yozzause's blog

I am on a countdown now from leaving  paid employ , for the last 10 years or so i have been with Challenger Institute of Technology which is a Government training organisation formally known as Tafe which stands Tertiary and Further Education.

I have had a number of rolls at Challenger being a Purchasing Officer, a stint with Hospitality Section as the technician and back at supply currently as a Contracts Administrator and auditor of credit card spending.

Fellow TFL’rs will have seen the breads and read of my exploits being able to use the in house Bakery that the Hospitality section has  attached to its training Restaurant  as well as the classes for commercial cooks and apprentices. Sadly this will all come to an end on June 30th my last paid working day  after accepting a voluntary severance whereby i get 12 months pay not to go to work!!!

Anyway I was asked if I would do a full day of Professional Development with the 13 Chef Instructors as they had requested  a baking day. I didn’t need to be asked twice I lept at the chance, the date set and  I started to plan a day of interest for both them and my self.

Kick off was going to be 8.00am  I decided we would do a full sourdough 3:2:1   but needed to have quantities larger than i have previously done so that became 6:4:2 kgs Just over 12 kgs this was then stretched and folded over 3 hours and taken on the 4th and placed on couches.

Dough 2 was Baguttes using a poolish that I prepared the previous day before I went home  this was to be used for our lunch

Dough 3 was the Hokkaido milk dough (tangzhong) which was also scheduled for lunch as we were making into buns. We Had a slight hiccup here as we discovered that the salt was still on the counter after the mix was placed into a proving tub, it gave me a chance to ask them what they would do, general consensus was that they would try to add the salt, we discussed the pros and cons. My thoughts were that the dough would then be over mixed  the salt was likely not to fully dissipate and would show up as coloured spots on the buns which would likely be tough. My plan was that the dough was essentially a Pate Fermente and that if we cut it into 500g pieces and stuck it in the freezer it could be used  in the coming weeks in the rolls that they would be making for the Restaurant.   

The fact that we were using a pre prepared Pate Fermente later in the day in another dough would show them the advantages of that. So another dough was required and if was going to be ready for lunch it would now be made an Instant Hokkado milk Dough with the simple addition of Bread Improver.

Dough 4 was also an instant dough this being a very rich fruit dough  using Honey instead of sugar and 50% fruit this was to be turned into Cinnamon scrolls using both cinnamon and roasted nuts in the roll up. Again a large dough so that all could have a go

Dough 5 was to be Dereks Home brew stout  with Wholemeal a touch of Rye and Sprouted Rye Berries. The home brew wasn’t quite ready for drinking anyway but was able to get the restaurant bar man to provide a very worthy substitute in a boutique Raging Bull Dark Beer from Margaret River an area famed for West Australian wines and this week monster surf waves. And to cap this off it was destined for the wood fired oven which was also being demonstrated.   

Dough 6 was the panini olive oil bread from Hammelman, this was one that i thought might have great potential for use in the training restaurant  this was a smaller dough than all the others  and used the Pate Fermente i had prepared the day before 

Dough 7 Last but not least was a gluten free offering, i had been in contact with Lauke’s flour mills from South Australia and they had kindly donated some of their Gluten free, yeast free, dairy free, multi grain mix. We do get a number of patrons to the training restaurant that are gluten intolerant or vegans and it quite important to be able to offer a substitute to enhance their dining experience.

I shall revisit this story with more details of the doughs with pictures in part 2

It will probably be after my return from a cruise that i am taking on P&O Pacific Jewel from Fremantle up the West Australian Coast calling at Geraldton, Broome then up to Indonesia calling at Lombok, Bali and Komodo before retuning to Fremantle.

I know its a hard life but someone has to do it. 

Regards Derek

Hi folks i got around to a bake  this week after 7 weeks holiday, and also being the last week of students at the college, i suggested a loaf based on one that i had seen in The Bourke Street Bakery book, Theirs was roasted Potato and Rosemary, mine was a bit different in that i was going to use 1/3 wholemeal flour, i was also going to use a biga,

i needed to make a 2kg biga, so quickly worked out the quantities of wholemeal flour that i would require and the water to have 2kgs this was simply 100% flour 65% water = 165%  2000g divided by 165 =12.12

Flour is then 1212 grams water 788g to this i added just 0.025% dry yeast 3.5g  that is 1/4% i also decided to add the fresh chopped rosemary 12 gramsto allow the flavour to eminate. This dough was mixed well and set aside for the next day, it has a small amount of yeast so that it ferments very slowly especially if it goes in the cool room for a period of time. As it was, there was a bit of an accident in the fact that someone failed to close the cool room door properly overnight so the temperature was not as cold as it should have been, and when i went to use it i thought that it looked well past its prime. and the confession of the coolroom was offered

Not to worry i was going to use it anyway.

