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This bread originally started out to be baguettes along the line of the one Ian (isand66) baked this last week only with the addition of SD to his YW only levain.

 I was going to do a Pierre Nury take, no slash, Rustic Light Rye approach to it where you just cut a 10” square proofed dough into (2) 5”x10” rectangles,  stretch the dough to 12”and just let it plop on the parchment - no slashing required and then right into the oven it goes.  But then, my wife needs sandwich bread too?

The SD /YW combo levain was under way when Pip’s (Phil) latest fabulous bread hid TFL.   I decided to change the dough flours around to match his 15 % of fresh milled whole grains even though we used a multigrain approach, since they were already ground earlier in the day, which was different than Phil’s spelt. Both Ian and Phil used 75% hydration so we went with that.   

We cut Phil’s recipe to 1,200 g from 3,600.   We also decided to use Phil’s method of 6 hour levain build, long autolyse (5-6 hours) holding back some water, 3 minutes French fold (I used French Slap and Folds thinking they might be the same thing and we like doing them), add in the salt and the rest of water and squeezing the dough through the fingers until it come back together, another 3 minutes of French slap and folds, and a 4 hour bulk rise with no touching – no stretch and folds.

We pre-shaped and shaped going into a basket for 2 hours of proof on the counter, then into the fridge for a 12 hour retard.  It came out of the fridge in the morning nicely risen for another hour of warm up before going into the steaming mini oven oven at 500 F, steaming for 12 minutes with oven turned down to 450 F after 2 minutes.

Since my levain was already 21% of the final dough weight instead of the 10% that Phil used, I decided to cut the 4 hour bulk ferment in half to 2 hours undisturbed and the final proof from 2 hours to 1 hour before going into the fridge.  The rest of Phil’s method was not modified other than we went with a boule instead of a batard and used Ian’s signature T-Rex scoring since we skipped his baggies but we will do them soon.

Somehow Pierre Nury’s cut and stretch Rustic Method was not incorporated and he deserves better than that so we will use it next time.  It is odd how things can change based on a really good bread posted on TFL – like Phil’s.  Mine won’t come out as nice as Phil’s but, just the thought that it might, is worth the doing. 

The scoring went well as my apprentice modified, (bent), our single side razor blade into a gentle curve like a lame blade.  The boule puffed itself up very well during the 12 minute steaming using a combination of (1) of Sylvia’s steaming cups and  our latest bake’ bottom broiler pan with ½ C of water,  covered with the vented top of the broiler pan where the parchment and bread bakes.

After the steam came out, we baked the bread at 400 F, convection this time, for an additional 16 minutes (28 minutes overall) turning the boule 90 degrees every 4 minutes.  When the center hit 205 F we turned off the oven, left the door ajar and allowed the boule to cool in the oven for an additional 12 minutes.  The temperature rose to 209 F while resting in the off mini oven.

The bread sprang so much it was little close to the top elements and got a little dark on the top but, no worries, it wasn’t burnt and should add a little extra yumminess to the crust.  The mini (and steam) provided its signature blisters to the crust.  It came out crunchy crisp and shattered and cracked where it got the hottest as it cooled.  The crust softened as it cooled to become chewy.

The bottom wasn’t as brown as usual.  This has to be due to the water in the lower half of the broiler pan that was less than an1” from the bread.  Even though the spring was great with blisters we will go back to either Sylvia’s steam alone or covering the bread with a stainless steel bowl which will also keep the top from browning too much and still give us dark brown bottom crust and blisters.

This is also the largest boule we can possibly put in the mini oven.  It stuck to steaming cup and the side of the broiler pan as it was.  We think a loaf that was 200 g less in size would be more prudent.

The crumb came out fairly open but nearly as much as Phil’s did.   This because he is such a fine baker and my apprentice is not.   Plus, we used YW and cut the counter development time by about 2 hours or so to take into account we used twice as much levain.

But the crumb was glossy, moist, airy and light like our recent YW.SD bakes have been.   We will follow Phil’s methods more closely next time.   The taste is very good  Just what my wife will like for her lunch sandwich bread.   

Alnwick Food Festival

22nd and 23rd September 2012

I spent much of last week baking and preparing myself for the challenges and opportunities opening up from this local food festival, now in its 8th year; http://www.alnwickfoodfestival.co.uk

All this began back in January when I first saw a tweet asking if anyone was interested in demonstrating/talking at the food festival.   I made immediate contact, and Karen, who co-ordinates the event came to see me later that week.   I contacted my colleague, Ann, from “Dough Works”; http://www.doughworks.co.uk  and she agreed to work with me in partnership for the event.   We prepared a presentation where I would talk and she would demonstrate, and we also agreed to share a stall to sell our bread and other baked lovelies over the weekend.   The stall was given to us free resulting from us agreeing to present; an excellent deal to me!

Last week I began baking in the sunshine at home and made some lovely Sourdough Seed Breads and Five Grain Levains, which looked like this:

After that I had a successful baking day with my friend Nigel, using his large wood-fired oven at his home in Ryton, near Newcastle.   On Friday, Nigel spent a second day baking, and I trundled into Alnwick to the Farmers’ Market.   The day began with lots of heavy showers, and ended up being a wash-out.   However, the sun came out later, and the weather became very settled, just in time for the big event at the weekend.

