Now that my ulcerated leg is nearly better I need a new baking plan. I’m not going back to 40+ large loaves at a time and I’m abandoning the mixer – hauling out kilos of dough from floor level is gut-wrenching. So I’m experimenting with baking 10 loaves per week, just one dough instead of a variety. Ten loaves because I can hand-mix that many and ten is my oven capacity so that’s just a single bake. Remains to be seen how my customers take it. Some weeks it will be a mad scramble for a loaf and others I shall be using my powers of persuasion. First week: Oat and Honey.
I converted Oat & Honey from a yeasted recipe several years ago. Some formulas take more converting than others and this one was about top of the scale for the tinkering and adjustments it needed to get it right. Formula here.
As with a lot of baking equipment you don’t need the pukka stuff – this couche is just a length of heavy cotton bought on a market and I’ve been using it for a dozen years.
Coating the doughs with oats is simple when you know how. You need two trays one containing a wet tea towel and the other the oats. Roll the shaped dough on the tea towel and then in the oats. They stick well, but still expect them to get everywhere and again when you cut the bread. It’s worth it for the taste and the appearance of the loaves.
Beautiful, but it still looks a bit sparse when, in the past, I’ve baked up to 90 loaves in a day in this little kitchen.
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