Suddenly Summer

After a cool and wet spring that meant late flowers and a slow garden, full blown summer has arrived and it's just as hot as it usually is at the end of June. The A/C was called into action on Thursday and will probably stay that way until the middle of September. It's good for the tomato plants though and when they finally produce, we'll momentarily forget today's weather. I did check my plants this afternoon and there are no little green tomatoes yet. There are snow peas now and in another day or so, enough for me to use in a meal. There are quite a few romaine lettuce heads that show no sign of being affected by the heat.
I've already used some of the basil, oregano, and rosemary but the garlic draws my attention again as it always does. The top picture is a scape from one of my bulbs that are hard neck garlic. I have at five different varieties of hard necks and one soft neck. From past experience, I expect to be digging up my first bulbs around 10 July but after the strange spring time weather, I can be flexible. The scapes should always be trimmed back to help the plant direct its energy back to the bulb. After trimming and a quick cleaning, a young scape can be cut up for use in a stir fry. If left too long, the scapes get woody. When left longer than that, the false flower will produce tiny, little bulbs that can be planted,
harvested, and replanted once more for a full size bulb. That's a lot of work to prove something I've only read about. I grow more than enough to keep for next year's seed stock, eating here at home, and giving away the rest.
No one should mistake me for an artisan baker or craftsman baker, I'm really just an eccentric baker because while I have some of the craft down well, I never keep working on one aspect long enough to learn more than what I need to know. Today's loaf serves as an example of that. It's a sourdough wheat loaf that started as a basic 1-2-3 loaf but I decided to soak the whole wheat and throw in some malted wheat flakes after I saw them during an expedition into and through the downstairs freezer. Then I added some sunflower seed oil into the dough and some maple syrup to help the color of the crust. Then there was that 14 hour retarded proofing. I may not have followed a classic formula but it sure does taste good.
Having used AP flour and that oil, I got a tender crumb. Due to a high hydration, over 72%, I got a more open than normal pan loaf crumb. While I still haven't gotten the right percentage of wheat flakes for a loaf, I do have an idea about how to apply the sunflower seeds on the top for appearance and a nice little roasted flavor. Using a small pinch, <1g, of salt in the soaker can add a flavor note of salt in the crust that is much greater than you'd expect. I hope to use that the next time I top a loaf with sunflower seeds.
The Leavenworth County Fair is about two months away so it's getting close to decision time about how many and what kind of loaves to submit for judging. My Green Light Rye that I made back in February is a likely candidate as well as a classic sourdough-pain au levain loaf. The recipes aren't broke so I won't have to fix them.

First Hummingbird Sighting

The first hummingbird of the year showed up yesterday. The birds still amaze me with the way they hover in place while feeding. I guess that means I'll have to search the rubble and debris in the garage for a feeder and the feed. Barring success with that, it'll mean "Off to Wally World!". Two other birds have been hanging around outside the window, a downy woodpecker and a red bellied woodpecker. I expect that as soon as there are more insects in the trees that the woodpeckers will be after the bugs. OTOH, they're always welcome here in my book and corner of the world.
My forensic research loaf using Golden Buffalo flour turned out very well. I kept the same basic ingredients but this time I remembered to start soaking the GB about three hours before starting the dough. I needed an extra 30g of water due to the GB's needs to get the right level in the dough. My rough baker's math shows that dough ended up at a suspicious 75% hydration. That could be wrong. Necessity dictated that I simply proof the dough rather than use a retarded proof but the end product isn't bad at all.
I took a brief, one hour, class in using Excel spreadsheets to help keep track of my loaves. I have the Open Office 3.3 installed on this computer but so far, there aren't many great differences between the two programs. the major difference so far is price with the Open Office being free. Once I've got enough time in learning the ropes, I should be able to use the program to give me better, as in more exact, quantities and there should be no problem in just using the program to adjust for the different size loaves.
I should simply remember what Woody Allen said as I work through this project, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans".

