Artos Bread is Complete

So I made the Artos bread yesterday and to be honest I wasn't really looking forward to it. Because of that I didn't take many pictures, just a couple of the final loaf. I stuck with the plain Artos because my family is really not into raisins and dried fruits and such.
I started the bread yesterday morning and it took forever to rise. It was cold in Nebraska yesterday. My bulk ferment took about four hours and by that time my family wanted to leave so I retarded it in the fridge and we went out for the day. I came back and took it out of the fridge and let it sit for about an hour, then I shaped it into a boule and let it rise. I started proofing around 4 yesterday afternoon and it wasn't ready to go into the oven until 9!
Although I wasn't really into making this particular bread, I was loving the smell. It was very reminiscent of baklava. The oven spring was incredible! I can't believe how big the finished loaf was. I have my top rack in the oven at the highest spot for my steam pan when I need it so there is a huge space between the racks, but it got to the point that I was worried about it rising into the top rack. Luckily everything was fine. I baked it for 20 min, rotated and then another 20. The loaf was beautifully browned, but of course it was time for bed by the time it was cool so I didn't get to taste it until this morning. It had a really soft crumb, softer than I prefer, but between my wife and kids half the loaf is gone an hour after they woke up this morning. My daughter loved it made into cinnamon toast. My wife is just having it plain toasted, and I had a slice with a little honey drizzled on. I'd really like to use this to make a baklava style bread pudding with some pistachios and honey.
Even after I tasted my first bite I didn't think I would want to make this loaf again, but I think it's the ginormous round loaf I don't care for. I think I probably will make this again, but I will bake it in loaf pans next time. Maybe almond butter and honey sandwiches?

And a damn good bread it is...`

So I just finished my second batch of Anadama and this time I doubled it! My family and I loved it so much the first time, but this time I took a lot more photos.
Using the percentages is in the book I made a batch totaling 2000 g (2kg) and scaled each loaf to 500 g. Unfortunately I ran out of the cornmeal I used on the previous attempt, and after reading about all of the grittiness reported form using polenta I used a regular store bought cornmeal.
I'm lucky right now in that I am using my mothers Bosch Universal instead of my KA. It really does a nice job and I think I've put it through more work recently than she has in the last few years. Even with the cornmeal I achieved a great windowpane. I'm working on Artos right now, I don't think my family will eat Christospomos.

Anadama!

So here we, the first bread of the challenge and I have to say wow! My wife is really enjoying this bread. She just told me she could sit here and eat the whole loaf! I can't believe how moist and tender the crumb is.
So I've started entering all of my formulas into Excel so I can easily change the size of the formula. It's really made it easy with some of my other recipes when I can just enter the desired finish weight and it calculates the amount needed for each ingredient. I have converted the recipes by using baker's percentages into metric and made a 1 kilo batch of dough. Doing this I ended up with two loaves weighing a little over a pound apiece.
I usually make free form loaves, so I only have one actual loaf pan, but I ended up using a rectangular Pyrex baking dish for the other loaf and I will end up using that again. I love the width of the finished loaf.
I had what I would call a medium grind polenta I used for the soaker and it ended up soaking a little over 15 hours before I made the sponge. I used a "robust" molasses and it really gave it a nice flavor. I was worried about underproofing or overproofing, but they came out perfectly.
I can't wait to make this one again. This just might be a new regular sandwich loaf around here although if it is I will probably substitute 25% wheat flour next time.