The biga was incorporated to the main dough consisting of 4000g flour 100g salt 100g butter 100g eggs(2) Yeast 80g water 2000 the next evening. i cover the Biga in very warm water to get its temperature just right you can massage it in the water to assist, and even use that water for the dough. the dough was mixed well  and then the 1kg of roasted potatoe cut into 20cm chunks  was hand folded through the dough and then set aside to bulk prove in a container.

As the kitchen was in use for the training restaurant and they were short of students for the  Christmas Buffet i made another dough for the 100 dinner rolls that were required for the patrons. This was an instant dough that required no bulk fermentation i made this a 50% wholemeal with eggs and butter  to make them a bit more tastier. by the time they had been processed  and into the proover the  main dough was now  ready   to be scaled  this was done @700g with 6 or so going into bannetons and the rest onto linen couches on ply boards.

The dinner rolls were then washed and seeded and baked off, The main loaves were then placed onto baking trays and the ones off the couches were washed with the cornflour wash and slashed, the bannetons were decanted and all went into the oven or not quite all. i had 4 loaves that wouldnt fit in and as the other oven had merringues and puddings being cooked i took them into another empty class room and placed them into a couple of the ovens there. Water vapour was used inthe main oven but not in the overflow as there is no facility for that.

I baked the loaves out reasonably well and placed them in a safe place so that they could be distributed in the morning to training cafe in Fremantle. The aroma from the Rosemary  was very pleasant and when i got home i was able to sample the wares  i knew that they were not going to disappoint.

All in all everyone liked them a great deal and my last slice made great toast

Kind regards Derek

Hi Folks just a couple of pics of this bread that was much admired at work today

The dough was 4kg flour

2 kg Biga (a previously made dough with no salt 2kgs flour 1400ml water 10g yeast set aside in a container in the cool room 36 HRS)

100g salt

100g eggs

120g yeast

2100ml water

1000g roast butternut pumpkin

1000g   brown rice and barley

This is mixed to a soft dough and toward the end of the mix the cooked rice and barley is added so as not to macerate the grains. the rice /barley was cooked the night before with the absorbtion method

This dough was then bulk fermented, mine had to be done in a hurry hence the yeast quantity, it felt great to handle and was weighed off at 650 g for bannetons 250 for sticks and enough for 56 x 50g dinner rolls for the restaurant.

They proved quite quickly and were baked off with the use of steam/ water injection  and baked quite nicely. bread was cooled and sent off to the west end of Fremantle outlet of Quinlans  to be used for lunch and a few saved for tasting here. so i was lucky to get just a few photos to show you!

Had great feedback from the testers   

 All done from 4.00am to starting work at 7.45am

Happy with that!

kind regards Derek

Funny how these things happen,  RobynNZ in a response to JCrising recommended the Bourke street bakery as a good Aussie bread book and i concur, In fact after thinking that i had loaned my copy and was not going to be getting it back, my wife unearthed it under some piles of papers and to celebrate its return i decided to use it for some breads that i was going to be making with a bread enthusiasts group that i formed at work from staff and students whereby we bake some interesting breads for use in a retail outlet/training centre down in the West end of Fremantle.

We quadrupled the white sourdough and then made two derivatives from that same dough, the spicy fruit loaf and the sprouted ryeberries with caraway.

The dough was made after regular work and the recipe was followed  below is a pictorial account   white sourdough to the fore and the sprouted rye to the rear

spicy fruit bread derivative from the white sourdough

 On wednesday morning whilst baking off the sourdoughs after 36 hours cold fermentation i put through a dough inspired by our friend Khalid with his experiments with a Biga recently.

on the Monday evening i made a dough with no salt and only 1/2% yeast and placed it in the coolroom  on the Wednesday morning i made a dough with 2 kg flour and 1 kg Biga this was going to be used for the dinner rolls in the restaurant with enough dough over for 3 loaves which went into the just vacated bannetons  this dough had a bulk fermentation time of almost 2 hours  and the bread was superb

  and here is how it looked once cut 

kind regards Derek

Hi Folks been a while since i last had a bit of a bake at work, i had been tending my culture regularly but just didnt get the time to do a batch.

