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I am new to this site so hello to all! I have been baking bread for a long time, but I am seriously trying to get into it more, learn about it and try out lots of different things. I have just signed up to here, got a lot of books in my wish list on Amazon waiting for pay day at the end of the month, and have been reading a great magazine that you can find here: http://bread.insanelyinterested.com/issue/issue-1/ The additions are free from 2012, and then look a reasonable price for 2013 and current editions. I am literally reading the first.

So today I saw on facebook it was St George's Day here in the UK. I should know really, but we've just had Easter and it had slipped my mind! So I thought I would do something to celebrate!

I haven't tried the old sourdough thing yet, so just have fast action yeast from a packet. It has always done me well. I've tried the fresh stuff, but never got much of a difference...I am sure I'll be learning more about it soon. The recipe was as follows:

• 12oz of strong white bread flour
• 4 oz of granary flour
• About 2tsp salt and 2 tsp sugar
• 1 sachet of yeast
• Water to make it up - I'm afraid I never measure it out, I just pour it in and mix until it is about right! 

I made the dough and when it was ready, I knocked it back, rolled it out and put chopped up piquanté peppers and cooked bacon on top, and kneaded it all in. Oh yum! I think 2 rashers of bacon and about 4 peppers...but I wasn't really paying attention, just adding what looked right!

I made them into 3oz rolls (I've started weighing them as I am useless at getting them all the same size!) and left them to rise again whilst the oven was hotting up!

I made up some plain flour, water and red food colouring and whacked it in a piping bag and piped on crosses! A brush with some egg and then in the oven for about 20 mins.

I think that they turned out pretty well, and with a bit of cheese and butter...oh yum!

So what do you think? I would love to know your opinions as I am trying to get top notch at this stuff.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read!

After years of trying multiple recipes and developing my SD and yeasted hot cross buns, I can now state that the latter wins. As good as the SD ones are, this yeasted baby is as close to my ideal bun as I've tasted. But I've done enough banging on about my hot cross bun quest in previous years. This year, I'll let the pics do the work (NB: pics are of yeasted buns only). Masochists can check out my previous posts on The Quest as follows:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/keyword/sourdough-vs-yeasted-hot-cross-buns

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/28161/years-hot-cross-buns-one-lot-sd-one-yeasted

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/32908/sd-vs-yeasted-hot-cross-buns-last-new-winnerand-its-veganfriendly

Cheers all!
Ross

I'm upping the ante to two bakes a week.  One to trade at market and one to sell and raise money for more ingredients/pay bills while I try to find my own "spot".  I figured I must give this formula its due and remake with proper hydration.  I made one other change based on the flavor profile of the "botched" batch and split the whole wheat half Hard Red Winter and half Hard White Winter.  I also added a longer autolyse.  The previous loaf was a fine sammi bread but it had a bitter finish and these changes were to help that aspect.  Oh and I scaled the proper amount of water this time.  The end result.  A lovely sweet, earthy, crunchy loaf of bread.  Very happy with the results.  Not sure how to compare to other PDC's as they seem to vary so much.  Without further ado.

PDC
--------------------
Levain: 80% Hyd
----------------------
75          Seed (66% hydration) (45 flour/ 30 h20)
148        Wheat (half hard red/half hard white)
124.5     H20
---------------------
341.5
--------------------
Dough:
--------------------
470.5   Artisan
120     Hard Red Wheat
120     Hard White Wheat
49.5     Rye
49.5    Spelt
665     H20  
20       Salt
--------------------
1472.5
--------------------
Total Flour       1002.5g  (19% PF) (43% Wheat, 5% rye, 5% Spelt)
Total H20         819.5      (82% hyd)
Total Dough     1842       (2 @ 921 )
---------------------
Autolyse 4 hour (same time I built levain) holding back 5% water. 
Add levain and 1/2 of h20 and mix to combine.  Add salt with remaining h20 and mix until incorporated and moderate gluten development.

Bulk Ferment: 2:30 with SF @ 45 minute and 1:30.  

Divide, preshape, rest 20-30 minutes

Shape and retard 12-15 hours

Pull about 30 minutes before loading.

Bake at 500 with steam for the first 15 minutes and vented for 25-30 more

Cheers

Josh

Lucy has wanted to make some of these fine rolls ever since she saw them here 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/38178/sacaduros

But ours didn’t open up like they were supposed to at the folds over the chunk of butter  You are supposed to use a lower hydration sort of white hearth bread for these rolls but we used our recent 8 whole grain mix using the 85% extraction for the dough flour.

