Hi, I'm from Hamburg/Germany (imported with a container load of Danish furniture for my husband's store). Loving a Main-ah - but not squishy, underbaked Maine bread - I started baking my own, out of sheer desperation! My first trials resulted in bricks more suitable for fending off home invaders than for human consumption. After I learned Peter Reinhart's technique with pre-doughs and slow fermentation I went through my old German baking books, adapting the recipes to this method.