing the derailleur riding on the freewheel, locking the crank and chain when shifting and dropping the chain numerous times was enough to convince me something was indeed wrong), I proceeded to remove the chain, the rear derailleur and contact at least three or four better trained, more experienced peoples who might assist me in determining the correct course of action. 

Rear Derailleur.  Photo by Michael McKinney.

After having a couple of discussions with anonymous parties on Craigslist, where I have previously sought assistance in bicycle mechanics, I decided to have a professional look at it.  After a thorough check, he informed me that the derailleur was not actually mounted correctly, and was not functioning because the chain had stretched enough to adequately negate the efficacy of the incorrecly mounted component.  The part may have been working well, but since the chain had stretched enough, the component was now in need of a re-alignment, thankfully not replacement. 

Derailleur, proper.  Photo by Michael McKinney.

Rear Derailleur, improper. Photo by Michael McKinney.

Here are a couple of photos that illustrate what
he was referring to - notice the angle of the writing on
the derailleur.

After also replacing the chain and re-adjusting the derailleur into the correct configuration, which required some skillful manipulation of a tool not specifically suited for that task, the mechanic and I parted ways - myself happy I asked before making the problem worse.










In non-related news, I've gotten to working on a new sourdough recipe, with dried fruit, honey and a levain made from organic flour.  Here are some photos of that -

24 hour levain.  Photo by Michael McKinney

Rising bread.  Photo by Michael McKinney

Finished product.  Photo by Michael McKinney.

Sourdough

Last week, I made a batch of sourdough, using some rye flour as a starter - although the recipe I used for the ratios of water and flour called for second, third and fourth starters to be mixed from the original starter, the 24 hour levain worked well and a small batch of bread was produced. I used organic flour, honey and kosher salt. After working my way through that batch, I put together another batch of cranberry wheat bread, and used almond meal in the recipe. Came out pretty well. Here are some pictures of the sourdough levain, dough and finished product, as well as the cranberry loaves.

24 hour Rye Starter, Photo by Michael McKinney

Sourdough, 1st rise, Photo by Michael McKinney

Sourdough, final rise, Photo by Michael McKinney

Honey Wheat Sourdough, Photo by Michael McKinney

Cranberry Almond Wheat Bread, Photo by Michael McKinney

Another thing - I got royally stumped on a sudoku puzzle in the newspaper - the five star Friday puzzle had me riding out at 11:00 PM to find the last copy of the paper and gently setting it aside until I felt ready to attempt it again.  The next day, it took me an hour in the morning, followed by the exact same thing happening on the Saturday five star puzzle, leading to three hours of puzzling and at least ten wrong answers before getting the right numbers in the right places, here's a photo of the finished result -

10-6-2012 Five Star Sudoku, Photo by Michael McKinney

Sourdough cinnamon wheat bread

After a spectacular, near epic fail on my last couple batches of bread, (somewhere between cardboard and rotting vegetation), two nice loaves of bread emerged from the oven.  I used an overnight levain, mixed the dry blended oats, wheat flour, sugar, honey, water, scant yeast and a bit of cinnamon into a batter-like dough, then added the remaining bread flour and kneaded in the salt last.

Here's the recipe, as much as I can recall:

Cinnamon oat wheat

Levain - pinch of yeast, 1 cup warm water, 1 cup bread flour.

Starter - levain, (fermented 24 hours), 3 cups warm water, 1/4 cup honey, 1/2 Tablespoon yeast, 2 cups blended dry oats, 1 Tablespoon organic sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 cup organic wheat flour.

Whisk.

Add 4 cups general purpose flour.

Knead 3 teaspoons salt into dough.

(first rise)

Cut, braid, loaf.

Bake @ 350 for 36 minutes.

I make no claim to the veracity of this recipe, the quality or the value, though I ran it past my team of volunteer taste enthusiasts and got a thumbs up.  Life is good.

Sourdough bread, part 1

A while back, I was given a book of recipes from Artisan bakeries in America - one of these was operated by Thom Leonard, who included a recipe for a country sourdough loaf.  What intimidated me about the recipe was the week and half it took to make the starter / levain and learning how to rely on a little water and rye flour, allowed to ferment for 24 hours, to rise the loaves once they had been shaped and placed into their loaf pans.   

"Professional bakers refresh their starters every eight hours"  - Artisan Baking, Maggie Glezer

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/3934/thom-leonards-country-french

This blog looks like they've already worked it over once or twice already, so I'll spare the carpal tunnel and add a couple of photos of my own Thom Leonard adaptation. 
Turned out pretty good...water, flour, salt and a pinch of yeast. 

Bread, part 2

Mixed up another batch of bread, this time with

Organic white bread flour
Organic Wheat bread flour
All Purpose Flour
oil, egg, salt, honey, sugar
Ground dry Oatmeal
yeast
Levain

After resting a levain of water, pinch of yeast and flour for 24 hours, I mixed the levain in with Water, egg, honey, sugar, oatmeal, oil and wheat flour.

After mixing this into a smooth consistency with a whisk, I added the remaining organic white flour and some All purpose flour.

After the dough had been shaped, I rolled in the salt.