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Reynard's blog

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Reynard

I stumbled across Paul Hollywood's "City Bakes" series on TV the other week whilst channel hopping and saw him visit this New York bakery where the proprietor was famous for no-knead bread. It's been intriguing me ever since, so I thought I'd give it a whirl - at most I'd wasted half a kilo of flour and a little bit of time...

The program didn't say much about the ingredients beyond the fact that he used half a gram of instant yeast and let the dough sit in a cool place for 24 hours, but I figured what the heck, I could play around and see where it took me.

Ingredients:

350g white bread flour

150g wholemeal bread flour

375-ish grams tepid water

10g salt

1/2g dried active yeast.

Method:

The yeast was first activated in the water; I use DA rather than instant, hence that change from the original method. The flour and salt went into a bowl and was stirred around, after which the water was added.

I actually started out with 325g of water (65% hydration) which is where my yeasted breads are usually at, but while that's fine for kneading, it was much too dry for just mixing briefly and then leaving. So I added a tablespoon at the time until I couldn't see any dry flour - hence the "ish" when it comes to actual water quantity. I will strive to be more accurate next time...

The dough was mixed up, the bowl popped into a clear plastic bag, and put in the hallway to do its bulk ferment at around 15C. The dough was checked at regular intervals (curiosity) and it was certainly rather interesting to see it change over time - almost like a poolish in an odd sort of way.

Have to say that the dough was quite wet and sloppy - almost a batter, but what surprised me was that after around 12 hours it was threatening to escape the bowl. As a safety precaution, into the fridge it went for overnight. In the morning the dough had stiffened up a little and it had maybe only risen another finger in those 12 hours.

I'd already been thinking that there was no way in hell I was going to be able to shape the dough as I'd seen on the TV, so the dough was folded while still in the bowl with a silicone spatula and, well, not quite poured, but let's say eased into a greased and floured loaf tin. That then went into a plastic bag and left to proof while the oven pre-heated. The dough was too wet to be scored, so it wasn't.

The bread went into the oven at around 80% proof, baked for 25 mins @ 230C underneath a cloche (in this case stock pot upturned over pizza stone) and then for a further 20 mins at 200C uncovered. The last 10 mins of the bake time was out of the tin, directly on the hot stone.

Verdict:

I certainly didn't expect the degree of oven spring I got - that really surprised me. The loaf cracked attractively on top and I got a load of blisters on the crust. It also smelled absolutely amazing while it was baking.

The crust was really crisp straight out of the oven but softened slightly as the bread cooled. Despite being quite thin it had a good crunch to it, as well as a nice chew - and a good, nutty flavour.

The crumb wasn't as open as I was expecting, but it was certainly more open than my usual breads. The crumb was soft and bouncy, with a slight gloss to it - almost a sourdough-type texture but not quite. Flavour was really good - I hadn't expected to get this much flavour out of cheap and cheerful flour, so will be interesting to see how this works with better quality ingredients. Again, in terms of taste and eating, this sits as a halfway house between my usual yeasted loaves and my sourdough ones - a very nice bread. Mum reckons it's pretty well much the best I've turned out so far...

And I certainly don't regret baking this loaf in a tin. With a dough this wet, the tin takes care of all the mess and frustration I'd have gone through trying to shape it by hand...

Lessons Learnt:

As I was winging it, it was inevitable that I'd come up against things I'd want to change.

The first is less yeast. That way I'd be able to leave it in the hallway for the whole bulk ferment rather than have it plan its escape from the house and the need to be incarcerated in the fridge. I used 1/2 a gram for the 500g of flour, but could probably get away with half of that tbh...

The second change is rather than adding the water to the flour before mixing, I'm going to add the flour to the water. I was left with a lump of stiff and rather dry dough in the bottom of the bowl (which I didn't add to the loaf btw) and am hoping that switching the order of adding things will take care of that particulat problem.

Third. The loaf just wasn't big enough LOL. A tiddly loaf that size won't last here, so I definitely need to up the quantities. I might have to experiment with easing the proofed dough into my chicken brick somehow, as my big loaf tin won't fit under my stock pot...

End Notes:

I'd definitely try this again. It's an interesting avenue to explore, and if I get good bread out of it at the end, then why the hell not ;-) And it's nice to add another different bread to the repertoire.

And I think someone likes the new cat bed I bought at the Cam Cats show on Saturday... :-)

 

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Reynard

Well, I did pose the question the other day about converting a Polish babka to sourdough (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/45314/converting-babka-recipe-sourdough)

Anyways, I took the plunge, tweaked the original yeasted recipe (upping the salt from a pinch to 2%) and here goes...

Ingredients:

Levain:

30g 100% hydration wholegrain rye starter

50g strong white bread flour

125ml whole milk

Dough:

All of the levain

200g strong white bread flour

2.5g salt

75g caster or granulated sugar

1 egg yolk plus 1 whole egg (or 3 egg yolks)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp lemon zest

50g butter.

100g raisins (I don't want to use a bicycle between one raisin and another)

Method:

Make the levain with the starter, flour and milk. Stir well, cover and leave. I left this overnight, but you could easily do this in the morning in order to make your dough in the evening. This levain took a while to get going, but come the morning it was nice and bubbly.

