A round loaf is a thing of beauty

Not been around lately, what with going on holiday for a few days (back to Menton if you wanted to ask), moving my Mum into sheltered housing and losing internet access...

My starters though managed quite happily through the mess of my life, calmly sitting in the fridge gently bubbling and smiling to themselves. Time for the White One to come to the fore again I thought. And it was so strong! I fed it up over two days, and it was bubbling like a little volcano. There is no doubt that as these two starters are getting older they are more and more reliable.

So, using Hamelman's trusty Pain de Campagne again as my base recipe, substituting 200g of rye flour for the same of plain, I decided to try out my newest acquisitions, 2 lovely cane bannetons bought from eBay for a very good sharp price...

The last couple of times I have baked, I have left the dough in the fridge overnight, but the timings didn't work for me this time, so this was made and baked in the one day. I think the flavour in the overnight is perhaps a little more rounded, and I think also that I like a little more rye than this had, but it is still a good bread.


Doesn't it look lovely? I did make two, but the other pictures didn't come out well (and this is a bit dodgy) but it does show the lovely break in the crust.

Now, I know that properly speaking, it is not supposed to do that, it should have been proofed a bit longer so it just opened out the slashes, and didn't actually make a break for the border, but I love the texture of these explosions, so I am not at all unhappy.



And the crumb is nice and not too big holey, just perfect for toast in the morning.

Because, even though holes are nice, your Marmite falling into your lap is perhaps less than desirable.

I think that is it for my basic Rye and Wheat Sourdough, I think my "journey" is played out, it is now a good staple, easy to do, no problem. Start on Thursday evening with first feeding, feed again on Friday evening, ferment and fold on Saturday, bake on Sunday. It sounds a lot of faffing about, but it is so easy and quick each time, just a question of minutes. Well worth it.

Next challenge is to find a recipe for a white loaf that will give me the same flavour I remember from when I was a child, and all bread was baked by small bakeries on the premises. I want a fat, luscious bloomer. All slashes and poppy seeds, and soft swirly crumb.

Any suggestions gratefully received...

Pain de Campagne - two different ways

I have been experimenting over the last couple of weeks with a recipe for Pain de Campagne posted on The Fresh Loaf .

You can find the recipe here:

Bread is lovely and open holey artisan type bread, made with a sourdough starter.

Last week I used my rye starter:



Nice loaf, but I made a mistake of making the rolls too small, so they were rather leathery, and not very nice toasted (which is how I eat most of my bread, for breakfast).



The crumb was lovely and open though. And the bread was very very tasty.

So I baked again today, but this time used my white starter, and added the rye in with the main flour.

Odd how just that small change can make such a difference in the bread.

David Snyder (whose recipe this is) also suggested that I bake a little longer, to get a crustier crust. So I did. Trouble is, my oven is hotter no one side than the other.

Peering through the door, I saw a lovely russety crust.





But when I took it out of the oven, I think dark brown may be tinged with ...

burnt.

Or at least it is in my book. But it IS crunchy!


The crumb is much lighter in colour than the last one, and much milder in flavour. It will be interesting to see how this toasts.



I have another loaf cooling at the moment - a completely different flour I found on the shelf at Sainsbury's. Allinsons Oatmill. Sounds interesting, so I'll report on that next when it is cool and cut open.

Bread Update

I am pleased today...

I actually followed a recipe (Jeffrey Hamelman's Pain au Levain) without cutting corners and fiddling about with it. Well, that's not wholly true, I did keep a bit of flour back as my Dove Bread flour seems very absorbent.

My last attempts haven't made it up here as they have been ok (for which read edible) but nothing to write home about. Oh except for the last one that I managed to burn....

I have been adding a little bit of instant yeast in, and this has helped a bit, but the rise was still always sideways not upwards with no oven spring so it was obvious I was doing something wrong.

So here are today's offerings: One loaf (banana shaped, but it was bigger than expected so I had to curve it onto the baking sheet a bit) and some rolls.


I cut the rolls like Waitrose's Rustic rolls, or ciabatta, although the crumb will probably be tighter than ciabatta. I am being a good girl and not cutting until it is quite cold tonight.




The Sourdough is really lively now. The levain called for here was much stiffer than I had been making before, and I liked it much more. I think I will experiment a bit more with stiffer levains, and possibly poolish too.

It is such a relief to know I can do it. And the bread is made with no fat at all, and still tastes good with no butter so it is excellent for my low fat diet.