XXVIII – Just to Prove…
….that I’m still baking!
The photos of some of the breads I’ve baked since Christmas.
These are three loaves I baked to take to my in-laws for Christmas and Boxing Day dinners. Nothing special, just a few selections from my regular loaves….to play safe.
Pain Rustique with Parmesan and Edamame (front – recipe link [1]) and my basic sourdough with Walnuts (back – recipe link [2])
My safest crowd-pleaser, cocoa flavoured sourdough with cranberry and walnut. (recipe link [3])
And some of the breads I've baked since January.....
Pain de ‘Suburb of Dijon’ with Mixed Levain (original recipe here, [4]but I used mixed levain of strong flour and WW flour for this loaf for more rustic flavour)
A variation of above but with reduced WW in the main dough ingredients.
The thing I wanted to show here, almost as much as the bread, is the wooden board the bread is sitting on is my new toy. [5] With generous size of 56cm x 46cm, it’s large enough for most of pastry/bread making work. Thoroughly recommend it to all UK home bakers! Period. (Note : you can get an almost identical one from John Lewis at L.60.-, if you’re desperate to over-spend money. :p)
And lastly, a few glimpse on my current, on-going experiment; an attempt to re-create Pain L’ancienne by a small artisan bakery, Earth Crust, who has a truly great stall with various breads and other baked goodies at the farmer’s market on Market Square in Cambridge town centre. It’s quite different from Pain L’ancienne by Peter Reinhart or Daniel Leader which looks like a rustic ancestor of baguette. It’s a large loaf which, I suppose, is very similar to Pain Rustique in appearance, but with more chewy texture with good bite and lots of large holes. It’s sourdough based and has good deep flavour.
Have experimented a few times, and I think the flavour is getting closer but can’t get the texture right!!!!
…….so the quest continues……