This past weekend, I was looking for a sourdough formula that sounded interesting and just couldn't find one that tickled my fancy. So, I decided to free-lance a formula of my own. I had about 320 grams of well-fed levain that I pulled out of the refrigerator before leaving for church on Sunday. On returning home, I found it to be warmed up and at peak expansion.
Daniel Leader's book, Local Breads, is simultaneously one of the most intriguing and most frustrating bread books. His breads are rooted in the baking traditions of several European countries, but rendered in ingredients and techniques that are generally accessible to home bakers in the United States. Many are utterly delicious and lovely to behold. But ... one has to recognize going in that a number of the formulae are riddled with errors, often in the quantity or proportion of the dough ingredients.
While it would be self-deception in the first degree to think that I have a lock on wheaten breads, I've been wanting to expand my repertoire to include breads with a high percentage of rye flour. I enjoy the flavor and have been very impressed by the breads produced by other TFL posters. So, I thought I'd try my hand with the Soulful German Farmhouse Rye from Daniel Leader's Local Breads. This bread has been profiled in other posts on TFL, so feel free to search out those entries, too.
My wife has been an instructor in some women's groups recently that have had, as one component, some instruction in cooking. She was a bit surprised to find just how much interest there was among the women who attended these sessions in learning more about cooking. For some, it was an opportunity to expand their repertoire with new recipes or techniques. For others, it was a chance to learn basic skills that they had not been taught previously.
I wanted to make a bread for a recent gathering of friends. My preference was for something sweet but not a sticky, gooey kind of sweet. After paging through a number of books, I came across a recipe in Beth Hensperger's The Bread Bible for a sweet vanilla challah that sounded like it would fit the bill. The recipe called for just 1/2 cup of sugar in a two-loaf batch of bread, so it wasn't excessively sweet. The flavor, though, was driven by 1-1/2 tablespoons of vanilla extract in the dough and another teaspoon of vanilla extract in the glaze.
We had invited friends for brunch the weekend after New Year's day and I had already decided to make zolablue's cinnamon rolls. It seemed, though, that something else would be good to have with the quiches that my wife was making; something not quite so sweet as the cinnamon rolls (which were fabulous, by the way). It occurred to me that a croissant's buttery, flaky lightness would be a perfect accompaniment for the richness of the quiche. There was one minor problem: I'd never made a croissant in my life.
Time to catch up a bit from the Christmas whirl. Last weekend, I baked Leader's pain au levain again, from his Local Breads. I keep coming back to this bread, because of it's lovely flavor. It is only mildly sour and the rye and whole wheat components add to the depth of flavor. Since temperatures in my kitchen were hovering in the 63-65F range, it also benefitted from a long, slow fermentation. Here is a picture of the finished loaves:
This weekend's baking included Bernard Claytons Pain Allemande aux Fruits. It's a marvelously fragrant bread, containing lemon zest, orange juice, anise seed, cinnamon, figs, raisins, apricots, prunes, almonds, hazelnuts, butter and other good things. I made a double batch, since I tend to make a mess in the process of getting everything prepped. Might as well have four loaves for my efforts as two, right? Plus, I can give some for gifts and still have some for myself.