Tornado Season in Kansas

It's tornado season in Kansas but despite the numbers being reported, I haven't seen one. I haven't seen one since 1972 when I first arrived in the Sunflower State. I did move around for about 14 months but I ended up back here on the premise that in those days it was easier to live here with little money coming in than somewhere where there would never be enough money coming in.
There were tornadoes less than 25 miles away today in KC, MO but if it weren't for TV and radio, I'd never have known. It looks like the rains are almost over and the threats of severe weather are diminished to almost nil. Hopefully, Sunday will bring about an anticipated change for the better with temps around 80F and everything green growing ferociously to make up for lost time.
I managed to find more room for more seeds in the garden. After finding some packets of beans, cucumbers, and lettuce that date back to 2008 and 2009, I figured I had nothing to lose. A new square bale of straw went into the garden as a mulch but it didn't go far enough for me. As soon as the summer heat arrives, maybe in two weeks or less, the straw will break down quickly. there is still some straw available but the expected poor wheat crop means that if I don't buy early enough, there won't be any for next year. The bales are already $5 due to corn for ethanol being more profitable in this area than wheat. I won't be surprised if straw goes up to $8 a bale for next year.
The peonies are almost all gone but for the late varieties that just started blooming. Roses aren't cooperative due to less than optimal conditions. We have one poppy plant that has finally produced lots of blooms. Besides being colorful, the plant isn't all that desirable to deer. Who knows what the deer won't eat when they're hungry? I could try cactus if I want to be extravagant with my money.
Today's pictures are of my last loaf, a learning loaf. I hadn't used my Golden Buffalo flour lately so I thought I'd use that in a 1/3 WW-2/3 BF loaf. I soaked the GB for about 45 minutes before mixing but I still ended up with some really firm dough for a 70% hydration loaf.There's a new starter cooling its jets in the fridge to slow down its ripening for use tomorrow. I plan on using the same basic formula to see if I can adjust details for success. First thing I'll change is to have a longer soak for the GB to see if a little more water will do the trick. I've also got a slightly larger starter for tomorrow and it's at 100% so that will raise the hydration by a fraction. If you look at the uncut loaf picture, you'll notice I did an incomplete job on shaping the dough before proofing. It didn't make a difference in flavor but I want the appearance aspect of my breads to improve. The County Fair comes up in August and I want two blue ribbons this year. Winning the bread class overall would be even nicer. Where was all this competitiveness when I was slacking off in school?
This loaf was good but I'm intrigued by the forensic search of how and why it didn't turn out as expected. There are worse and more self indulgent things to do than this little exercise in curiosity.

Flour, Garlic, and Peonies

Mrs PG and I hit the road for Colorado about ten days ago. We were anxious to get out of town and see something and somewhere new. On our first night we stayed in Georgetown, CO, at over 9000 ft ASL. The locals told us the trick is to drink lots of water to help get acclimated to their altitude. The local beer, Tommyknockers, is quite tasty but doesn't work as well. I-70 west of Denver is a great drive. The Honda doesn't respond quickly at altitude and I was really jealous of the folks with turbocharged engines in their cars. We were both glad that we didn't have a tight schedule.

The next day we continued west going past ski resort towns that are expensive and not built for real people. I decided that we needed a little bit of off the beaten track and we headed up to Leadville, CO, home of the fabled "Baby Doe Mine", the original WW2 training grounds for the US Army's 10th Mountain Div., and the National Mining Museum. Don't miss the museum if you find yourself in the area. It's worth the detour. The mountain pass road to Aspen was still snowed under so that will have to wait for another day. That night we stayed in Grand Junction after a day of scenic view overload. The I-70 scenery is made possible by some great civil engineering work that has to be seen to be appreciated.

On Sunday, we took the long way to Durango, stopping for lunch in Telluride, whose charm eluded me due to the once again high dollar atmosphere. It's nice but it has to sell itself as an exclusive little town to survive. So I've been there, done that, won't likely ever go back. Well, maybe I might for the roads to and from there. They go way up high, over 10,000 ft ASL in one pass, and when I wasn't keeping my head on a swivel for road dangers, I could only wonder just what would have driven so many miners in the late 1800s to take their chances on prospecting for minerals or working the mines of the area. It's stunning scenery in many places and the towns all seem to have a story or two behind them. Many of the stories have something to do with the brothels in the towns.
While in Durango, we took the opportunity to go out to the Four Corners site and do the cliched photo thing of having my legs in two states and arms in two more. For those of you who are familiar with the Firesign Theater, this is additional complication to the question of how can you be two places at once when your not anywhere at all.

