We found the four loaves of Arcangeli's Artikchoke Garlic Herb Bread waiting on our porch when we returned from our Golden Gate Park/SF day trip early this afternoon. I put 3 in our freezer as instructed, & will be finish-baking the fourth for 10 minutes, again per instructions, for supper this evening. I think several warm slices with butter will do for that meal!(we had Korean food for lunch in SF). Arcangeli's was extremely efficient in shipping. I ordered Sunday morning, & got three emails keeping me apprised on the status of my order. Along with the bread, I was very impressed with their customer service. Now On To The Bread....

If you capture a wild yeast, you can let it sit for a long time. I've let them go for several weeks in the fridge. After a couple months it can be iffy as to whether they'll kick in, but usually they do. Years ago I owned a French bakery. We'd mix up our dough for croissants and put it into the cooler until the next morning. Most pizza places do that too. So don't chain yourself to someone's directions unless they can explain with precision why the direction can't be modified. FWIW - I'm in complete agreement with the above. No need to worry about overnight.

Thanks for all the answers, folks: I'm glad to hear from other bakers! Of all the breads I hear about here, plllog's are the ones that speak to me most. But, although, if I really set about it with determination and a decent financial investment, I might be able to get the tools and supplies necessary to make bread as I see described here, I'm not willing to do that. I live in the country in Italy, and 98% of my groceries come from our small local supermarket. There is no Costco. No Whole Foods. I have no store that offers rye flour, grain berries, molasses, bran, wheat germ, reasonably priced oatmeal, or a host of other ingredients for baking standard in the U.S. I don't like to drive, I don't like to run around, I'm reluctant to add to our terrible air pollution, and gas costs about $7 a gallon. Add to this the absolutely horrible dis-service offered by our post office-affiliated package delivery company, which, after my last traumatic experience, caused me to swear that I would never again order by mail anything that would have to be delivered through them (there are other couriers, if one has a choice). So I work with what I have. This suits me, from a philosophical and practical standpoint, and while it's likely possible to make better bread, mine makes me happy. I've gotten used to the fresh yeast, which is reliable, and I have a fair variety of recipes I've worked out. The last one was potato and buckwheat (I was able to find buckwheat flour again, thank goodness!) and it turned out really tasty. That one was majority whole grain, simply because I had run out of white, and that improved it. Plllog's comments make me think, again, about how much I could learn about bread baking. The "soaker" is new to me. Who knows, this may stimulate me to some modest experimentation. Like Annie, if I want substantial nourishing bread, I have to make it myself. The Italian bread is good with a bowl of beans and broth but it just doesn't work as standalone food. Add to this that Italians don't really eat breakfast, so there's not much of an offering of sturdy food for the start of the day. I think my tolerance of grain-based foods has diminished as I've grown older, and it may be that baking with a sponge, and adding a variety of ingredients improves the digestibility of my breads. My diet is relatively low in cereals--I eat them regularly, but in much smaller amounts than when I was younger--and I mostly eat bread as the centerpiece of breakfast. It powers me up! in the most satisfactory way. Today is the potato and buckwheat bread--we're on our last loaf; I'll have to make more. There's a non-sweet almond bread in the freezer, made with milk, olive oil, and lots of almonds. If it gets cold enough I might even want to try a sweet bread. I made one last year with raisins, fennel, and orange juice and peel that I remember as being good. The basic dough of that one was similar to that of the almond bread, made with milk and oil. The loaves made with fats don't need butter. All my breads are part whole-grain, usually one third, though I may try upping that in some cases.

I made another loaf of rye bread yesterday and forgot to follow my recipe carefully. It's a recipe that I made up myself, and so it should not have been difficult, but in my recipe, I call for 2 Tbsp of dried onion flakes, but I also say that I can substitute 1/4 cup of minced fresh onion and reduce the water by 2 Tbsp. Well this time I used fresh onion and forgot to reduce the water, and I perhaps added too much onion, but that is not a bad thing, although it did throw off the proportions of liquid to flours. Anyway, I ended up adding more than 1/2 cup extra flour to the recipe, which I think made it too large for my Pullman pan. That was okay because I forgot to put the lid on the pan for the second rise, and in one hour, the dough was way over the top, and so I had to bake it without the lid. It came out okay except the it has a very light and airy texture, and I wanted it to be a bit more dense. I did remember the salt this time, but I forgot to reduce the salt, and I really should have because the Reuben sandwiches that I made today were way too salty. I blame the pastrami for this, but if I had left the salt out of the bread, the sandwiches would have been perfect. I think I will purposely leave it out next time and also pay attention to how much fresh onion I use. I liked the bread without the salt anyway. Another thing I noticed was that I need to use a lot more flour here than in the desert in proportion to the liquid. I think the flour in the desert has less moisture in it and therefore requires more liquid. This is going to be a balancing act for me. Anyway, I find it easy to add salt to bread that has been baked but it's impossible to remove it after it is done. I used turkey pastrami, since Kevin won't eat beef pastrami, and this may have had some influence.