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Ok, first off I have to admit that up until dinner all I ate all day was BREAD (plus an apple). Now, I don't know how I feel about that, but I can tell you it sure was tasty and I hope my husband and son will eat the rest, so that I don't have to be tempted to eat some more bread for dessert.

Let's see.....my husband has begged me to make Foccacia for a while and this weekend the moment had come. I decided to make Foccacia according to the recipe in Hamelman's "Bread" book (which as you can see by my past Blog posts, has become the only book I am using ever since I got it 1.5 weeks ago), which uses the Ciabatta with stiff Biga as a dough.Since the Foccacia recipe doesn't utilize all of the Ciabatta dough it meant, if I didn't scale down the Ciabatta recipe, I would have some dough left over to make one loaf of Ciabatta.

A few notes:

-it says in the recipe that one is to use "bread flour"-which I have never used before but thought, hey, I will actually buy this, this time around

-then after I had already started the Biga I decided to research the difference between bread and ap flour here on TFL and lo and behold I come upon some posts saying that when "bread flour" is specified in theis book that it really should read AP flour (I feel that my way of doing research may be a tad backwards ;p)

-after reading that retarding a dough overnight might weaken the gluten structure, I decided to use bread flour for the dough anyways, since I figured the higher gluten content might stand up better to the retardation(all you experienced bakers out there-please tell me if that rationale makes sense)

This time the bread making timing was all awry due to my duncehood-or maybe I can just say that I am experimenting in how best NOT to follow directions*wink*- here is what I ended up doing:

- once the Biga was ready, I mixed the dough and let it sit at room temp probably for no more than 30 minutes and off in the fridge it went.

-in the morning I did a S&F, then let it proof for about 45 minutes; here I divided the dough into the two pieces for the Foccacia and the one piece for the Ciabatta

-in total the Ciabatta proofed for about 1,5 hours after coming out of the fridge(wiht one more S&F) and that Focaccia for about 2.25 hours

I must not have floured the towel I had the Ciabatta proof on enough, since there were small parts that stuck to it, giving the final crust a strange "seam".

For the Foccacia I decided to make one according to Hamelman's instructions and the other one I baked according to the instructions I found in my italian cookbook by Marcella Hazan. The Hazan version calls for docking the dough after the rising time, with stiff fingers, and then drizzling the top of the Foccacia with an emulsion of olive oil, water and salt-this mixture will pool in the little hollows created by your fingers. One of them was topped with sauteed onions and the other with a little bit of onion and garlic.

The Ciabatta was done baking after 35 minutes-it almost turned too dark. At the bottom it has a very small blowout area-which I think means that I should have let it proof a bit longer after it coming out of the fridge.

The Foccacia had to stay in the oven closer to 30 minutes-they are moist and absolutely charming on the inside, but it definitely needed that extra 10 minutes to acquire some color.

And here are pictures:

Ciabatta

plus crumb shots:

and here the Hamelman Style Foccacia:

And the Hazan Style Foccacia

and its crumb

My camera was being difficult so no crumb shot of the Hamelman style Foccacia. We already devoured the one with the olive emulsion drizzle and the Ciabatta is almost gone, too. Thos are some delicious breads! I will have to contemplate on which of the Foccacia versions I prefer-the olive oil emulsion definitely make the resulting bread very, very moist(but not soggy) in spots and it resulted in slightly flatter loaf.

I am happy with the results overall-the Ciabatta was one of the most heavenly thngs to eat!I definitely need more practice(in everything but also...) in gently laying down the Ciabatta dough-it is by no means a rectangle!

Christina

Today's bread is a pain de compagne.   I used and modified Bernard Clayton's instructions for Madame Doz's bread.   Compared to the milk bread I made yesterday, this is long and involved, with many steps that make the scheduling difficult, especially for a beginning bread baker, who generally can't hang around the kitchen all day.   So I allowed myself more flexibility on the times than what Clayton specified, and looked more at the condition of the dough than the clock to decide if I could get away with going late or early on several of the steps.   I have made this bread a few times already and this came out the best yet.   It starts with a "starter" with flour, water, vinegar, buttermilk, and yeast (belts and suspenders?) that goes overnight.   Then add whole wheat, water and wheat germ to that to make the levain, which hangs around on the counter for most of the day.   Then mix up bread flour and water into a dough.   Then merge the levain and the dough - balls of around equal size - into one big blended dough.   The step that I really don't understand and haven't seen elsewhere, is that when the two pieces of dough are merged, only then do you add a solution of salt in water and work that in.   Can't argue with the result though - even though this uses a fair amount of whole wheat flour, it still comes out very mild and light.   Although Clayton's total kneading time is around 20 minutes, I tried to do as little as I could and still get the dough mixed up, so as to have more of an open crumb.   I baked this in a dutch oven instead of on a stone with steam, removing the top for the last 15 minutes.  

