re: Baking Bread 101: Beginning a sourdough starter (pics)

Pizza bread sounds delicious. Forkish’s white loaf is a good choice....white can carry more mix ins as opposed to wheat. Dry or oily additions like diced pepperoni or grated dry cheeses are fine and require no adjustments. Wetter ingredients like roasted peppers or mushrooms may give you some trouble unless sautéed to drive off extra moisture. Try using a couple teaspoons of dry Italian mixed herbs in the dough too. A loaf like that would make a killer salami sandwich.

I do herbes de Provence, olives, and lemon zest from time to time. Great for a roasted chicken or tuna sandwich.

Hes talking about the non-sourdough, white flour loaves (poolish, biga, overnight white, etc.).

When do you normally add the add-ins? Initial dough mix? After all the stretch and folds? Fold it in before shaping?

Do a focaccia

20 more minutes and this kid comes out. Just popped the lid off.

My biggest issue is knowing when to take it out. It had 30 minutes covered, and is at 20 minutes nsow uncovered. Oven is at right about 450-460 by the thermometer. I'm going to go ahead and pull it out now, looks like it is starting to get a black mark on top which means their is an air pocket there

Hey, if the bottom is burned or too hard, just trim it off. No one will notice that a slice or hunk has a missing piece of crust.

Maybe raise the oven rack by one position? Or, remove the loaf from the pot entirely after the initial lidded bake. At that point, crust is set, so you could put the loaf directly on the rack to finish baking.

Can also reduce the oven temp a bit (like 25 degrees).

Yes, lowering temp means you may have to bake a bit longer. There is no one true way: experiment to find out what works in your oven, with your dough. Technique grows through repetition.