Wrong thread

I usually make pizza once a month, but it has been longer than a month, so for dinner on Tuesday, we had sourdough pan pizza with some homemade sauce from the freezer, Canadian bacon, mozzarella, mushrooms, red bell peppers, and on my half, red onion and Greek olives. It has not been above freezing since Friday, and today was another high of 5 F, so pizza baked in a hot oven hit the spot!

RiversideLen, your braided round looks beautiful and perfect. Thanks for the tip about the flour. I've never made a braided loaf. I don't like the way long braided loaves look like they cut with the slices not being all uniform. At least that's the way the finished product looks to me. Your braided boule has inspired me to make my next boule braided.

Yesterday, I ordered an Emile Henry ciabatta baker from their website. It's on sale. I don't know if all their bakers are on sale. It makes 2-1 lb. loaves. I don't plan on putting the risen dough into a 500 degree baker, however. I'm going to do the second rise in the baker and hope I end up with delicious ciabatta . . . somehow. I don't care if I sacrifice a little on the crust. My preferred bread for pasta is ciabatta. It's iffy to find in the store. I've never tried ciabatta-baking because of the steam. I can't work up much enthusiasm for making steam in the oven. Of course, if it's too much of a crust reduction, it won't really be ciabatta.

I made the levain tonight for the Rustic Wholegrain Sourdough Bread that I plan to bake tomorrow.

Italian Cook--I have some thoughts about your Emile Henry Ciabatta baker. I have the Emile Henry long baker. I've turned out excellent loaves with just putting the covered baker in the already heated oven. The lid holds the steam inside. You do not need to heat it up to 500 and then try to drop in the dough. I also have the Emile Henry round Dutch oven which I use for a roll recipe (one day, I will try bread), and I also do not pre-heat it, and the rolls are wonderful. I do suggest that you grease it with Crisco and sprinkle with farina (Cream of Wheat) or semolina. I prefer the former because it does not burn. I look forward to hearing how your bread does!

On Thursday evening, I made the levain for my bread. On Friday, I baked my Rustic Wholegrain Sourdough Bread, which has grown beyond the original King Arthur recipe. I have been working on fine tuning it. This time, I added an additional tablespoon of olive oil, and increased the water slightly by another teaspoon. I baked it in a Romerhoff bowl with the cloche cover. As with the last time, it needed an additional ten minutes. I will see what the crumb and taste are like when I slice it tomorrow. I may decide that instead of just 1 Tbs. plus 1 tsp. extra water, I will use 2 Tbs. next time. I think that I almost have the recipe where I want it.