What's on deck for your weekend bake?
What's everyone doing? What's got you padding around your kitchen this morning? What kind of flour will you be sweeping up off the floor?
I didn't bake last weekend... I'm still recovering. I am making Sourdough Noir again for the Hubs. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/49030/hubbins-favorite-sourdough-noir He is simply bananas for it and, as kind and supportive as he is about my insane bread hobby, in truth he would prefer a hunk of dark chocolate to a slice of bread. Usually. This bread is the exception. The heart wants what the heart wants! :) So, this weekend will be Sourdough Noir Part Deux -- and this time I remembered to add the dried instant espresso at the autolyse! I changed it up from my first creation of this loaf (see blog link, above) to suit my schedule -- including an overnight bulk ferment, which should only improve the final product. I imagine I may be checking the Hubbin into the funny farm when the last heel is gone.
I am also planning a granary-style loaf for this weekend (a la Hovis) -- maybe in a bread pan (I should say "tin"... when in Rome), but not sure yet. I have been soaking some barley since yesterday morning to add some interest. I'm making this one up as a I go along, so we'll see what happens. (That's the fun part...)
Ok. Now you.
I have a selection of grains and was inspired by Cedar Mountain's beautiful bakes. My grains are now sprouted and waiting for me to get to it. I'll follow the Tartine method (in that I will autolyze for a shorter period with the leaven mixed in) but I will not start with 85% hydration. I'll drop down to 75% and then see how I feel about adding more.
Happy baking and happy wknd!
I am currently in San Francisco attending one conference. I can't bake but instead of that I am visiting famous SF bakeries. This morning I was at Josey Baker's "The mill" and had Dark Mountain Rye and coffee for breakfast and bought one "Country bread" to eat it later. Unfortunately I had to taste it immediately while it was still relatively warm. It was slightly sour as SD should be with open crumb, perfect crust, but now I am eagerly waiting that it will cool down to feel the real taste. They promised me that I will get their starter just before leaving for the airport.
So I am enjoying tasting bread which I had just seen before on the pictures while reading books. I was really impressed by dark mountain rye and they told me that the recipe they use is the same as in the book.
Tomorrow I am planning to visit Tartine bakery.
Greetings from SF. If anybody who is reading this from SF I would be delighted to meet and have a drink.
Joze
My daughter just got back from SF but she isn't a bread nut like we are but did get a loaf if ACME for a picnic with cheese, fruit and her fiance :-) Josey makes killer bread:-)
Apparently there's a Baguette club here and still trying to earn honorary membership. This is going in soon !
I wouldn't have time. Somehow, I am fitting in four loaves of multi-seed, muti-grain sourdough. I am doing a two stage rye/wheat levain, with toasted millet, flax, black sesame and hemp hearts adding in as well some toasted 10 grain cereal and my usual concoction of flours (unbleached, spelt, Kamut, rye and multigrain). I might add some buttermilk since I would like to use up what is in the fridge. Not sure what the hydration will be yet as I am soaking the seeds and cereal overnight and it depends on how much water is absorbed by the mix.
jacob tear barley in the cupboard. I think I will start with that. Grind it maybe into flour ---> rye starter, butter & eggs. Oh, oh, and I found some Nutella... One of those star morning breads might be fun. Stack up rolled out dough disks pancake style smearing a little of that chocolate hazel nut cream between. Cut and twist. Rise and bake.
Save some of the barley flour for a few wiggs. :)
Cant wait to see your recipe posted! I love Nutella!
Mini, I gotta see these your star creation - I have seen them online but I have never baked one. Plus Nutella. So. You know. It will earn a Michelin star on its own.... :)
I could skip the Nutella! Using a 500g flour recipe with two eggs, etc. The flour mixture is the ground roasted barley 50g, 150g spelt flour, 50g rye flour, 50g bread flour and 200g AP wheat. The dough aroma is intoxicating and rather dark, hope the Nutella shows up.
The wind took the baking aroma all the way through the camp. Twelve inch square pan. Used a bigger mini oven. :)
They looked good, they smelled good... I nibbled at a corner (just pick one) and dreamed of youthful food sneaking adventures. . .
Ugh! Disaster! Salty! What did I do, put salt in it twice? I remember using only 1.6% on the flour... measuring only once. I'm sure of it. Then the "aha" moment...it dawned on me... I used potato water... and it was salty... forgot to subtract it in my notes. Heavily distracted but not a good excuse. Now what? Soak & Grind it to a pulp and add another batch of dough? The garbage? Turn it into a wall hanging, add numbers and two clock hands? No! Just now a foreman walked by and I stopped him, I gave the pan for the construction workers to ask what they thought of salty chocolate rolls. Pan will wander back eventually. :(
That is so gorgeous, Mini! but DRAT ON THE SAAAAAALLLT! Dang it. Maybe some old salty construction workers won't notice the added salt. ;)
The Hubbin just took a bite of his morning toast -- the Sourdough Noir (same as my blog post + 1TBL of instant espresso powder in autolyse - http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/49030/hubbins-favorite-sourdough-noir) -- and said, with mouth full, "Mmm. Crack bread." There is no higher praise I suppose.
In addition to the usual shop breads I was baking, I was catering for a friends wedding. (With lots of help from my wife!)
Some local honey sourdough spelt loaves for the shops..
Some of the 50 table breads I made - also made 8 large sourdoughs and some big rye loaves to go with them on the table baskets...