I saved half of the levain in the refrigerator, but don't really know how to use it other than to just make another big boule soon.    It is not a starter, so I don't know if I can just add to it later without the "starter" component" when I'm ready to bake another Madame Doz.

Tomorrow - Multigrain batard using no-knead techniques.

What with having dinner guests on Saturday and more coming on Monday, it was a wonderful excuse for puttering around in the kitchen this weekend.  I started with Pain au Levain from Leader's Local Breads Saturday morning and followed with Rich and Tender Dinner Rolls from The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cook Book and finished up with a Chocolate / Chocolate Chip cake, source unknown.  

Having posted about the Pain au Levain previously, I won't go into detail about the process here.  This bread is consistenly good, in both outcome and flavor.  This bake resulted in lovely oven spring and big ears, in spite of some rather deficient scoring.  It hasn't been cut yet, so I don't know about the crumb but the exterior suggests that the interior ought to be good.

The dinner rolls were a typical enriched roll, with butter, eggs, sugar and milk.  The two differences that set it apart from most such rolls was the addition of some whole wheat, maybe 20%, and no refrigeration.  The former was a pleasant addition in flavor and the latter was a real convenience since I was a bit pressed for time.  I just shaped them as simple pan rolls.  As the name suggested, they were rich and tender and a good accompaniment with dinner.

The cake was a bit over the top (which won't stop us from making it again!), what with a cup of butter, 4 ounces of melted chocolate, 5 eggs and buttermilk in the batter.  Oh, and chocolate chips, too.  My wife halved the frosting recipe (it called for 5-1/2 cups of confectioners/icing sugar), since we baked it in a 9x13 pan instead of in 3, 9-inch round cake pans.  This is not a light and airy cake.  It is moist, it is heavy, and it is sweet!  Good stuff, in other words.  Best of all, with others to help eat it, the danger of too much snacking on the leftovers is reduced.

Before going to bed Saturday night, I mixed a biga for Portugese Sweet Bread.  Today I finished the bread, shaped it as hamburger buns and baked it.  Now we have the base for some barbecue sandwiches for our guests Monday evening.  I've learned that the store-bought buns just don't stand up well to the sauce that comes along with the barbecue, so something like PSB is less likely to go all floppy in mid-bite while still being tender.

No pics of anything described here.  Just lots of enjoyment in both the baking and the eating.

Paul

where in Dallas, Tx to buy bulk flour (50 lb), good quality whole wheat and bread flour?

 

siuflower

In my previous post "Golosaria 2009 & Petra Lab" I wrote about Petra flour from Molino Quaglia. I said I'd like to try conTuttoIlGrano, the (very) whole version of Petra.

                                                                                

And now, my very first test with conTuttoIlGrano! You can read about these flours in my previous post but I want to give you more details about conTuttoIlGrano. "con-tutto-il-grano" means "with-the-whole-grain" and I think this is a perfect name. The flour is stone milled, GMO free (not organic), it has 80% whole wheat flour and the other 20% is wheat flakes, toasted germ and bran ... a whole whole wheat flour!

I baked a simple sourdough bread, here the main points:

• 25% Petra1 + 75% Petra conTuttoIlGrano
• 25% pre-fermented flour (100% hydration liquid levain), I used Petra1 flour.
• 62% overall hydration
• Short mix with S&F
• Retarded in proof

          [The loaf]

         

         [The crumb]

         
         
         

And here the information from the bag (you can see the high resolution version on my zoomr page, just click on the photo then on the "lens" and select the original size). One side of the bag describe a formula with a yeasted biga. If you do the easy calculations the suggested hydration is 70% (maybe 68% if the dough is retarded). For sure this flour can go up to this high hydration (even more if you use a stiff 45% hydration biga that adds a lot of strength to the final dough) but I think this is not a must.

