ananda's blog

Bread Adventures in July [finally edited to include a few pictures, and remove the original apologetic whingeing!]

This academic year seems to have gone on longer than any I can previously remember.   I still have a few assignments to mark for late submitting Hospitality students...maybe I should be getting that out of the way this weekend?   However I thought it would be more fun to write up the detail of the breads I've been making this month instead!

Hi Again!

Very quickly following on from my last post "Whitsuntide Breads and Other Antics", this is a quick post listing the books that I recommend for my bakery students to source to aid their programme of study.

Whitsuntide Baking and Other Antics

Today has been a busy day making a range of breads.   I had refreshed both my rye sourdough and wheat levain, with no definite projects in mind.   Given store cupboard availability at the time, this is what I've ended up with:

•1.    Cheese Bread

Hi

This is just a quickie to show how I prefer this bread; as a steamed "pudding".   The "Pullman Pan" is ideal to make sandwiches, but I prefer not to bake this loaf.   Steaming time for a 600g loaf is about 8 hours!   Cool, then wrap in linen for 24 hours.   Finally, this loaf can now be sliced for eating; AND, it's so good!

Photographic evidence attached:

Slight Variations on Two More Formulae from Hamelman's "Bread"

I made these last weekend.

75% Sourdough Rye with a Rye Flour Soaker

This was pretty faithful to the original recipe, except that the rye flour had to be cut back to 75%, as I ran out of dark rye flour.   Also, it is leavened only by the sourdough; no added yeast.  Detail is shown below.

DonD's Baguettes à'Ancienne with Cold Retardation

A short while ago Don posted his latest work on these techniques he has been developing recently.   You can view his most excellent work here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/17415/baguettes-l039ancienne-cold-retardation  

Just over a week ago in a post which you can read here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/17275/french-terms

Semolina [Durum] Bread and Sourdough Seed Bread.

I've been home-based all Easter weekend, so I decided on Thursday that I would make an inroad into the Hamelman Challenge set up by Brian: see http://thebreadchallenge.weebly.com/

Brief Post on Vienna Flour

Uberathlete posted asking about Vienna Flour, see: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/17241/what-vienna-flour

Elizabeth David (1977; pp.76), in her "English Bread and Yeast Cookery states the following: " 'Vienna' flour was in reality high quality Hungarian or Romanian flour, roller milled, fine, of medium strength and creamy white, good for 'Vienna' bread and puff pastry and yeast cakes."

Horst Bandel's Black Pumpernickel.

This is a recipe from "Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes" by Jeffrey Hamelman.   A number of TFL regulars have posted on this recipe, notably,

ehanner: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16501/learning-pumpernickel and http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16348/horst-bandel039s-black-pumpernickel-bread

Taking Part in a Baking Competition

Way back in early January, not long after I first started posting on TFL, I found an invitation in my e-mails to compete in what becomes the baking world cup: La Coupe du Monde de Bolangerie, next taking place in 2012..