Sift the flour and salt together and put to one side. Melt the butter. Soak the raisins for around 10 mins, then drain. Grease and flour the tin - I used a traditional fluted tin, but you can use a plain loaf tin if you wish.

Put the eggs and the sugar into a bowl and whisk until pale and fluffy. Add the levain and the flavourings. Fold in the flour with a rubber spatula. Next, slowly add the butter a dribble at the time. When the butter is incorporated, fold in the fruit.

Dollop into the tin - it should be around 1/3 full. Place the tin in a plastic bag and leave to rise until the tin is nearly full. I found this took around 12 hours at room temperature (18C-ish) - I'd started midday, and the babka was oven ready at midnight. Would be ideal for an overnight rise next time I try this.

Bake for 40 mins in a preheated oven 190C. I baked for 20 mins under my stock pot "cloche" and finished it off uncovered.

Remove from tin while still hot and glaze.

Verdict:

First observation is that the dough rose much slower than with the ridiculously large quantity of yeast quoted in the original recipe. This does, however, make it perfect to fit around doing other things than having to worry about it escaping the tin... Other than that, I didn't notice much difference while actually working with the dough.

Second, when I tasted the bowl scrapings after putting the dough in the tin, they didn't taste sour at all. You could actually taste the other ingredients instead of everything being masked by the flavour of yeast, which was something of a revelation.

Third. It smelled *amazing* while it was baking. Same point as above regarding the absence of the yeasty aroma.

Fourth. Didn't get the usual squeaky bum moment turning the babka out of the tin - usually it sticks, breaks or both... This time it just dropped out beautifully after a good sharp tap.

Fifth. The finished babka was lovely and springy to the touch, not brittle and prone to baking. There wasn't over much in the way of oven spring, but this is the best rise and end result I've ever had.

My overall impression is that the sourdough version performed much better than yeasted version. Alas I haven't yet conducted the acid test i.e. tasting it, because that's for tomorrow morning's breakfast. The babka found its way into my swieconka to sit alongside my baranek wielkanocny (easter lamb) made from victoria sponge mix and a small 70% wholegrain sourdough, not to mention the other traditional items of kielbasa, cheese, salt, eggs and butter. Had some very favourable comments regarding my baked goods when I took my basket to church this morning. Makes all the effort worthwhile :-)

Will post results from the taste tests and the crumb shot tomorrow :-) If this babka tastes as good as it smells, then the yeasted version I think will be kicked into touch for good.

Just want to take the time to wish everyone here a Happy Easter from myself, Poppy and Lexi.

 

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Reynard

Well, new for me, anyway... Actually, several new things... I'm a sourdough, rye and generally and wholegrain-ish kind of gal, but the Parental Unit requested crusty white French-style bread this week. So of course, I attempted to oblige. With the help of the resources and things I've learnt on here, (and a brain fart along the way) this is what I came up with:

INGREDIENTS

Poolish:

100g white bread flour

100g tepid water

1g dried active yeast

Dough:

Poolish

400g white bread flour

150g durum flour

315g tepid water

12g salt

2g dried active yeast

METHOD

Day 1, Lunchtime: Make the poolish by putting the yeast, water and flour in a bowl and mixing well. Leave till late evening - about 10 hours - at room temperature (That's about 17C here at the moment) until nice and bubbly.

Day 1, evening: First, put the flour and most of the water in a bowl, stir and leave for a couple of hours. Keep the reserved couple of tablespoons of water to activate the yeast. After the autolyse, add the poolish, the activated yeast and the salt. Combine and then knead well for around 10 mins. Cover and leave for around half an hour before doing a stretch and fold. Repeat twice more at half-hourly intervals. After the last S&F, put the bowl in a plastic bag and place in the fridge overnight.

Day 2, Afternoon: Remove dough from the fridge. Let it warm up a little at room temperature. Remove from bowl, stretch the dough gently and shape. Put the shaped dough in a floured banneton and place in a plastic bag. Preheat oven at this point. When dough has proved (about an hour-ish) tip the dough into the hot chicken brick (or whatever you wish to use to cloche bake bread) and score. Bake for 25 mins with the lid on at 230C and for a further 15 mins at 200C without the lid. Cool on a wire rack.

VERDICT

I think this has got to be the best crusty bloomer type bread I've ever eaten. Really, really good. And mum loved it too. Fantastic flavour, super crispy crust, chewy but tender crumb that's more open than what I usually get. The crumb was slightly glossy as well, almost like a sourdough in some ways, which I wasn't expecting.

Definitely a keeper even if the loaf was a little bit umm, rustic. But I think that was down to my shaping and scoring :-)

 

The dough was lovely, silky and super easy to handle - I think the autolyse made a big difference in how quickly and how well the dough developed. Also, I reckon I could get away with upping the hydration by another couple of percent next time without it getting to the sticky goo stage.

