Consistency
What really gets me excited about breadmaking these days is consistency:
I have those much-loved recipes that I keep making over and over again, and with the same ingredients, kit and techniques the results get better and better.
Do you have a similar experience?
The negative side of this: there is not much to post about.
Toast Bread and Pullman Bread from Jeffrey Hamelman's "Bread" have become a firm family favourite - here some toasted slices:
Apart from that, I keep making Vermont Sourdough and variations (Hamelman),
Bakery Challah (Inside The Jewish Bakery),
my Rice Sourdough,
Detmolder Rye Sourdough variations
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/23830/german-baking-day
etc.
For a wedding last week I supplied 4 Apricot Couronnes (Paul Hollywood, like here:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/35049/paul-hollywoods-apricot-couronne
),
3 Kg of Chocolate Brownies (Bo Friberg's recipe)
and about 100 gluten free Financiers (choco and natural). I used a standard recipe and substituted the wheat flour with ground Azuki beans. The batter tastes awful but the result is really great.
You see (those who remember me), I am keeping myself busy.
Finally, on Sunday we went out to Cuckmere Heaven to forage wild Damson plums and make some delicious jam to go with all my baking
Happy Baking,
Juergen
What about the croissants, you might wonder?
I make them about once a year, really not enough to get consistent results ...
I flooded my oven with butter, and during the second batch the oven fan died ....
Never mind, they are delicious.
is what I aim for too - and I'm baking breads 5 days a week, but yes, once you're consistent there's little to post about :-)
However this week I've had 2 major changes - a new oven and flour from a new mill (well, the mill is in the domesday book, so it's not new, but new to me as it were!)
So almost, but not quite back to square one.
The flour is from Cann Mill - (Stoates). It's stoneground and sifted rather than roller mill separated. The down-side is that it's not quite white, but a sort of beige colour. The upside is that it doesn't have/need the statutory stuff added into it due to the presence of the wheat germ - which is what's making it darker. It seems to need a little more water.
New oven is a Rofco B40. The bottom stone is hotter than the others. I scorched a few loaves this morning )-:
But it'll all settle in again soon, I hope!
One thing I did learn about making croissants - if the butter comes out, it's almost certainly because they were under proved. Let them prove a bit longer next time. I'm only making them once a month or so right now and mine take about 3 hours to fully prove.
Happy baking!
-Gordon
Hi Gordon,
Thanks for replying.
Your "new" flour looks very interesting - I will order some.
And the oven sounds quite exciting.
The croissants have gone, and I am being urged to make more. Some chance for consistency there.
Juergen
PS. Your website looks great.
14 months ago I retired and have been so extremely busy I have had almost no time for baking or posting here. I think I've only made 3 loaves in the last year. However, I am now in my new home surrounded by boxes with no more deadlines looming and the first thing I did was to wake up my starters. They have been allowed to sleep a lot but they have been maintained, come hell or high water, wherever I was. I think my kefir and homegrown yogurts have been instrumental in maintaining my health and sanity. So now I will start working on getting some baking consistency again!
Jeurgen, what are financiers? I can find pictures and they look like a muffin. Are they dense or fluffy? I would think using azuki beans would produce a rather fudgy consistency. Did they shrink or get a bit chewy the next day? Curious.
The Courrone link is LOVELY! I will put it on my list immediately.
Take a look at the recent post on "Olive Oil Laminated Dough" http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/43303/flaky-olive-oil-laminated-pastry . It looks intriguing and another bake to put on my list.
I can't wait to dig out my mill and grain. I have some homemade red gooseberry jelly that I had on sourdough (discarded starter) pancakes this morning. Yum. The pancakes were made with AP flour but were still quite delicious with the fermented flavor of the dough. I can't wait to get some jelly on a homemade WW slice.
All my starters woke up quite nicely- some were jumping out of the jars for joy. I usually have 2 jars but I "lived" in 3 different locations and kept some at each location as backups in case of failure. Now they are all in 1 location so I have 6 jars of starter!