But that changed i made a dough during the lunch break just the bog standard 3 flour: 2 water :1 sourdough culture, also being 3 kgs: 2kgs: 1 kg:

The dough was stretched and folded every hour 1.00 2.00 and 3.00 the dough was taken at 4,00 scaled pre shaped rested and then moulded placed on couches and into the cool room for overnight.

Next morning i got in @5.30 am and was going to process another dough for the restaurant/cafe whilst i was waiting for the sour dough to bake.

I got everything into the mixer including the water only to find that the mixer would not start,  i checked the micro switches, and still couldnt get it to go, i then tried to fire up the oven with the same result nothing happening.

I quickly looked up and saw that bug zapper was off too, a sure sign that the emergency stop had been tripped, i knew where the switch was but where is the reset key, i contemplated the early morning call to the Hospitality technician and decided to wait until 6.00 but kept looking and eventually found the key and got everything going.

 all above the sourdough the loaves scaled @500g the stcks at 300g, below the 100g  2% everyting (almost) dough these mini loaves were

served cut diagonally and served with a hearty soup, the restaurant cafe outlet is in the west end of Fremantle next to the University

of Notre Dame with customers being students and pensioners that know good value @ $7.50 and the serves are generous!

So there we have it  the Sour dough turned out well  and the 100g mini's that were destined to accompany a french onion soup  were looking good in the oven too this was a reasonably rich dough, one i call MY 2% Dough

In this case 2kgs of flour 2% salt 2% milk powder 2%butter 2% egg 2% yeast .0.5% dobrim 500 bread improver which allows this to be an instant dough, water was not measured i'm afraid in my haste to get things underway. From the mixer onto the bench scaled preshaped rested (whilst i put the sourdough into the oven, and then shaped onto flutes on trays and into the proover. 

All in all a nice little wake up starter before the real job, a quick shower to start behind a desk for 7.45.   

Kind regards Yozza

Hi  just an update  on a point raised by Varda and Janet to the sprouting of the malted rye grains that i obtained from a local (AUS) brew shop.

The Rye berries pictured have sprouted after 24 hours and exposed to the air for a further 12 hours. These were sold as Malted Rye but obiously  these are still viable, most likely just rolled through malt powder rather than the berries themselves having been processed for any malt content. Most malt is commercially from Barley grain where the berries are sprouted  and processed for the malt.

In my circumstance the malt was washed off in the soaking process, in brewing it would have become part of the wort. the water could have been saved and used or there maybe unmalted rye available at the brew shops. A point to remember is not to soak for to long as the grain can drown  agood soak and the exposure to air does the trick and perhaps a few quick dunks to stop drying out to fast.

As an Aviculturalist ( bird keeper ) we  had a problem at one time with seed coming in from Queensland  that  when soaked failed to sprout so wasnt viable, checks were made with the Agricultural department and we found that the seed had failed a sample test for weed seeds and was then irradiated which kills the  viability of all the seeds in the bag the alternative was for the company to return the seed to its origin. obviosly the cheaper alternative  was denaturing the grain, which is probably fine as long as you dont want to sprout it. 

Kind regards Derek  

Well its been a while since i had the time to bake,but when i visited the brew shop and was impressed with the different grains that were there for brewing i bought some malted rye grains from Germany something gave me a giddyup.

So the sour dough culture came out of the freezer where it has been hiding since the term break here at the Institute  and after a couple of feeds it was away. So i soaked the grain which succeeded in taking the malt off the outside  and after 24 hours i drained and allowed the grain to sprout after another 24 hours it was ready to go into a dough.

Wednesday morning i went into work a little earlier and made up the dough knowing there was a big class of apprentices  that i could get to do the stretch and folds for me on the hour and allow me to shape during my lunch break, which is what we did.

4 dough pieces were scaled at 650 grams and shaped and  into new bannettons  that i recently purchased and others at 600 grams onto couches on boards and into the cool room. The next day i came in early 5.30am to bake off the sour dough and as i was advised the class for that day was small  i made up a dough for the restaurant dinner rolls to help out  where 40 patrons were booked in for lunch. i might just as well as i was only waiting around anyway.

