Over the weekend I made another attempt at a sourdough. The requisite stages all went well: the ferment nice and sour, the mix and kneading smooth, and the transfer from banetton to baking sheet by the book slick. I was thrusting the dough into the steamy oven, slamming the door shut when I realised: I hadn't slashed the loaf. The horror!
I didn't shout but I think I did say the f word approximately 20 times.
It might seem an overreaction but a sourdough loaf without slashes is just plain wrong. It's like Walk on the Wild Side without the sax solo, The Third Man without the Zither score, or E S Blofeld without his white cat. Just a simple, deceptively minor addition that adds so much.
Nevertheless, the final loaf did taste really, very good - even without slashes.
Thursday 28 January 2010
Thursday 21 January 2010
Ale Poolish Loaf
A loaf baked with ale? It sounds like madness, but it seems that if a potential ingredient is at least technically edible then you can put it in a loaf.
Read top bread boffin Dan Lepard's bread book and you'll see recipes that include ale, cider, wine, whey (or the water that mozzarella is packed in), cucumber pickle juice, lard, pork crackling to name a few (not all the same loaf). Yum, yum.
In this instance, ale is mixed with an equal weight of flour and a little yeast to create a poolish ferment. Left to bubble overnight it's added into the dough mix the next morning. The resulting dough has a wonderful, strong sweet aroma which stays with it throughout the whole process, right through to the final baked loaf.
The loaf had a distinct malty taste, with a nice golden crust and soft, sweet white crumb. Another tasty recipe from Crust.
Wednesday 20 January 2010
East Anglian Secret Sourdough Society
The first recipe to be tackled from Crust had to be the sourdough loaf. Having made Dan Lepard's leaven loaves a few times I felt I was ready to take on Mr Bertinet's authentic sourdough method.
Using Bertinet's flour / water ratio for his sourdough ferment, I refreshed good old Cuthbert the Leaven. After a few days of cultivating I had nice sweet smelling ferment just like it said in the book.
Anyway I can hear your eyes glazing over: "Oh geez more boring baking tosh!" you rightly wimper. So I'll condense the tale into a few simple, yet thrilling facts.
Eight thrilling sourdough recipe facts:
• Ingredients included spelt flour. Yes: SPELT!
• 18 hours to prove! (I used a banetton.)
• 35 minutes to bake.
• When baked it had a sweet and sour aroma.
• Thick crunchy, chewy crust.
• Soft, tasty sour crumb.
• Everyone who had a bit said it was nice.
• Makes the best toast ever.
It was a success. Hooray! I'll be making this again soon.
Monday 18 January 2010
Kingdom of crust
This year's yuletide discharge from Santa's bulging sacks revealed a copy of Crust by Richard Bertinet from my lovely wife MsG. Hooray!
Boasting an impressive length of recipe numbers and an enviable girth of bread analysis, Criust is an extension of his first book Dough, Bertinet taking the reader deeper into the world of fermented vittles. The book includes detailed method for creating a sourdough ferment, along with a recipe for a stunning looking sourdough loaf.
Bracketing the book's impressive looking recipes are detailed, enthusiastic descriptions of the bread baking processes, ingredients, tools and techniques, and a choice list of suppliers.
The author's real gift is the ability to teach fairly complicated baking procedures in simple, logical ways. Baking sourdough for instance, is not an easy task at all, but Bertinet Padawan's can turn out impressive looking loaves, the kind of which overpaid Knightsbridge punters would happily fork out good gelt at their local deli. This is the perfect book for anyone wanting to learn how to bake cool looking bread.
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