Caught out (Nearly!)

I had a call from Oats yesterday afternoon, they  wanted a Lentil and Turmeric Sourdough, something I hadn't done for 6 months. After a quick check to make sure I had lentils, and a brief thank you to my guardian angel for prompting me to refresh the starters yesterday, we were good to go.

I had enough for two loaves so that meant one for me!

It's quite a complicated recipe, involving an autolyse and a double knead, but I had it in the tins for an overnight prove by 1800.

When it emerged next morning it was well risen, and I let it warm up as the oven did. A gentle cut on the best looking one would let the steam out as it cooked.

It had 40 minutes, the first 20 with steam, and was ready with the rest of the order.

I cut mine and it had an acceptable crumb.

and the Turmeric gave it a tinge. You could just taste it, just enough to know it was there and the lentils gave it a moist texture. I'd better get some more lentils in.

New Ideas

I have had an idea for a new type of loaf, it all came to me in  a flash as I was drinking a cup of Green Tea. I like the taste and I wondered what bread would taste like made with Green Tea instead of water.

After all you use milk in some sweet breads, and buttermilk in Soda Bread so why not?

Then I had another idea, we have a fennel in the garden and Yvonne saved a load of seeds last year. 

They are nice on Salmon, but how about as flavouring in a loaf? Taking it to its logical conclusion, how about a loaf made with Fennel Tea, with added Fennel seeds. And it would of course be Organic. There's a project.

So I made a normal dough, with two major differences. First, I used two Fennel teabags in the liquid and second I added a tablespoon of fennel seeds to the mixture.

Of course all this is guesswork, I don't want to put too much flavour in but also want enough. So if this one isn't tasty enough I will try a bit more.

It rose well in the batch proof, then I split it in two and put it in 1lb tins, that's one for me and one for Oats tomorrow.

you can see the seeds.

After a second rise,

 it went in the oven for 20 minutes,

you can see the seeds in this close up,

Now for the all-important taste test.

and it passed! Now for the public reaction.

Saffron Buns

Copied from my other blog, in case you missed it there.


I'm off to my Granddaughters Christening and have been asked to make some of my Saffron Buns to take as part of the buffet after the service.

So the first thing to do is soak the saffron in the milk for 24 hours to get the flavour going.

As you can see, it goes quite yellow. If you taste a bit you will find a very delicate flavour. The aroma is worth a bite as well.

The recipe is, 500g strong white flour,
60g Caster Sugar,
300g milk, (infused as above) and warmed to about 30 degrees C
50g butter, softened.
10g each salt and instant yeast,
250g fruit, this is a mixture of Raisins and Cranberries. 

 After that its just a normal bread method, cut the dough into 10 pieces (about 115 -118g) and shape.

You can egg wash before baking but I don't normally bother, bake at 200 degrees for around 15 minutes.

They will go quite brown on top, but you are looking for a slightly moister interior, with a chewy texture.

So I've got the infused milk and butter, I warmed it up and added it to all the other ingredients. Then I kneaded it all together for 6 minutes in my Kenwood.

I then proved it for an hour in my proving oven. (Its just my oven with a tray of boiling water in the bottom, heated on max for 1 MINUTE ONLY)

When I took the dough out to cut and shape it had doubled in size,

I made 10 rolls and left them covered for 45 minutes whilst the oven heated up to 200 degrees. They grew again.

I baked the rolls for 16 minutes, rotating twice to get an even colour, (my oven has hot spots)

I had to try one, they were lush.

Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

Sourdough Digestive Biscuits

I was feeling bored this morning, so  I made some Sourdough Digestive Biscuits.

I also have a load of spare starter and its a good way to use it up.

About 20 minutes actual work, an hour resting in the fridge (the biscuits, not me) and 17 minutes in the oven .(Again the biscuits.)

Recipe below.

It's simply 80g finely ground Oats, 100g Wholemeal flour, 50g Dark Brown Sugar, 110g Unsalted Butter and 2g Salt, it 's more precise to use unsalted butter and add salt than guess how much is already there. Mix all that in a processor until you have a rough dough.

Then  add a good 100g of sourdough starter and a dash of milk. Mix it all together into a smooth dough and put in the fridge.

After an hour roll the dough out to about 4mm thick and cut into your preferred shape. Put them into the oven at 180 degrees for 10 minutes, then rotate the pans and put them back for another 10. Keep an eye on the edges, when they start to colour they are done. Let them cool and crisp on a rack.