The brain fart ended up being serendipitous I think... I was a bit tired last night and forgot to take into account the 100g of water I'd already put into the poolish - a stupid mistake, I know. As a result I had a really sloppy dough - ok, I could have turned it into ciabatta I suppose, but that's not what was requested. So a one-handed go with the calculator to figure out how much flour I needed to bring the dough back to the 64% hydration I wanted and a quick reach for the nearest bag of flour - which happened to be a newly-purchased bag of durum flour - solved the issue in a pinch. Though it's not the easiest thing to do things like this with one hand jammed in a bowl of dough...

Of course, the baking supervisors sat there glaring at me in feline displeasure, because I'd promised them I'd make a bread with only four ingredients, but ended up using five... Oh, the shame... I think I shall have to soothe the girls' egos with cooked chicken, else they'll probably see fit to hack up a furball in an inconvenient place or something of that ilk, just to get their own back...

As a last thought, I'm wondering how to convert this bread into a tiger loaf... If I can figure out how to produce a tiger loaf, then that's definitely on the agenda for the future.

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Reynard

This was one of the first sourdough recipes I tried when starting out last spring - and I failed royally with it, ending up with blown-out wonky loaves with flying crusts and a kitchen smeared in sticky dough. Admittedly I was a relative newcomer to baking bread and made every possible newbie mistake with it.

Wanting a change from the last few loaves of pain sur poolish, my baking supervisors - Poppy and Lexi - suggested I take the plunge and give this a whirl again. But this time, I've taken a lot of advice, lessons and feline displeasure on board.

I used 600g of flour, 400g of water, 200g of levain and 2% salt. The main differences from my previous attempts other than adding lard (5%) was 1) to add 40g (6.67%) of rolled porridge oats as opposed to reducing the water to take into account using UK flour and 2) baking the bread under a cloche - in this case, my trusty chicken brick, something I wasn't using back then.

Ingredients:

Levain:

50g rye starter @ 100% hydration

75g wholemeal bread flour

75g tepid water

Dough:

All of the levain plus the following...

100g whole rye flour

500g strong white bread flour

400g tepid water

40g porridge oats

12g salt

30g lard

Method:

Morning 1 - take starter out of the fridge, let it come to room temp and then feed. Leave it to double and begin to fall back.

Evening 1 - remove 50g of starter and use to build levain. Cover and leave for 12 hours. It should be nice and bubbly come the morning.

Morning 2 - build the dough. Mix flour, salt and oats together and rub in the lard. Make a well in the mix and add in the levain and most of the water. Bring together with fingers and begin to knead. Add rest of the water. Knead (I do this by hand in a large mixing bowl) for around 15 minutes until dough begins to resist. Cover bowl and leave to bulk ferment at room temperature - around 6 hours, give or take. Incorporate three sets of stretch & folds during this time.

Afternoon 2 - when dough has more or less doubled, turn out onto well-floured board, knock back and shape. At this point, put oven on to preheat to 230C. Place shaped dough seam side up into floured banneton, put in a plastic freezer bag and leave to proof to around 85%. At room temp (around 18C) this will take about an hour.

Turn out the dough into the chicken brick and score. Place lid on the brick, put into the oven and bake for 25 mins with the lid on. Remove the lid, lower the oven temperature to 200C and bake for a further 25 mins. Leave till cold before cutting - about 3 hours - but best left overnight.

Verdict:

A really nice-looking loaf of bread that sprung and bloomed well in the oven - a couple of minor cracks, but no blow outs or wonky bits. A major relief, that, after my previous calamities... Crust thin and crunchy with a good nutty flavour. Crumb a little more open than what I usually turn out, but unsurprising considering it's a higher hydration than what I normally work with. Not a bad thing, just a pleasant surprise. Crumb was also a little on the glossy side, springy, moist and a little chewy. Flavourwise it was mild and creamy with just a wee hint of sour. Overall, a does-it-all bread that's equally at home with sweet and savoury toppings, but it was especially good with pate and with homemade tandoori chicken. Even a little on the stale side it's still very nice - it just need to be sliced very thinly :-)

I think Poppy and Lexi were secretly impressed - or at least that's what I hope. Those two can be so inscrutable at times... The bread passed the PUT (Parental Unit Test) as well, resulting in a request for more of this kind of bread.

 

There's definitely room to play with in terms of the flour combinations etc. I've managed two consistent loaves with this particular combination, so for the bake that's in the oven as we speak I used all rye for the levain, and a mix of 400g white bread flour, 100g of whole rye flour and 100g of oat flour. Fingers crossed...

Was nice to take a break today and bake bread instead of sawing logs. There's not so much of that downed spruce left now, although I've discovered that the sawdust is hellaciously sticky... It sticks to me, the cats and just about everything it comes into contact with. On the other hand, it *does* smell nice LOL. We're heading for a bit of a cold snap here, so the girls have taken the best warm spots in the house - Poppy in front of the fire and Lexi in her favourite cardboard box next to the radiator in the hallway. Can't say I blame them really.

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Reynard

After the craziness of the festive season, it's good to get back into the bread baking saddle. Not that I was entirely out of the kitchen as the holidays are a wonderful time to cook great food. And it was a leftover from that cooking that provided the inspiration - a head and a half of roasted garlic...