My parents had come to visit, and my Dad had put up some great shelves in the kitchen, greatly improving storage for my bakery ingredients.   However, it meant a few difficulties coping with loading up the car from the kitchen; it all came good in the end.

Over the two day event I sold all but 4 of the 200 loaves baked for the event by Nigel, and/or me; we also sold nearly all of the breads and other lovely treats which Ann made as well.   The sun shone, and there was some great food offered throughout the market square for the many visitors to enjoy.   When Alison and my parents arrived in town there was no parking to be found in the town centre; they had to park some way off and walk in; so it brought a lot of business into the town; much needed, of course!

Here are a couple of pictures of the stall, including one with Jean-Christophe Novelli, a Michelin-starred Chef in the UK, and the chief attraction of the event.   He did long demonstrations on both Saturday and Sunday, as well as preparing and serving a buffet in Alnwick Castle on the Saturday evening.

Our Saturday talk and demonstration went off very well; the firm which provided camera and pa systems were first class, and it was a pleasure to take to the stage and talk, aware that the audience of at least 200 people could easily hear everything I said, and were able to see clearly what Ann and I were upto on stage, and see the PowerPoint presentation summarising the aim of the session, and the key points I was pulling out.   Here are a few photos of the talk as it progressed.   There are more photographs on flickr, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24731237@N03/sets/72157631611934276/

There has been lots of favourable publicity from the event; loads of tweets going out, and good press coverage too.   Everyone has worked so hard; a particularly big thank you to Karen, but also to everyone else involved in any way, as the whole event was so well-organised.

I’m going to be absent from TFL throughout October.   Work on the Dissertation has not progressed how I had hoped, and so I need to “go to ground” if I am going to get it finished in time.   I’ll be back in November, and hoping to break into lots of new territory to drive my business forward…and hopefully spend my time baking lovely bread.

Meantime, all good wishes

Andy

Note: I had posted this on TFL's forum (Photos & Photography). However, I'm posting it again as a blog entry in case there are those of you who might be interested but missed my post.

A brief introduction: I'm a Canadian-born citizen now living in a small town called Siem Reap, Cambodia (Southeast Asia). I've been living in Cambodia for nearly 3 years and, believe it or not, I'm still adapting to Cambodia's culture despite that my parents are Cambodian. 

A week ago I had moved into a new apartment, but was forced to abandon my baking equipment, most notably my convection microwave oven. Reason being, the oven did not belong to me. I bake every Sunday, or at least I try to, but having no fridge, no stove, and no oven (not to mention no Internet and no TV), I couldn't possibly bake anything unless I built a clay oven from scratch (oh, how I wish that was so...)

So, to fill that unquenchable baking void, I decided to visit a number of bakeries and document my visits by taking a series of photographs. (I apologize in advance for my amateurish photography skills.)

I hope you enjoy! 

Zita

P.S. I will upload a few of my photos into this post to give you a sneak preview. :)

Day 3 - The last day of the Conference - as I arrived, was happy to be greeted by dew-kissed apples in the orchard,

and another beautiful, sunny breakfast :^)

 

There were also fresh, wood-fired bagels – my goodness, we were spoiled with all of the fresh, lovely food we were presented with!:
 

***

The morning passed quickly, being very absorbed in Scott Mangold’s class, “Test Baking with Local Wheats for Home and Bakery”. Scott is a very good teacher and gave very practical advice on the testing process, and conveyed his considerable level of skill and experience as he assessed locally-grown wheats, whose properties could be unknown or vary from season to season.

MC (farine-mc.com) has (so kindly!) written a detailed post about Scott's class, found here:
http://www.farine-mc.com/2012/09/scott-mangold-test-baking-with-local.html

Assessing rise and spread of doughs made with two different local, whole-wheat flours:
                              

The baked breads: I got to taste two of them – both were good, and but my favorite was the bread made with Red Russian wheat - I sure do hope I come across that variety of wheat someday, for baking ; its flavor was exquisite :^)

 
Four varieties of local wheats tested: Renan, Hedlin Farm's Bauermeister, Camas Red Fife, and Red Russian

A close-up of one of the loaves:

***

After the morning class, one last walk along the colorful path from the Sakuma  Auditorium; so many pretty flowers :^)
               

***

We were treated to another great meal, a lasagna lunch (yummy and from Patty Pan catering), before saying our good-byes or departing for tours that had been scheduled for the afternoon.

This year’s Kneading Conference West was, just like last year, great fun and a fantastic opportunity to get together with so many other generous people, interested in bread and grains, and willing to share their knowledge and experience; I sincerely hope this Conference continues as an annual event at WSU.
Many thanks to the hard-working organizers, instructors/presenters, volunteers and caterers for making it such an educational and enjoyable event to attend!

:^) breadsong

Previous posts: Kneading Conference 2012 - Day 1
                          Kneading Conference 2012 - Day 2