Yesterday was the dinner  for CHAINES DES ROTESSIUERS

I had agreed to make my home brew stout bread for the occassion so after starting off the soak of stout and wholemeal at 8.30 in the morning i took to my normal purchasing duties until lunch time and then with thanks to my manager was allowed to go down to the kitchen.

The soak consisting of 2kgs of organic wholemeal and 500g of ryemeal 200g of sour dough starter 2.1Litres of home brew stout and a further 700mls of water, i could have used my last bottle of stout but wanted to reserve that for colleagues to sample to see if they thought that the flavours had carried through.

The rest of the dough was formed by 2.5Kg flour 100g salt, 100g gluten, 75g dried yeast 200g malt extract from a brew kit, 100g butter.

As the mix was coming together a generous litre of water was added which bought the liquid content to 76% it was sticky and possibly a little less may have been better.

The dough when mixed was placed in a large bucket  and for the benefit of the two mature age overseas students that were assisting me a mark placed on the side. the 2 students one from Taiwan and the other from Malaysia along with another 3 from our college have just been chosen to assist with the food for CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) that is being held in Perth very soon. 

DOUGH MIXED IN BUCKET FOR PROOF I was anticipating a 2hour bulkfermentaion period with 1.5% yeast but with the soak in active bottle fermented stout and an addition of sour dough culture it came through quicker than anticipated

in fact as can be seen ready in 1 hour

50 g dinner rolls  out of the oven

there wes plenty of extra dough so sticks and a couple of loaves were made the sticks i gave to the visiting chefs to take home and was much appreciated

some bread with the french butter

also attached the menu for the evening i didnt stay for the meal and got away not long after my normal knock off time i did have the stich with some nice blue costello and tomato and cucumber.

CHAINE CHEFS DINNER 2011

canapés

Chef Marco Bijl –

Prawn with jackfruit and lime chutney

Crevettes et son chutney de jackfruit et citron vert

Peppered beef with caramelised onion jam on a German rye

Boeuf au poivre avec sa confiture d’onion caramelisee sur canapés de son

Duck breast on orange salad

Magret de canard et sur salad a l orange

Smoked Salmon with Japanese mayonnaise topped with Wasabi

Saumon fume avec sa mayonnaise Japonaise et wasabi

champagne

TEAM CHALLENGER INSTITUTE: fresh breads & beurre d’isigny (normandy)

Pain du jour et beurre d’ Isigny (Normandie)

CHEF PHIL WESTWOOD/ CHALLENGER INSTITUTE – quail flambé with port/pink pepper jus, golden egg & enoki mushroom garni

Caille Flambee et son jus de poivre rose au porto

Oeuf d or et champignon Enoki garni

d’Arenburg sparkling red chambourcin (Aus)

CHEF GRAEME SHAPIRO/ WILD POPPY- pork belly in caramel with crispy crab, pork & crab relish

Travers de porc au caramel et crabe croustillant, accompagnee d une compote de crab and porc

trois mont bier (Fr.)

CHEF DOUGLASS KERR/ BOUCHARD RESTAURANT-Pan fried line caught fish, petit pois a la francaise, potato and clam veloute.

Poisson de ligne et son veloute de  petits pois a la francaise, pommes de terre et coques

wine

CHEF LUKE WAKEFIELD/ NATIONAL JEUNE CHEF 2010- corn fed chicken gallontine, sweet corn croquette, chanterelle fricassee, tomato essence

Gallantine de poulet de ferme aux grains, croquette de mais, fricassee de chanterelles et essence de tomate

Tricastin La Ciboise Blanc (cotes du rhone) ’09 (Fr.)

CHEF SOREN KOBERSTEIN/ GEORGE ST. BISTRO- sour beef cheeks, almond & sultana jus, brussel sprouts

Joue de boeuf aigre douce au jus de raisins et amandes

pirathon by kalleske ’09 (Barossa)

CHEF MATTHEW LADKIN/ FRIENDS RESTAURANT- coconut pannacotta, pineapple carpaccio & raspberry and mint salad.

Crème de noix de coco accompagnee d un carpaccio de framboises et ananas

Wine

DAVID MOPIN/ PHIL WESTWOOD/ TEAM CHALLENGER INSTITUTE-coffee & petit fours

Café, petits fours

Service: Jeanette Paladino & Clare Russel.              Beverages: Gary Bird.

Supported by Food and Beverage Students & Trainees

 regards yozza

September’s Baking 2011

 The new job is proving to be very demanding, as I should have anticipated!   A last minute appointment in a very busy baking school inevitably means there is a lot to do.   And staying in Leeds for 2 nights, away from home, is not easy to adapt to, even though I have been made so welcome by friends who offered me a place nearby to stay when this job first became a real possibility.   It will remain difficult for Alison and me to deal throughout the year, for sure.

On the bread front, I have made the following breads, in addition to the Kamut ® loaves recently posted.

A Borodinsky mainly following Auerman’s techniques, but using crushed roasted barley instead of crystal barley malt powder, as posted here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24237/celebrating-rye-breads   I wondered if it may prove to have a burnt, or, bitter taste to it, but the flavour was really lovely in the finished bread.   I used Organic Rye Flakes as a topping on the bread rather than freshly ground coriander seeds.

Borodinsky using a “Scald”

Makes 1 “Pullman Pan”

Gilchesters Miche

The good news is that the wood-fired oven fired really well today.   I had to hand-mix over 5kg of dough first thing this morning.   This is quite a challenge with weak Northumbrian flour and hydration at 78%!   The 1 hour autolyse is essential, then gently working the dough on the bench to develop the gluten over a lengthy time period also makes life easier.   I used 2½ hour bulk with one S&F before scaling, dividing and shaping.   I made 2 loaves scaled at 1660g and 2 at 835g.   Final proof was a further 2½ hours.   I baked out the bigger loaves for just short of 1 hour.   More detail on this formula is available here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24911/gilchesters-miche-and-borodinsky-bread and 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/23811/miche-using-stiff-levain-and-gilchesters-organic-farmhouse-flour

In the meantime I built a really good fire in the oven.   Once “scuffled” out, the oven settled at around 300°C, with the top heat radiating from the curved roof particularly effectively.  

Lots of photographs are attached.

Top heat reading from the roof of the oven; Infra Red laser point thermometer

Bottom heat reading after one hour of baking, with the oven door ajar for 10 minutes

                                                                                                                  Thin Cell Walls, above

and the finished crumb, close-up, below:

I’m finding it quite difficult to keep up with everyone’s posts on TFL at the moment with my midweek schedule journeying to Leeds and back.   Apologies if I’ve not kept in touch with everyone’s baking activities.

All good wishes

Andy