A typical basket that was on each table.
In addition there were 350 small pastys, salads, cheeses, etc. for a big buffet spread for about 150 people....
That's about half the spread...
Glad I don't do these every weekend!!!
-Gordon
That is a lot of baking and it all looks fabulous! I wish I was close enough to taste some, especially the pastys.
All gorgeous and such an enormous amount of planning and hard work. Bravo! (and thumbs up to the helpful wife!)
Bravo. Could not be more impressive! As I recall, you work your business out of a basement type of set-up. But still work your "normal" job in IT. Now that you had already also professed admiration for the bakery across from the train station in that nearby upscale town (exact towns and locations escape me now - but I do pay attention to such things!). Is your eventual goal to be able the chuck (USA slang for discard) the consulting IT job for a full time gig as a baker? Your output is always so impressive given the limited workshop that we've seen on TFL. You seem to be quite thoughtful and cautious about this "side business", so I'd assume that you will know what you would be getting yourself into. Your thoughts please.
alan
OK, so it's up a flight of stairs rather than down, but hey... :-)
There are 2 nearby artisan/craft bakers - one 2-3 miles away - she runs a lovely little shop - does the proper old bakery thing - up at 3am to start the doughs, etc. opens the shop at 8am, closes when she runs out of bread... The other one near - about 4 miles the other way is based on a small industrial estate and a bit bigger and supply some of the bigger outlets in addition to running their own little retail outlet and cafe. Both great places. Neither particularly near a railway station though - there is a local preserved railway station & steam train line 10 minutes walk from me though.
I fit in-between - I don't have a shop-front, but supply to local community shops - either daily or just once a week (or 3 times in one case) as well as providing them with cakes and other bakes - we're trialling pizza slices in one for example. I'm making about 150 loaves a week right now - mostly sourdoughs, but a few yeasted loaves which are also overnight fermented with a tiny fraction of organic dried yeast.
I worked out I could drop all the IT I do and go full-time in the bakery - however I don't want to. It's actually really hard work for the returns, so there is a balance to be struck. This year I over-stretched myself doing markets and it became too much - I was doing 3 Saturday ones and regular Tuesday and Friday ones - in addition to the wholesale stuff for shops. I also run bread making courses 2, sometimes 3 times a month. That was just too much. After next week, I'll be down to just one Saturday morning market a month (and I've just recently started a new little computer programming and hardware job which is quite exciting) but going to concentrate more on running courses next year than the markets. (I also do a lot of outdoor/bbq type cooking too and I've had interest in people wanting to learn how to make better use of their bbq's, smokers, etc.)
The bigger catering events like this wedding are rare - we limit ourselves to just 2 or maybe 3 a year - always people we know though. I do smaller events - e.g. afternoon teas for 30-40 people half a dozen time a year too - that's not as hard - just scones/jam and clotted cream (jam on top!) and cakes...
If I had a shop or cafe it would be very different - more profit margins on the (direct) sales of the goods, but also more overheads, however in-general it's a better return, but where I live isn't the place for what I'd want to do.
The limitation on breads I produce is more to do with the ovens than anything else. At home, I'm limited to single phase 230v electricity - I could get 3-phase, but it would cost me silly money - although supply rates might be cheaper in the long-run. If I wanted to expand - not sure what I'd do. I could get another Rofco B40, but the shape is somewhat odd - currently I bake 12 large loaves in the Rofco and 12 small loaves in the Lincat at the same time. A Rofco can bake 18 small loaves, so replacing the Lincat with a Rofco might seem like the next thing to do - they're both 3KW devices - however there is the space issue. It would require some re-engineering of the bakehouse. Not out of the question, however not this year either!
So there you go - hope that helps!
Cheers,
-Gordon
After a bunch of searches, I found the bakery I was referring to. Hart's Bakery in Bristol's Temple Meads Station. At least I thought it was you who initially mentioned that. In June I spent a few weeks working at Varda's Bread Obsession bakery near Boston. I don't know about her oven, which is "sizable", but her mixer is a 3 phase. She has a 1 to 3 phase converter situated between the power outlet and her mixer, and runs it when the mixer is used.
I'd bet that most bakeries which don't have an endless stream of clientele for bread and/or commercial accounts must rely on their own "cafe" and lunch counter as the profit center of the business. Long hours and no holiday time off for yourself unless you can staff up and have faith and trust in them to carry on as you would. It is a tough business, and I'd guess that one never wants to place themselves voluntarily in their own business where the fun stops and the grind begins at some point.
Ah yes, Hart's bakery. Good place. Visited it once too. That's my idea of a cafe type place I'd like to run. Sadly where I live there just isn't the people to make it work.
As for power - sure, I could get a 3ph oven and use a phase converter, but I still need the power in the first place. So most UK domestic supplies can go up to 100 amps (at 230v, although most houses now have 60 or 80A fuses), so an 18KW oven will need an 80 amp supply... That doesn't leave a lot left over for the rest of the house.. Some ovens can be converted to run on single phase though - but the same power issues are there. Ye canny change the laws o' physics and all that ...
I think I'm happy with the balance I have right now though. I can put a little over 40 loaves through the ovens in the morning by getting up at 5am which is more than enough for me right now. My record was 66 loaves though - I had to get up at 4am for that )-: Almost like a real baker ;-)
-Gordon
You're living my dream!!
Great job, i'm sure everything tasted excellent.
Ru