CLOUD ON A STICK
At least that’s what this picture looks like! 
Coyotes in the night but no rain. And once the threat of rain has passed this morning – I am sending my co-worker and his mower into the shot alfalfa fields. 
My first Pompeii loaf. The string did not work but the loaf itself looked ok to me and my Airbnb guests quite enjoyed it. 
This is the shot ( below) all the bakers take for instagram – mine is not good enough for that kind of exposure. 600g Spelt, 600g Calumet, 300 gram water, a cup of sourdough starter and 9g salt. In that order, with lots of rests in between. 
The humidity was over 96 percent yesterday and I don’t think that helps sourdough bread rise. Maybe Celia or Pete the Baker can chime in on that.
Above is Pats Paddock. I am experimenting with killing with thistle by cutting the hay and letting it lie. The cows are eating it in the field ( when they are not on the West Bank) but leaving the thick thistle rows.
We will see. I am always in a hurry to get hay up before it kills the plants below so this is a trial to gather information.
When the uncut rows get long enough I will send the hay mower out to do them too. This field is slated to be the-sown in a winter crop so I can’t lose. 
I hope you have a great Monday!
Love celi
Time to send out the mower! Fingers crossed – NO POP UP SHOWERS, Please.
I
31 Comments on “CLOUD ON A STICK”
Welcome to the Lounge of Comments
JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER:
DO A LITTLE SHOPPING:
Thank You So Much For Your Kind Help with Maintaining This Blog
thekitchensgarden 
I use a cup of starter for a mere 297 gms of flour, so your ratios are quite different. I used the KAF recipe and halved it to just make one loaf. What was the string for?
I was going to ask the same question. I must have missed it when she told us why she would use string!
Hi mohair / yes this recipe is off the site I referenced yesterday – usually I use a 1/4 cup.
Oh I missed that..
There is a circular groove around all
The ancient loaves from Pompeii. They think it was made by a string baked into the loaf. Who knows
So great that you posted pic of the string on top of the bread. I am wondering if after tieing the string around the ball of dough, it would rise better if you placed in a smaller dish- to force the rise above the string? I use 375ml water for 1kg of flour. But it still looks good. Both Sheila and b&b looking good, nice to see them both again too. Laura
Sheila is getting old – not moving too far now – I have got to get her moving about more
The bread looks extremely tasty, if a bit dense. I don’t think the humidity will have helped, but I think maybe more starter is needed; all the recipes I’ve seen for mixed grains use a larger proportion.
Interesting
It looks delicious. The humidity shouldn’t be an issue but temperature is. Your start proportions are fine but I would boost the salt to around 24 g for that amount of flour, 2% is what I generally use. The salt is for strengthening the gluten not for flavour. With that in mind delay putting the salt in for 1/2 an hour after to mix the dough. That’s called an autolyse stage where you let the gluten develop a bit before putting the salt in. When you put the salt in right away the gluten gets too stiff too early. Are you using a stone to put the bread on in the oven? That will help with oven spring which is when the loaf puffs up. Have a bit of steam in the oven at the beginning which will help keep the top of the bread open and slash the top lightly to help the bread rise.
Ah – a stone is s good idea – and yes I have an autolyse period of three hours, then the starter, then an hour later the salt. All folded in at intervals.
Good thinking about more salt. I’ll try that next time.
Good to know about the humidity – I did wonder
So nice to see Sheila!! Life is good for her!
Yes!
So much rain. Interesting book collection … I’m a snoop re: other people’s reading. I watched the video of bread made in Pompeii and other parts of the Roman Empire several times. Beside the string to hang up the bread afterwards for storage/transport, there were metal markers baked into loaf for ID. Kudos for the attempt with the flours from your work. 🙂
Always worth a crack!
Envious of your bread. Looks yummy. Am enjoying browsing your cookbooks! Cloud on a stick is very funny. x
It is funny! Though the rain is not.
I know. Relentless. And taking a real toll. Here, it’s heat. Coming hard this week.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could move your cloud on a stick to a location that actually needed rain?
Yes! I could sell my clouds – like candy floss at the fair.
I would love to stay in your gorgeous Airbnb,help on the farmy and be sustained with your fabulous bread.
When eating my bread one needs to keep very busy lest it settles on ones hips.
Love that photo – really does look like it’s title – one for the art galleries! Happy piggy and gorgeous bread! And, hey, that B&B of yours is so inviting, who wouldn’t want to use it for a getaway year-after-year? Happy mowing!
It rained again – no mowing yet – sigh
I really enjoyed your library collection – there are some interesting titles there. A nice shot, as are all of your photos. Fingers crossed for a shower respite.
The woman who is staying this week used to own a second hand book shop. She loves it in there.
That looks like a fabulous loaf!
Very tasty with lots of butter and avocado.
Nice bread… I rarely exactly follow any recipe, pick up tips and technique tweaks and play around with different ratios and flours, and I bake in a Romertopf clay baker so my results and photos are rarely sexy looking by Artisan standards but good to eat… your crumb looks much like mine. Great for toast, and being an Aussie Vegemite with the avocado. Nice bookshelf shot, I love browsing bookshelves ☺
You guys have been hit hard with lots of brutal rain, often showing red on the lie-phone. I always think of you. 95% humidity is horrible, we haven’t reached that yet, thank goodness.
Cloud on a stick! Wow … That bread looks fabulous