Whitsuntide Baking and Other Antics

Hi Jonathon,

thank you for posting kind remarks.

We absolutely loved the panned cheese bread.   Very strong flavours, in lovely soft white bread; not the revolting pappy stuff, however.   The boule was somewhat underproved; I haven't cut into it yet, but I'm not that impressed as yet.   However, the fact is that the panned loaf sat and proved away slowly for another hour and a half before baking, once I'd discovered how much more the dough had left in it: testament to high quality dough I suggest.   I'll attribute that as much to the raw materials and Mr. Hamelman's formula and process as I will to my own levels of control of all the factors; my job was made easy really.

HB: there's a load of info about it right here in my other blog postings.   You should also pay a visit to the good fellow who's posted just below.   Eric has worked on HB as well, and we've shared a lot of ideas on it, particularly the concept of steaming rather than baking the loaf.

It is a "must-try"; give me a shoutback on anything you need when you come to make it.

Best wishes

Andy

Good to hear from you and yes, all these loaves have turned out as "my kind of bread."   Enjoy the Nury; one I've yet to make, as Leader's book seems glued to my cupboard in College, and never gets back home...one for the Summer holidays per chance?   Feel free to take the rye bread I made; all the details are posted above, and it's a simple formula.

Yes, indeed; up the girls!   3 of the 4 returners are female.   I'd say more than half of all my bakery students have been women.   That's a really good thing to me; it brings me more hope for a brighter future for the baking industry.   Let's break down some stereotypical boundaries!

I'm really interested to know more about your food mapping project.   If you have time can you post a few lines here to give a little more detail?

All good wishes

Andy

Hi Daisy_A,

Many thanks for writing about this; very interesting, and keeping all the food edible too...what a challenge!

Our buildings form part of a "map" of Newcastle upon Tyne constructed using 100 iconic buildings in the region.   This forms a centrepiece in a secret location, which is revealed just a few hours ahead of the key gathering event of the EAT Festival.

The idea is that the space around the cake map is there for people to gather for a picnic.   So, the buildings don't get eaten, but food and company is shared.   That decadent side to cake decoration has always troubled me; it's a fundamental about why I'm so passionate about bread, but really not turned on by the sweet stuff at all.

Still, I think it will be a major event, and the Festival will be a fun time to be in the city.

Thanks again

Andy

David, I get such a range of students with diverse interest and specialisms.   The greatest pleasure is always to watch students "feeding" off each other.   So if we are doing complex fermentation one week, a real bread fan will step in and take the lead, and others will fall in behind.   Then we may do cake decorating another week, and the real bread fan will be attentively following the lead of another member of the group who is more skilled in this discipline.   So, yes I do stretch the students, but it's even better to watch them stretch each other!   I'm sure you know where I'm coming from.

Don, I thinked I picked a really sensible range of breads to make, and that allowed for a relatively easy production schedule.   Afterall, there is nothing more annoying than putting in all the hard work to find you have all the breads ready for the oven at the same time!   Steaming the Pumpernickel takes that away from oven schedule.   The rye was more potent than the wheat levain, so I made that first to ensure this was ready in good time.   The other 2 doughs were a little more problematic, but it worked well in the end.   Both formulae were from Hamelman and, as normal, were faultless.   However, I think the timings he uses are for the breads made WITH the small amount of yeast he has in his formulae [although often he states this is optional].   I didn't use yeast, but had plenty confidence in the power of the wheat levain I'd prepared.   As you may have noted the small boule of Cheese Bread is horribly underproved.   However the Pullman Pan loaf turned out nigh on perfect, and that with 2 hours of bulk and 3&1/2 hours final proof on a nice warm day [say 26*C in my kitchen].   By the way, I think you have loads of skills already; plenty enough to make you a great asset should you decide to do any teaching.

Hans, thank you for your kind comments, as always.    Regarding learning materials,   I'll post on this for you later, as I think there may be quite a bit here which is of interest to you.   It just needs a bit of playing around with

All good wishes to you

Andy

Hi

In case you haven't picked this up, I've added a new post in response to your question about learning materials.  You can catch it here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/18189/booklist-bakery-students

Best wishes

Andy

Hi Derek,

Thanks for posting on here.   I've put a link up above to take you to the info on learning materials.