From Durango, we ambled down US 160 for quite a while on Tuesday, doing a lot of slow climbing up and down mountain roads until we got into south central CO where there's more farming and ranching than mining. I can't express fully how different this is with the open spaces, sparsely populated counties where the cattle outnumber the people, and occasionally, no utility lines to remind you of civilization that you hope to find along with a restroom at your next stop. You have to respect and sometimes envy the people who live there by choice but just shake your head about the people who live there because they are trapped there due to misfortune. It's not Kansas and it sure isn't Massachusetts either.
We spent Tuesday night in Colorado Springs and rolled out in the morning just before the snow came in from the mountains to the west. Our destination was Marienthal, KS, home of Heartland Mills, with whom I had placed an order for some flour before we left. Now, that drive on the High Plains was just as much fun for me though it lacked the grandeur of the mountains. It was 284 miles of two lane going from the almost desert conditions of eastern Colorado into the great wheat growing areas of Kansas, hammering down the road, grateful that I had brought some CDs because the radio was either farm reports, C&W music, or "classic rock". It wasn't NPR country soon after we left the Springs.

Marienthal is a little bump in the road these days. It's one of the towns that are desperately trying to hold on as the population shrinks due to lack of opportunity for their children. Farming is mechanized, ranching requires a LOT of acreage, and when your town can't support a convenience store, bar, or church, the sidewalks will have more tumbleweeds than people after 5PM. That's if sidewalks are even built.
The Heartland Mills operation is just great. They had my order ready and waiting at their warehouse. While I was paying my bill, I saw invoices for businesses in Lewiston, ME and Marietta, GA. FedEx and UPS help keep the orders going out and the business in operation. As we started on our way home, we passed a couple of feed lots. If you've never seen one, you'll won't ever think of your hamburger or steak in quite the same way after the experience. The rest of our trip wasn't too eventful. I didn't get a speeding ticket and the most notable things we saw were two billboards just off of the Ft Reilly Army post. The first one read, "Obama is a fraud! Demand his resignation now!" while the other one had a picture of the President and read, "Wannabe, Marxist Dictator". Ah, the beauty of Freedom of Speech is that it enables people to make fools of themselve in public if they can pay for it and they're not yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded theater.
When we arrived home that night, we had enough light to see that several peonies had started blooming. I counted eight different varieties today and I know there are three more that haven't bloomed yet. The peppers and tomatoes I planted hadn't died which doesn't necessarily have any justification for neglect as a gardening style. The picture of the chaotic mass of green stems is my mini-plantation of garlic. There are 7 or 8 types of garlic there, mostly hardneck and one softneck. If you won't grow your own garlic, you'll just never know just how good garlic can be.

Playing in the Dirt

I've been playing in the dirt lately. Yesterday, I decided to take the plunge and plant my peppers and tomatoes. For peppers there are Chile de Arbol, Goliath Jalopeno, Big Jim, and  Giant Marconi plants. The tomatoes include two San Marzano, an Early Goliath, and a Park's Whopper. All the plants looked a healthier shade of green this afternoon so the transplanting didn't hurt. I checked my garlic and so far, even though the moles have been burrowing underneath, I haven't lost any yet. Just to show them some love, I spread an organic fertilizer on the plot today. Our lettuce is almost at the stage where I can start thinning it out. Next week I'll add some herbs to the mix but not many. My oregano wintered over but it isn't very pungent yet. Of course, there will be rosemary, parsley, lots of basil, and a bulb of fennel for the monarch butterflies during their migration.
Speaking of migrations, I've yet to see any migratory birds. Between the cool weather and so many days with northerly winds, I shouldn't be surprised.
The great pre-summer flour stock up goes on. While in Omaha this past weekend, I scarfed up 20# of DM bread flour and 10# of DM AP. That should last me through August. Next week, we'll be passing through Marienthal, KS, home of the fabulous and famous Heartland Mills. I've placed an order for 2# spelt, 2# rye, 5# bolted Turkey Red-the same strain that started winter wheat production in Kansas, and 5# of whole white wheat. That stuff will take up some room in the downstairs freezer. I've worked up to a nice 30% WW/70% BF loaf so moving to 33%/67% should pose no problems. I may try a 50/50 loaf soon after re-reading Rinehart's  "Whole Grain Breads".
I'll have the flour and I need a new lesson in bread construction.

