The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

New from Australia

Fayzor's picture
Fayzor

New from Australia

Hi everyone.

I've been making my own bread for about 10 years and sourdough for the last couple. My husband has almost finished our wood fired oven and we've made some pizzas, a roast and some apricot crumble (crisp to you US folks) in it already. 

Looking forward to sharing with you. I'm in Melbourne Victoria and buy my flours from Marg and Maree's in Heidelberg as well as the Wallaby flour from the supermarket.

Can't remember the last time I bought bread from the shop!

Cheers!

Fay

mrosen814's picture
mrosen814

Hi Fay, 

Would you happen to have a good turkish bread recipe?  My wife is from Melbourne, and when we travel to visit from Los Angeles, I can't get enough of that bread!  Last time my mother-in-law came for a visit, she kindly brought three loaves with her. :)

Thanks, 

Michael

Fayzor's picture
Fayzor

I hope you mean the quite large dimpled flatish pliable loaves Michael. 

Here's one from Greg Malouf's turquoise. It's a general recipe book, not a specialised bread one and he's a chef.

Note our Australian tablespoon is 20 mls, not 15 as in your country.

1 tablespoon (2 sachets) dried yeast

Pinch caster sugar

375 ml warm water

480 grams strong bread flour (we don't have the massive range of brands you do in the States)

1 teaspoon salt (we don't have Kosher salt here. Use sea salt I guess)

60 mls Extra virgin olive oil

Egg and milk wash (2 eggs beaten with 50 ml milk)

Nigella or sesame seeds

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in 125ml of the warm water and set aside in a warm place until frothy. Work about 90 grams of the flour into the yeast to make a sloppy paste, sprinkle with a little more flour then cover and set aside in a warm place for about 30 minutes to form a sponge. 

Put remaining flour and salt into a large bowl, make a well in the centre and add the sponge, oil and remaining water. Mix to a soft sloppy dough. Don't panic it is meant to be very sticky. [sic]

Transfer to an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook and knead on low speed for  10-15 minutes until very smooth and springy. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl then cover with a damp tea towel and leave until doubled in size. Preheat oven to highest setting with two pizza stones or oiled baking sheets in it.

Divide the dough in two and form into a ball and rest, covered for 30 minutes. 

Place dough on lightly floured surface. Use the heels of your hands to press and flatten each piece out to a 20 cm oval. Brush surface with egg wash. Dip your finger into the egg wash and mark rows of deep indentations across and down the length of the dough, leaving a narrow border. Lightly flour the hot pizza stones or trays. Lift pides onto stones, stretching them gently and evenly. Sprinkle with nigella or sesame seeds and bake for 8-10 minutes until crisp and golden brown.

Now.

I find this does not create as beautifully soft a crust as the shop bought ones. 

The mixture was incredibly sloppy with I think about 90% hydration. I had to add quite a bit more flour to be able to handle it. 15 minutes in the Kenwood and it was like paste. I use a good quality strong flour from the bread making supplies shop here.

I pressed out the dough a lot larger than the recipe. As you would know, the loaves are about 50cm long here. 

I have done this in the oven but our last batch was done in the wood fired oven at about 230C-240C and they worked very well. 

Um, I forgot to add the salt in the last batch I made, so it rose like Topsy but still looked good. Sometimes I have vague moments...

This is the best recipe I have come across so far. Others produced hard boardlike loaves.

mrosen814's picture
mrosen814

Thank you Fay! I will give it a go!

Aussie Pete's picture
Aussie Pete

Hi Fay,

Welcome from Cessnock, NSWgateway to the Hunter and Polkolbin............talk later........Peter

Sabinka's picture
Sabinka

Hello Fay,

Welcome to the Forum, I only joined here a few weeks ago.  I too, live in Australia.

I only started baking bread in March last year.  Enjoy your Baking.

Kind regards,

Sabina