I’m on my last couple day’s at home before leaving for Europe, so I had to get my starters in my fridge fed before I go  away.Even though I am sure to bake while on the continent and in Wales where I will join some other like minded bakers, I always have some trepidation when leaving my levain without a good dose of food before I neglect them and it’s not easy to resist the temptation to bake once they are fed! Just  when the levain is so full of holes,fluffy like a cloud and ready to burst from the container, to hell with it! So I make a small loaf, my version of  Pugliese, adapted for sourdough from Jim Lahey’s recipe on Martha Stewart episode! I changed the levain to a stiffer version with more levain in the initial feed, this gave a good boost as I didn’t add  yeast  for the final dough!  while I varied the bulk ferment to about 9 or ten hours roughly; I sort of used the no knead idea in principle but kneaded minimally, I used the mixing machine and gave three folds every thirty minutes! With the principle method of a long ferment a bit less then what the no knead Jim method was, 12 hours? The dough didn’t over proof as it is so hot here this week and I had the air conditioner blasting! I then shaped and rose for final proofing about 1 1/2 hours and straight into the hot oven with lots of steam for about 45 minutes!
So if I happen to be a little slow on posting, it’s because I am researching and resting!! See you on the other side! Happy cooking!

Pugliese