Refinement

Now that I'm committed to baking as opposed to any other job, I don't get much time to try many new recipes. I have a folder of interesting ideas that I want to try but little time. There is also a limit to how much bread I can eat or put in the freezer.

Anyway yesterday I tried a new way of making my Wholemeal Sourdough, adjusting the ratio of water to flour slightly to make it easier to handle. It still takes the best part of 10 hours to make but I think the taste is better, and it does rise nicely in the oven.

In other news, the week has started with the usual Oats Cafe order, for delivery later this morning.

I've got my Rye starter revved up for the weeks production and will get the others out of hibernation later.

Another week.

This weeks totals,

1 Rye Sour Large

5 Rye Sour Small,

6 Spelt Sour,

8 White Sour

6 Wholemeal Sour

3 Spelt and Walnut Tin,

6 Spelt Tin

2 Loaves for Me!

20 Teacakes

40 Panini Rolls

So about the same and to be honest I'm about at capacity for the days I set myself to bake.The problem now is that I don't have time to try out any new recipes.

But I have joined this,

now all I need to do is get myself onto their map.

Here are some pix of part of this weeks bake.

Monday, Spelt Tin.

Tuesday, Onion Seeded Panini Rolls

Wednesday, Vegan Teacakes

Friday, Spelt and Walnut

Friday, White Sourdough.

Friday, Wholemeal and Spelt Sourdough's.

So that's it for another week. I've spent the afternoon on a deep clean and tomorrow morning I've got nothing to do. But at lunchtime I'll get next weeks Oats orders and the whole thing will start again.

That was the Week.......

That was the week where I used over 20 kilogrammes of flour.
I made,

12 Sourdough Spelt Loaves,
4 White Sourdough Loaves,
3 Wholemeal Sourdough Loaves,
4 Rye Sourdough Loaves,
7 Yeasted Spelt Loaves,
2 Wholemeal Chickpea and Seed Loaves,
2 Special Order Loaves, (Using Gluten-free flour but not Gluten-free)
12 Sourdough Rolls, (6 each of Carrot and Walnut)
12 Spelt Crumpets,
12 Sourdough Scones (6 Fruit and 6 Plain)
20 Vegan Teacakes.

My best week yet.

Busy Day, Part 2.

At 0430 this morning, I mixed the Chickpea and seed dough, I hope the mixer didn't wake anyone.

I left it to rise and put the ovens on to heat up the stones.

The spelt had risen well overnight,

and I folded it into tins.

By 0530 the stones were hot so I started the White loaves,

which left the bannetons free for the Chickpea dough, which had doubled in size.

When the White loaves came out,

 I re-heated the ovens and put the Spelt and the first of the Wholemeal loaves and the Rye in for 50 minutes,

followed by the Chickpea and the rest of the Wholemeal.

All baking was done by 0745, after the loaves had cooled I tried my new bags and labels.

And now I feel rather tired.

Busy Day, Part 1.

Friday 26th June 2015 is my biggest set of orders to date. 

A total of 19 loaves for three different customers, being Sourdough I had to start them on Wednesday afternoon, when I first woke the starters.

On Thursday I fed the starters at 0500 and started making at 1300. Apart from 2 yeasted Spelt and 2 seed and Chickpea I had 6 Spelt Sourdough, 3 Wholemeal Sourdough and 4 White Sourdough. The Chickpea, although yeasted, still required a pre-ferment.

After stretching and folding, everything was ready for an overnight rise at 1800.

That's 4 White

3 Wholemeal,

6 Spelt,

and a pre-ferment.

Roll on 0430 in the morning. That's when I start the yeasted Spelt and finish the Chickpea. The overnight loaves can go into the oven in relays, although I have two ovens I can still only do 4 sourdough loaves at a time, largely due to the size of my baking stones.

If it all goes to plan, I will be finished and cooling off (me and the loaves) by 0800. Ready to load up and deliver at 0900

I'll let you know how I get on.

Sourdough Scones

Here is the recipe for the Sourdough Scones. Its based on a King Arthur Flour recipe but I have modified it slightly and added fruit.

Ingredients,

240g Sourdough Starter at 100%, it doesn't have to be fresh, discard is fine but keep it in the fridge until you need it.

120g Plain Flour,

0.75 tsp Salt,

2 tsp Baking Powder,

115g Cold Butter, cut into pieces. (I used to grate frozen butter into the mixture but as long as it is cold it works fine.)

Either leave plain or add a maximum of 100g Dried Fruit/Grated Cheese/ Chocolate Chips before mixing.

Method,

 

·    Preheat the oven to 220°C. Grease a baking sheet, or line it with parchment.

Combine everything. Work gently until the mixture is a cohesive dough.

Put the dough onto a lightly floured sheet of parchment and gently mould it into a pancake about 2-3cm thick.

Use a 3 inch (8cm) cutter to cut rounds. Mix the scraps together and form into another pancake, continue until the dough has all been cut.

Place the biscuits onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving about 2" between them so they can spread a little.

Bake in the upper third of the oven for around 15 minutes, or until they're golden brown.

Remove them from the oven, and cool on a rack. They will keep in an airtight box at room temperature for several days. 

They freeze well.

Fruit and Plain.

Gluten Free (Sort of)

I've resisted making any Gluten-free breads so far, for one very good reason. To be absolutely sure of no cross contamination, you need to have two sets of everything and deep clean the kitchen between making GF and normal breads. To be honest it was never going to be worth it, as it would mean that although I had two ovens, I could only really use one for normal breads.

So when one of my customers asked if I would try a GF loaf, I explained why I was reluctant and to my surprise she accepted the reason but explained that it wasn't necessary to guarantee cleanliness. She is not Coeliac, just slightly intolerant and likes the taste (if you're reading this I hope I got that right) I agreed to have a go and researched GF, eventually finding an easy starter method here.

 http://wholenewmom.com/recipes/gluten-free-sourdough-starter/

Starter Bubbling

 The starter is made with a blend of Rice, Tapioca and Potato flours. I then added Brown Rice flour and Buckwheat to make the dough.

Lining a proving bowl

 The website where I found the recipe, 

 http://www.artofglutenfreebaking.com/2010/10/sourdough-bread-boule-gluten-free/

suggested proving in a lined bowl, then transferring the dough, in the paper, to a preheated Dutch Oven. It worked a treat.

Ready to prove.

Ready for the Oven.

 As instructed, I baked it in a covered Dutch Oven. It had an hour at 220° C, the last 15 minutes with the lid off.

Finished loaf.

It tasted really nice, not at all what I was expecting.

Crumb.

I just hope she likes it.