Just a few Croutons

With the onset of winter, although it has warmed up a bit this week, I feel the need to eat more soup.
 
A vital ingredient to complete the experience is the humble Crouton, but not the ones you can buy, I'm talking about the home made, larger than usual, crispy artisan type.

I made one extra spelt loaf on my Wednesday Oats order, and cut this into cubes about finger-tip size, and put them on two baking trays.

I liberally splashed them with my home made Blackberry Vinegar and some Olive Oil, then put them in a low oven for an hour, at about 140 degrees C, turning them a couple of times.

I turned the oven off but left them in till it had all cooled down, this crisped them up a treat. Right now they are in an airtight container in the fridge, but I dont think they'll be there for long.

By the way, they are also good with cheese, as an alternative to crackers.

Oh and when I said finger-tip, I meant just the bit from the tip to the first knuckle.

Saturday Project, Baked or Fried? Plus Fruit and Nut bread.

The days when I'm not baking for customers, I like to try something different. This saturday I had two projects that I wanted to try, one that I have been meaning to do for a while and one that I only found this week.

I had to start my prep on Friday, when I got my sourdough starter Hortense out of the fridge and woke her up. I fed her twice on friday and by saturday morning she was raring to go.

What I wanted to try was sourdough doughnuts, I had seen the recipe ages ago but never got round to it. I wanted to see if I could bake them, so I divided the dough and tried both ways.

 

 Oh and here's the Baked one looking sad......Healthy but sad.

As you can see, you can't bake this particular recipe, so fried it will have to be in future. I had a look inside one and it had puffed up perfectly,

Now I just need a thing to fill them with jam..



Now for Part 2

Here's the address of a superb website, and the place I found my next recipe.(Well spotted Yvonne!)

http://www.red-brolly.com/2014/10/summertime-bread/

I don't need to tell you all the details because its so well done over there but take it from me, and from Yvonne and from Norma our neighbour and from Phillip her husband (I think you get the idea) that the Bread is amazing, I made it in a springfrom tin in the end as it seemed a little loose for a freeform loaf but that was probably something I did (without my glasses on.
)

Ready for the second rise

Oven ready

The bread was really nice buttered.

F Bread and Ciabatta

Someone I know will not say Focaccia, I think they are worried that it may come out rude! So they call it F Bread.

What ever you call it, it's a great bread to have with soup, or pasta and sauce because its so absorbent, you can really clean the bowl with it.

For me that's the best part, giving the bowl a good wipe and not missing a drop. We don't do it in this country but go to Italy or Spain and you'll see restaurants full of people wiping the last of the sauce from their plates with a hunk of bread.

Anyhow, I made a focaccia with Wessex Mills 'Mediterranean' flour blend, it has all sorts of goodies mixed into the flour, Red Chopped Peppers, Kibbled Onions and Oregano.

I also add 20g of Coarse Semolina per 500g of flour, to give a crunch, and use 350ml warm water and 50ml Olive oil, along with the yeast and salt. Other than that it's a straight focaccia method.

As you can see it has a good open crumb, with interesting bits in it.

I found a new Ciabatta recipe on monday, with a very wet pre-ferment that you leave for 24 hours,

Mixed

24 Hours later.

 After adding the rest of the ingredients and proving, I shaped the loaves,

then baked,

They look like a success, guess I'll be adding the recipe to my file.

My next challenge is to make a sourdough doughnut, I'm hoping to be able to make a baked version, in an attempt to be slightly healthier (I can put more topping on a baked one without feeling guilty) maybe filled with home made jam. It's good to have a project.

Finally heres a picture of my bread bin, well stocked with Focaccia, Ciabatta and Sourdough Crumpets, that should keep us going over the next few days.

