Getting Caraway?

Spot the difference

This is Joe Ortiz's Jewish Rye (from The Village Baker).  It's made with a milk sour and has surprisingly little rye in it (about 20%). The other key feature is caraway seeds.  This flavouring splits our house in two .
The sour was nice and bubbly but the sponge was sluggish and after adding the salt the dough was sluggish too.  I ended up missing my afternoon baking slot (I had to go out taxi-ing) so the final rise was extended from the recommended 40 mins to 3 hrs.  It held on but there wasn't much extra activity left in the dough for the oven.  As you see I divided the dough into two and kept one caraway free.  The taste is great - but better still with the caraway!

Anadama

Here's a bread that has become a tradition in New England

It's made with one cup of flour replaced by a cup of maize meal (corn meal or polenta). The other ingredient that makes it "Anadama" is molasses. I used less than the recommended 3 tablespoons and used  just 1 dessertspoon of black treacle.    

The results were great, and went down well with the whole range of consumers. It's a great effect to top these loaves with course ground grains - a sort of visual clue to what to expect flavour wise. A nice light flavoursome loaf with a great crust.

As suggested by Floss Dworkin I may use oatmeal instead of cornmeal next time.

Barmy Bread

Mellow Bakers third bread for August is this barm bread. It has no commercial yeast but a barm starter instead.   

Barm Bread ready for the oven

I was very pleased with the picture above because it was a close match to Dan Lepard's picture in The Handmade Loaf.  I was even more please with this next one too:

Fresh out of the oven

I have to admit that instead of following Dan's method of toying with the dough at hourly intervals throughout the day I I used the following method:

Risen dough in banneton basket

 Plonk the barm starter mixture and other ingredients (just flour water and salt) into the bread machine and let it knead away for 15 minutes. Switch off and go to work.

Risen dough turned out

Return at lunchtime. Divide dough into two and shape. Plonk the dough balls into two floured muslin lined banneton proving baskets.  Cover with floured muslins topped with cling film.  Go back to work.

On return in evening heat up the oven. Tip the risen dough onto a parcment lined baking sheet, slash, and pop in the oven gas mark 7 for max 40 mins.  (Lepard suggests 50 to 70 mins at GM7 - that would deliver a blackened loaf in my oven!

So I'm out about not following the guru's methods - but think he has done a great job of enthusing people to try a wider range of breads.

Blini(s) - Doing Without Delia

To date I've relied on Delia for my blini recipe (and bumped up the buckwheat to about 50%) but Dan Lepard's blini are 100%  buckwheat  -  part buckwheat groats (kasha) and part buckwheat flour - would it work?

Well aside from sticking like hell when I tried the first one on a griddle (after which I switched to the recommended non stick pan) it was plain sailing and they tasted great - every bit as good as the wheat addition ones.  No more folding in beaten egg white, this is how I will make blini in future!

Pile them high

Half way there

A map of India?

White Thyme Bread - Lepard/Apent

Mellow Bakers August breads start with Dan Lepard's White Thyme Bread which turns out to be a version of the bread demonstrated on the Hairy Bikers Bakation trip to Norway's Apent Bakeri

I have to admit to borrowing from both in order to adapt the process to my Saturday. Like Dan I used some dry yeast but after an initial 15 minute knead I only folded the dough once and didn't add any salt or oil until the folding.

The results were scrumptious and only being a small loaf it was wolfed down at the first sitting.

If you want to see how Apent/Hairy Bikers do it here's the link again:

Apent

Sourdough Starter - Goodbye

Yesterday I made a sourdough loaf 

and used all my white starter, finally washing out the plastic tub which has been taking up space in the fridge for the last year.

 It’s been a tear, but after a few weeks of procrastination I finally turned that corner and incorporated the whole starter into a last celebratory 100% sourdough (no commercial yeast) loaf. 

Sourdough Crumpet

 Why? Because after 10 months I've decided I need the fridge space.

Appent Style 

Hubble Bubble

So I've decided to just keep my rye starter!