FEBRUARY 24TH, 2026

Had lots of bread in the freezer so didn’t bake much the month of February as I

recovered from gallbladder surgery.

CHEDDAR CHEESE BOULES.

Dough was made Sunday night and left in the fridge until last night. Left on the counter and baked this morning.

FEBRUARY 4TH, 2026

It has been over two weeks since I baked bread.

Fed my “scrapings” in the jar yesterday morning and made a batch of sourdough last night.

Left on the counter overnight and baked this morning.

I got to use my new cast iron bread baker.

I had wanted one of these for a while, ever since I saw the Challenger a few years ago. BUT wasn’t prepared to pay the price for the Challenger or buy from the US. By the time the duty and the exchange was factored in, the Challenger price was over $700 Canadian.

I found one that is almost identical to the Challenger, just slightly larger from Crucible Cookware Company and the price was $137.00 including free shipping. I also liked the fact that the Crucible had 6 handles rather than 4. I ordered directly from the company.

Baked a large batard in the Crucible and a boule in the Netherton Spun Iron Cloche.

JANUARY 13TH, 2026

Have I mentioned how much I love the “scrapings in the bottom of the jar” sourdough method?

I’ve been using this method now since February. What I like about it is that there is no waste at all. Not even a little bit. No excess discard to worry about.

When I first started getting into sourdough, there were so many different methods on starting one as well as maintaining. I just couldn’t understand why so many of methods wasted so much flour, or why so many recipes called for large quantities of discard. So the method I settled on was Amy Scherber’s method, owner of Amy’s Bread bakery in New York City. It was easy to get started and easy to maintain, and there was very little in the way of discard. And what discard was left, was enough to make a “preferment” for the next batch of dough. And even if the starter was neglected and not fed for weeks, it bounced right back after being fed. I’ve had this starter going now for 7 years and I will continue to feed it probably once a month, because I don’t want it to die.

Going forward the scrapings of the jar is the method I will continue to use.

The dough for today’s bake was made on Sunday evening and left on the counter overnight and then it went into the fridge until last night. Left on the counter from 8:30PM until 3:00AM this morning.

Baked two batards to give away.

JANUARY 11TH, 2026

I started a sourdough after work on Friday. Used one of the small starters (95g) with 800g of flour at 68% hydration.

Left if out on the counter overnight for a room temperature bulk fermentation. I had intended to bake Saturday morning, but decided it could wait and put the dough in the fridge for a cold fermentation. Took the dough out of the fridge last night at 8:00 PM and left it on the counter until 3:00 AM this morning. So basically three fermentations over about 36 hours, 2 at room temperature and one at cold.

Baked two batards this morning. One baked under the Netherton Foundry Spun Iron Cloche and the other in a Romertopf Clay Roaster.

JANUARY 9TH, 2026

9 Mini Baguettes.

Started a sourdough last night and left it on the counter until 3:00 AM this morning. I used one of the mini “scapings” in the jar starters.

I fed what was left in the jar again and left it on the counter overnight as well and it had more than doubled overnight.

I started another dough this morning for Matt, for pizza and fed another jar of scrapings.

Will have two starters that will get used in two batches of dough tonight. One will get left out to bake in the morning and the other will go into the fridge for a longer cold fermentation.

I’ve been using this method of Stretch and Fold with the autolyze rests now since 2014. I love this method because other than the rest times between the initial mix and the actual stretch and folds, which takes no time at all and there is very little physical effort needed.