Yesterday I was reasoning about my oven + covered steam method and I think (maybe I'm wrong) the cover traps a lot of steam, sometimes too much steam. This could be a problem with high hydration dough (heart baked) because they need less steam but when covered they free even more stream than a stiffer one: result flat loaves. Ok, you can say don't use the cover with this dough but I wasn't so bravo to get a proper steaming with my crazy oven.

Conclusion: a great whole wheat flour. The loaf is perfect even if I think my starter doesn't like the "all in one" switch on Petra1.

Next loaf ... Pane Petra di Campagna?

I'm not a professional baker but i have been successfully baking as an amateur for a couple of years now. In this time I have learned a few basics, such as that strong white flour can absorb water of 60% of the flour weight (approximately). That is, 3/8 water to 5/8 flour. I know that this is flour dependent, but only within a couple of percent.

Today i tried to use the Bourke Street Bakery Cookbook to make simple white pizza dough. The recipe called for 600g flour and 445ml liquid (water, milk, oil). This equates to 74% liquid to flour weight. Needless to say, the dough resembled a batter and required several handfuls of flour to bring back to workable dough.

I normally use a Ciabatta dough for my pizza bases, so I am quite used to working with a wet dough, but this was rediculous. Luckily I have enough experience to know what to look for, but others may not be so fortunate. I will be interested to see how other recipes from this book work out.

I am keen to hear other's thoughts and experiences with this book.

I saw Floyd's posting on this recipe.  Wanted to try out.  I also saw some seeded recipes,  and wanted to add in the seeds. I need some advice here,  as the the bread turned out a little dense - see the crumb below.

Ingredients:
Preferment
125g All Purpose Flour 85g water 2.5g salt 2g yeast
Day 1:  Mix all and leave rise for 1 hour,  then refrigerate it overnight.
Final Dough
350g Bread Flour 225g water 40g extra virgin olive oil 5g rosemary leaves (I used dried) 7.5g salt 2.5g yeast All of the preferment
Seeds (I added these in as I wanted a seeded bread)
50g Sunflower seed  20g Sesame seeds
Bake sunflower seed for 15 minutes in oven at 150 degree celsius. Turn the seeds occasionally. Fry sesame seeds for about 5 minutes over fire.  Stir constantly till brown.  Put in a bowl and cover overnight.

Day 2:  Mix dough first,  and add in preferment,  knead well.  I added the seeds last after I've kneaded the dough well. Mix the dough and seeds well together. (Should I have waited after the 1st rise to add in the seeds?)
Rising/Proofing:  Rise for 1 1/2 hours, (Floyd suggest a 3 hour bulk rising with 2 folds,  which I should have followed).  1 fold and shape.  Proof for 1 1/2 hours. (The dough have doubled well,  my first rise should have been longer??)
Bake:  Steam the oven at 250 degrees celsius,  and  bake at 230 degrees celsius for 50 minutes,  and bring down the temperature to 200 degree celsius for 20 minutes.  (did I bake a little too long?)
Looking for some advice please?
Jenny

Hey All,

Just wanted to share with you all my bake from today...  Lots of stuff to share.  On the left side is just a sourdough bread that is similar to the Pane Casereccio di Genzano from Dan Leader's Local Breads...  The other two are 90% rye breads from Hamelman's Bread.  For the rye breads, I freshly hand milled organic rye berries for each of the steps using the Detmolder process.  I just used my storage stiff sourdough starter to start the rye sours...  The last 2 photos are some sandwiches that basically contain all my girlfriend's favorite ingredients: smoked salmon, avocado, mango, fresh mozzarella, and mesclun.  Strange combo, but we learned about this combo at Le Petite Abeille in NYC...  Enjoy!

Tomorrow I'll post some crumbshots of the rye bread as Hamelman recommends letting the bread rest for at least 24 hours for the crumb to stabilize...

Tim

Edit: Rye bread pics are up...  We made some toast with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and herring...  Yum!