Lovely post. Thank you!
Hi Clazar,
Thank you for your comments. Best of luck with your sourdough pets! (I've got 4 in the fridge ...)
The olive oil pastry looks very intriguing, thanks for pointing me to that.
Financiers are very light, due to the huge amount of (unbeaten) egg white. More like little cakes. The amount of flour that goes in is very small and, I think, just adds a bit of glue. The azuki beans work very well, and don't change the texture too much - maybe a bit looser than with wheat. I also tried rice flour. It works, but for some reason the financiers stick to the moulds like hell.
I won't repeat the recipe here, but I like Christophe Felder's creations
http://www.christophe-felder.com/recettes/rech.php?act=rech&libelle=26&cle=%20&fiche=94
http://poppycuisine.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/petits-financiers-de-christophe-felder.html
You can make chocolate-flavoured financiers by just adding melted chocolate to the batter.
Happy Baking,
Juergen
Am still relatively new to bread baking, and am finding that consistency can either be a good or a bad thing. Some recipes I seem to nail early doors and get good, repeatable results every time, while others are consistently problematic. Well, my problems with those recipes are consistent, so at least I know what I need to work on more.
Know what you mean about learning how to use an oven, Gordon. Recently fitted a replacement element to mine and also found out while doing it that the thermocouple had been put back wrongly the previous time - and it's like having a completely new oven. Everything I'd learnt about its old peculiarities have gone right out of the window...
Juergen, I so have to make that apricot couronne - I just adore apricots... It'll be just the thing to use some of my home made apricot jam for, have had an absolute monster crop this year and consequently lots of jam!
Hi Reynard,
Your bakes look great!
I would encourage you to make the couronne - the dough is easy, and of a consistency that makes shaping really fun - no sickyness.
There is no sugar in the dough, all sweetness comes from the fillings, and I think this just creates a wonderful balance.
Growing Apricots in Britain!? Sounds as if you live in a lovely shielded spot.
On the South Coast it might be a bit blowy...
As for the consistent problems - they are the best helpers to improve things - try to change one parameter at a time.
Happy Baking,
Juergen
For the compliments, Juergen :-) There are only crumbs left now. And I appreciate the advice too. The couronne is definitely on the agenda.
Yes, I have two apricot trees (which my mum grew from pips). They're up against a south-west facing wall and sheltered by other trees. I'm in east Cambridgeshire, which is somewhat further north than ideal, but unless we get a late frost, I usually tend to get a reasonable crop. But this year I've had so many I've been giving them away as well as making jam, chutney and butter - I normally don't have enough to give away...
Love your Couronne pics from a couple of years ago, Juergen. I think it looks better than Paul Hollywood's! I'm definitely going to try this.
For others who wish to have a couronne-ation, Paul Hollywood demonstrates it in the Great British Bake Off season 5 masterclass 3 episode, viewable on Youtube.
Thanks a lot, Les,
I shape the couronne in a slightly different way - I twist the strands so that the cut side points upwards - as in a Russian Braid. Paul Hollywood's suggestion is to keep the cut sides of the strands facing each other while twisting.
Juergen
She says she wants to bake a different bread every week and have them come out perfectly every time. She claims they would too if her baking master wasn't a complete doofus:-)
Love those croissants and wish i could eat them more often too.
Well done and happy baking Juergen
Hi dabrownman,
I see Lucy has her expectations ...
When my son saw the butter block he said "Now I understand why you don't butter your croissants..."
Happy Baking,
Juergen
you have there and the croissants are looking very, very tempting.
Hi Frugal,
Your breads look very impressive!
Thanks,
Juergen
Seeing all these pictures, especially of the Couronne, is making me want to try baking them! I don't have the time to do them though! I just found this website today and while it's going to be a great source of information and tips, I'm afraid it's going to be a major temptation too lol.
Greatjob!