Blog posts

I had a go at baked yeast doughnuts that were not very good. The baguette here is from some dough left in the fridge on Sunday and baked Friday, it was not good. Today I thought I'd have a crack at a chocolate sponge roll using the recipe from my cake class I missed last Thursday. The roll didn't work out so I cut it in half and stacked it with some cream in the middle.

I've been making Sourdough breads for a couple months now from a culture I started myself with water and unbleached flour. The original inspiration and methodology came from OUTLAW COOK by John Thorne. There are two great bread chapters in the book: An Artisanal Loaf and One Loaf Three Ways. The former explores the mystery and delight of making bread from nature, the latter gives practical instruction.

This is just a draft; I have yet to try it. Using the amounts in brackets should theoretically make one loaf with approximately 70g fibre.

I started today with a generic sponge that I used to make my standard white loaf & baguette, flax seed plait and some choc-chip hot cross buns. I wasn't sure at first if it was going to work out today trying a sponge and bulk ferment. So no bread improver and less yeast than usual. I started mixing the sponge at 12:30 and the first loaf was into the oven at 4:00. Now that I'm using two cast iron trays on the bottom of the oven to which I add a tray of ice between them, I'm getting a very nice bloom. Despite the ugliness of the buns they were quite nice.

There's just something satisfying about eating a sandwich on bread you've made yourself. Soft, delicious bread. A sense of accomplishment. Anyone can go to the store and buy bread, and sometimes even more cheaply than I can make it for (I don't want to think about how much I spent in molasses on my last pumpernickel). It's funny, because not that long ago, it would have been completely commonplace to eat your own bread. We've become a society so dependent on having others do things for us. I'm a woodworker, and there's a similar satisfaction to working with tools you've made yourself.

Well, again. It's time to update my blog on what i've been up to.. :P A few days ago, i decided to try an italian chestnut flour i purchased some time ago. So i made a chestnut bread with 15% WW & rye. Here's it - Today,well...actually about an hour ago, we just had a lil green coloured indian crepe called 'Pesarattu', and fish curry (which was actually fish carcass...but still with quite an amount of meat & plenty filling).

Well I had ordered a sourdough started from the friends of Carl a while back and never got around to activating it. So I got a coupla containers over the weekend and activated it according to the book Classic Sourdough by Ed Wood,( 7pm) well it took off incredibly fast.....but there was a layer of hooch in the middle by morning. So around 9:30am I decided to wash it also according to the book, by 11am it had risen 1 1/2" and was still on the rise, we went away and when we returned home aroung 4 in the afternoon it had risen a good 2".

After many months of making french bread, I have finally achieved the results I have been striving for! Delicious open crumb,and crunchy crust. All my practice has finally paid off. For me, shaping has been one of my biggest weaknesses. Now hopeully I can achieve this again. WOOOHOOOO!!!!! =)

Monday... Tuesday... Wednesday... Thursday...

My Ciabatta (sung to the tune of "My Sharona")


Oooh my little crusty one, my crunchy one.
Making you was awf'ly fun, My Ciabatta!
Your crumb is my fav'rite one, my fav'rite one.
When you gonna be done, My Ciabatta!


Ready to munch, don't want to wait
for you to cool. Cooling on the rack, wire rack,
Time to eat. My my my i yi woo! M M M My Ciabatta...