90% Rye Bread (Based on Hamelman’s 90% Rye from Bread)

 

Rye Sour #1

26g Organic Rye Berries (freshly ground)

24g Firm Sourdough Starter (60% hydration)

50g Water

100g Total

 

Rye Sour #2

200g Organic Rye Berries (freshly ground)

156g Water

50g Rye Sour #1

226g Total

 

Rye Sour #3

290g Organic Rye Berries (freshly ground)

290g Water

226g Rye Sour #2

806g Total

 

Final Dough

580g Organic Rye Berries (freshly ground)

110g Bread Flour

476g Water

20g Kosher Salt

1 tsp ADY

806g Rye Sour #2

1996g Total

 

Instructions:

Evening of Day 1

6:50pm – Measure out ingredients for Rye Sour #1, grind rye berries, mix all in bowl, cover with plastic wrap, rest on counter.

11:50pm - Measure out ingredients for Rye Sour #2, grind rye berries, mix all in bowl, cover with plastic wrap, rest on counter.

Morning of Day 2

8:30am - Measure out ingredients for Rye Sour #3, grind rye berries, mix all in bowl, cover with plastic wrap, rest on counter.

11:45am - Measure out ingredients for final dough, grind rye berries, mix all in bowl with wooden spoon.  Do not touch this dough with your hands.  Just mix it well, and smooth it over with a wet spoon. Cover with plastic wrap, rest on counter. For 30 minutes.

12:15pm – Divide into 2 equal pieces.  Flour your work surface, shape into boule, place into linen lined banneton seam side down.  Proof for 1 hour.  Place 2 stones in oven on different levels, along with seam pan.  Preheat to 550F with convection.

1:15pm – Turn boules out onto lightly floured peel, dock if desired with chopstick or skewer, place in oven directly on stone.  When all loaves are in, add 1 cup of water to steam pan, close door, turn oven down to 480F, no convection, bake for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, rotate loaves, turn oven down to 410F.  Bake for another 60 minutes, rotating and switching loaves between stones halfway through.  Loaves are done when internal temp reaches 210F.  Cool loaves completely and let rest for 24 to 36 hrs before cutting.

Notes: I did not go through the 15-24hr fermentation for rye sour build #2 as per Hamelman's instructions.  My attempt was not very sour tasting, which for me is good.  Also, I should have let the loaf rest for the full 24 hrs before cutting.  It was a little gummy, but this was quickly resolved by toasting...  Also, I have the small iron hand crank mill that Gerard Rubaud uses to grind...

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been baking bread like crazy over the last three months.   I've tried a lot of things, I've received a lot of great advice in the forums, many breads haven't worked very well since I am so inexperienced, but now I have a list of breads that either came out pretty well or I hope that with more practice will eventually turn out pretty well.   In order to consolidate what I've learned so far, I will try to bake a bread a day (or so) with seven breads that I would like to get right.   I'll start with the easiest, and since it is also quite delicious, I'll call it the best per amount of effort:   Greenstein's Milk Bread.   In Secrets of a Jewish Baker, Greenstein gives two recipes for this - one with a sponge, one without.   The one I made today was with a straight dough method.   This means you just mix everything up, let rise, shape, rise, and bake.   No pre-ferment, no cold ferment, no sourdough no nothing.   And for bread, a fairly short time from start to finish.  

Mix 2 cups warm warm water with 1.5 Tbsp instant yeast.   Add 5 cups unbleached bread flour (I used a measurement of 133 g per cup).  Add 2 Tbsp soft butter, 4 tsp sugar, 2/3 cup dry milk, 2 tsp salt.   Mix it up until smooth.   Let double.  Cut in half.   Let rest for 15 minutes.   Shape and put in bread pans.  Let rise to over top of pan.   Score and brush with melted butter.  Bake with steam for 40 minutes at 375.   Remove from pan for last 5 minutes of baking and put directly on stone.

Tomorrow Madame Doz Pain de Compagne from Bernard Clayton.

 

Taking Part in a Baking Competition

Way back in early January, not long after I first started posting on TFL, I found an invitation in my e-mails to compete in what becomes the baking world cup: La Coupe du Monde de Bolangerie, next taking place in 2012..

