Blog posts

We haven’t talked about bread in a while, though I have been baking. Not as much as I would have liked, but I do have a couple of breads to tell you about.

Today is a lovely pain rustique that I’ve baked three times already and it’s just delicious, with a sweet perfumed crumb and a lovely caramelised crust. I think it’s one of our favourites, together with a white and semolina mix and a rye and caraway seeds one  . 

Traditions get all tied up with the way things used to be but they point to a better future too.  There aren’t too many traditions that are tied to bad things.  No one wants to celebrate them year after year.   Those we try to forget.  But, the good things we want to remember and renew.  St Paddy’s Day is such a tradition and everyone can be Irish one day a year, put on the green and look forward to a better future.

My plans to make green bread started before St Paddy's with me deciding to try and make bread in the artichoke shape I saw at the back of the Village Baker and then saw on video here: http://www.archivesaudiovisuelles.fr/FR/_video.asp?id=1690&ress=5424&video=120392&format=69#22065

the last bake was with raisins yeast water. it gave some super tasty loaves. trying my luck with some organic dried apricots this time, making yeast water. to my surprised it bubbles more and faster than the raisins. nice aroma and delicate sweetness. choices and supplies of flour is very limited. i only have bob's red mill graham flour on my shelve..hmm

steamed some japanese pumpkin and puree it. add 2 table spoon of maple syrup, 1 cup of toasted pumpkin seeds, 2 table spoon of pumpkin seeds oil.

The other day Pips posted a link to a video of Eric Kayser making his baguettes.  Thank you, Pips.  I very much enjoyed watching the video.

 I have made E.K. baguette monge, tweaking the formula given by our 'french connection' Janedo.  The hydration was changed and, some white whole wheat flour was used and it made some very nice baguettes.  

Wouldn't you know it......another year of clean living and the Irish Fairies stopped by to leave a St Patrick's Day surprise again this year!  Wish The Leprechauns would take notice and follow the Frairy's lead !  Used Rachel  Allen's lemon curd recipe and froze it for a year .......Fairies love lemon curd with some age on it.    The cake is a lemon sponge with cake flour.  I saw the Fairies tossing their dust on them before disappearing till next year.

I was messing around with Semolina Flour and tried to make a couple loaves. One is plain with Sesame Seeds on top, the other is with Lavender and Oat Bran on top. Next time I think I will make the dough a bit stiffer, it was quite slack.

Cheers,

Wingnut

Sláinte

Hi Everyone,

time for my second post! Unfortunately I don't have any "work-in-progress" photos of this one - the battery on my camera was flat when I made it and I couldn't find the charger. This is a 3 strand braid, filled brioche.

The brioche recipe is from Pierre Hermé's book "PH10". As you can see, it's very rich in butter (like nearly all his recipes). 

The brioche dough (500g) is as follows:

strong flour 176

sugar 26

We've been in Warszawa since Thursday.

It has been cold, but it is actually quite beautiful right now.