A five loaf weekend

I don't know how it happens. Quite honestly, I don't, but I think, "Hey, there's an idea... I'm going to have a go at that," and almost as long as I have enough starter to get all the doughs underway, it's hard to stop. Addicted to sourdough? Maybe...

This week's baking doesn't feel quite as successful as last week's, but I've definitely done much, much worse.

From front to back we have:
1) Ginger, honey and citrus peel (so dark because the sugar in it is prone to burn at least a little - happens to over-proofed loaves because their starches are broken down into sugars if they're left too long);
2) two baguettes, which look crusty enough, but seem like they hide lovely softness inside (we'll break one open tomorrow and find out! :D );
3) spelt loaf with porcini mushrooms, sadly got stuck to the inside of the banneton, so lost a lot of air when it finally plopped and pulled out onto the tray (thank heavens for oven spring or it'd be a complete pancake); and
4) a repeat of the caraway and ginger loaf I made two weeks ago, funnily shaped because this, along with the baguettes, is the first time I've used a couche cloth, so I managed to let the skin of the dough dry out a little too much, with some sad effects as a result of both that and my trying to recover it - it stuck to the cloth a bit, and I'm still not sure of the best way to get a loaf off the cloth and onto the tray (via a stiff carboard paddle), so again it lost some of what air it was able to produce inside its too-dry skin.

Practice, practice, practice and you might see more and better in the coming weeks. :)