The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Looking for Recipe Suggestions...

Reynard's picture
Reynard

Looking for Recipe Suggestions...

My oven has finally been fixed, so I'm back to baking bread at last. But I'd really like to try something that's outside of my usual repertoire of basic white loaf, sour rye, pain de campagne, cinnamon-raisin-oatmeal and Karin's German feinbrot. Am wondering if you folks might be willing to suggest something.

The following list is what I have available to me:

Dried active yeast

White wheat sourdough starter (100% hydration)

Whole rye sourdough starter (100% hydration)

White bread flour

Wholemeal bread flour

Granary bread flour

Wholemeal rye flour

Light rye flour

Spelt flour

Rolled oats

Polenta

I also have all the usual doodads that one finds in a kitchen regarding herbs, spices, dried fruits (dates, raisins, cherries), dairy, eggs etc. Am willing to try something new, but please bear in mind that I'm pretty inexperienced...

Many thanks,

Witty.

pmccool's picture
pmccool

the Favorite Recipes sections on the TFL front page?  Those may give you some new (to you) breads to play with.

Paul

Reynard's picture
Reynard

But the problem is, it's like a box of chocolates. What to choose, what to choose... ;-)

It's where I found two of the recipes that have formed part of my repertoire, but I'm looking to gradually expand that as I gain more experience. Am thinking the rustic bread and the challah look particularly good. I grew up in London near a fabulous Polish / Jewish bakery and a great Italian deli - both are long gone, but the memory of the breads remain...

pmccool's picture
pmccool

How about a honey whole wheat bread?  That would let you play with different percentages of the whole wheat flour until you find one that you enjoy most.  They are usually a panned loaf, great for toast and sandwiches.  And if a little rye flour or molasses find their way into the mix, you've a new bread on your hands that's very tasty.

There are many permutations of the focaccia theme, in case you have a hankering for something more savory or herbal in flavor.  

So many possibilities...

Paul

Reynard's picture
Reynard

I'll definitely look up honey whole wheat, that sort of bread is right up my street. I reckon it'd marry well with some of my favourite cheeses...

Thanks for the suggestion Paul :-)

Witty.

Chriskey2015's picture
Chriskey2015

Nice one!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

to your list, you could make one of 10,000 breads maybe more!  If you have some various kinds: of rice, quinoa and add a few more grains like  Durum, amaranth, buckwheat etc you could bake Lucy's 15 Grain No More Than 30 Ingredient challenge bread of your choice!

Best to bake the one you think you will like and another one you think you think you won't just to see how your instincts fared you.

Happy baking 

Reynard's picture
Reynard

Funny you should mention buckwheat and seeds - my mum bought me a bag of buckwheat flour the other day, as well as a seed mix... I think she was trying to tell me something LOL... I might bake both a seeded loaf (mum's preference) and a fruited one at the weekend, as I'll be wanting bread by then.

Have to admit that Lucy's delectable breads are somewhat beyond my current skill level, but they give me something to aspire towards :-)

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

bread concoctions are beyond my skill level too but I don't let that stop me from giving them a go for health reasons,  Better than being bitten on the ankle and getting an infection :-)

Seeded loaves for your Mom sound delicious - lucky her!  I like to get some nuts in there with the fruit breads ...just to get some different texture of crunch with the sweet.

Lucy went real sour this week.... a simple sprouted white bread that has yogurt whey for the liquid with 15 weeks and 6 days of total retardation.  I'm already puckering up some:-)

Happy  baking 

Reynard's picture
Reynard

Better to toe the line, isn't it? ;-) Bites from the supervisors are owie.

I have a surfeit of eggs, butter and dried fruit after having made buns to feed 30 people tonight at a charity function, so an enriched brioche type dough will probably be one of the bakes of choice - would be a shame to let good ingredients go to waste. Am looking up recipes as I type. :-) That'll just be the ticket, toasted for breakfast.

Regarding using seeds and the like, am I making a correct assumption that it is better to soak them for a while prior to adding to a dough mix? And that I will need to up the hydration by a few percent to take into account the fluid take-up by the dry ingredients? I'm just planning on adapting one of my regular (and more consistent) recipes rather than trying something completely new - though I did make some bread recently that included pre-soaked oatmeal in the recipe, which I liked very much...