I remember years back when I first started at Melmerby Village Bakery.   A time-served and vastly experienced baker called Roger started the same day as me; 1st August 1994.   A couple of months after this we were having a discussion about croissants, as we came to thinking the method we were using, as directed by the owner, was not the best, or, conventionally speaking, correct.   These croissant were made with a portion of wholemeal flour.   I was amazed when Roger turned up one night with an incredibly battered A4 hardback booklet.   Inside, all in very neat, large handwriting were all the recipes, formulae and methods for all the products he covered in his time as an Apprentice Baker.   Roger is now in his 70s, so I guess the book went back to the 1960s.   I don't think he's shown that book to many people, but it was so special to see what was inside.

The bakery students do supply up to our Restaurant, and through to the School Bistro too.   I quite like where we are positioned actually.   Baking is classed as Food Manufacture in terms of syllabus group.   This makes me quite separate from the rest of the staff in our department as a whole, as they all teach Catering and Hospitality.   I think I get the best of it: there's a lot of mutual support, and sense of working together for business; bit I also enjoy a sense of independence; much respect for what I do, and for the student input and output, but also, a willingness to let me just get on with it, and develop the future provision.

Very best wishes

Andy

Hi All!

copyu reminded me about this; thanks for that.

Here are details of the competition recipes:

Student Competition Bread Recipes

Pre-Ferments and Mis-en-Place [16 hours in advance]

• 1. Overnight Biga

This is for both Potato Bread and Semolina Bread

• 2. Rye Sour

• 3. Roasting Onions and Potatoes

Roast the onions and potatoes in some olive oil.

Set these to one side to use the next day.   If you season these with salt, that needs to be taken away from the recipe shown above.   That means you need to weigh any salt added first, so you know how much to take off!

************************************************************************************************

•1. Pain Siègle

This dough was used to make loaves in bannetons, baked on the sole of the oven, and some "couronne" of roll pieces, topped with a generous mixture of seeds: the overall Competition WINNER!

•2. Roasted Potatoes and Onions Bread

Overnight Biga

Roasted Potatoes and Onions Bread

Oven profile: bake in the deck oven at 235°C; top heat 7, bottom heat 5 for 20 minutes; open damper and bake further 8 to 10 minutes for the large loaves

•3.  SEMOLINA BREAD [SicilianScroll and Epis Seeded]

Recipe and Formula

METHOD:

• Make the Biga the day before, allowing for a fermentation period of 16 - 18 hours.
• Soak the Semolina in the water for 1 hour prior to mixing the dough
• Put the Biga, soaked semolina and all of the other ingredients in to the Spiral Mixer to mix for 15 minutes. And check now and then if you need to scrape the bottom to help the mixing until you develop a silky and smooth dough.
• Put the dough in to a container lined with a little of olive oil. Cover with cling film and Bulk Ferment for 45 minutes.
• Scale and divide dough in to 1kg for the large Bannetons, and 460g for the small Sicilian Scroll or for the Epis. Mould round and rest covered for 10 minutes.
• Prepare the trays with silicon paper with a dust of Semolina flour. Shape the dough in to long shaped sausages and then mould it in to a S shape. Brush them with water and dip in sesame seeds. Carefully place the shaped dough on to the dusted trays.
• Prove at 35- 40oC, 80 % rH, for approx 45 - 55 minutes.
• Bake in the sole of the oven. Oven profile is 235oC, top heat 7, bottom heat 5. Use steam set at 2. Total baking time 25-30 minutes. Check after 15 minutes and open damper. If necessary after 20-25 minutes drop the heat to 225-220oC for the last minutes of baking time.
• Cool on wires.
• 4. Chollah with added Wholemeal Flour

CHOLLAH

[Plaited Festive Bread]

Makes 2 Chollah loaves, topped with seeds.

Oven profile: Use steam set at 2 if available. Bake at 180°C; top 6, bottom 5, for 28 minutes. Open the damper for the last 5 minutes of bake.

Method:

• Whisk all the ingredients for the ferment together in a steel bowl.
• Cover with cling film and set in a warm place for half an hour.
• Mix all the ingredients, together with the ferment, in an upright machine with a hook; 2 minutes on first speed and 6 minutes on 3rd speed.
• Rest for 15 minutes, then scale into 2 x 970g pieces. Divide into 8 equal sized pieces
• Mould round and rest 15 minutes, covered.
• Line trays with silicone paper. Roll out strands to 9" and plait acording to instructions.
• Double brush with beaten egg. Top with a generous mix of pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, flax , mustard, and poppy seeds. Set to prove.
• Prove 50 - 60 minutes at 35 - 40°C, 85%rH.
• Bake as oven profile. Cool on wires.