Le pain, c'est la vie

This is probably going to make me an obsessive freak if I am not one already. Within 48 hours I have made 4 batches of 250 g of bread.

First batch went to my dinner guest.
Second batch burned to crispy blackness because I fell asleep while baking it.
Third batch was born out of boredom.
Fourth batch just came out of the oven.

I finally got this bread making business right, the consistency, the texture, the softness. They are like the stuff that you get from the bakeries back at home, but just.. dare I say (and forgive my arrogance) superior due to the longer resting time which allows the delicate flavour to develop further. I'm now in search of a good butter.

Ok... so for the last batch of bread of the weekend, I finished kneading at 21:15 and I thought what the heck, I'll let it rest overnight and see how it turns out. The problem that I anticipated with leaving it to rest for such a long time despite promise of better flavour is over fermentation where a side product of yeast digestion, namely alcohol, especially in large amount after a long fermentation time might kill this microorganism and instead of cuddling a of rock star a bread, you get a tough and inedible dough. I kept on coming back to this baby from last night at 00:15, at 1, at 3 and finally at 6 when it looked great and smelled even better! There was a scent that was not quite, yet bear some resemblances to sourdough.

I made 3 shapes: petit bâtard, knot and three circles. My creativity is limited, I copied these from my first baking book. They look ok. Texture wise, they are not dissimilar to the batches with only 3 hour resting time. They're so soft and upon tasting, there's something there, something. I must titrate the starting ingredients to optimize the taste, but this is definately better than all the previous breads that I have ever made.
This has been a great start for the week. Happy Monday all and may our week be filled with many wonderful things!