Pizza Variations

It was pizza that started my bread baking adventures. I wasn't satisfied with the frozen pies such as Freschetta and the flat bread crusts at the supermarkets were more topping platforms than integral parts. When I compared recipes for pizza dough with bread dough and saw little if any difference, I was off to the races and mixing it up with the flours.
Last week I tried using some rye flour for the bench flour when kneading the Neapolitan style dough. That worked out well and yesterday I took it a little further in the interests of discovery. I used 10% rye flour in the dough, added about 30g of my starter that uses 10% rye, and used rye again as the bench flour.
While baking the pie, I started with 10 minutes at 475F. However, I took the pie out of the oven rather than just rotating the pan and placed it in the broiler section. I expected the oven to kick in to bring the temperature back up after I closed the doors but nothing happened so I just turned the desired temperature up on the control with the idea that it would start the burners. That did do the trick. The results were to add some char to the cheese on top and take some of the moisture out of the toppings. I frequently use sliced roma tomatoes for toppings and previously, I would have to deal with excess liquid oozing out when I sliced. No such thing happened this time.
I used a perforated 14" pan yesterday and using the broiler worked but left me with a small detail to work out. The bottom crust wasn't as well done as we like. The pan doesn't quite match using a screaming hot stone but does a reputable job. The next pie I do will have to cook longer in the oven to get the crust right. Unless I moderate the application of cheese, it may seal in the moisture from the tomatoes. So far, my alternative methods are to put sliced mozzarella on the dough and then top or to sauce, add other toppings, add cheese, and then sliced tomatoes.
I could always delete the tomatoes but this is pizza, a perfect food; you got your carbs in the crust, some meat protein, dairy from the cheese, and the tomatoes are vegetables. When you add the crushed red peppers, you've got a slice of a well rounded nirvana that sustains rather than a merely indulgent finger food. There is a difference.
This week's breads haven't lit the baking world on fire or earned a glamor shot. The loaf that came out of the oven this morning used Dakota Maid bread flour instead of Hudson Cream AP. Using similar recipes, I've got to say that the bread flour worked out better giving me a better oven spring rather than spreading out as much. I also went up to 30% WW flour which should've been a factor in the shape but was a non issue. Next week I plan on picking up around 30# of DM flour in Omaha and that should hold me in good stead for a while. DM AP flour is as strong as KAF AP so I'll grab 10# in Omaha.
I haven't done anything exciting in the yard this past week due to tweaking my lower back. I've resigned myself to going to a PT Clinic to learn stretching exercises to minimize the chance of this back problem recurring. Sitting inside in pleasant weather, thinking about stronger meds to alleviate the pain is no way to spend a retirement. I want a second childhood, not a life of shuffling from point A to point B. Good health will help me live that.
A few pictures may appear next week.

It's a slow Spring out there

The weather is gray and wet today. Fortunately for the KC area, the jet stream is to the south of us. That's not so fortunate for the St Louis area and east. The cool temperatures remain and I'm reluctant to put out my tomatoes and peppers. The soil is much too wet. I have scattered some grass seed to fill in the areas damaged by the moles tunneling through my yard. A hairy woodpecker and a nuthatch have flown into the bird feeder this morning as well as some goldfinches that have been absent over the past few days. I need to buy some nyjer thistle feed for their dedicated feeder. The snow peas have begun to emerge and if the temps go up, I will soon have have to thin them out. I overplanted due to the age of the packaged seeds.
My search for an authentic Pugliese formula was a disappointment. There seemed to be as many recipes as there are Nonnas with access to an Internet connection. Some dictated using a biga that was more of a poolish at 100% hydration than anything else. Others wanted to add 60ml or 1/4C of olive oil to 500g of flour. After all my research, I gathered that it was a foccacia dough that was shaped into a batard. So I decided to develop my own formula for a faux Pugliese.
I started with a 100% hydration poolish with less than 1/16 tsp of yeast that I started on Tuesday night. That set on the counter for about 12 hours. It was peaking around noon on Wednesday when I mixed it as a 1-2-3 loaf. I compensated for using 1 TBS of olive oil in the water. I used about 10% WWW along with the AP to try to get a more complex flavor. Even though I used 10% Heartland Golden Buffalo WWW in the loaf, the flavor was just meh, not offensive but not newsworthy. Despite the 71-72% hydration, the crumb wasn't open and there were no signs of gelatinization in the interior holes. It looked like white bread. While it might have been the short patent AP from Hudson Cream, this bread may need as little handling as possible to develop the Italian openness in the crumb. I don't have an explanation for the indifferent flavor other than using only 4g of salt when I could have added 6g to get the standard 2% salt weight. I usually use a little less salt in my loaves and haven't run into this before to this degree. Perhaps the blandness in perception was due to my preference for a sourdough loaf over a yeast loaf.
The other loaf last week used the same AP and 25% Norm's Flour WWW. I used a two stage build on the starter but only presoaked the WWW for an hour. I substituted 1/2 TBS maple syrup for honey but the flavor wasn't noticeable. It turned out well and we should finish it today. Perhaps I should gather that the AP isn't for all applications.
It does just fine for a Neapolitan style pizza crust. This time around I used rye as my bench flour when doing a very short knead before bulk ferment. That turned out to be good move and worth repeating. Just a little bit of rye does a lot for flavor in my breads so I'll add that to my list of gimmicks and tricks to use when baking.
It's time wander out to the kitchen to start a new loaf and see if I can develop one that merits a glamor shot.