Now, I adore garlic, so yes, I decided to make a loaf of bread with that much garlic in it... Not that the neighbours will be thanking me, I'm sure... I kept the bake simple in order to showcase the garlic.

Poolish:

100g bread flour

100g water

pinch yeast

Dough:

All of the poolish plus...

350g bread flour

140g tepid water

60g oil (I use plain rape seed oil)

9g salt

2g dried active yeast

1 1/2 heads of roast garlic, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon fresh rosemary

Method:

I made up the poolish the night before and left it for around 10 hours. The yeast and the herbs went into the warm water - one to activate the yeast and two to soften the dried herbs. Left that for around 10 mins, after which I proceeded to make my bread as usual. Once the dough was combined, I kneaded it for 15 mins before popping the bowl in a bag and leaving. I did two stretch & folds during the bulk ferment, which took around 4 hours at room temperature. Following on, I knocked the dough back, shaped it and dropped it into a banneton and plastic bag to prove. That took around an hour, after which it went into the chicken brick. Cooking time was standard for a loaf of this size - 25 mins at 230C with the lid on, then 20 mins at 200C with the lid off. Loaf was cooled on a wire rack.

Verdict:

The baked loaf didn't smell as garlic-y as the raw dough did, but it smelled wonderful. The crust was nice and crisp and the bread bloomed well in the oven. In terms of taste, yes, it's garlic LOL, but not overly powerful, considering the amount that went into a fairly small loaf. It's very nice with butter, just as a snack, but would also be good dunked into a spag bol or something of that ilk... It tastes surprisingly savoury.

In terms of improvements, I could probably add more herbs - they seemed to get a wee bit lost in terms of the overall flavour, or else I could leave them out entirely. A sprinkling of sea salt on the loaf before putting it into the oven might be nice. I think I could also up the hydration by at least another 5 to 10% to make it more like proper Italian bread - the crumb was a little denser than I would have liked, though still perfectly acceptable. Would I do this again? Very definitely :-)

 

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Reynard

Well, my new chicken brick arrived the other week, but it's been crazy-busy chez Casa Witty and I've not really had the chance to post... Anyways, here is my new brick - it's the Mason Cash one, bigger than the one I had. I think it will easily take a kilo of dough, though this time I stuck to my standard-sized loaf.

Last night I finally got the chance to road test this pot properly with an adaptation of my "bread-in-a-hurry" recipe. As I was in less of a hurry, I could slow the whole process down somewhat and try something I haven't tried before - in this case, a poolish.

Poolish:

100g strong white flour

100g tepid water

pinch of dried active yeast

Dough:

All of the poolish

105g strong white flour

205g light rye flour

9g salt

4g dried active yeast

140g tepid water

60g oil (I used rape seed)

45g wholemeal rye sourdough starter

40g oat bran

1 tbsp malt extract

I set the poolish up about six hours before wanting to make the dough - basically dissolved the yeast in the water, added the flour, gave it a good mix, then left it to its own devices. Six hours later it was pillowy, squishy and nicely bubbly.

In terms of the dough, I used my usual method, which is activate the yeast in some of the water, wait till it froths and then simply mix everything together. Once everything was nicely mixed, I kneaded the dough for 15 mins before leaving it alone in its bowl and bag for a bulk ferment at room temperature - it took around two and a half hours all told. 

The next step was to knock the dough back and shape into a batard. I've recently bought a silicon baking mat as an alternative to a board for kneading / knocking back / shaping bread. The reasoning was that it was less of a palaver to set up and then to clean afterwards as I have limited space in a very small kitchen. I found that it's nigh on useless for very wet or sticky doughs (yes, I did end up making one hell of a mess there), but for a bog-standard bread dough of 65 to 70 % hydration like this one is, it's just the ticket. The mat does what I want it to do, but the added and somewhat unexpected bonus is that I barely need to use any flour for dusting.

Once shaped, into the banneton and plastic bag the dough went for its proof - about an hour at room temperature.

The instructions with this particular chicken brick are quite clear that putting a cold brick into a hot oven will cause it to crack, so I put the brick in the oven sans dough while the oven preheated. There's more of a knack to getting dough from a banneton into a hot brick than into a cold one (at least I didn't burn myself this time), but as the bottom half of this particular brick is glazed, there's no need to grease it. I put in a dusting of flour in the brick before turning the dough out, but to be honest, I wonder if I really need to bother with the flour next time...

So in went the dough, which was then scored with a razor.

The lid was clapped back on the chicken brick and into the oven it went. I didn't change my bake time, namely 25 mins @ 230C with the lid on followed by 20 mins @ 200C with the lid off.

I like to think I got a very nice loaf of bread out of it...

The bread smelled wonderful - there was more of a tang and nuttiness to the aroma than when I last made this particular bread (same ingredients but no poolish). I even woke up mum with the aroma LOL...

In terms of eating, the bread had a lovely crust - sort of a combination of crisp and chewy and a beautiful soft, even crumb. The crust flavour was good with slightly malty overtones. The crumb had a more subtle flavour, but certainly one that was more pronounced than the same bread made without a poolish.

