Something New Part 2

Saturday morning, and I'm out of my comfort zone.

Now I can do a Sundried Tomato Focaccia, and even a Herb Ciabatta, but a Pesto Twist?
I made it up on the spur of the moment when asked for a third dipping bread, I didn't want a loaf like the least one,

so decided to go for a plait, but with a twist.

I separated my dough into three portions and stretched them a little,

then spread pesto,

and rolled them up,

and then plaited it and left it to prove.

After 25 minutes in the oven it looked like I had hoped.

I'm desperate to cut it and see what the inside looks like.

Meanwhile the Focaccia was turning out as dependable as ever,

and the Herb Ciabatta, well overnight the dough had risen and bubbled quite a bit,

I made the loaf,

and baked it,

So after all the excitement, I think that they turned out well. I will deliver them soon and wait for the reaction, but already on twitter the anticipation is building.

Trying Something New (Part 1)

Millie and Me are having a pop-up bar with all sorts of food this weekend,




and I have been tasked with providing the breads. But not any old breads, Oh No; Sundried Tomato and Olive Focaccia, Herb Ciabatta and a Pesto Twist no less.

I do love a challenge, good job really.

So for Saturday delivery, I'm starting on Friday morning with the ferments for the Ciabatta and the Pesto bread.

The Pesto Bread mix is a straightforward dough, with a slow rise to develop the flavour, and looks pretty normal in its bowl.

The herb Ciabatta meanwhile is a much wetter dough,

hard to see here but its almost half and half flour and water. So quite difficult to handle. After a rest in the bowl, I put it on my trusty board, where it ran all over the place.

I folded it for a while and returned it to rest, then repeated at intervals over 40 minutes, by the end it was getting a structure, now it can snooze till tomorrow.

Half way

After 4 folds.

The Focacia will be done from scratch in the morning.

More Fame (How much can I take?)

Thought that I'd copy this from facebook, more fame is coming my way, all I have to do now is bake the bread.

Millie and Me‎The Return of The Pink Banana Pop up Bar

10 hrs · Brixham ·

Looking forward to a great night on Saturday! As well as our usual menu we have some delicious sharing platters for you including:
Nachos, salsa, guacamole and melted cheese, Mezze with bruschetta, olives, hummus and Sun Blushed tomatoes and a special bread basket served with olive oil, balsamic and Pesto Oil.
Our fabulous baker Richard is preparing herbed ciabatta, olive and sundried tomato focaccia and a pesto twist! We're looking forward to that especially! Mmmm

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• 10 people like this

Blooming Customers.

I have a fairly regular weekly order now for Oats, 2 small and 1 large Rye Sourdough, 2 Olive Ciabatta, 2 Spelt Tin loaves, 10 White Rolls every other week and Teacakes weekly, all Organic.

So to deliver on Wednesday morning, I start my sourdough on Monday evening, to give the flavours time to develop.

Last week, the large sourdough didn't sell, so I was asked to drop it and just do the two small ones this time.

That was no problem, but just as I was finishing the washing up (and there is a lot) and preparing to have my dinner, I was messaged and asked to do the large one after all, someone had just ordered it.

Now that's good news, because it's another sale, and an order as well, and fortunately I had time to do it. I took some extra starter form the fridge, (good job I fed them this morning) and I'll give it an extra hour to wake up and work out what's happening, but it should be OK, I'll know in the morning.



A not very glam picture of a half asleep starter, with a few bubbles.

Its a good thing I'm flexible, and very nice to know that people like the Sourdough enough to order it.

Ebb and Flow

Looking back over the last year and a bit, since I formally started selling bread to businesses in the local area, its surprising how my orders have changed. Back at the beginning, I supplied Spelt and Rye Sourdough to Oats, and a few Cheese and Onion Rolls to the West Country Deli. Then Millie and Me came on board and products developed.

There have been times when I have done Soda Bread, and Spelt Panini, but they have faded from popularity over the months. As have the Cheese and Onion Rolls, although I still sell a lot of them in Gravesend.

The new products have had a mixed reception, some that I thought would be sure fire winners, like the Chocolate Bread, sank without a trace. Others have stayed, like the Curry Bun and the Marmite Bread. As well as bread, I've made crumpets, muffins and crackers, all of which seem to go down well.

And I have a few new customers, I sell Rye Sourdough to Polish people, (Who KNOW a bit about it) and a much larger range of Organic breads.

My Dairy free Teacakes have been commented about on Trip advisor, and I have had  mentions in several local food and lifestyle magazines. So all in all an eventful year.

Monday morning is Sourdough time, when my three starters have a meal and some TLC, ready for the weeks work, and I have a regular flour delivery once a month, which just keeps pace with orders.

I've worn out one mixer, and an oven, and had blisters from shaping rolls.(don't ask)

White Panini rolls for my latest customer, I'm waiting on feedback.

It makes me wonder, what will happen next year?

Experimental Breads.