At the international qualification stage, this is known as the Louis Lesaffre Cup http://www.coupelouislesaffre.com/ with the European part set to take place in Paris in 2011.   This sounded quite interesting, so I thought I'd give it a go.   An e-mail enquiry suggested I would have to make baguettes, a tinned loaf, and a speciality loaf of my own.   I decided to give it a go, thinking the UK heats were to be held in May, or, June.   By that time my teaching commitments will be less, and I should have completed the second module for my MSc in Food policy.   So, I entered.

I didn't hear anything more for a few weeks, except confirmation that I was the first applicant, but I would definitely be taking part.   Right at the beginning of March I received a phone call from Nick Townend of BFP Wholesale [yeast company owned by Lesaffre here in the UK], informing me the Competition was set for sometime between the 20th and 24th March, at the NEC in Birmingham, live at the Baking Industry Exhibition.   Let's just say that this event is HUGE!   I'm in the midst of trying to get an assignment complete for my MSc, and I'm already behind schedule, needing a week's extension.   Also, I'd put no plans in place to publicise my plans and score some publicity for Newcastle College, where I lecture.

OK; well I'd better not panic, it'll be just fine, I resolve!   Better get some practice in, and, sort out some materials.   I contacted my colleagues in Kent [see: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16151/working-french-flour ]and they agreed to post up 10kg of their wonderful T65 Campteclair Farine de Tradition.   I knew this would be a score on the competition, and had no problem getting permission from the judges to use this flour.   I'd put in quite a lot of work to develop a Caraway Rye Bread with Blackstrap Molasses [see: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16273/carawy-rye-bread-black-strap-molasses-superwet-ciabatta-too ] and thought this would be a great choice for my own loaf.   For the tinned bread, I had plans to use a seed soaker with a mix of wholemeal and white bread flours.

Then the Rules were finally published on the 12th March!   Baguettes were indeed required.   One dough using 7kg of flour; half of this to make traditional hand moulded baguettes, the other half to process through a moulding machine.   Finished weight of 240g, I calculated this would give me 36 baguettes!   And, I'd only got 10kg of flour in the first place.   I double-checked, but was told I could only make one dough.   I thought I may get away with a dough using Campteclair for the traditional baguettes, then another dough using industrial flour T55 for the machined products.   No go on this.   Tinned loaves:   3 x 800g finished weight of White Farmhouse, White Sandwich Tin, and Wholemeal.   You can't get much more ordinary than this, but I knew I could at least use sponge and dough methods to get some interesting flavours.   The loaf of choice was also something of a letdown.   Clearly the judges had made moves to keep the competition as "English" as possible...you can all draw your own conclusions on what that implies!   Two from Cottage, Bloomer and Cob loaves; 3 x 800g and 400g finished weights; all white flour.   A minimum of 1 hour bulk ferment was stipulated, but no mention made of overnight fermentation.   For all these products, Lesaffre bread improvers were available, as were their dry sour preparations!!

Well, I was starting to feel somewhat disheartened by now; seriously I was thinking I should pull out.   But a hotel room was booked and paid for by Lesaffre, and I was just about psyched up for the competition side of the whole event.   I needed to talk to some colleagues, big-style.   Thank you to Eric Hanner of TFL who from this point on was of sterling support.   My line manager at work also stepped up and gave me loads of positives.   It was great to have word from Jeffrey Hamelman, explaining some of the rationale behind aspects of the rules [he will be judging in Paris, I guess], but also obviously uninspired by the English choices of bread available to me.

So I frantically began e-mailing through to Nick Townend, establishing whatever I could to know it would all work on the day.   Quite why I had thought the event was in May/June, I really have no idea at all now.   I did 3 days of test baking on 15th, 16th and 17th March, in my bakery kitchen, but teaching a host of different classes at the same time; so, it was extremely stressful, and not all my products turned out how I wanted them.   Still, I had a load of notes, and the confidence in the methods used and my own knowledge and skill to believe I had everything there to make it all work over the upcoming weekend.

I had a trip to Nottinghamshire on Thursday 18th March to visit "The School of Artisan Food".   I had a table seat reserved on the train, so spent the 4 hours tapping away on my wife's laptop to complete all the recipe/formula and methods for each of the breads I was going to make.   I had a great day out visiting what is a wholly exciting new venture, and, I got all this planning work completed too.