The dough i decided to make was a semolina dough  this was an instant dough  and i used 3% dry yeast that moved it along at a good speed so that iwas able to finish all the baking actiity to start work at my desk  for 7.45am  

Below is pictures of the Sourdough, unfortunately i did not get any pics of the semolina rolls but i have to say i was impressed with the lightness and tastiness  of these rolls, i was also fortunate to get an invite to lunch at the restaurant and saw the patrons enjoying the rolls.  

.  

 The sourdough was  3:2:1 with the addition of butter @2% salt @2% eggs 2%  and sprouted rye berries  dry weight 250g @ 8.3%.  

I will post the semolina dough formula if anyone is interested

kind regards Yozza

Between sips of the left over home brewed stout, the Haloumi cheese cbes and diced onions were folded into the Turmeric douh over  three intervals of stretch and bench rests before being shaped and dropped into foil containers that allows for easy transportation as they were to be baked on our own the next day.

With drinks drained very quickly from the plastc cups, Derek then got busy with a quick rise white bread with black sesame  which was  eventually shaped into  numerous shapes and sprinkled with not only black sesame but white sesame and poppy seeds.

Smelling of earthy fresh baked bread ,we returned to the hotel renewed with energy and hope.

Here's a BIG thanks to Derek for his generosity and kindness. But more importantly for showing that when it comes to sourdough , you cant'  seem to be over-the -hill - it takes little strength and effort and it can be one of the most forgiving breads to make.

 Happy with the evenings work

------------------------------------------

So there we have it  a great time was had by all, a pleasure to meet and bake with a fellow TFL BAKER.

After closing up i was able to give the ladies a lift to the city and their hotel offering a few suggestions of places worth visiting and a couple of bakeries worthy of a visit i suggested that we might meet up in Fremantle for a quick lunch  at the Old Shanghai food hall on the friday which we duly did, i was able to give Betsy the loaf of Haloumi and spring onion bread that she had no facilities for back at the hotel that i did at the Institute.

I also arranged to pick them up from the hotel after chack out on Saturday morning and took them down to my daughters rural property where we had morning tea followed by a trip up into the Darling Ranges to a vineyard  where i was hoping to see some wild Kangaroos but unfortunately seeing as it was so hot they were all hiding in shady spots. We returned to the daughters property in time for some lunch after which it was time to head off to the airport and say good bye.

I have already got my invite to KL which is just over 5 hours away and intend to renew our aquaintence in the near future.

I am submitting this article at the request of Betsy and Penelope  who were having trouble posting themselves.

Thankyou ladies and thanks for the book you presented me with too. Kindest regards Derek

Last year i had permission to hold a promotional class consisting of colleagues family and friends with the idea that fellow TFL member Ross (ROSS-N-ROLLER) would come along and do an article that we could submit to the local paper  prior to a November date for a class on Sour Dough.

Ross and his partner Janice  came along and we had a great evening together.

Ross's article follows 

                                                       Bred to Bake

i recently attended one of Derek Hughes' sourdough bread baking classes at Beaconsfield Challenger Institutes campus. There were 12 attendees in all, most with no bread-making experience. as a home baker of sourdough bread myself,i was struck by the depth of Derek's knowledge and his deft dough handling and shaping skills He was a pro baker for many years,and it shows .He even looks like a baker (see pic)

While Derek's retail bakery days are behind him,he has never stopped baking,enthusiastically passing on his knowledge to Hospitality students at the Institute, in between working on campus as a Supply Officer. He brings this same impassioned approach to his bread baking classes-It's infectious!

The classes take place over 3.5  jam-packed hours. Derek led us through sourdough breadmaking process:weighing and mixing the ingredients:stretching and folding the dough during fermentation;shaping and baking.

There is plenty of opportunity to get down and doughy,with Derek overseeing as mentor-and just as well,in the case of some devilishly naughty but easy to mangle cinnamon scrolls!

The highlight is the sampling the wares,which included a delicious black sesame seed sourdough Pre prepared by Derek  and baked during the class.