Out of the ordinary

 15 April is the average last frost date around here. Just once in the 21+ years we've lived here has the last frost gone past that. So it was particularly surprising to see a butterfly in the yard on Saturday. It was feeding on the dandelion blooms which aren't among the endangered species in my neighborhood.
We did miss the system that delivered the tornadoes this past weekend. There was about 3/4"  of rainfall but nothing of note, especially in comparison to what happened in Oklahoma that same day. It will happen close to home someday but I'm in no hurry to see a tornado up close and personal. Despite the attention paid to tornadoes by the press, not everyone out here in Kansas will see one in their lifetime. For the most part, they're buried in the fury of our rather exciting and vivid thunderstorms. The majority of us here in Kansas do experience heavy hailstorms that cause damage to cars parked outside and roofs on our houses. My present car has been dinged heavily by hail twice in the past twelve years and my previous car went to the body shop once. I can do without ever experiencing that for the rest of my days.
I managed to coordinate two of the little gimmicks I've learned about baking better bread this weekend. My slashing still remains a work in progress but I enjoyed the results of this one. It was a combination of soaking the white whole wheat flour for about two hours and a two stage build for the sourdough starter. The WWW is from Norm's Flour, an organic hard winter white wheat flour from Kingman, KS, that is my favorite WWW due to its sweet flavor and excellent baking qualities. Two stage sour builds are a PITA due to the need to build a small initial stage that takes as much work as a larger build. Perhaps the nuisance value only matters when you build for a single loaf. This starter used KAF AP and some Hodgson's Rye. The first stage developed at about the usual rate for OCT-APR but the second got rolling much faster despite being kept in the basement. As a sidenote, my starter will pick up speed in doubling and tripling volume in May and during JUN-mid SEPT, it roars. Part due to temperature and I suspect part due to it's makeup. After all, it is a living organism.
Back in the real world, the loaf was a standard 1-2-3 loaf procedure that turned out to be light in feel. The crumb wasn't quite as open with lots of holes but it wasn't dense, with a sweet flavor- I only used 1/2 TBS of honey for a 825g loaf before baking, and great oven spring. The pictures will be added in a day or two.
I've already added the soaker thing to my procedure but the two stage build will be for the days I have the scheduling right and ambition to spare.
I'm thinking about making a pesto and chicken sauce to be served with penne and probably pine nuts for Wednesday so I may dig into the dry yeast tomorrow to start something vaguely Italian in the way of bread. If the rain doesn't dampen my attitude, there may be something in the line of a Pugliese loaf for Wednesday night.

I See Green Everywhere!

Things are seriously green outside. The trees are filling in and the lawn will soon shift from needing mowing every seven days to a five day schedule. The much ignored string trimmer will have to be put back into rotation. Zoysia grass is making more invasions into the yard and borders. Don't believe the ads in the gardening magazines, you don't want this stuff at all.
I moved some clumps of our prairie grasses into the right of way behind our house. We don't own the property but if I don't take care of it no one else will. So, there are clumps of both little and big blue stem grasses out there. I found a lot of large rocks just at and under the surface. I suspect that someone dumped them there when the area was being developed and tried to cover the rocks with leftover dirt. I'm tired of scraping the mower blade on the rocks and won't keep goats for yard maintenance so it was time for transplanting. Once the grasses take hold, they'll be there for quite a while. Big blue stem grasses have root systems that go down more than 25 feet so they survive droughts, grass fires, and the no longer existent buffalo herds. The little blue stem isn't quite as tough but it has survived Kansas weather longer than recorded history.
I finally figured out how keep track of my daffodil plantings. I just photographed them and downloaded the pictures into a file. As long as the computer doesn't crash, I'll be OK. As an alternative to depending on this old computer, I can always store the pictures at Photobucket and hope their storage never crashes and burns. This autumn, when and if the motivation strikes me, I should be able to dig and divide the bulbs. Yeah, it's work but when they start blooming at the end of March, they're always a welcome sight.
Mrs PG and I hit another nursery yesterday to see what kind of strangeness from the plant world could be found. I added an Early Goliath and a San Marzano tomatoes to my menagerie of nightshade plants. Three tomato plants are too many for us but I'm a glutton for punishment and anxiety when it comes to tomatoes and their care. I may add a cherry or grape tomato plant just because they're good for salads and roasting for my pizzas. I should know better about these things but don't do anything to stop. Sad, isn't it?
It looks like the lettuce is starting to come up. It's either that or I'm deluding myself.
The work is starting to back up already so if I get the part time job at the local library I may have to get back to figuring out time management again. Oh, the library gig is just a circulation desk clerk at minimum wage and hopefully, low stress but OTOH, it would pay for some new toys, camera, computer, stereo gear...
The difference between men and boys is the cost of their toys.

