hi folks these pictures were sent in by the students from the class that i assited with bread making at work see  previous blog "a great day baking at work 27 march"

5KG Hot Cross Bun Fruit dough

14 piece hand bun divider at the ready

A 5KG Fruit Bun Dough with 1 hour bulk fermentation ready to take this dough was made into cinnamon scrolls

and back to a picture of some of the hot cross buns

 A great time was had by all with 4 different doughs being made and processed, two 5 kg bun doughs a 4.5kg sour dough with black sesamee seeds and hand made dough on the bench

HOT CROSS BUN DOUGH

FLOUR               5,000g  100%

butter                       400g   8%

salt                             50g     1%

sugar                       800g     16%

brewad improver        25g  0.5%

mixed spice                100g  2%

milk powder               125g  2.5%

yeast dry                    200g    4%

eggs                             250g   5%

water                          3000ml 60%

fruit

sultannas                   1500g   30%

currants                      750g    15%

mixed peel                   100g   2%

total yield     12300g  (26%)   164 buns @ 80g ea

the timed dough was similar minus  bread improver and bun spice

Sour dough  black sesamee

flour 4.500 g flour

water 3,000ml

s/d culture 1,500g

salt 60g

sesamee oil 120ml

black sesamee seed 150g

we ended up with 18  x 500g loaves which were retarded and baked the next day

 Kind regards yozza

and thanks to the students for the pictures

Made a pain de campagne first thing, and had some slices for lunch with some of the best smoked salmon I've tasted.

Followed up with a cuppa and a serve of my partner's incredible (and lethally rich) Easter fruit cake, which she made back in November, and has been feeding fortnightly with brandy ever since. We've been away in Thailand for the last month, and she was a bit worried that not feeding it during that time might have resulted in some drying out, but those fears were groundless. Just superb. Unfortuneately, didn't take any pics of the cake. Will do so when we have some more in the coming days, and will post a pic or two.

For now, here's the bread and salmon component of our modest but oh-so-delectable Sunday lunch.

BTW, my starter roared back into baking readiness with one feed after sitting in the fridge neglected for the 4 weeks we were away. What a trooper!

Best to all!
Ross

Every Easter, I try out multiple dry yeast recipes and set them up against my SD buns, which I make to a recipe I've developed over the years and now consider finely tuned. I can't better my current SD HCB recipe, and have not found a yeasted version to rival it, although last year's came quite close (see 2012 post here, which includes a link to my SD bun recipe - now simplified and tweaked a little more, but essentially the same).

This year, I felt a little despondent about testing yet more yeasted HCB recipes - just couldn't get enthused over the prospect. Then the thought struck me that I might try adapting my SD bun recipe to a yeasted version. Would that not retain the flavour profile of my SD buns that I like so much? What about the texture? I was suddenly excited.

Well, to cut to the chase, I was astonished and slightly put out by the results, especially since I was intending to give some buns to some vegan friends, so adapted the ingredients accordingly. These yeasted vegan babies turned out to be the best I have tasted in decades of questing after the ideal HCB.

I made several batches, with minor tweaks, and each was superior to my SD buns. How? A little more rise, a little lighter while being more substantial than the typical fluffy commercial product, a little less 'doughy' than the SD ones, a slightly more appealing browning of the tops, and something tantalisingly better - can't quite nail it down - about the flavour.

I gave some of both types of buns to friends (vegan and carnivore), and received raves back. However, when pressed, everyone slightly preferred the yeasted ones.

So, by unanimous verdict, I have to declare a shock new winner for 2013! I have a few more tweaks to try, but basically, I think I have my recipe for the ages at long, long last. I would never have expected that to be a dry yeasted vegan bun developed from my SD recipe, but there ya go! Baking - and life - has its mysteries, and long may that remain so.

Here are some pics:

SD hot cross buns

SD buns side-on

Yeasted version

Yeasted bun crumb shot

Side by side (yeasted left, SD right)

Cheers all, and hope you've had a peaceful and pleasant Easter.
Ross

It has been wonderful seeing some of the great bakes on here at the moment ... wish I had more time to comment ... any how ...

... Shameless promotion time ...

The restaurant I bake for had a review in the Weekend Australian Newspaper ... thought I would share ...

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/food-wine/alfred-constance/story-e6frg8jo-1226606839079

Cheers,
Phil

San Joaquin Sourdough Baguettes

April 1, 2013

My San Joaquin Sourdough originated in Anis Bouabsa's baguettes which had won the prize for the best baguette in Paris in 2008. Bouabsa's baguettes departed from convention in utilizing a 21 hour retardation after bulk fermentation and before dividing and shaping. Jane Stewart (Janedo on TFL) and I initially modified Bouabsa's formula by adding a bit of rye flour and some sourdough starter for flavor. I then omitted the commercial yeast altogether and began using the modified formula to shape as bâtards. Over time, I have tweaked the formula and method in various ways, but have settled on the current one as providing the best product.

