Last Bake of 2015

For my last bake of the year, I made some Sundried Tomato and Pesto rolls, a yeasted recipe with coarse semolina to add a bit of texture.

We had them for lunch with smoked salmon, 

After Shaping

After second prove

Baked

Texture

I also made a White Sourdough loaf, I actually started it last night, using 100g starter and 700g flour. It ended up at 75% hydration and was folded three times before overnight fermentation in the fridge.

I took it out at 6am and let it warm up.  At 8 I shaped it into a banneton.

At 10 I put the oven to warm with my Dutch Oven inside to heat up. At 11 I cooked the rolls at 200°C for 20 minutes then wound the oven temperature up to 300°C. (Max)

By 11:30 the dough was bubbling well,

I put it in for 30 minutes covered.

As you can see it rose well and was ready to be finished. Leaving the lid off I reduced the temperature to 230°C and gave it another 30 minutes.

Not too bad. Happy New Year to you all.

A Sad Day.

It’s a sad moment for me today, as I have to announce the closing of Well Bread! Bakery.

Unfortunately, events have led me to this place, a change in circumstances and the realisation that I can no longer reconcile baking with the other things that are happening in my life. I can’t commit to working from 5am to 9am every day and all day on Tuesday and Thursday anymore. (or any two days come to that) So it would not be possible to offer a regular and dependable supply of bread. 

Hence the decision has been made. My last commercial bake is on December 17/18^th although I will of course continue to bake for myself and my family. This blog will only now show the new breads I’m making for myself.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me over the last three years, I appreciate it.

Rolls and Teacakes and other specials

Oats are my major customer, I bake for them 3 times a week and they often ask me for something a bit different.

So I make Spelt Rolls for the cafe,

and all Vegan Teacakes as well,

not to mention my new product, the rather extravagantly named "Beer and Spelt Sourdough Battered Onion Ring."

Thatsw as well as the old favourites, Spelt Crumpets,

Sourdough Scones,

and Sourdough Digestive Biscuits.

I do have a regular order for a White Spelt Sourdough as well, this is a very nice loaf, without the Wholemeal part of the grain.

Too busy to blog

Its been a few busy days here at Well Bread! The big news is that I am now sole supplier to Oats of Brixham, so there has been an increase in the size of their orders. In consequence I have had less time to try out new products, although I did manage to make some Chorizo and Sundried Tomato rolls for a sample on Sunday morning.

There is a stall at Totnes Good Food Market selling locally made Chorizo and they make one particular one flavoured with Fennel. Its really tasty so I thought I would incorporate it in a roll and see how it tasted.

I left four rolls at the stall, returning less than an hour later I found two remaining, then there was the appreciative tweet,

I also gave a good friend a White Sourdough loaf to try, hopefully she will like it. It was one of these,

Apart from that, it's just been the regular orders, the Spelt Sourdough mainly and the Pizza bases for Pro-Performance.

I have tried my hand at Sourdough Focaccia, including one made with mashed Sweet Potato.

That tasted good with Roasted Vegetables, it was absorbent enough to mop the plate,

I delivered this morning and got the order for Wednesday, it includes Spelt Crumpets, Sourdough Digestives and a new product, Spelt Sourdough and Beer Battered Onion Rings.

Me and my big mouth, I made some for myself and posted a picture of them on Facebook. Now I have orders. That means another early start! At least I get the rest of the beer to drink.

Two new Flavours.

I picked up a bag of Wholemeal flour by mistake in my haste to do the shopping, I only normally use Organic which I buy in bulk but I needed two bags of ordinary Strong White for a job. 

So I decided to make a couple of experimental loaves, if the flavour combinations work I can do them again with Organic sourdough.

The additions were Apricot, Prune and Almond,

and Roasted Potato and Beetroot.

I made a standard Olive Oil dough at 70% and added the extras in the final knead. 50g each of chopped Apricots, chopped Prunes and Flaked Almonds here,

and 250g of chopped and roasted potato and beetroot here.

There may be too much Potato and Beetroot mix but we'll see how it proves.
After kneading they went into the oven to prove for an hour.

They both rose really well,

I shaped them into tins,

and they rose again while the oven heated up to 230°C

Thirty minutes later they were ready,

so a quick slash with my blade and in they went. I baked with steam from a pan of boiling water in the oven, after 25 minutes I took it out as the crust had formed. 

Another 20 minutes and they were done. The internal temperature was above 95°C meaning that the gluten had set.

Now I just have to be patient and let them cool a bit before slicing.

The fillings seem to be well spread, this is the potato, 

and this is the Apricot, you can see the edge of an almond or two.

They taste pretty good as well, perfect for sandwiches or toast.