Baker's Bail Out Loaves Do Boffo Bake Sale Biz

I didn't start out with the intention of baking three loaves for the bake sale at Cushing Hospital. However, as Woody Allen is alleged to have said, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans". The original intention was to do two loaves, shape and proof them in my bannetons to give them that nice "Artisan" appearance and tell the nice ladies that price the goods to mark them at an exorbitant $8 each. I was confident. I had the formula sketched out in my head, had some basic math to check the formula, soaked the whole wheat flour overnight in the fridge, built a two stage sourdough starter, and had all the ingredients on hand. That's where the mistakes started.  
I should have written down everything and done a mise en place before launching into the procedure. As I started into mixing, I decided that I'd use my water to loosen up the starter as I always do. Fortunately, I held back some of the water from the mixing bowl. I knew I could add it later as needed. This is where the second mistake occurred. I had forgotten to account for the water in the soaker so there was now an extra 104g of water and I hadn't added the planned maple syrup or sunflower oil yet. After turning on the mixer, I noticed that the dough was really wet when it should've been slightly tacky after a minute of mixing. It was time for an autolyse, so I covered the bowl, set the timer, and headed for the calculator. The dough was at 79-80% hydration, almost ciabatta dough territory and almost impossible to handle. Baker's math told me that I had to add at least 150g of flour to bring the dough down to where I could work with it I used a mix of whole wheat, because it absorbs more water than white flour, and all purpose, hoping that intuition would pull a rabbit or some loaves out the mixing bowl.
Mixing the dough wasn't fun. There was too much and I had to stop the mixing frequently because the dough kept climbing the hook. I hadn't ever had a problem like this before but there was 1950g, almost 4.3 lbs, in the bowl. I finally got the nerve to pour the dough on my floured work sheet, gave it some quick kneading to get it into a ball, and put it into the bulk fermenting bowl. I knew I was baking by the skin of my teeth or seat of my pants.
I managed to do a couple of stretch and folds over 2.5 hours and by the end of the bulk ferment, I knew I had to do pan loaves rather than using bannetons. I have three 8"x4" pans that I don't use on a regular basis but this was their time. I scaled out the dough, shaped it, and then wet the top before rolling the dough in some rolled oats. After covering the tops with oiled plastic wrap, I took the loaves downstairs where the temp is still around 64F for a slow proofing. I hoped for 3 hours which did work out. I brought up two loaves and preheated the oven to 475F. As the pictures demonstrate, the slashing wasn't all that good. The dough was still on the wet side due to hydration and I hadn't figured out how to overcome that. I still haven't. The first two loaves took about 35 minutes to bake to an internal temp of 205F. The third loaf only took 30 minutes to reach 205F internal. I just used a wire rack to cool them.
Before I bagged the loaves, I used my Open Office software to prepare a label to be placed in the bag with the loaf. I listed all the ingredients and gave them the name of "Yankee Farmhouse Loaf". It must have been the maple syrup that lent me the creativity for the name. It was either that or eccentricity.
Mrs PG took the loaves down to the hospital around 9AM. When she dropped by later to talk to a friend at noon, the loaves had already been sold for the less than exorbitant price of $6 each. Not only had I bailed myself out of what looked like a massive fail at first, I also learned something from the experience. Even if it was the second time I had to learn the lessons. I'll get you, my few and faithful audience, an update on what is going on outside later on after some sleep and some judicious editing.