One for Me

I've been so busy making bread for everyone else, I haven't made any for me!

The 24 Ciabatta for Oats have been deivered, and the 30 for Millie have been started, but inbetween, I made a white Cob loaf, which I am about to enjoy for lunch.

Should be nice toasted with a little cheese.

More good news, West Country Deli have asked for a batch of Cheese and Onion Rolls next week, I popped in for a Coffee after delivering to Oats, the Coffee is superb, and they have a good selection of mainly local produce. A visit is recommended.

https://www.facebook.com/TheWestCountryDeli
   

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Shapeshifting

Don't panic, it's not part of my latest Sci-Fi novel, but a cunning plan to vary the shape of my Spelt loaves for Oats.

We have tried the Bloomer,

now we are onto the Split Tin,

 

 

so we'll have to see how that goes.

Spot the Soda Bread hiding in the background.

It's a busy week, I have 54 Ciabatta to do by Wednesday.

Samples Time!

Samples time, and already I've decided not to do the Potato Bread, I'm keeping it simple, 2 savoury and 2 sweet. And I might slip in a slice of Sourdough as well, just to show that I can.

So I started by making Millie's ferment for her weekly order, that's a nice feeling, to have regular orders, it gives me a base to work from.

Millie's Ferment

The Onion and Herb doughs are pretty basic, and I've done them many times, but the Chocolate is a more recent thing, I use Green and Blacks Cocoa and Cadbury Milk Chocolates in the mix. Here it is before mixing,

All done (except the biscuits) by 0800, so I've put the coffee on, theres a lot of waiting around in baking, and I find it difficult as I'm impatient, but now theres nothing I can do until 0900, then I'm shaping and proving, and probably stressing!

I will make the biscuits whilst the others are proving, and they can rest as the rolls are baking.

Having a small oven is no barrier to producing lots of baked goods, al you need to do is work out a plan, which makes everything in order and provides a stream of things ready to go in as the last one comes out. I also don't bother too much about the temperature in the oven, I just put it on max and use a timer, set to a couple of minutes less than the time I think it needs.

A temperature probe is also useful, and much better than a thermostat in the corner of the oven, if the breads are above 95 degrees C in the middle, then the gluten is set and the bread is done. The rest is just colouring.

So here are the doughs,

Cheese and Onion, ready to roll

Cheese and Onion, rolled

 


Cheese and Onion, cut

Focaccia

 

Choccie

It's now 1030 and the baking is complete, it all went smoothly, except the choc chips melted somewhat, but apart from that, the taste panel (Yvonne) reckons it's mission accomplished.

And here they are, in no particular order we have,

Focaccia

Cheese Roll

Another Cheese Roll



Biscuits



Close up Biscuit



Chocolate Roll



Up Close

Now it's just a case of getting them in the bag and taking them down, wish me luck.

Samples (Again)

Off we go again, this time with some samples for the new Deli shortly opening in Brixham.
It's always a struggle deciding what to do to best showcase your talents, but this time I think that I will do a selection of goodies similar to that which I took Millie.

I've decided on the following:-

American Biscuits,

Chocolate Rolls,

Potato and Olive Oil Bread,

Herb Focaccia,

and

Cheese and Onion Rolls

That should be a representative  selection, I prefer to do the smaller items , as they are easier to cook and present.
So as a prep, I have butter in the freezer (makes it easier to grate) and chocolate ready for the rolls. I need to make 5 lots of dough and cook potatoes in Olive Oil, that can be done whilst the oven is heating up, also grate cheese.

Getting it all organised, that presents a challenge in itself, but I have done it before, and I have a plan. Stay tuned for the pictures of how it all turns out, and wish me luck!

Spelt Bloomer 2

Well here they are, ready for delivery, 2 Spelt Bloomers,

along with the Soda Bread you can see lurking in the background. So if you want one, they will be at Oats in Brixham at 0915 today.

Next up is the 30 Ciabatta order for Millie on wednesday, and 2 Sourdough and a Focaccia for Gravesend on Thursday.

Spelt Bloomer

In response to a request from Oats, I'm doing a Spelt Bloomer for Monday (Tomorrow) so I though that I would have a practise today.