Back to College on Friday, to teach a practical baking class, and gather a whole load of equipment and materials together to take to Birmingham.   I slept badly on Friday night, and was up by 5am tapping away on my pc, and catching up with the latest from Eric to help me through.   The drive to Birmingham is over 250 miles from where we live in the very far north of England.   We made very good time, and checked in to the hotel by mid afternoon.   My wife, Alison, went shopping, and I went off to the NEC to make my starter doughs for the next day.

I arrived at the NEC, eventually checked into the right Exhibition Hall with all my stuff, and it was bedlam.   Everyone was working like crazy to have the Hall set up for the next day.   Our "live area" was hardly in any state at all.   There was no baguette moulder, and the equipment available was not really set up, and we had to share it with the Bakels/Rondo team doing live demonstrations in the same cordon.   Well, no machine-moulded baguettes anyway.   Having met all the co-ordinators who were supporting us, the 3 competitors, we then had one hour to make all our overnight ferments.   I had 4 to make!

Anyway, mission accomplished and back to the hotel.   Alison and I made an exit from the hotel to a decent restaurant, so we could get a break from all things bakery competition for a while at least.   I drank just a few beers, and ate some good food, but we went straight to bed on return.   I had an early rise, as the Competition kicked off at 7am.

We were there early and away by 06:50, with 8 hours to complete all our loaves.   Counting against all of us was the equipment.   One of the ovens was low-crown, and we had a lot of tinned breads to make; there was a massive shortage of proving space; we had only one spiral mixer between the 3 of us; the benches we were given were absolutely tiny, and far from robust.   And I discovered the wholemeal flour we had been given was really not up to much.

Well, we were on view to one and all, and I want to say thanks to all those who came past and took such an interest in what I was doing: especially Mr. Tony Jenkins from Soothills Bakers in Hampshire.   He was fascinated that a baker had turned up at a bakery competition prepared to make very simple products using long fermentation methods only, and no improvers.   I was glad to find I wasn't the only one.   Stephen Salt from Tameside College, near Manchester, was on a similar mission; the other baking competitor was Andrew Iyare from London.   There were 2 competitors on the following day, one being Emmanuel Hadijandreou from Judges Bakery, the other was Wayne Caddy who is a bakery consultant based in Rotherham.   I met up with Emmanuel after the competition, which was great; I've been wanting to meet him for a good while.   I know Wayne from my time at Leeds Thomas Danby, as he studied there as well, although some years before me.

The competition was pretty stressful at times.   The lack of equipment was difficult for all of us, and it was difficult to stay organised throughout.   We all managed to work well together, and the support from the co-ordinators on the day was much appreciated.   Andrew had finished in very good time.   Stephen baked his baguettes last of all, then he was finished too.   So I had the run of the ovens at the end, which was a bonus.   This was when I discovered that the Tom Chandley deck oven was low crown, so my tinned loaves were getting a bit stuck on the top heat bars!   I'd taken longer than the others quite deliberately; this had given me 4 hours to prove the baguettes in the chiller following a one hour bulk fermentation.

The Judging Panel had emerged, and I met up with Colin Lomax from Rank Hovis again.   I met him a few years ago at one of Rank's mills in Selby, North Yorkshire.   The current NA President was on the panel, with Peter Lonnican from Blackpool, and Sarah Auton, who had been helping to co-ordinate the whole thing.   All 4 were very supportive, and full of positive comments for our hard work.   I set my 18 baguettes on the sole of the oven with a trusty baguette peel specially made for me at the College, using some coarsely ground semolina from a local organic mill in Northumberland.   I had hoped for a little more proof, but they were so easy to handle, and baked up so crispy in the best deck oven I've worked on in years.   "Best bread of the day" was Colin Lomax's comment.   It was worth competing for that moment alone.   I didn't win the event.   That honour went to Wayne; my congratulations to him.   He gained the place in the UK team for bread baker.   The other places are for a Vienoisserie expert, and for someone to do a decorative dough piece.

I've attached a load of photos from the day, and all the recipes and methods used.   I've already given thanks for support above, but would like to add to this list.   My wife, Alison, took all these photos, bar one obvious one.   She accompanied me all the way to Birmingham and back, and supported and encouraged me all the way.   Also, Mary and Nigel in supplying me the special T65 flour, gave me a chance to put over at least one really top class product.   The white cobs were very fine too, and the sandwich loaves were just about up to scratch.   The wholemeal was poor, and I learnt a lot from this.   I would always take my own preferred choice of flours to a competition in future.   Trying to achieve 72% hydration, and mix in a planetary machine were big mistakes; the BFP flour was not the same spec as the Carrs Mill Race Wholemeal I use in College.   The bloomers "got away on me".   They tasted fantastic, but looked a little bit too ragged.