It's the sort of bread that you could just sit and eat spread with butter, although it did go down rather nicely with some Sopocka (Polish smoked pork loin) at lunchtime... Actually, it reminded me very much of the bread I had when I was last in Poland...

I think this just shows how minor changes to a recipe can alter the flavour of the bread. I'd never tried a poolish before, but it's definitely something I'm going to explore in the future. I'm going to bake this bread again later in the week, but give the poolish another couple of hours as well as reduce the yeast in the dough significantly.

As for the reason why I've not posted too much of late, it's just that I got tied up into the preparation for the Supreme Cat Show - it's the feline version of Crufts. The girls, mum and I had a fabulous day out. Lexi was awarded the reserve Grand Master certificate, but Poppy surprised me completely by winning the reserve Imperial Grand Master certificate in a huge and very competitive class in which I was expecting her to finish plumb last...

The show was themed "Witches and Wizards", so I entered the decorated pen competition. I didn't win anything there, but had great fun preparing the pens and great pleasure seeing the public enjoy them. Lexi's pen was themed on Wicca:

While Poppy's pen was based on the Weird Sisters from Macbeth:

At least I'm done sewing, beading and painting for now, so I can get some more baking done :-)

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Reynard

AKA using-up-the-open-packets-of-flour-in-the-cupboard bread. ;-)

Am still working with my usual recipe formula, which I can now recite by heart. I think it's been a really worthwhile exercise in improving both my technique and consistency. But it's amazing how many different breads I can turn out using the same basic formula... And I can vary the quantity of yeast according to how much (or little) time I have.

This though, was a double quantity of dough, as one loaf was for a friend - I give her bread and in return I receive fresh eggs from her chooks. It's a fair swap, as I've got a thing for fried egg sandwiches :-)

810g flour

20g milled linseed

20g oat bran

16g salt

10g dried active yeast

480g warm water

1 tablespoon malt (the gooey stuff that comes in jars)

120g oil

90g 100% hydration rye starter.

I had several bags of flour that really wanted using up, so I made my flour selection accordingly. This particular dough had a flour mix that was as follows:

310g white bread flour

300g spelt flour

200g light rye flour

The oil was a mix of extra virgin olive oil (again, the remainder of a bottle) and rape seed oil. As usual, I mixed all the ingredients up, kneaded by hand for 15 minutes and left to bulk ferment. The dough was lovely, soft and silky, really easy to work with. Bulk ferment took about two hours at room temperature - which is about 18C here at the moment.

The dough was then knocked back, halved, shaped into batards and proofed in bannetons that were popped into plastic bags. That took about an hour, though I've learnt to watch the dough more, and the clock less... :-)

One bagged banneton was then put in the fridge. The other went into my greased and floured chicken brick, was scored and then put into the oven for 25 mins at 230C with the lid on, and a further 20 mins with the lid off. The first loaf was turned out and the second one removed from the fridge and put in the brick, repeating the scoring and cooking process.

That was when disaster struck...

I removed the lid from the chicken brick while baking the second loaf and put it on a cooling rack. While bending down to shut the oven, I hear a clicking noise and think nothing of it at first. And then I see, to my horror, that a large crack has propagated almost the entire length of the lid, leaving a gap of a good couple of millimetres between the edges of said crack. :-(

Have to admit I'm gutted as this brick has given me some sterling service. Admittedly it wasn't new when I bought it on a jumble sale many moons ago, but still... Anyways, I have ordered a new one from Amazon and am waiting for it to arrive.

Back to the bread though, I like to think I got a good result :-)

The bread smelled truly amazing according to my mum. I got a lovely crisp and slightly flaky crust and a soft, light, delicate crumb.

I can't really talk much about the flavour, alas, because I have a stinking cold and can neither taste nor smell a thing right now. But I've been assured that it's a really tasty bread that goes with just about anything.

Last week I had a rummage around in a new Polish shop in a place that I frequent relatively regularly and found they had a nice range of bread flours. I re-stocked my light rye, but I also bought a bag of oat flour, which I will be trying out soon.

My mum bought me a bag of buckwheat flour recently, and I baked a bread with it this evening. I used the same formula as above with the exception of adding some toasted pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and pine nuts that I blitzed down instead of the oat bran and milled linseed. The flour mix was 300g white bread flour, 300g wholemeal bread flour and 210g buckwheat flour, and the oil was rape seed. I used 4g of yeast as I was in less of a hurry today.

The dough was really sticky and not easy to work with. Yes, I made a mess as it stuck to *everything* it touched. And yes, I baked a frisbee... Ho hum, back to the drawing board. I couldn't cloche this bread as it spread beyond the diameter of my stock pot and threatened to overflow the baking sheet. Maybe I overproofed it, or maybe this is a dough that just needs to be baked in a tin...

Am wondering whether this is a characteristic of bread with buckwheat flour in it. But the proof of the pudding is, as they say, in the eating, so I'll find out tomorrow at some point whether it's an edible frisbee... Well, it *looks* edible...

