I haven't been here in a while. Life has been busy..hectic..sometimes tiring..
But, I am not here to complain, but to tell you about the good things that happened:
I took a bread baking course at the E5 Bakehouse in London and loved it! That's why I went back and wrote an article about them for the amazing Bread Magazine - the August issue.
Well was if worth the extra effort?????? All that extra effort of chopping fresh chives and parsley?
No not really. The fresh chives and parsley did nothing to improve what was already a super tasting loaf. Let me hasten to add they did not detract from the flavour but nor did they add any distinctive nuance either. Maybe dried herbs would bring their flavour across but fresh did not cope with the process very well. So I have come to the conclusion that you can't fix something that is not broken, so leave it alone!
I started a dough last night that was somewhere between Ken Forkish's Poolish Pizza Dough and Peter Reinhart's Neo-Neopolitian Dough.
I made Peter Reinhart's Pain Au Levain, an overnight ferment, and then let the boules rise in the fridge all day.
Then, when they were on the peel ready to be placed in the oven, they slid off the peel and became totally flat!
I scooped up the sad deflated loaves and stuck them in the oven anyway, and here they are.
Kind of misshapen. :(
Made a few loaves of Sourdough with Sprouted Whole Wheat Flour again. One loaf the rolls were for a small Dinner Party with a few of my Wife's workmates.
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Jack o'lantern is made with arranged Fougasse dough (with mashed pumpkin)
Ghost is made with basic milk bread dough but with mashed purple yam,
(they came out very very fluffy!)
Everyone, have a happy halloween!
Teketeke Bread
teketeke got me going with my YW a couple of years ago and I have helped quite a few others, as she helped me, to get theirs going. Here is what I basically sent them but fixing all the spelling and grammar errors I could find. Hope this will help all who want give YW a shot – it is so worth having another child in the kitchen.
Well I got a successful yeast water culture going and it is bubbling and fizzing like a can of Vernor's ginger ale! A big shout out to dabrownman for pmi'ng me detailed instructions, followed to the tee. I baked this exactly as the last sd boule only using YW to build the levain. The dough felt immediately different -- more extensible and felt nearly fully developed after the second set of S&F's. Nice volume, nice open crumb and very mild flavour and great chew - almost too mild, so I guess I have come to appreciate the flavour profile of my sweet levain!
This is the same 675 AP and 125 WW Pain de Campagne I have been making. However, this dough had a different feel all together. Again, never throw out what could be a disaster. This was proofed in a regular bowl instead of my standard banneton. I am not used to a bowl I suppose. The dough was more stiff than usual and appeared a little lumpy. The proof looked weird. It did not have a nice rounded bump when I removed it from the fridge.
Last loaf of the day, haven't cut it to check the crumb, but will post pic when I do!
