My new Starter.

My new starter is gradually gaining in power, I hope to be able to use it by the end of the week, meanwhile the loaf I baked yesterday has been re-purposed.

Here it was, in all its non-risen glory, the crust was really nice but the yeast wasn't yet strong enough to get a good rise inside.

So I sliced it thinly,

 and baked it at 140 degrees for 45 minutes, till it was all dried out.

Now I've got it stored in an airtight container, I can either use it as bruschetta or reduce it to crumbs. It should keep for several weeks like that, if I don't use it first.

Meanwhile the starter keeps growing,

 it rose by 33% overnight so is on the way. I will keep feeding it till we get 100% growth, then it will be ready for action.

Walnut Spelt.

My Spelt loaves are pretty good sellers at Oats and the quantity I make goes up quite regularly. 
This week when I got the order I was asked for a Walnut Spelt loaf, I already make a Walnut Sourdough Roll so I thought that I would just add Walnuts to the Spelt loaf in the same way.

But of course that doesn't really give a Walnut taste all through, to do that I added some Walnut Butter,

to the dough and then made the loaf as usual. This is my favourite bit, tinkering around and creating flavour but no matter what i think, in the end the real test comes in the mouth of the customer.

The loaf was made with the same timings and quantities as I use in a normal Spelt, I only reduced the water to allow for the butter and dissolved it first before kneading.

After a cool it cut  like this,

which was pretty much how I wanted it.

And the taste was excellent, small pieces of nut and the butter gave it a background hint.

In other news, I have been working on a new White Sourdough Starter, it was made from my Rye, which is very vigourous but after a week is still slow. Its producing lots of bubbles but not a lot of rise, I'm feeding it every day and last night used some discard to make a no knead loaf. This type of loaf usually rises reasonably well but not this one.

As you can see, there are bubbles but not spring. I think that its probably lactobacillus and the yeast has not got going yet. Oh well; nothings wasted here so it will make croutons. It does taste OK, just a little doughy. (It actually reminds me of supermarket bread in texture!) The crust is sensational.

Sourdough Baguettes and a new supplier.

I'm still practicing my Sourdough recipes for the LoveLife show, here are some baguettes, the taste was there but the texture was a bit heavy, I think my starter needs boosting a bit.

I also found a new deal on my Spelt Flour, the price has gone up a bit but I should be able to get regular supplies now.

I'll have to have a go with this tomorrow and see what its like. It arrived in 2 days from ordering and there was free delivery, maybe I'll use them for everything, trouble is I need more storage space.

Beetroot Ciabatta

Following the success of the Walnut and Caraway Sourdough Ciabatta I've been experimenting with other flavours. 

Here's the latest, Beetroot, chopped and added into the dough at first mix.

After a few folds and an overnight rise, I cut and shaped them this morning.

Maybe shaping is a bit optimistic, I formed them into pleasing Artisan shapes.

After an hour for a second rise and 15 minutes in the oven they were cooked.

I think I'll add them to my list.

Vegan Spelt Oatcakes.

That's a bit of a mouthful (lol) but a good description. I've been trying to make a Vegan biscuit for Oats since the success of my Vegan Teacakes, but without much luck up to now.

I think that I might have cracked it this time though.

Just need to submit them to the taste panel, for what its worth, Yvonne liked them and that's good enough for me.

Sourdough loaf two ways. Part 2.

So at 0500 I resumed the sourdough experiment. You may find the following slightly confusing, spare a thought for me, I had three bowls of dough at different stages of development, each requiring different processes at different times.

Both sets of starter had bubbles, I made the smaller one into dough as instructed here,

http://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/our-version-of-tartine-style-bread/

and followed the instructions. 

After two folds it was looking like a loaf, and there were only four more to go! Quite labour intensive.

The other starter was used to make a loaf from the book "Do Sourdough" by  Andrew Whitley. This one involves a lot of doing nothing and a bit of machine mixing. I hope its the tastier as I'm inherently lazy. Here it is resting.

In the middle of that, I got an order for 30 Onion Seed Panini for tomorrow. I started the pre-ferments straight away, they will be ready for delivery at 0900 tomorrow.


So at 0830 I got back involved with the easy one, making a mixture of flour and water to add to the above at 0900.

I then shaped the first loaf (getting confused which one is which)

That now needs proving till 1130.

Next the two parts of the easy loaf need adding together,

followed by a brisk knead.

Turning it out, I found it very wet but shaped it into a tin anyway.

That will prove till 1400. Time for a coffee.

You may be wondering why I put Sourdough into a tin and not as a freeform boule. Well the answer is simple, my customers ask me for tin shaped loaves to make sandwiches or toast. 

And after all it tastes the same.

While I was doing that, I made crumpets with the left over starter, it's dead easy; just 250 g starter, 1 tsp sugar and 0.5 tsp each of salt and Bicarbonate of Soda, give it a whisk and fry in a dry pan using a ring.

So after baking the complicated loaf is done,

and here is the crumb,

and three hours later the easy loaf, there were a few bubbles on the top of the dough when I put it in the oven,

and after baking and cooling,

Taste wise there is little to tell between them, surprisingly the small loaf took the same time to bake as the large. The small loaf has a closer crumb but is perfect for sandwiches or toast. Both were slightly underproved but not enough to matter, maybe an extra half hour would be right. That's what I wanted to learn.

And the result........ Phew! the easy one is a clear winner, largely because I can leave it to its own devices and do other things.

Next I must practice my Sourdough Baguettes, but first I need to buy more flour.

Sourdough loaf two ways.

I'm conducting an experiment, this morning I refreshed a 100g portion of my Wholemeal starter with White flour and I intend to try two different methods of making a sourdough loaf tomorrow.

As you can see, the starter was bubbling well before I started.

This evening I split the starter into two, the first one was 10g of starter refreshed with 50g of flour and 45g of water.

The second was refreshed with equal water and flour to make 400g total.

 I only need 150g tomorrow, the rest I can keep in the fridge for a few days.

In the morning I will start the first method using the smaller portion, and then the second with the larger. The plan is to finish the first loaf at lunchtime, and the second for around 4pm.

 The method for the first has no kneading, instead you merely stretch and fold the dough every 30 minutes for three hours, while the second has normal kneading and longer gaps for the dough to develop.

It will be interesting to see which method produces the better loaf, stay tuned tomorrow for the results.