Semolina sourdough baked in my wood burning oven.

This is my first bread ever so I'm proud of my achievement, beginning of this year I set out on a new adventure of bread baking in wood burning oven. About a month ago I completed my wood oven and 3 weeks ago started my starter going. Yesterday was the glories day of baking, the bread turned out OK had a great pop in the oven and tastes great. Had it with dinner yesterday, made French toast today and enjoying a slice of bread and honey with my tea.

http://www.ourwholesomehomes.com/2009/12/my-first-baked-bread.html

Well, it's been a while since I've gotten on here, and I've had plenty of time to mess up my kitchen with my experiments and ideas. For the holidays, however, I made something everyone likes: Pumpkin Bread and Triple Chocolate Fudge Cookies.

I've done the cookies before, but this was my first time doing pumpkin bread, but it still turned out FANTASTIC. It was tastey in a spice way, warm, just a little bit crispy on the outside, and a little moist on the inside.

I have a pan which makes 8 mini bread loafs and a small sized loaf pan I used to make these. The iciing is a store-bought white icing.

For holiday desert, I also baked a double-dozen batch of triple chocolate and fudge chunk cookies, which were a pain while I figured out how to inorporate everything in amounts decent to keep them as cookies and not chocoltae lumps and leave them nice and thick with chocolate.

All in all, it was a very tastey Christmas!

I found a copy of January/February issue of Saveur today, the one that includes TFL in the 2010 Saveur 100.

TFL gets better exposure than "Cantonese Roast Meats" or "Harumi Kurihara," less than the "Tuna Melt" or "Pyrex Glass Measuring Cups."  I can't complain.

Let me also put out a reminder to Americans that we have one final day to make contributions to charities if we want to be able to take the tax deductions in 2009.  TFL members have been extraordinarily generous when we've done fundraising in the past, and, as The Chronicle of Philathropy reports, this year charities are having a very tough time raising funds.  The needs both domestically and abroad are greater than ever and even small gifts can have a significant impact, so if you can afford to help, please do.

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful New Year's Eve.  See you in 2010!

Hi!

This is my first ever attempt at a blog.   I have been a member of the Fresh Loaf just over a couple of weeks; that's all.

By way of introduction, I am from the UK, and I lecture in Bakery in Newcastle upon Tyne, in the North of England.   I have industrial experience as a craft and artisan baker going back to 1987.   I gained distinction in my bakery qualifications in 2005, and then went on to gain full teaching qualifications as well.   Currently I am studying for a Masters Degree in Food Policy.

I planned to post a series of blogs using content and materials I share with my students in college.   I have tried to pick recipes which will be of interest; if anyone has a particular request, please let me know.

First  Product is......  

CHOLLAH

[Plaited Festive Bread]

Method: FERMENT AND DOUGH 

Oven profile: bake in the deck oven at 175°C, top heat 6, bottom heat 5 for 28 minutes.   No steam, draw the damper for the last 5 minutes 

Method: 

• Whisk all the ingredients for the ferment together in a steel bowl.
• Cover with cling film and set in a warm place for half an hour.
• Mix all the ingredients, together with the ferment, in an upright machine with a hook; 2 minutes on first speed, then scrape down; 6 minutes on 3^rd speed. A spiral mixer is a good alternative.
• Rest, covered, for 15 minutes, then scale into 970g pieces and divide each into 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 equal sized pieces, depending on the number of strands in your plait. Try to avoid using any flour on the bench during this and subsequent stages.
• Mould round, cover and rest 5 minutes.
• Line trays with silicone paper. Roll out strands to 9" and plait according to instructions.
• Double brush with beaten egg. Top with poppy seeds. Set to prove.
• Prove 50 - 60 minutes at 35 - 40°C, 85%rH.
• Bake as oven profile.
• Cool on wires.

This is a video demonstration I used with my students to assemble an 8 strand plait:

Some dough this week, but no loaves!

I wanted to indulge in something special, and found a delicious recipe for salmon en croute in a cookbook. The recipe called for shortdough, but I wanted to pack the fish in puff pastry instead. I didn't have any leftover puff in the freezer, so I had to get an early start and haul out the rolling pin. I tend to opt for five single turns whenever I make puff; two single folds back to back immediately after enclosing the butter block. The dough is then chilled approx. 45 mins., before a series of three single folds is given. I usually give the dough 45 mins. resting time between folds, perhaps up to an hour before the final fold. Below I'm in the middle of the fifth fold, giving the dough a brief rest before finishing.

And below's the completed puff (*phew!!*), right after the fifth fold. I try to keep a 1cm thickness of the rolled out dough during lamination.

Some hours later (giving the pastry a chance to relax), I roll 400 gr. puff pastry into a rectangle, 3mm thick. Two salmon filets, sandwiched with herb butter and coarse mustard, are placed smack centre:

...and the dough is folded around the fish. Get the seams underneath, then chill briefly to relax the pastry:

The package is baked for approx. 30 mins. at 200dC. I enjoyed the salmon with broccoli and herbed potatoes:

Absolutely delicious...!!

This was my third attempt at this bread and my best result.

I again followed Susan's recipe exactly, except I used a 100% hydration starter rather than a firm one. I used 300 grams of Pam's flour (New Zealand - 11.0% protein). I followed Eric's recommendation to lightly slash once across the top of the bread. Instead of using scissors I used my newly sharpened knife. I think that was good advice about the slashing; thanks Eric.

I retarded the loaf in the fridge for 8 hours. After taking it out of the fridge I let it sit at room temperature for 1 hour and 45 minutes. I baked the loaf for 40 minutes at 190 degrees celsius (fan bake). I used two cookie sheets - one pre-heated in the oven and then the second one with the loaf on it on top of the pre-heated one. I followed Susan's advice and covered the loaf with a pyrex bowl for the first 20 minutes. The oven spring was very good this time.

I was very pleased with the way this loaf turned out. The crust was crispy and slightly blistered. Once again the texture was light, springy and spongy and the flavour was very good with a slightly sour after-taste.