Ciabatta 1 [(Scraps2) Pizza 6]

Same pizza dough as in Scraps below. 48hrs in fridge. Sunday a.m., woken by Christians ringing church bells at 7.45 a.m. (*!+@!!”#$%^&*!!!). Turned on oven, tipped dough onto flour surface, cut into four, roughly shaped, stretched, put on baking paper. When oven up to heat, dimpled, baked 20 mins = ciabatta (or are they jamless […]

Not a Pretty Sight

Being in France with no scales has given me the bug for experimenting and improvising. Beginners particularly are forever asking what to do with excess starter. Ditch it, I would say. I probably use more flour for dusting than a lot of people use for baking. Most of this ends up in the bin anyway […]

Scraps (Pizza No 5)

I’ve settled down to a formula of Flour 100%, Water 78.2%, Starter 25%. Salt 1.5%. So 700g dough = Flour 342g, Water 268g, Starter 86g, Salt 5g. Few short kneads, into oiled box for 2-3 hours with the odd hourly stretch. Then into fridge for at least 24 hours. In the domestic fridge was arfachickenbreast, […]

Fete du Pain

A bit of research before we went to France turned up the first ever Fete du Pain in Bordeaux 15/16 May. So I got in touch with la Ronde des Quartiers de Bordeaux for some info – received a slightly bewildered reply which included an application form to enter Best Baguette de Tradition contest but […]

Pain Gascon

Before we came away I was in touch with Anne Lataillade who has a famous blog, Papilles et Pupilles, about Bordeaux. She gave me the names of some Bordeaux bakers to check out. You know I am an old cynic and not much over-awed by professional bakers whatever their reputation. Sometimes though I walk into […]

Ist Bread

We’ve been staying in this particular studio in Arcachon since 2005. That includes one three month stint, one two month, and this is the second one month, so it doesn’t exactly take a long time to settle in. The studio is what was once a servant’s quarters in the grounds of a very grand house […]

Another way of Looking

What the bread in the last post “Retirement” means to me is (1) a new waterproof jacket to take to the storm-prone Bay of Biscay tomorrow; (2) a steak dinner from M&S to celebrate the start of the holiday; (3) a little in the bank because the Laputabrot will be paid by invoice. One of […]

Retirement

I was trying to construct a link along the lines of retirement/bed/couche, but never mind. Instead of starting at 5.00 a.m. I saunter out of bed at 6.00 a.m. 6.50 a.m. ten large tomato breads with sundried tomato in the couche. 7.50 a.m. twenty in the couche: 8.50 a.m. twenty four in the couche and […]

87% Wholemeal Continued

Out of the fridge late afternoon Saturday: Out of the box: Fold: Cover and fold four times at hourly intervals: Shaping was a bit tricky – I didn’t feel I was getting any tension into the dough. Into couches and back into the fridge overnight. Sunday morning, remove couches from fridge: Roll onto baking sheet […]

87% Wholemeal Day 2 Morning

Day 1? Well the camera wouldn’t have survived. Wholemeal dough at 87% hydration would be perfect for mud wrestling but this isn’t that sort of blog. My kneading technique with very wet doughs is to push it away and scoop it back in a circular motion – the mixture never leaves the work surface or […]