What can I say? I just checked and it’s been about three months since I posted on this blog and yet I still get between ten and twenty hits a day and the odd two hundred, presumably when I get a mention on another bread site. I know this is minuscule compared with the current “stars” of baking but it’s nice to know you’re still out there.
It’s nine months since Sue died. My life has fundamentally changed, not just in the major and obvious loss of the person I loved and shared life with for nearly fifty years but in all sorts of smaller ways.
One positive thing I am doing, with the help of various friends, is working to get Sue’s first novel printed. She was always a writer and, just because she never managed to get a book published, does not mean she was not a good writer.
To begin with I thought maybe I should just leave things as they are and let the writing fade. But I wondered if a published book could serve as a memorial for her closest and oldest friends. I took opinions from a couple of trusted friends with what you might call writerly backgrounds and they were very enthusiastic, more or less pushing me to get on with the project. I shall let you know how I get on.
This blog has to change too (yes, I know, a few more posts would help). For most of its life, starting in 2008 until I really retired at the end of 2020, I have been baking for sale. So I have to remind myself that for the best part of six years I’m back to being a mere home baker. Added to which, with no Sue, there’s only me to bake for. You don’t know how complicated this is. Not to worry; somehow the blog has to reflect all this.
Maybe I’ll ease my way back in with a few photos taken during the last several weeks recapping the way I work now:
I’m a lazy miller. When I started milling I tried grinding everything and took time finding the right sieves to remove the bran, produce wholemeal, white bread flour, even some recommended grinds for pizza and pasta. Life’s too short. Now I just mill wholemeal and use Shipton’s no. 4 for bread flour.
I bake 200g baguettes fairly often because half of one does me for breakfast. I hang them from a hook in an open freezer bag (this is a habit, not a technique). In the morning I heat the oven full blast, take a baguette, run it under the tap, bake for six minutes (you could call that a technique). I still use my Campagne formula for baguettes but with about 10% wholemeal added (I rarely bake straight white loaves these days).
I stick to my old routine; mix by hand, 3 x 10 kneads at 5 minute intervals, ferment 4 hours, shape and prove 3.5 hours. Of course the times get adjusted according to the weather but not that much.
My go-to loaf is still Mick’s Classic Sourdough but these days I’ve reduced the dough weight from 940g to 600g. I usually bake them two at a time, one for me and one for the freezer (or a friend).
In the main, I’ve reduced all my loaf breads to 600g dough weight. I still like a high bake but reduced bake time to 40 minutes – 250C top, 220C bottom, 15 minutes steam.
A little more gentle with (poor mans) brioche:
(Poor) Man cannot live without burger buns …
Then, occasionally, I’ve made the odd Raisin Challah:
Sue’s digestive system couldn’t cope with seeds and grains so I’ve moved back to making two of my favourites, Multigrain and 5 Seed with Spelt – or at least I restocked the ingredients and baked them a couple of times but I find it hard to plan ahead and that extra step of making a soaker defeats me. It’ll come …
Pizza – at least once a week! Given up on fancy doughs and stick to my 80% hydration (well, actually 78.2% to be precise) and I still knead it by stirring.
Sometimes it’s improvised with whatever’s in the fridge:
Sometimes it’s a “proper” recipe like this Fiorentina:
Sometimes even a deep pan pizza, like this Garlic Lovers’ Italian Sausage, though making them small enough for one is another matter:
So anyway, that’s more or less where I’m up to from a bread point of view. Scouts Honour I shall be more conscientious in keeping the blog up to date. And, good wishes to all who read it.
The PArtisan Baker 