Fruit and nut leaven loaf

Loved the sound of this one. A 'Bread Matters' recipe - I've bought the book I liked it so much! Soaking the dried fruits and nuts and making a 'production leaven', both left overnight, meant that I could get the loaf started at 7.30am on getting up for the day.

One slight hitch was the the batteries on my scales died just before making this... So my measurements were based on guess-timates rather than accurate figures!

So it's basically a white sourdough but not very sour at all - I wonder if that's down to the production leaven stage?? - but with added prunes, figs and dates, and brazil nuts, cashew nuts and hazelnuts.YUM!!!

Fruit and nut leaven loaf



Probably not one I would want to eat every day, or even every week but gorgeous with cheese, or just toasted with butter. A favourite already!

Looked impressive when sliced!

Yummmm!!

Golspie loaf

A Dan Lepard (Handmade Loaf) recipe, using rye starter, some fresh yeast, and wholemeal flour, this was quick and easy to do - only 20 seconds of kneading!!

After an initial rise of 1hr the loaf is shaped and rolled out to be placed in a 20cm round tin (oiled and dusted with oatmeal - or in my case oat bran, as that was all I had!). Once doubled in size, or near enough, it was baked for 45mins.

This is the result....

Golspie loaf

Really like this loaf! I can taste the rye, it's not overly tangy, and the oat bran crust gives it a lovely texture.

River Cottage spelt sourdough

This weekends loaf was another River Cottage offering.... this time a spelt sourdough, made with my wheat starter, and with the addition of hemp seeds. As other R.C. sourdoughs, this one uses the sponge method - v active by morning!!

A nice loaf: fairly open texture, nutty taste, good tangy flavour. Not my favourite though - I definitely preferred the Cromarty cob or the mill loaf, rye/white/wholemeal mix.... maybe I'm just getting fussy!!! Will be interesting to try "Bread Matters" version of this loaf, which uses a spelt starter too.

Cromarty cob (from "Bread Matters")

Having had a good read of Andrew Whitley's "Bread Matters" book, I was ready to try one of his sourdoughs. Liked the sound of Cromary cob, which uses a rye starter but sticks to conventional white and wholemeal wheat flour (in a 50:50 mix).

It's an interesting technique, making what he calls a "production leaven" (which he advises to leave overnight for the wheat starters, but for just 4 hours with a more vigorous rye!). After this, the other "dough" ingredients are combined and kneaded util they show "good signs of development". Then the leaven (which is like a dough itself) is added, and the whole lot is kneaded for a few more minutes. It's a sticky dough and I had to keep wetting my hands to stop myself getting covered. Then it's advised that you leave the dough on an area of water on the worktop and cover it with an upturned bowl.

This shows the dough immediately after covering. As it developed it spread outwards considerably, and I could see bubbles under the surface as the yeast grew. I left it for 1hour. Then, with wet hands I was instructed to fold it and stretch it back on itself 4 times to "thin the gluten membrane by stretching it". This pile of dough was then rolled in wholemeal flour and left for it's final rise on a board with a rucked up, flour-covered, tea towel (in lieu of a proving basket), for 5 hours.

It felt very very soft, and was tricky to handle... so I just picked it up with both hands and carefully formed it back into more of a ball shape, before getting it onto the preheated baking tray, spraying and slashing it.

Cromarty cob

Sliced cob

I think the wettness of this dough definitely lended itself to the production of great air pockets! A lovely texture. I liked the 50:50 combination of white and wholemeal, couldn't taste the rye (only 5%, so not surpising!). Interesting to try a different technique with the folding. Could maybe try leaving it for another prove before baking to see if that added even more air.

Overall though, a lovely loaf!

Rolled oat & apple

A Dan Lepard recipe taken from The Handmade Loaf, this one combines rolled oats (soaked briefly in a small amount of boiling water) with a fairly substantial amount of peeled and grated apple (200g of apple to only 250g of flour!). The rising agent used here is white leaven and 3/4 tsp of fresh yeast.

Rolled oat and apple

Yum!!

It's a simple recipe that, again, doesn't require much kneading. I like the lightness of the white flour, but I'd love to try this loaf out with 50% wholemeal just to see how it differs. It has a v subtle apple flavour... V moreish!! Next time I'll make a double batch as it was just too small!

Seeded rye loaf

Used a tablespoon of "Boris" (who's been relegated to the fridge while we had a long weekend away!) and made up my new rye starter. It was v quick to activate, so I was able to use it after 3 days.

Recipe from "Bread Matters" - if the last loaf was "low maintenance", this loaf is "NO maintenance"! Litererally chuck the ingredients together and leave it to prove. No kneading at all. Rye is a very low gluten flour so doesn't need any kneading :-)

It didn't rise much (unsurprisingly) BUT it is a lovely loaf! Not as heavy as I'd have thought, and defineitly nicer than any 100% rye I've bought before. I loved the addition of seeds through the bread. I'd like this sliced v thinly with some smoked salmon or maybe toasted with a poached egg on top.

Wheatgerm loaf (with fresh yeast)

Another fresh yeast loaf, this one needed quite a bit of preparation. Wheatgerm toasted and wheatgrains simmered, while I prepped the water, orange juice, honey and flour. The advantage of this loaf, though, is that it needs virtually no kneading! Just 10 seconds, rest for 5 minutes, knead for 10 seconds, rest for 5 minutes, knead for 10 seconds and rest for a final 10 minutes. Then shape and leave in the tin to rise (final prove). The reason for this is that kneading and rising for extended periods will lead to the bran tearing the gluten (apparently!) - wholemeal flour plus wheatgerm doesn't give enough stretch to cope with the 'normal' breadmaking process. So I learned that wholewheat flours should be treated as if they contain less gluten, which means handling the dough less and giving it a shorter initial rise.

The photo below shows my loaf ready for it's final prove - which only took an hour (including the time to cook the wholewheat grains)...

ready for final prove

Final prove was meant to take 1.5hrs but after that time the loaf seemed to have risen v little... Hmmm... Well, again, oven-spring did the trick!!!

wheatgerm loaf

A lovely loaf! Couldn't taste the orange juice, but it was slightly sweet thanks to the honey, and had a nice dense crumb.. but definitely NOT a "brick" :-)

River Cottage rye & wholemeal sourdough

Learnt my lesson from the last time I made a RC sourdough and added a little more water. Maybe not quite enough, as it happens, but it was definitely a more open crumb than last time! More rye than Dan Lepard's mill loaf, this had 22.5% rye, 22.5% wholemeal, and 55% white. A darker mix, but still enough white to let it rise.

Here's a shot of it after kneading... nice and stretchy!

gluten stretched after kneading

Puzzled by the lack of rise on the final prove, but it made up for that with its successful oven spring. I also used the smaller of my two ovens this time - the thermostat on the big oven is well and truly broken... So it has a fan function which I can't turn off. Regardless, this loaf didn't seem to suffer for it. Maybe the crust isn't quite as thick as previous batches, but still a nice loaf.

Tasty rye & wholemeal sourdough!