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 […]

ImprovBread

By tonight (Tuesday) I need about six-and-a-half kilos of starter for the week’s mix. I start my build Monday morning. Yesterday morning I found I had 400g of flat, watery looking starter that had been neglected for at least 48 hours. I needed about 150g of this to produce a little over 700g of starter […]

Focaccia

I’m not a fan of fads such as “artisan bread in-a-minute-and-a-half”. It suggests to me that people don’t really want to engage with bread making or get a feel for working with dough. But what do you do on Saturday night when you’re down to crusts for Sunday breakfast? Strong Bread Flour 342g 100% Water […]

Floats

This battered old cookbook is a good friend used so much the pages are coming loose. I just ordered a backup copy from Amazon for 1p. Lucky friends got a bang-up birthday meal from it this weekend. I did Accra de Morue for starters and Sue did a heavenly Boeuf Creole for the main course […]

Celtic Fudge (2)

After the dress rehearsal, the opening night: The seaweed I used was a mixture of Dillisk brought back from Dublin and kelp from the Chinese supermarket in Upper Bangor. Now I’m retired I don’t start til 6.00 a.m. Yeah, I’m trying out a new camera (it’s just the photographer taking the same old shots) 5 […]

Celtic Fudge

Gert phones to say that he is unexpectedly doing an Irish week at Oren, his restaurant in Caernarfon. Can I come up with with five Irish-related loaves for Wednesday. He’s thinking Guinness but I did Nil’s fantastic Guinness Volkornbrot for him last week. I’m thinking buttermilk plus, I’ve been meaning to do a bread with […]

Pizza (2)

Second attempt. Same dough as Pizza (1) but after a few hours fermentation, scaled at 150g, shaped into balls, placed in oiled box and into the fridge overnight. After a pretty neat seafood risotto made two pizzas – toppings from Cheese Board again: Aubergine & Red Pepper; Corn, Onion & Courgette with Coriander & Lime […]

Baby Jesus Time

Couple of years ago, Klimentini, one of our most enthusiastic customers, gave us her family recipe for Christmas bread. Her brother used to send her one from Greece but last time it arrived weeks late in small pieces because Homeland Security, or whatever we call it, thought the astonishingly strong spices were there to disguise […]

Bara Planc

Very foolishly got involved in a “discussion” about additives in bread on the Australian Sourdough Companion forum this week – http://www.sourdough.com – got called a few names that included the suggestion I was living in the past. So what bread have I baked this week? Well, months ago someone ordered 6 x 2 kilo loaves […]