I'd made 52 loaves in a pretty stressful situation..but, I d had a thoroughly good time and felt totally at home in this rather strange environment.   I want to do this again; it was a lot of fun.   Next time I'll be a lot more organised in the run-in!

 

 

WHOLEMEAL TINNED BREAD

 

Material	Formula [% of flour]	Recipe [grams]	Recipe [grams]
1. Quarter Sponge
Wholemeal Flour	25	1750	875
Water	17	1190	595
Fresh Yeast	0.2	14	7
TOTAL	42.2	2954	1477
2. Final Dough
Quarter Sponge [from above]	42.2	2954	1477
Wholemeal Flour	75	5250	2625
Salt	1.8	126	63
Fresh Yeast	2.5	175	87.5
White Fat	1.8	126	63
Water	55[max]	3850	1925
TOTAL	178.3	12481	6240.5

 

Method:

• Make the sponge the day before; DDT 21°C.   Mix 3 mins on speed one. Store ambient, covered in lightly oiled bowl.
• Autolyse flour and water for half an hour.
• Combine sponge, autolyse plus salt, fat and yeast and mix the final dough 2 minutes on first speed, and 6 - 8 minutes on second speed.   DDT 24°C
• Bulk Ferment, covered in an oil-lined container for 40 minutes, ambient.   Knock back and rest 10 minutes.
• Prepare tins, and scale and divide the dough into 950g pieces.   Mould round and rest covered for 10 minutes.
• Shape and pan the loaves
• Proof at 31°C, 85% rH  for approx 1 hour; ensure oven set and pre-heated
• Bake to the following profile: Use a deck oven set at 235°C, top heat 6 and bottom heat 8.   Use steam set at 2 and keep the damper closed for the first 25 minutes.   Check after 18 minutes, turn the loaf pans round if necessary, and drop the heat to 225°C.   Open the dampers after 25 minutes, drop the heat to 220°C and bake a further 5 - 8 minutes.
• De-pan and cool on wires.

 

WHITE COB AND BLOOMER

 

Material	Formula [% of flour]	Recipe [grams]
1. Eighth Sponge
Strong White Flour	12.5	875
Water	7.5	525
Fresh Yeast	0.1	7
TOTAL	20.1	1407
2. Final Dough
Eighth Sponge [from above]	20.1	1407
Strong White Flour	87.5	6125
Salt	1.8	126
Fresh Yeast	2.4	168
White Fat	1.0	100
Water	55.5 [max for 63% hydration]	3675 [60%] 3885 [63%]
TOTAL	168.3	11811

 

Method:

• Make the sponge the day before; DDT 21°C.   Mix 3 mins on speed one. Store ambient, covered in lightly oiled bowl.
• Autolyse flour and water for half an hour.
• Combine sponge, autolyse plus salt, fat and yeast and mix the final dough 3 minutes on first speed, and 3½ - 5 minutes on second speed.   DDT 24°C
• Bulk Ferment, covered in an oil-lined container for 1¼ hours, ambient.   Knock back and rest a further 10 mins.
• Prepare trays with silicone paper dusted with semolina for bloomers, and banneton with white flour for cobs, and scale and divide the dough into 950g pieces for large laves and 480g pieces for small.   Mould round and rest covered for 10 minutes.
• Shape the loaves, tray up the bloomers, and turn the cobs upside down into the banneton.   Recipe yields 4 large and 3 small of each product.
• Proof at 31°C, 85% rH  for approx 1 hour; ensure oven set and pre-heated.
• Bake to the following profile: Use a deck oven set at 225°C, top heat 7 and bottom heat 5.   Use steam set at 4 and keep the damper closed for the first 15 minutes.   Use a peel to set the loaves on the sole of the oven; bloomers on silicone, cut whole surface with angled cuts; cobs tipped onto the peel then transfer to oven after cutting, cross shape over whole floured surface.   Check after 20 minutes, to see if the small loaves are baked,   Open the dampers and bake a further 8 minutes.
• De-pan and cool on wires.