On the feline front, Lexi brought me two mice and a leaf on Sunday, and Poppy has been supervising the making of show drapes. It's the Supreme next weekend - the cat equivalent of Crufts here in the UK, and we're getting ready for that. It's always a good day out regardless of what happens in the show ring :-)

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Reynard

It's amazing how far your confidence can plummet after baking a whole string of inedible sourdough frisbees. Necessity (and hunger) got the better of me, so this week I switched back to a hybrid recipe that's always worked well.

405g flour

20g oat bran

300g tepid water

9g salt

4g dried active yeast

45g rye starter

Tablespoon vegetable oil (I use rape seed oil)

It's actually a recipe for a Polish sour rye that I found in a book and adapted a little while back. By varying the types of flour and flavourings in the mix, I can produce loads of different kinds of breads. If I'm in a real hurry, I can up the yeast to 7g and do the bulk ferment in an hour at room temperature (20C) and the proof in about 30 mins. If I've got more time, I can take the yeast down to 3g and let the dough come together more slowly. 4g of yeast gives a bulk ferment of around 2 hours and a proof of around 45 mins.

I've also been experimenting with using a large stock pot inverted over a baking sheet in order to do the first part of the bake. I can fit a medium-sized bread under that, either free form or in an 8x4 tin. I put this contraption on top of a pizza stone in my pre-heated oven. I bake for 25 mins at 230C and then 20 mins at 200.

The first loaf I made had a flour mix that was two parts wholemeal, one part granary and one part white bread flour. I also added in a tablespoon of milled linseed. This quantity is just right for an 8x4 loaf tin.

This made a really good all-round sandwich loaf; chewy, flavoursome crust and a lovely soft crumb.

The second variant I made this week was the most ambitious... The flour mix was 3 parts white bread flour and one part wholemeal, but I added two ounces of grated cheese (a mix of mature cheddar and parmesan) to the dough at the kneading stage. Because of the cheese, I put in only 7 grams of salt as opposed to 9. After the bulk ferment, I knocked the dough back, rolled it into a rectangle and spread a couple of tablespoons of my home made apricot and chilli chutney over it. I then did a series of  letter folds and rolling out - a bit like adding butter to croissant dough in order to incorporate the chutney before shaping the dough into a boule and letting it proof. I took my eye off the ball a bit during the proof and ended up with a frisbee...

The chutney made the loaf brown really quickly, so I had to turn the oven down to 180 in order to complete the bake without the bread burning. Even though the loaf was rather flat, it smelled wonderfully cheesy, fruity and spicy all at the same time. The crust was chewy with a rather strong flavour, the crumb was super soft and very tasty - a really good bread for savoury things. Would be good to dunk into soup as well :-)

I would definitely have another go at this, but need to pay more attention to my timings and oven temperatures - and probably bake it in a tin. I do like the way the chutney ended up being marbled through the dough. This bread would make a nice tear-and-share loaf as well...

The third variant of the recipe that I tried last night is probably the most basic. I used the same 3 parts white to one part wholemeal for the flour as I did in the cheese bread, but I left out the tablespoon of oil. Instead, I replaced 60ml of the water with extra virgin olive oil. After the bulk ferment, I shaped into a boule (I now use a different method to the one that gave me all the issues) and proofed it. As it was rather warm in the house yesterday it rose quicker than anticipated - didn't want to end up with another frisbee, so I put it into the oven even though the oven hadn't quite come up to temperature. The oven was only at 150, so by the time it would take to reach 230, the dough would have been way overproofed.

I set the timer for 55 mins to take into account the fact that the oven was colder. After 25 minutes, I removed the stock pot from the baking sheet to find myself very pleasantly surprised. In the end, the bread only wanted the 45 minutes that it normally takes. Serendipity maybe, but for the first time ever, I had a really beautiful boule. No wonkies, no blow-outs, no flying crust, no Jekyll-and-Hyde bread. Just a boule :-D

To say I was over the moon was an understatement as boules have been the bane of my existence. I think in future, when using the pizza stone / baking sheet / stock pot arrangement, I will definitely put the bread in the oven before the oven has come up to temperature.

The crust is soft rather than crunchy, but still chewy, and the crumb, like the other versions of this bread is wonderfully soft. It is a lovely bread that goes well with just about anything - you can taste the olive oil, but it's not pronounced, more of a nice background note.

It's felt really rewarding going back to basics, and I've made some good bread to boot. :-)

On other fronts, yesterday Lexi brought me a dead racing pigeon and today she brought me a headless mouse. She also chased my neighbour's cat out of the garden. Meanwhile, Poppy has decided that an old paper Primark bag makes the best cat bed ever...

I don't know how Lexi can manage to look so cute and innocent... ;-) And I recently finished a few paintings I'd been working on, so I figured I'd share... :-)

FV Northwestern: 16x10 inch watercolour on bockingford

Paul Warwick, Hednesford Hills Raceway 1986: 14 x 10 inch acrylic.

