da' bread!

made a loaf of one of my favorite bread recipes a day or two ago and slightly altered it with a folded in layer of fresh garden herbs.. thought you'd like to see.  i call this stuff ciabadam.  akin to the ciabatta or pane francese but not identical to either. 
   it is made with a rather slack dough (meaning it has a high moisture content) and with a stretch and fold method rather than the more common kneading steps which don't work due to the stickiness.  often the best recipes call for a long and slow proof for flavor a gluten development but I have circumvented these time consuming steps by utilizing a fair amount of sourdough started as a portion of the ingredients and use almost all high-gluten bread flour instead of soft wheat which is more common in the regions where the recipes were developed.  i also use a fair amount of bread yeast to accelerate the rise.  the bread is allowed to bake on a stone in a really, really hot oven (475-500) for only 15-20 minutes depending on my mood and is pulled out when it is the color i like it, a tad on the dark side.  the center is moist and the crust crunches like a cracker when it's fresh.  It should billow steam from the center when it's broken with a friend.  needs only butter.  come over and i'll make if for you :)
  other news from the market, new sausage of the week is the deadly bacon cheddar and mushroom sausage...oh, dear (!)