 We once again used  our overly frisky levain along with about 80% hydration so the folds stuck together as it proofed even though we floured the touching surfaces before pinching them  lightly together over the butter

If the looks mean a lot to you might want to use the right dough for these very tasty rolls and cross your fingers.  Lucy did cut the butter down to 1/2 a sugar cube size and  dipped the folded tops into flour before putting them in a PAM sprayed cupcake tin.

We decided to preheat to 475 F but bake with steam for 5 minutes at 450 F using one of Sylvia’s steaming pans before turning the oven down to 400 F for another 10 minutes without steam.

They browned up nicely, cracked a little but these rolls really shine in the inside.  The crumb is soft, a little open, moist and buttery - it adds to the fine, if light, SD tang. These are some of the tastiest buns we have made in some time – healthy and nutritious too.

We will take another shot at them to if we can get them to open up like they are supposed to – but that will take a different recipe of white dough at about 68% hydration and flouring the inside before folding them.

Formula

 Lunch with yesterday's Frisbee bread.  Flat but delicious!

Looking for a seasonal specialty for my customers at A&B Naturals, I came upon an Italian Christmas bread, Pinza, that, after crossing the border to Austria, switched holidays - and turned into Easter bread, Pinze.

After a solemn blessing in the church, this lovely Styrian Easter bread (often adorned by a red egg, and cut three times, to symbolize the Holy Trinity) is served with the meat on Easter Sunday.

Styria - Steiermark, home of this lovely Easter bread

There are several versions for Pinze, and it is either seasoned with vanilla or anise. The anise can be steeped in wine or cooked in milk to extract its flavor. All recipes include lots of eggs and egg yolks, so keep the Lipitor at hand, but I'm sure it is good for you, since it comes with a blessing.

I tried a Pinze version with anise, soaked in wine. Though the bread turned out quite nice, I couldn't detect much anise aroma. Therefore I decided on Petra's Easter Pinza (from her Chili und Ciabatta blog), substituting some of the white flour with whole wheat.

The bread, made in 3 steps with 2 pre-ferments, was wonderful. The only problem: its time consuming schedule would not work for my little bakery, unless I pulled off an all-nighter. So I turned to my favorite method: stretch & fold plus overnight stay in the fridge.

All egg-y goodness!

That way I could work the dough all at once, and let the folding and cold fermentation do the rest. No pre-doughs needed, very little hands-on time, and no standing around, waiting for pre-ferments and dough to rise.

In other words, the baker could hug her pillow, while the yeasties did their job!

My overnight version was just as good as the original, more involved one!

My Easter Basket

The Easter Pinze is a soft bread with a wonderful flavor. Though slightly sweet, it can be served with Easter Ham, like in Austria. Or, as we did, enjoyed simply with some good butter, or jam.

You find the recipe (plus a download for BreadStorm users) in my blog Brot & Bread.

I have had lots of fun tinkering with this recipe.  Today, I reduced the rye content again, added flax seeds and sprinkled in some sesame seeds.  Still working on my shaping, but the bread was tasty.  My husband really liked it. .

The crumb was quite good as I kept the hydration at higher levels, as compared to where I started. I know I will keep playing around with this recipe as it makes great bread.  Thanks again to Khalid for getting me going on this.

Prepare the rye sour by adding a tablespoon and a half of your active rye starter to the 250g water, and mix well to disperse. Add the flour, mix well, and let stand for 8-12 hours at room temperature. To prepare the soaker, weigh all soaker ingredients into a bowl, and then add the boiling water to the soaker. Mix well, cover, and let stand until overnight or until your rye sour is ready.

The next day, mix all ingredients using a stand mixer for 7-10 minutes. The dough will remain relatively sticky, so try to resist adding any flour at this stage. Shape as a round and let ferment in an oiled bowl for 2 hours at preferably 78 F, folding it using your scraper at the 1 hour mark. By the end of bulk fermentation, scrape your dough onto a heavily floured surface, pat the dough even, divide into the desired dough pieces, and round each piece leaving them to rest for 15- 20 min, covered. Shape your dough into a batard (see helpful videos on this). I did the final shaping and then placed the dough on parchment paper on a peel. You can also use your proofing basket.  Dust your basket with a mixture of all purpose flour and rice flour, and shape your dough and invert it smooth side down into the basket. The final fermentation will be only 45 minutes, but watch the dough NOT the clock. Preheat your oven at this stage with a stone in place to 500F.   Have your steaming apparatus in place. When ready, invert the dough on baking paper lined peel/ board and score it before placing on the baking stone. Place boiling water into steaming tray. Bake for 15 minutes with steam, and then remove the steaming tray and reduce the temperature to 450F for another 25-30  minutes or so. This last loaf turned out so big, so it needed a bit more baking time.  Be sure to adjust based on the size and the kind of crust you prefer. Remember, you can experiment with different ingredients in the soaker--that's the really fun part.