Justin Wilson portrait: 20x16 acrylic.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of the weekend - and best wishes from everyone chez Casa Witty :-)

 

 

Reynard's picture
Reynard

As the porridge bread received the thumbs up from the parental unit, I thought I'd have another crack at it for this week's bake. With sound advice in my head and a better sense of timing than starting to make bread at stupid o'clock in the evening, I set to it. I started out with the same recipe, scaled it up by half to give me two medium loaves and made a few minor tweaks to the ingredients, namely ditching the dried active yeast entirely, swapping the spelt in the soaker for wholegrain rye and reducing the water in the dough.

Soaker:

113g porridge oats

113g rye flour

300g water just off the boil

Levain:

75g rye starter

135g water

135g white bread flour

Dough:

soaker + levain

16g salt

420g white bread flour

175g tepid water

Methodwise, I began by making my levain in the morning. At the same time, I made my soaker, but instead of just pouring the boiling water over the mix of flour and oats, I actually cooked the mixture, covered it and left it to cool.

After supper, I made the dough. The oat and rye mixture from the soaker was pretty stiff and gelatinous - not the easiest to work into the rest of the ingredients. It needed some heavy-duty squishing to distribute it evenly throughout. In terms of water, I measured out 215g (as scaled up from my initial attempt) but instead of dumping it in wholesale, I added it a bit at the time until it felt that the dough didn't need any more. As it turned out, I used 40g *less* i.e. 175. The dough was still on the sticky side, but easier to work. Gave it the usual 15 minute hand knead before letting it rest. Over the next couple of hours I gave it four stretch and folds before covering the bowl and sticking it in the fridge overnight - could really feel the dough changing in texture each time.

The next morning, I removed the dough from the fridge and let it warm up a bit before dividing it in two and shaping. One half went into an 8x4 tin, while the other half was turned into a batard and plonked into a banneton. I wanted to see which method would be better - and to see if the changes in ingredients had cured the frisbee tendencies of my first attempt...

Both were given two and a half hour proof at room temperature. The tin went into a preheated oven 230C on my pizza stone and covered by a stock pot. The other loaf went into the fridge. After 25 mins off came the pot and the oven temperature reduced to 200. Gave it 20 mins more, the last 5 of those out of the tin to finish the crust. When this loaf was almost done, the other came out of the fridge and was tipped into greased and floured chicken brick. The oven was turned back up to 230, then in went the chicken brick for the same 45 mins; 25 at higher temp with lid on, and 20 at lower temp with lid off.

Am actually quite pleased with the results :-)

The batard had a small crack on the bottom - probably where muggins didn't seal the seam properly, but it certainly didn't do a frisbee on me. And I think I also got a better crust than last time... At this lower hydration, there doesn't seem to be any appreciable difference between baking it in a tin and baking it in the brick. At a higher hydration, then yes, I think the tin might be the way to go.

While I was on a bread making roll, I had a play around with my wholegrain SD recipe to see how far I could push the add-ins... The changes I made was: 1) swapping wholewheat flour for whole rye to give me around a 60 % rye loaf, 2) adding a soaker of muesli, sunflower seed, pumpkin seed and milled linseed (100g dry ingredients, 100g water), 3) making up a mix of around 100g of dried fruit to go in the bread (raisins, sultanas, chopped dates, apricots and cranberries) which I soaked for a little while in Earl Grey tea, and 4) when making up the dough, instead of using water, I used the tea in which I'd soaked the fruit. I also added in a dab of yeast as something of a house brick preventer...

Method was pretty well much the same as the oat bread. Sole exception was that the fruit was steeped in tea about half an hour before making up the dough. Have to admit that it was a sticky, slippery and rather messy process with all that fruit, muesli and rye., but I got there in the end. As with the oat bread, the stretch & folds really did make a difference. Proof time at room temperature was the same as above, though this one got the longest stay in the fridge as I can only bake one loaf at the time with my current set-up. Then into the chicken brick it went for 25 mins at 230C with the lid on. I found that once the lid came off, the crust started to brown really quickly, so after about 10 mins I turned the oven down from 200 to 180 to stop the bread from burning.

The aroma from this loaf was amazing - you could smell it out on the street while it was baking, and I reckon the neighbours must've been cursing me something chronic. It did stick to the chicken brick though - well, the bits of fruit did, but nothing a palette knife couldn't solve. Next time I'll use cornmeal instead of flour, I think...

The verdict...

The tin baked oat loaf went to the friend who supplies me with eggs, and she was really pleased with it. I kept the batard for myself. It had a better crust than last time, and the crust had a better flavour and bite. The crumb was less open than my initial attempt, but at a lower hydration, that's to be expected. It was still bouncy and glossy with a lovely texture and a wonderful creamy, nutty flavour. The only disappointment was that the sour tang I had the first time round was mostly absent, but I suspect that was because my levain didn't get the hot water bath hurry-up treatment. Maybe this is something I can explore in future. Will be easier when I have the heating on, as I can snuggle the levain up to a radiator...

The fruited rye was an absolute revelation. At 60% rye and with all that fruit in it, I wasn't expecting mad oven spring, but it still did ok I think. The crust is very chewy with an almost caramel flavour, the crumb is soft, moist and packed with the fruit, while the sunflower and pumpkin seeds give a pleasant crunch. And it's nowhere nearly as sweet as I thought it would be. Actually, it isn't that sweet at all, but has an intense flavour that is redolent of rye, fruit and tea. The tea works so well with the high percentage of rye that I might even try a plain rye made with tea - though I think I'd have to swap the floral Earl Grey for a more robust English Breakfast.