Today's bake takes the San Joaquin Sourdough back to its roots, so to speak. I used my current formula and method to make San Joaquin Sourdough baguettes. I am very happy with the results.

9.2% of the flour is pre-fermented

Method

1. Mix the levain by dissolving the liquid starter in the water, then add the flours and mix well. Ferment at room temperature, covered tightly, until the surface is bubbly and wrinkled. (8-12 hours)

2. Dissolve the levain in the water, add the flours and mix to a shaggy mass. Cover and autolyse for 30 minutes.

3. Add the salt and mix to incorporate.

4. Transfer to a clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly.

5. Bulk ferment for 3-4 hours with stretch and folds in the bowl every 30 minutes for the first 2 hours, then a stretch and fold on the board after 2.5 hours. The dough should have expanded by about 50% and be full of small bubbles.

6. Refrigerate the dough for 18-24 hours.

7. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and transfer it to a lightly floured board.

8. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and pre-shape as logs or round.

9. Cover the pieces and allow them to rest for 60 minutes.

10. Shape as baguettes and proof for 45 minutes, covered.

11. Pre-heat the oven to 500ºF with a baking stone and steaming apparatus in place.

12. Transfer the baguettes to your peel. Turn down the oven to 480ºF. Score the loaves and load them onto your baking stone.

13. Bake with steam for 10 minutes, then remove your steaming apparatus and continue to bake for another 10-12 minutes. (Note: After 10 minutes, I switched my oven to convection bake and turned the temperature down to 455ºF.)

14. Remove the loaves to a cooling rack, and cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.

When tasted about 2 hours after baking, the crust was crunchy and the crumb was soft. The flavor was complex, with a caramelized nuttiness from the crust and a sweet, wheaty flavor from the crumb. There was some mild acidity but no discernible acetic acid tanginess. These are among the best-flavored sourdough baguettes I have ever tasted. Very yummy fresh baked and with great sandwich, crostini, toast and French toast potential.

David

Submitted to YeastSpotting

A week ago I made the Alpine Baguettes again from Dan Leader’s book “Local Breads.” This is probably my favorite bread for sandwiches to take to work (because for me, the more crust, the better). I toast them in the morning which makes them extra crunchy and brings out the nuttiness of all the seeds; a bit of mustard and then some prosciutto or spicy turkey, olives, salad, and I am in for a big treat I look forward to eating all morning.

I substitute 200g of the 500g bread flour in the recipe with 150 ww and 50 rye flour. The soaker has oats, sunflower, pumpkin, flax and sesame seeds. 

We were invited to our Italian friends’ place on Saturday for an Easter meal and I was bringing an appetizer. I decided to make vegetable tarts. On Friday I made the puff pastry, but this time I cheated a bit. I had seen this recipe of “quick puff pastry” a while ago and bookmarked it. It’s like making a “pâte brisée” where the butter is cut-in versus folding it in like in the classic recipe. Then one proceeds with 6 turns. For these vegetable tarts, I figured it was o.k. to test this version. Did it work? They came out well and were really appreciated by everyone.

I roasted 10 different vegetables: spring onions, regular onions, asparagus, bunch carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, zucchini, brussel sprouts, broccoli and butternut squash.

Making this dough was super easy and there was a nice lift in the finished product, despite the shortcut. However, next time I’ll go for the classic version again, I think.

For our Easter brunch I made these Swiss milk Brötchen Murren from Pötzblog for my kids; excellent with all kinds of spreads, butter and marmalades.

Also, another baguette experiment, this time the Fromartz Traditional, but I messed it up big time. I made the dough the previous day during my vegetable tarts assembly and was supposed to give the final S&F just before our departure, after which the dough needed to be transferred into the fridge for the night. Since I was running late and things were quite chaotic, the baguette dough got forgotten and over-proofed by about 6 hours! I just put it into the fridge once we got home and nonchalantly proceeded the next day. I thought, if nothing else, they would still be tasty - and they were. There was even a bit of oven spring, who would have thought. The crumb, however, was dense, not surprisingly. The baguettes didn’t brown at all and I had expected this too. I had to turn on the broiler some two or three minutes at the end to give them a bit of a “tan.”

And another batch of macarons for dessert for our afternoon treat with coffee.