We were all given a dozen cinnamon scrolls to take home as well a dough fermented and shaped in class to be baked next day. This  night it was a delicious wholemeal sourdough featuring Derek,s home brew stout recipes are included.

a fun night well run,and outstanding value. ROSS ---------------------------------------------------

As the article didn't get a run in the local paper we had to cancel the proposed date, it was not long after this that i received an email from fellow TFL member Betsy Teo asking if i knew of any one that gave sourdough lessons as she would be visiting Perth and had hoped to book into a class with Yoke Mardewi of Wild Sourdough fame  who lives in Perth but alas was not holding any classes at that time. I said to her it was a pity as i was due to run a class but had to cancel due to no publicity.

Anyway i was able to gain permission to run another freeby for staff colleagues and friends and over seas visitor so emailed the details and to contact me when she got to Perth, which she duly did. i gave the details of where and when. and how to get there.

What follows is an account from Penelope, Betsy's daughter who accompanied her on this trip.    

Over the hill

Now that phrase can be rather misleading.

And this is something i had come to learn last November 2013 as i made my way by foot from the junction of South Tce and Sth St where the free blue cat bus service  had let me off (bus stand7) towards Challenger Institute of Technology.

Stopping every 500 metres or so , i was greeted with the same response ,"over the hill. to your right across the oval"

Well, what would have been helpful was if i had been told  that its a BIG hill - somehow the art of describing how strenuous and challenging the different hills one has to encounter on foot is something only the residents of San Francisco has it refined to the 'T'.

What's interesting is my mother has over the course of 5 years or so been trying to make the perfect San Francisco sourdough bread.

Having left the 'brick' stage some time back with the help of online forums,countless of hours spent on You Tube videos, and many.many guinea pigs  who has been or lived in San Francisco as testers the phase of inconsistent results of 'blisters','open crumbs' and 'ears '  continues to haunt her.

This resulted  first with amassing a collection of sourdough or levain publications  by the who's who  of baking, followed by stalking  self proclaimed  local artisan bakers, to eventually combing farmers markets of Europe and begging strange Swiss, Italian and French men covered in powdery white substances to Pilates professional moonlighting as organic artisan bakers for private lessons.

Almost giving up hope , a lovely Australian man  - Derek- responded to her email queries, agreeing to provide her with some lessons one fine day.

the respond was timely with a last minute  visit i had planned for  after receiving news of an old family friend who was terminally ill in Perth.

Needless to say our laborious hike up Sth Street was well worth the visit and the very fact that we  had travelled all the way from Kuala Lumpur gave us not only automatic access to the Challenger Institute of Technology premises after hours but an escorted  tour around by security personnel on duty.

Derek on first impression was unassuming  and friendly . While waiting  for the rest of the 'friends and family who would be joining the baking session that evening, i went about taking the roots off the spring onions  that were to be used latter, while he went about answering my mothers 'technical questions'

Betsy and Derek  

  With the party ensemble at the agreed upon time ,class started with Derk explaining the lesson  plan for the night and put a batch of flour , sourdough starter and other base ingredients  for a white bread with turmeric Haloumi cheese and spring onion sourdough: one of 3 breads that we would  make that evening into a larger mixing bowl.

Michael one of Challengers'  chefs adding cheese and spring onions into the last few folds

the dough pieces scaled off below

As the dough was getting a good work out in the industrial sized mixer , Derek  produced loaves  of risen 50%wholemeal  with Home brewed stout  and torrified wheat that he had made the previous day and went about describing the technique of slashing . Once we had all had our rounds of slashing 2 or 3 loaves each Derek went about preparing the loaves with a glaze before baking them.

Michael  the Hospitality Technician  prepares the loaves for washing slashing ready for the oven.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

We are experiencing some pretty hot weather here in the West at the moment but i did find time to bake.

I was impressed with the 36 hr baguettes that were featured recently on TFL, i retrieved my s/d culture from the deep freeze here at work and it proved to be a little sluggish to start with, taking 3 or 4 days  to come out of its christmas holidays slumber.

I did a half size of tx farmers dough and here are the results, still not as good as the others but quite acceptable and very tasty.

                                                        the single test loaf

                                                             the crumb shots.

I was able to trade half of the baguette with David the French chef just back from his holidays to Northern France for the sweet he made for the class of chefs from one of the big catering companies that provide catering to the mining companies operating in the gold and iron ore camps across the state.

David said the bread was as good as any he had back in the old country and we enjoyed the sweets back in our office!

That was a win win I reckon.

Hoping the weather cools soon.

kind regards Derek