A weekend in Buffalo to hang out with mom. On the agenda: baking bread and taking good notes this time. I had fun quizzing mom about everything. Will I be able to recreate this in my NYC apartment? This remains to be seen...

Poolish:
3 c. Water
3 c. Wheat Flour
¼ tsp. active dry yeast (1/2 packet)

Mix water, flour and yeast and let it stand in a bowl overnight (12 hrs)

Starter:
6 c. lukewarm water
2 c. Wheat Flour
4 c. Wheat Flour

Add the water to the poolish and stir to dissolve. Add the 2 cups of wheat flour and stir in the same direction. Add another 4 cups wheat flour and stir in the same direction until smooth. Stir for 1 minute longer. Now it’s a sponge!

Cover the bowl containing the sponge with plastic wrap and set aside to ferment for 8-18 hours.

1 c. Ground Flax Seed
1 c. Wheat Germ
4 tbsp. Honey
3 tbsp. Salt
1 lb. Harvest Grain Blend (King Arthur)
5 c. Bread Flour (approximately)

Add above ingredients. It will be difficult to stir but still sticky. Roll it out onto about 1 c. flour. Knead for 10 mins and add flour as necessary. Use this test: If you poke the dough before kneading, nothing happens but after you’ve been kneading for 10 mins, the poke will spring back. Don’t knead too much flour in or the bread will be dry. Place the dough in an oil-sprayed bowl and cover with a dish towel. Place it somewhere warm (mom puts it next to the wood-burning stove) until it doubles in size (approximately 2 hrs).

When doubled, punch it down and roll it out onto a floured surface (you can let it rise a 2nd time if you’d like but we didn’t this time). Cut the dough into loaves (ours made 7), form them by folding under the edges as many times as it takes to make an even loaf which is smooth on top- the underside doesn’t matter. Place the loaves in loaf pans, cover with a dish towel in a warm place, and let rise until doubled (about 2 hrs).

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, put bread in and turn the oven down to 350 degrees and bake for 30 mins. Don’t put in more than 4 pans because mom said she’s tried more and it didn’t turn out well.