Saturday Sourdough

 

 

I started a pre-ferment off last night, using a mixture of Rye starter with White and Wholemeal flours

 



By five this morning, it had grown enough to use it to make a final dough

which I put into a tin as it felt a bit soft, I didn't want a pancake.

I'm still getting to grips with the method in the book 'Do Sourdough' and until I've got the hang of it I'm using a tin. Once I'm happy I can start tweaking the recipe to make freeform loaves.

So it went into the tin at six,

Incidentally, the flour is from Bacheldre watermill and very nice it is too. I use their Rye and White flours as well. And my customers seem to like them.

By eight it had started to rise, sorry it's a bit out of focus.

That's one thing that Sourdough has taught me; patience. And not just because you have to learn to wait until the dough is ready, patience actually makes you appreciate the product more because the taste is worth waiting for.

And again at ten,

Time to put the oven on. Forty minutes later,

maybe not as good a rise as I had hoped for but like I said, time to experiment. After it had cooled I cut a slice to check the crumb,

Just the taste test to go, excuse me for a moment.

Another added Sourdough loaf.

After the success of my white loaf enriched with sourdough starter, I decided to repeat the idea with a wholemeal loaf.
To the basic dough I added 50g mixed seeds and 90g starter. This is about 10% of the total dough. The starter was three days from the last feed, so had subsided a bit.



After it had doubled in size in the tin, I baked it for 50 minutes with steam at 200 Celsius.

It had a good crust and a very soft crumb, which was delicious toasted.

I think I will add this one to my list as well.

Added Sourdough.

As I said, I've been reading Do Sourdough by Andrew Whitley avidly and the first loaf I made was a success.

Andrew also advocates using a proportion of old starter (Around 10% by volume) in yeasted breads, I've already been using my spare starter to make crumpets and in digestive biscuits, this seemed like another good idea.

So I made a White loaf this morning, adding Olive Oil as I always do (50ml of Oil and 300ml of warm water) and put about 80g of Wholemeal starter into the mixture whilst kneading.

Apart from that addition, I just made the loaf like I normally do, 500g flour and 10g each of salt and instant yeast. A one hour prove in my oven, knock back and shape and then an hour in the tin.

It might have just needed another five minutes before I put it in the oven as its bloomed on the side,  but apart from that (and the added starter may have been a factor that I didn't allow for) it looks fairly appetising. The smell was enough to get Yvonne interested!

It's all about experimenting after all, and next time it will probably be different, but as its for us I can put up with a bit of trial and error, you always get to eat the samples!

After I let it cool I cut a chunk to see how the crumb had turned out. I have had negative comments in the past because my bread is not full of large holes, but while I accept that there's a place for that, I don't think that a sandwich loaf is it. I can do large holes when the occasion demands, Maybe in a sauce-mopping bread the greater surface area is good but I like my filling to stay between the slices, not run up my forearm.

So I'm glad to say, this one was just fine.

And the taste, well suffice to say that I'll be doing that again.

I've just spotted that my fellow blogger Pattypan has kindly given me a mention on her excellent blog, give her blog a read at http://tarragonnthyme.blogspot.co.uk/ its full of good food and musings.

New Year, same routine.

I'm getting back in the swing of bread making to order after my holiday. I have my list and things are starting to happen. I've woken my Rye Sourdough from the fridge and make a preferment. That will be made into a dough tonight and rested in the fridge to get a little flavour developing before I bake it on Tuesday evening.

 

 

Next up I have to make spelt loaves and Teacakes. Both of these have been a real success story in Oats, with favourable comments on trip advisor so I'm pretty pleased with them. I've also started some white rolls fermenting.

 

Rye Loaf

Spelt ready to bake

Spelt done

 

A successful bake, hopefully as the year progresses quantities will increase.

Restart.

After my break, I'm ready to resume operations. Of course I haven't been totally inactive, I made Saffron Buns and a Walnut, Cranberry and Pistachio loaf for my daughters Xmas feast,

and since coming back I have made bread for us,

but my first orders of 2015 will be ready to be delivered next Tuesday. The starters have been woken from their slumbers and are ready to go.

In a strange sort of way, I have missed it, maybe not the five am starts but the feeling of acheivement when it all goes well. And the feelings of frustration when a loaf falls to the floor.

But I suspect the break has done me good, I've got a few ideas for new loaves and a few other things in the pipeline for Well Bread! this year, all in all I'm sure it's going to be exciting.