This weeks order

Meanwhile I have completed this weeks Organic bread order,



Ready to bake





White, Spelt and Rye



Teacakes

Soda Bread and Rolls

and I also made some crumpets (for me)



Inspiration

I read on my facebook feed that you could improve the flavour of bread by using the water from boiling potatoes or pasta in the recipe, instead of plain water. Apparently the starch in the water acts as a dough enhancer.
 
What a brilliant idea I thought, and so logical it makes you wonder why it isn't automatic. 

Although I already use this water for a gravy base, it gives me another thing to try. And as today is a bake for myself day, I decided to give it a go. I had just boiled the potatoes for our roast (Gammon since you ask) so I saved the water in the fridge, once it has cooled enough not to kill the yeast, I will make a Wholemeal loaf.

I use Organic Wholemeal flour and 70% hydration, so I needed 525ml of water for 750g of flour. This is just right for my 2lb loaf tins (too many units there!) but I'm sure you know what I mean. Anyhow, I mixed it up and left it to prove in my oven.

60 minutes later it had risen well,

so I shaped it and left it for a second rise, whilst the oven warmed up.

30 minutes later,

 

 

a cut across the top,

 

 

 

Then it went into the oven for 45 minutes.

 

 

 

Looks Nice! Now I just have to let it cool a bit before I can cut it.



Big Order Part 2

Here we go, at 0500 I started making the doughs, using the ferments from yesterday, they need to prove for an hour before shaping, as you can see they rise quite dramatically.

 

 

 

 

 Next up is the scaling and shaping. Each roll needs to be about the same size, so that they all cook evenly, I usually allow a 5g range for the weights, normally each piece I cut will be 1g under or over this range for a first attempt, you would think after two years I could get them all about the same, but I admit I can't. If its under I will tend to add 6g and have to take 1 off , and vice-versa. I did try increasing the range by 1g each side, but then I still found I was 1g under or over.

After shaping they rise for about 30 minutes,  then into the oven

for about 16 minutes. Then to cool and bag.

I actually made 130 rolls and was finished at 0930, time for coffee and a sit down, Oh but first I must wash up and clean the kitchen. Should be finished for 1200, just in time to deliver.

Big Order.

I've got the job of making the rolls for the buffet. Originally they wanted 100 but when I delivered the Seeded Panini on Tuesday, they asked for 120.

That's good news, but it means another ferment, as each batch makes 20 rolls. So now that's 6 batches to make and a juggling act to rise and shape them tomorrow.

Still part 1 has been completed, they now sit for 24 hours to develop a bit of flavour.

Heres some more pictures of the crumpets from yesterday,

Come back tomorrow and I'll tell you how I got on baking the rolls.

Sourdough Crumpets

As many of you will know, I have three sourdough starters,Spelt, Rye and Wholemeal. I bake Rye weekly for sale in Oats, that keeps the quantity under control as I feed it just before I bake. The others are not used as much, the demand varies and often I end up with a lot of starter.

It would be awful to waste it all, so I try and use up as much as I can. I make crackers, muffins and bread for myself (of course) and I'm always on the look-out for new ideas.

Anyway, I found a crumpet recipe online and tried it, to be honest it was awful, so I set to tweaking it (after all I had plenty of raw materials)

And here it is:

300g starter, separate it before refreshing, it doesn't have to be fresh and bubbling, mine was a mixture of Spelt and Wholemeal. It should be at about 100% hydration.

15g Sugar, I used Organic Granulated,

3g Salt,

3g Bicarbonate of Soda.

Method.

Heat a large, heavy based pan and get some oil ready to grease the crumpet rings

Mix everything in a large bowl, it will foam up when you add the Bicarb, which you should do last.

Oil the rings and put them in the dry pan, the oil will run off as it heats and help cook the base.

Spoon a small amount of mixture into each greased ring.

Cook for around 5 minutes until the edges start to set and shrink back, then remove the ring. Set it aside to cool then re-oil for the next batch.

Lift the crumpets and flip, cook the other side for about a minute.

Eat them hot or toast them later.