No loaves but still busy!

New books in my life this last fornight include Andrew Whitley's " Bread Matters" (more of a bread "bible", it's evangelical about the homemade loaf!) and an earlier Dan Lepard book called "Baking with Passion". Watch this space....

So no loaves in the last week or so BUT that doesn't mean I've been idle... continuing to experiment with all things bread-related!

Naan - I have never made a decent naan bread. I did try once but it ended up being more like a thick bread-like pancake.. hmm... however, a couple of weekends ago I found a great recipe on BBC Good Food's website (a favourite of mine for all sorts of recipes) and gave it a go. Yum! Just made the plain ones and, although I forgot to add salt, I think with the addition of salt and maybe some crushed garlic in with the butter, they would be prefect! A definite success!

Pizza - I have made my own pizza base for years.. sometimes "authentic" white, mostly spelt, more recently spelt and chickpea flour (lovely and crispy!), but always with "quick" yeast. But the more I read about conventional yeasts (fresh, or otherwise), the more I'm convinced that sourdough is the way forward. Allowing thime for the natural yeasts to do their "thing" has got to be more natural and healthier. So, from this stand point I really want to master a sourdough pizza base - can it be done?? Can it really be as good as manufactured yeast??? So, half wholemeal spelt, half white flour, sourdough starter... and..... it worked really well! A bit "doughy" for our tastes, but I think rolled a bit thinner, minimum time for rising, and lined with baking paper and prebaked with some baking beans, this would be a great base!! Kids ate it without a grumble too, so it must have been OK!!!

Rolls - Took the R.C. malted grain and seed recipe I'd used a while back but formed into 13 rolls instead. Gorgeous!!!

Really, I may never buy another mass produced bread product ever again..........

Spelt and seed loaf

Another River Cottage loaf - this time with dried active yeast and also a couple of spoonfuls of sourdough starter, in an attempt to give it a bit of a 'lift'! The only spelt loaf I've made in the past was a bread maker 'offering' that was more use for building something than actually eating... Hmmm...

This loaf started off really well and looked great. R.C.'s Dan recommends a longer kneading time, and the use of proving baskets to support to loaf on its final rise. In the absence of such a basket I decided to use my silicon loaf tin. All going well... Then I tried to slash the loaf and, for whatever reason, this is when it all went wrong!!! The loaf was like a balloon that I stuck a pin into and just 'deflated'. Never did rise again:-( Tasty though! And definitely not as 'brick-like' as previous spelt efforts. I would make this again, but probably just stick with a conventional round loaf, and ditch the silicon tin!

White leaven loaf - 2nd time lucky!!

So this time I followed the "River Cottage" sponge method - the leaven, plus water, plus half the total flour (standing at room temperature overnight). In the morning I mixed the sponge with the other half of the flour and the salt. Needed for 15 minutes, and left to rest for an hour - repeated that 3 times. Then I shaped the dough and left it for the final prove on a floured tea towel....



final prove



So it's supposed to go in the oven after 4 hours, but I was a bit late with the school run, etc... anyway, it was more like 5 hours. Worked out fine though, and although I did forget to slash the top of the loaf, it rose well!! 10 minutes at 250degrees and 40 minutes at 200degrees....

tasty sourdough!



Ultimately, a really tasty, chewy, open crumb, sourdough. Really happy with this loaf. 

The sourdough mill loaf

So buoyed by the success of my wholemeal sourdough loaf, I thought I'd give Dan Lepard's recipes another go. Went for the "mill loaf", which uses a mix of 60% white, 30% wholemeal, and 10% rye flours. A nice mix.... Instead of Dan's method - which mixes all the ingredients together and then either gives you the choice of leaving it in the fridge overnight for a long slow initial rise, or out on the worktop for the first 10minutes - I decided to go for the River Cottage method. Daniel Stevens (R.C.'s "bread man") recommends a "sponge method", where you make a batter using the leaven, water and half the flour, and then leave it at room temperature overnight. This worked well for the wholemeal loaf.... but on reflection I think maybe the dough was a little "vigorous" for this... and then following Dan's method of short kneads and long rises meant that it was over-proved.. hmmm... not a bad loaf, in fact really tasty with a lovely flavour BUT I think I need to get it in the oven a little quicker next time. Follow one method, and stick to it - that's what todays loaf has taught me.... :-)

Mill loaf - tasty, but a bit shape-less!

Simple milk loaf.... with fresh yeast...

Dusted off Dan Lepard's "The Handmade Loaf" to try a recipe called "Simple Milk Loaf"... and it was simple! Very!

The exciting thing about this recipe, for me, is that it allowed me to use some fresh yeast (ordered off eBay - of course...!) for the first time - having bought a block of 100g and frozen the rest in 7g portions, wraped in clingfilm, leaving me just 7g to use this week.

My 7 year-old delighted in helping, and it was easy enough for her to get involved. The only thing I would say is that I don't feel the loaf got as high a rise as I was expecting it too... that may be that I didn't knead it well enough, or that I didn't use quite enough yeast... but I suspect it was due to the tin I used as Dan stipulates a smaller one than the 2lb tin I had to hand. I will definitely give this another go as it looks, and smells, AMAZING... slightly sweet (due to the Maple syrup, probably!) and rich, due to the milk... just the thing for a Sunday breakfast :-)

Simple milk loaf... yum!

SuperFast Thermapen 0-299.9°C, Red - BakeryBits - Artisan Bread Baking Equipment

SuperFast Thermapen 0-299.9°C, Red - BakeryBits - Artisan Bread Baking Equipment

So part of me feels that I should be an "intuitve" baker..... But the success of a loaf does seem to be a science (at least until I get a bit of practice in!). So this thermometer is definitely on the wish list!

Wholemeal sourdough!

So, refusing to be beaten by an Eastern European wild "man" (ie my sourdough starter by the name of Boris), I attempted my second sourdough loaf.

Using the River Cottage book - which seems MUCH more suited to the novice breadmaker (like me!!) - I followed the advice and made up a sponge mix (starter, water and flour) and left it out overnight. Funny... looks a LOT like the actual dough I made for the white leaven loaf (further suggesting to me that I went badly wrong somewhere with that one!!!!). If anything, once I'd added the rest of the flour required, it was a bit dry.. I added more water, but think now I could have added more. It didn't rise and become as "pillowy" as the instructions led me to believe it would. Anyway... this is the result....

sponge mix after spending the night left at room temp... looking good!!

Rising!!

So THAT's more like it :-)

Looks better but, on cutting it open, it is far too dense. I think this is due to the dough being too dry... needs to be much wetter to create the sort of "open crumb" texture of true sourdough. So I'm going to keep feeding "Boris" and have another go in a week or so.... the quest continues!!!