A friend and I have been baking together for a little more than 2 years. I'm an accomplished baker; he's new to it, but embraced everything and got right into the spirit of creativity. Actually, he's fast becoming an accomplished baker in his own right.

Sourdough is one of our go-to weekly breads. Our starter is 20 months old and coming along nicely. We've been using the traditional "stretch and fold" cycles and open hearth loaf method until 6 weeks ago. I saw this recipe and, as luck would have it, we had just bought the small pullman pan for our various multi-grain sandwich breads.

We went for it and were so pleased with how easy it was. I have to admit I was a little leery about not feeding our primary starter several hours in advance, but we keep ours in the fridge and feed it as needed so it's quite hearty. I used my KitchenAid to mix it; he did the one short stretch and fold. The first plain loaf was beautiful and absolutely delicious. It does not have quite the crisp-chewy crust of the hearth loaf and has a slightly tighter crumb as well, but we don't really miss those things. The crust is actually a bit easier to bite through and it's perfect for toast and sandwiches.

His wife, our kitchen assistant and clean up crew, had this reaction to it: "Holy mama! This is amazing!" and has requested that we continue making this one. We agree. In fact, we went ahead and bought the large pullman so we could do a 1-1/2 size loaf for sharing with friends. It baked up perfectly; evenly browned and even interior baking. I highly recommend investing in a pullman for this recipe. Last week, we made the whole wheat version. Scrumptious and excellent texture. Next up: The rye variation with some caraway.

One tiny alteration: I mis-measured the starter the first time around and ended up adding 15 grams more than specified. It doubled in 12-1/2 hours and went through final proofing in just over 2 hours. We're fine with that as the timing works well for our schedule, so we've made that adjustment going forward.

I highly recommend this to long-time and new bakers alike. It's a winner.

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