I'm actually tempted to try putting plain yoghurt in my bread. I already use yoghurt / sour cream / creme fraiche for cakes, so it seems like a fairly logical step.

Thanks for getting me thinking about the possibilities :-)

Reynard's picture
Reynard

Since I struggled to find a recipe that matched my skill level, both Poppy and Lexi suggested I experiment some instead. (About time, they both tell me.) So I'm using a wholewheat sourdough that I've successfully made several times as a starting point, and then tweaking it.

It has a levain that I build the night before, but I've also prepared a soaker with rolled oats, toasted seeds and some stoneground rye flour, which I'll then also add to the dough when I make it up in the morning.

Will definitely report back. And I'm hoping that I can produce something that will meet Lucy's approval as well as Poppy and Lexi's... Fingers and paws crossed...

Truth Serum's picture
Truth Serum

I cant wait to read about what you created. I am embarrassed that most of my bread  that I produce is not exactly a written down recipe. It starts with one but then I get distracted,  And I know I SHOULD.  But 90 % of the time it comes out fine and if it doesnt I make croutons.

 

Reynard's picture
Reynard

Was this:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/43383/buns-thirty-and-experiment

It was a very nice bread, but not quite what I was expecting. One I swapped with a friend for some of her lovely free range eggs, while the other, well my mum made off with most of it LOL. For my tastes it didn't have quite enough flavour as I tend to prefer the more robust ryes, but I'll be working on it as it's got real potential.

No need to be embarrassed - most of my cooking is fairly ad-lib ;-) For bread though, I do prefer a set recipe and method as there are so many variables to try and keep track of (I'm a relatively new bread - though not cake - baker), but I've gotten to the point where I feel confident enough to play around with things... :-)

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Basically if seeds or nuts are pre roasted, put them into the dough as they tend to burn on the crust.  Raw seeds work well on the outside crust.  Roasted give more flavour (sometimes too much) and raw add flavour with the bread is toasted.  I tend to soak them all just a little bit if not original in the dough formulae.  Harder seeds soak longer, soft seeds (bite them) shorter.   And don't forget about spices and herbs!  I pick out my marigolds after tasting the blossoms.  Have a nice tasty crop this year!  I think I will be drying some of them.  Nasturtiums too!  They have a wasabi flavour.

Don't forget to try roasting small amounts of flour, like the barley flour.  Any gluten in them will not add to the gluten matrix so careful with beginning amounts.  Keep the total under 30% of the total flour amount for starters.  

Reynard's picture
Reynard

I'll try toasting some flour... I've toasted seeds, but hadn't thought of flour.

If I use fruit in bread, I do soak that in Earl Grey tea, then use the soaking liquid to make the bread. That always gives a good flavour.

The nasturtiums sound interesting, but I can't grow them here - goodnes knows I've tried, but the soil is just too acidic :-(

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

so i invested in a bag of lime (kalk) pellets to spread out on the soil after removing all the moss.  The grass seeds loved it and so did the grass nearby.

Reynard's picture
Reynard

Mmmm, well living (and gardening) in the fens, an acid soil is a fact of life LOL... I think I'd need shares in a lime quarry to rectify the problem ;-) Some things grow wonderfully here, others, well... I have fabulous stone fruit (plums, cherries, apricots) and great gooseberries, but my pears, perennially, have the right qualities to be sold as military ammunition :-p

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

The kind that get peeled cut in half and cored with a melon ball thingy.  The peels can feed yeast water.  My first crop of nectarines came out peaches and they are lovely so I decided to keep the tree.   Hard to find free stones in this country.  

Reynard's picture
Reynard

I think if I tried that, I'd end up breaking the melon baller LOL... Took me a while to figure out why no one else around here had pear trees. Now I know...

Peaches, like apricots, make a lovely chutney when married with lots of onions, some sultanas, aromatic spices and a chilli or three :-)

Have seen some people on here talking about / using yeast water... It's something I'd like to try, but not sure my skill level would be up to it... yet...

Reynard's picture
Reynard

A spelt and oat bread recipe that I'm trying to develop from scratch. Am about to slice into the loaf (it's lunchtime here) and will report back later...