In terms of eating, the oat bread was spectacular with Serrano ham, whereas the fruited rye is just meant to be the right partner for butter and mature Gouda cheese...

Am so, so making both of these again :-) And want to say a BIG thank you to everyone who gave me such brilliant advice and inspiration - you know who you are :-)

Left to right: oat porridge sourdough, fruited tea rye

As the rain's been coming down in stair rods here in dear old Blighty for the last few days, both Poppy and Lexi have been spending time indoors supervising the bread making more closely than usual. Poppy is an old hand at sleeping through bad weather, but Lexi seems to think it's my fault that I can't turn the rain off... Consequently I've had to make do with a couple of proudly presented spiders in terms of culinary contributions.

But the mood here chez Casa Witty has been somewhat subdued following the events at Pocono on Sunday night... I saw Justin come up through the lower formulae here in the UK and make his F1 bow, as a race fan first and then, later as a photographer down on the fence line. I only knew him in passing - and that a long, long time ago, but he was a close friend to quite a few of my own friends on the racing scene. It brings comfort to know that through his passing he saved six lives by donating his organs. Through that, he lives on by giving others a beautiful gift. Rest easy, Justin...

Reynard's picture
Reynard

On Tuesday afternoon a friend popped by, and we, as you do, sat there over tea and cake putting the world to rights while the rain was hammering down outside. Next thing we know it's supper time, with more tea, bread and deli. And then, at the end of the evening, there are only crumbs on the board and half a fruit loaf in the bread bin. So there I was, at eight o'clock at night trying to rectify the situation - just as well I'm something of a night owl... And I felt adventurous to boot. So instead of reaching for a set recipe, I thought I'd try putting something together on the fly. And here's what I came up with:

Soaker:

75g porridge oats

75g spelt flour

200g water just off the boil

Levain:

50g rye starter

90g water

90g white bread flour

Dough:

soaker + levain

12g salt

5g dried active yeast

280g white bread flour

145g tepid water

The soaker was fairly self-explanatory - I mixed the oats and spelt together, poured the water over it and left it for four hours. Likewise for the levain, though as I wanted to mix the dough before hitting the sack, I put the bowl of levain in a pan of hand-hot water to give it a hurry-up. When I came to use it, it actually smelled quite sour...

The dough I mixed as usual by hand - it was quite sticky and not the easiest to handle, but I gave it a good knead. It needed a wee bit longer than usual to get it to where it started feeling silky. I left it to rest for half an hour at room temperature, gave it a stretch and fold, left it for another half an hour and did a second stretch and fold. At that point I popped the dough back in its bowl, put the bowl in a plastic bag, threw the whole ensemble in the fridge and went to bed.

Next day lunchtime I took it out of the fridge (it had about 12 hours in there) and left the dough to warm up for about half an hour. After that I knocked it back, shaped it into a boule, and plopped it into a banneton and plastic bag to prove for about two and a half hours. The dough had firmed up considerably overnight, and most of the stickiness was gone.

The dough was turned out onto a hot pizza stone and scored. I splashed some water onto the stone and covered the dough with a large stock pot. This went into an oven preheated to 230C. I gave the bread 25 mins with the pot on, and a further 25 mins with the pot off.

The resulting bread was a bit frisbee-like, but had a thin, crisp crust and a fabulous aroma. The crust did soften quite quickly however, but when I sliced into the bread the next day, the crust was nice and chewy, while the crumb was glossy and bouncy. Flavourwise, the first taste was lovely and creamy (from the oats, I presume), but then came a very distinct sour tang that I've never managed to achieve before.

More importantly, the bread received the parental Seal of Approval with a request for a repeat bake... Now I know this needs work, but unlike my problematic Pain de Campagne, this one is certainly worth persevering with.

The next time I attempt this, I think I will build my levain and make the soaker in the morning and keep them in a warm place until I make my dough in the early evening - not after midnight LOL... That way I can get a nice long retard in the fridge and be able to bake the bread at tea time the following day.

I also need to figure out why I ended up with a frisbee...

This afternoon I also baked a brioche - I found a no-knead recipe on a Dutch website (www. weekendbakery.com) that wants retarding in the fridge for two days, which rather intrigued me. Made the dough on Wednesday, left it to its own devices until into the oven it went this afternoon. It's actually my first ever attempt at baking brioche; I had a surfeit of butter left over after the Great Bun Bake, and I'd swapped one of my wholegrain loaves for some lovely free range eggs, so it kind of made sense. Am well pleased with the result and am looking forward to breakfast tomorrow...

And as usual, Madam Lexi had the last word in this week's culinary proceeds by proudly coming in at lunchtime today... with a rabbit...

Lexi was most upset when we took it away from her. Flopsy was duly released into the garden, whereupon she shot into the undergrowth with great alacrity... Still, it was quite a catch for such a small cat...

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