Three new breads to try today, one success, one nearly and one that needs a little more thought.

Firstly, following the successful baking of the Pea Bread, I thought that I would use it in its logical place, a fish-finger sandwich. I think that for the Mark 2 version I will incorporate some whole peas, just to make the point.

It tasted pretty good as it was though.

Another of Yvonne's inspired ideas was the Chocolate and Marmalade loaf, I tried this with Wholemeal flour, in an attempt to be a bit healthy, but it only masked the flavours, again a little work is required to get the mix right. But it looked the part.

and the third idea I picked up from the Internet, Lentil and Turmeric sourdough, again the finished product, while very tasty needs a little work to get a better result.

 

I managed to sell the Curry bun in Gravesend and have orders for more next time , so that was a vindication of my idea.

 

Now it's back to the weekly orders today I start the Rye Sourdough for Oats, it will be ready on Wednesday.

 

I actually had a spare Rye Sourdough from last week, after making one to take to Gravesend, Yvonne polished most of it off while I was at work, but I managed to get a picture of the crumb, which I had never seen before.

 



Peas Please Me

Yvonne found an article in a health food giveaway magazine, suggesting breads made with  flax seeds and with peas. I was intrigued, especially when she suggested that it might be an idea to see what I could do with the concept.

As an aside, many years ago I was Third Mate on a refrigerated Cargo ship loading Frozen Peas in Sweden. They were in 30lb brown paper sacks on pallets, destined for Italy. Needless to say they featured heavily in our diet over the course of the voyage, surprisingly I still like them today, and even grow them.

After a bit of research, I found a recipe online for Green Pea bread,

http://kristygourmet.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/green-pea-bread-loaf.html

which uses Green Pea flour. I'd never seen that before, but on checking it out, the cost looked prohibitive for a commercial loaf. (£10 for just under a kilo)

I thought that maybe I could grind my own, using dried peas, but then considered using liquidised fresh peas, after all if you knew the water content you could work out the percentages, right?

So bright and early this morning, I set to work, however the peas proved stubborn and I had to get everything in the Kitchen dirty to achieve a puree. It took a bit of modifying to get a good dough, but after an hours proving it had risen beautifully, I'll give you the recipe details when I've tested the results, in case its not quite as good as it looks.

that's a 800g batch in a 4l bowl.

I knocked it back and put it in a loaf tin while the oven warmed up,

by the time the oven was up to temperature (220), it had risen again,

I gave it 25 minutes, with steam, then turned the heat down to 200 for 15 minutes more.

Looks innocent enough, wonder what its like inside?

As for eating some, well its very moist with a hint of Pea!

Ingredients,

300g Peas, liquidised,
440g  Strong White Flour,
230g Lukewarm Water,
10g Instant Yeast,
10g Salt.

Combine everything into a dough, knead for 4 minutes in a mixer or 10 by hand. Then proceed as usual for a standard loaf.

Yvonne thinks it would be nice with Boiled Eggs, any other suggestions welcomed.

Potato Bread

My sourdough experiment is progressing to the extent that I now have three starters, (Spelt, Rye and Wholemeal) and consequently that generates a lot of spare starter. Refreshing once a week means I have a good kilo of the stuff that would otherwise go to the food bin, which is clearly unacceptable.

I try to use it all up as I hate waste, but am getting to the point where I need a few volunteers to help me consume it. Meanwhile the recipes keep on coming, today its Potato Bread, but maybe not as you might think.
I'm not using Potato flour, or left over Mashed Potato, (That's an idea for later) but instead chunks of oven roasted tuber as a sprinkle in the dough.

So I chopped and roasted (in Olive Oil) about 125g of potato for 15 minutes and left it to cool. It doesn't need to fully cook, as it will bake in the bread, but just to get a colour and a soft edge.

meanwhile I refreshed my starter and left it to itself for 8 hours.

After that time it was raring to go,

I made the no-knead dough that I always do, adding the chunks of potato and mixing.

It bulk proved for 2 hours and I put it in the fridge overnight.

Next morning, I took it out at 5 and let it warm up a bit,

Then a couple of folds and it was ready to shape,

I left it to rise in the banneton for three hours, while heating the oven to maximum, with a Cast-Iron casserole and my steel sheet in.

I was going to cook one covered and one open, I wanted to see if they would come out radically different.

After they had stood for the three hours, in they went,

a bit of boiling water in the tray bottom left for steam and 30 minutes at 230 degrees.


After that time, I removed the steam tray, took the lid off the casserole and turned the temperature down to 200. As expected the loaf on the sheet was darker than the one in the pot,

but that should even out, both had risen roughly the same.

We're aiming for an internal temperature of around 93 degrees C (The gluten will be solidified at this temperature) and a thick crust. About 15 minutes is a guide but you need to keep an eye.

And here they are,

not much sign of potato, I'll have to be patient and let them cool a bit before I cut them.

Half an hour later,

Hmmm, not bad.