Cool on wire rack before slicing.

I am coming "home" for the first time since 1990 along with family, and we are hoping to spend a few days in Devon - we lived in Ideford before coming to America. I am hoping some of our English TFL members might be able to recommend a vacation cottage we could rent as a center to explore Devon. There will be five of us, three adults and two teenaged girls, and while I don't mind sharing a room with the girls this old Nana thinks two bathrooms would be nice.  Looking forward to clotted cream, pork pies - and any bakery suggestions would be lovely, A.

This is my version of Pain de Campagne.  It took three attempts before I was satisfied with the result.  The first two loaves were too sour for my liking.  It was only when Josh suggested that I use more starter in my levain build, instead of less, that I finally got the result I wanted.  :)

Levain

• 50g mature whole wheat starter
• 100g water
• 100g whole wheat flour

Allow to peak.  Once it has peaked and started to recede, it will get more and more acidic.  I wanted a young levain for this loaf so I used it when it reached its highest point.  This took somewhere between four and five hours in my 28 degrees C kitchen.  It had a nice fruity aroma and wasn't at all sour.

Main Dough

• 200g of the levain
• 350g water
• 50g rye
• 1/2 tsp diastatic malt
• 450g bread flour

Disperse the levain in the water with a wire whisk.  I like to whisk it up until it has a good foam on top.  Next, whisk in rye and malt powder.  Then add bread flour with spatula and mix until all the flour has been moistened.

• autolyse for 50 minutes

Then:

• add 10g salt
• knead to medium gluten development

Now:

• bulk ferment for 1 hour with a turn at 30 minutes

Next:

• pre-shape
• rest 10 minutes
• final shape

Put into well floured banneton and after about half an hour cover and:

• retard for 12 hours in the fridge

Bake

•  at 230 C with steam for 15 minutes

Then:

• reduce heat to 200 C and bake for a further 30 - 35 minutes

The proportionately large amount of levain in this recipe means that the dough develops really quickly hence the relatively short bulk fermentation time.  

 For the first two attempts I used smaller amounts of starter (30 and 20g respectively) and let the levain ripen for 12 hours.  As Josh suggested, this made for a more sour levain.  So more starter and a shorter ripening time is what he recommended.  It worked really well and I am really pleased with the way this turned out.  

I like adding all my whole wheat to the levain as I feel it gives it more 'wheaty' flavour.  On the other hand, I don't like adding too much rye to the levain as it gets too sour too quickly.

The flavour of this bread improves with time and by day two (yesterday) it had a slight tang.

For my last two bakes, I had been having the same prob with testing their doness and pre-heating my oven. When I started to pre-heat my oven when its ready to bake, I ended up with a fully proof loaf, luckily they didnt collaspe on me, but the spring was very disappointing. Is there a way to solve this problem? 

Below is a few pic of the crumb

This post has been submitted to YeastSpotting

A couple months ago I took a Viennoserie class at the San Francisco Baking Institute (SFBI). The students were mostly home baking hobbyists like me, but there were a few professionals too. Most of the 40 hours were spent hands-on in the pastry kitchen. The high quality of instruction combined with the excellent equipment and facilities were totally worth the tuition. The curriculum was designed with a professional production environment in mind so each batch of dough was in the 5-6 kg range and were mixed in large stand mixers. All the lamination was done using a dough sheeter. It was a bit exhausting handling such large pieces of dough and carrying fully loaded sheet trays around the kitchen, but I got used to the physical nature of the work fairly quickly. I learned so much in that one week and had so much fun doing it.

The SFBI also offers a few classes that are only 2 days long with a focus on baking at home. The quantities of dough are smaller and the mixing is done by hand. Although the baking is still done in their professional ovens, they demonstrate how to bake the items in a home oven too.

Last weekend I took the "sourdough at home" class. The students were mostly home bakers. Thanks to TFL and "Bread" by Jeffrey Hamelman, I already knew a lot of the information covered during class, but it's always good to hear it repeated again. It's the only way I'll remember. :)  The most important thing I learned was how to shape free formed loaves. Having the instructor correct my hand motions while shaping was the best part. I've watched a lot of shaping videos, but nothing beats the hands-on instruction I received in class. 

We made 6 different formulas in class. Each student came home with thirty 500g loaves and a little bit of SFBI liquid starter.

1. Sourdough with liquid levain

2. Sourdough with stiff levain

3. Multigrain (flax, sunflower and sesame seed soaker)

4. Sour rye

5. Olive

6.Semolina sesame