I started at 7am and was done by 9.15, and even with a minimal rise it looks good,

After a decent interval for cooling, I cut a slice,

Looks good enough to me.


What with all the testing and practise loaves I have done over the last few days, I'm breaded out!

But what a way to go.

Breakthrough.

Today is the start of a busy week for Well Bread, my usual order for Oats on Monday has been augmented by a new regular order for 30 Ciabatta rolls for Millie and Me,  and I have Sourdough and Focaccia to make ready for my trip to Gravesend on Thursday.

Fortunately, my tinkering with the sourdough appears to have paid dividends, my latest tweaks appear to have produced a good looking loaf, now if I can only refrain from dropping them on the floor as I take them out of the oven, we should be in business.

Here is the latest loaf, all Spelt, taking a total of 17 hours from start to finish.

And in anticipation of a busy week, my starter has been fed and is bubbling nicely.

Delivery, and a new flavour.

So I managed to get the 30 Ciabatta Rolls done for Millie, and delivered them safely.



Innocent looking bag, Hiding a secret!

I was told that only 2 remained from the sample batch that I took down on Tuesday, and that they had been well received.
The best news was that I now have a weekly order for 30 rolls, that will help the viability no end.

There is a new Deli opening in town soon, and I have dropped a card in, with the promise of a sampling session in a couple of weeks. I'm a bit busy, and looking in the shop yesterday so are they, so when it's all a bit quieter I will do some Chocolate Rolls, maybe Cheese and Onion spirals or a Focaccia and take them down.

It was suggested to me by Yvonne, after the Cherry and Vanilla Focaccia, that I try a Dried Apricot and Almond loaf, so I modified my white sandwich loaf (the one with Golden Syrup, Butter and Milk in) adding Almond Flour, chopped Apricots and Flaked Almonds. I also added a teaspoon of Vanilla Extract.

35 minutes in the oven and it came out looking a bit anonymous,

I'm now waiting for it to cool, so I can try it. ...............................................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................................

And here it is, the crumb is soft, with the fruit and nuts well scattered. I might try a dash of sugar in the next one, and maybe a tear-and-share format. Yvonne suggests it as a base for Bread and Butter Pudding.

Spot the Flaked Almond

The next idea is for a wholemeal loaf with Dates and Walnuts, keep checking back.

Incidentally, the spell-checker on Blogger changes Focaccia to Dogcatcher, and Ciabatta to Batty? Mind you Blogger comes up as Boggier.

Now it's almost time to start Oats Sourdough for Monday.

Success!

As I said last time, I was trying a new method for making my sourdough loaves, involving a slight modification to the proving times and baking method.

Well I tried a sample loaf last night/this morning, and it seems to have worked. A few little tweaks needed but I'm happy to try it for Oats delivery tomorrow. We'll see if they notice the difference.

Dough to Prove

Rising

Finished

 

I just need to cut it when its cool to check the crumb, but I broke a little bit of the crust off and it tasted fine. Patience was never my strong point, but I managed to last for 30 minutes, then I cracked.

Crumb looks fine

Of course having cut it, we had to butter the end and sample it, its a tough job but someone has too!

I also did the Onion seed Ciabatta for Millie, it's not as easy as I thought getting the seeds to stick evenly, but they do look rustic. The taste is the crucial bit of course, I'm just about to take them down for her comments.

See what I mean about the uneven seed distribution, I'm guessing that some will fall off when they bloom, and more in transit so they should be alright.

They came out looking a lot better, dropping them in to Millie also gives us the chance for a sample of the latest cake. More work, sometimes I love my job.

To Boldly Go

A bit of a leap of faith here, I am going to try a new way of making the Spelt Sourdough, based on a single attempt that I made to use up an excess of starter last week.
As you can see,

it seems to have come out alright, the moment of truth will be next Wednesday morning when I open the oven door!

In other news, I popped into Millie and Me yesterday, and sampled the excellent Banoffee pie,

and was given good feedback on the Italian evening.

I also blagged an order for a sample batch of Seeded Ciabatta for next week, as an alternative to their panini rolls. I will use Black Onion seeds as a topping.
Stay tuned for the results.