 

WHITE TIINNED BREAD: FARMOUSE and SANDWICH LOAVES

 

Material	Formula [% of flour]	Recipe [grams]
1. Third Sponge
Strong White Flour	33.3	2331
Water	20	1400
Fresh Yeast	0.3	21
TOTAL	53.6	3752
2. Final Dough
Third Sponge [from above]	53.6	3752
Strong White Flour	66.7	4669
Salt	1.8	126
Fresh Yeast	1.7	119
White Fat	1.8	126
Water	43[max]	3010
TOTAL	168.6	11802

 

Method:

• Make the sponge the day before; DDT 21°C.   Mix 3 mins on speed one. Store ambient, covered in lightly oiled bowl.
• Autolyse flour and water for half an hour.
• Combine sponge, autolyse plus salt, fat and yeast and mix the final dough 3 minutes on first speed, and 3½ - 5 minutes on second speed.   DDT 24°C
• Bulk Ferment, covered in an oil-lined container for 40 minutes, ambient.   Knock back and rest 10 minutes.
• Prepare tins, and scale and divide the dough into 12 x 950g pieces.   Mould round and rest covered for 10 minutes.
• Shape and pan the loaves; makes 6 as sandwich loaves and 6 as farmhouse
• Proof at 31°C, 85% rH for approx 1 hour; ensure oven set and pre-heated.   Be ready to bake the sandwich ahead of the farmhouse, as these loaves do not need full proof.   Lid the sandwich loaves first; dust the farmhouse loaf tops with white flour, and use a single slash, the full length of the loaf.
• Bake to the following profile: Use a deck oven set at 235°C, top heat 6 and bottom heat 8.   Use steam set at 2 and keep the damper closed for the first 25 minutes.   Check after 18 minutes, turn the loaf pans round if necessary, and drop the heat to 225°C.   Open the dampers after 25 minutes, drop the heat to 220°C and bake a further 5 - 8 minutes.
• De-pan and cool on wires.

 

TRADITIONAL BAGUETTES MADE WITH A POOLISH

 

Material	Formula [% of flour]	Recipe [grams]
1. Poolish
Campteclair T65 Farine de Tradition	33.3	2331
Water	33.3	2331
Fresh Yeast	0.3	21
TOTAL	66.9	4683
2. Final Dough
Poolish [from above]	66.9	4683
Campteclair T65 Farine de Tradition	66.7	4669
Salt	1.8	126
Fresh Yeast	0.9	63
Water	32.7	2289
TOTAL	169	11830

 

Method:

• Make the sponge the day before; DDT 21°C.   Mix 3 mins on speed one. Store ambient, covered in lightly oiled bowl.
• Autolyse flour and water for half an hour.
• Combine sponge, autolyse plus salt and yeast and mix the final dough for 9 minutes on first speed.   DDT 24°C.
• Scale the dough into 2 equal portions.   Bulk ferment both portions in oil-lined, covered bowls for 40 minutes.
• Scale the first portion into 18 x 325g pieces and mould round.   Rest covered for 10 minutes.   Meanwhile, scale the other dough portion into 18 x 325g pieces, and mould round.   Store these covered in the chiller for 2 hours.
• Once rested, roll out the 18 pieces from the first batch of dough, using a baguette moulder, to 60cm.   Place these onto stick wires and set to prove; 35°C, 85% rH, for 45 mins to 1 hour approx.   Use 6 diagonal cuts just prior to baking.
• Bake as follows: deck oven, full steam; 240°C, top 6.5, bottom 5, for 20 minutes.   Turn the heat down to 225°C, for 5 minutes.   Open the damper and turn the heat to 215°C and bake a further 5 - 7 minutes.
• Cool on wires
• For the second batch, gradually and carefully, roll each piece out by hand to 60cm.   Set to prove, ambient, en coûche and well covered with cloth and plastic.   Use semolina, as dust, as required.   Try to keep the seal of each baguette on the bottom.   Prove approx 1 hour.   Cut each loaf using a grignette, 6 diagonal slashes.   Set on the sole of the oven using a baguette peel.

Bake profile: as for the first portion of baguettes.   Cool on wires