Most mistakes in baking are recoverable (unless you’re more interested in a perfect image over good bread. Personally, I hate to see rows of identical loaves.)
My chum Rick thinks that the flour from the Maud Foster mill is so good that for years he has been driving all the way from from Carmarthen to Boston to stock up on supplies. Last time he came up to Bethesda for the day he very kindly brought up a few kilos of white and wholemeal.
So yesterday I made a couple of Classics which is half-and-half white flour and wholemeal. so I used the Maud Foster white and my home milled Gilchesters for wholemeal. Followed my usual method, dough seemed a bit wetter that usual but nothing excessive, also seemed a little slacker.
The dough is proved in perfectly round baskets so the first distortion comes with slashing the dough. I use a simple three straight slashes (no delicate foliage for me). But this allows the dough to spread at right angles to the cuts so it becomes more of a batard than a boule. That’s understood. But what you’re not supposed to do is let the dough stick to the peel so that it distorts randomly and doesn’t land entirely on the oven’s hearth. And you’re especially not supposed to do it twice …
Anyway, the photography was better than the baking dexterity – but the bread was lovely and very individual.
And, old age strikes again, the day before I made brioche and took at least three attempts to do a simple three strand braid. I the end I had to stop thinking about it and just do it.
I’m still not sure that it’s totally right …
