Blog posts

Since going on a 1 day French baking course at Christmas I have been keen to continue my croissant baking journey. There are many blogs on here already but I wanted a place to be able to track my progress and perhaps help other's in the meantime - even if it's just to show how not to do it! 

The recipe I use is from the Bread Ahead baking book. 

500g strong bread flour (I can't get strong bread flour so I used bread flour which I think has 13% protein here) 

12g sea salt

55g sugar

40g softened unsalted butter

30g fresh yeast

I was in pursuit of a relatively cheap hobby and basically entered into the Google search bar: "stuff to do for free." One of the many lists I read through suggested I make some bread. One loaf later, and I was hooked!

Standard recipe, with added mixed seeds sesame, chia, poppy, and 1/6 durum wheat along with the white rye, bread flour and 100% dark rye starter / mother dough.

I seriously can’t believe it. There’s now a grain mill in my kitchen! Needless to say, I planned a bake with freshly ground flour the day I took it home.

Brie, Hazelnut and Goji Berries Sourdough with White Whole Wheat Flour

Dough flour:

I loved the look of Ru's seeded SD so decided to have a go.  I made the exact quantity that she did but because I couldn't find any black sesame seeds I used black chia seeds instead.  

I refreshed my rye starter that sulks in the fridge without being wanted for weeks on end.  Wednesday at 8:30 am I mixed together

20 g starter + 40 g water + 38 g rye (all I had in the pantry)  and left at RT.

15:30 pm added 13 g water + 13 g rye flour and left to mature.  

I always wondered how this was being done... my first try.

I now know what needs to be done to improve on this.  This has no real use other than the wow factor, in my opinion.

My first blog post is about this wonderfully classic teacake with a rich tradition.  Back when bread dough was prepared at home and then baked in the village baker's oven, bara brith (Welsh translation is mottled or speckled bread) was usually the leftover scraps of dough thrown together and sweetened with dried fruit. 

It did, however, grow into a standardized loaf consumed during teatime, still filled with an abundance of dried fruit (sultanas, raisins, currants, cranberries...). 

We love pie so I made some pie to celebrate Father's Day!

These are fried pies. I used a crust that is meant to be very tender and flaky. The filling is creamy tuna in white sauce. They are also very crispy after frying with the crispness that you associate with a croissant.

Anyone who has been around TFL long enough and is suspiciously odd (or bored) enough knows that my baguette journey began with my baking the Anis Bouabsa baguette.  For the uninitiated, M. Bouabsa is a bread baker in Paris who won the quite prestigious annual city-wide competition in 2008 for the Best Baguette in Paris, and with about 30 competitors it was no small feat.  His rewards included accolades, bragging rights and a meeting with the French President.

One of my brothers asked me to make buns to go with the burgers and crab we are having tomorrow for Father’s Day. I surfed a number of recipes but kept coming back to this one. 

https://stellaculinary.com/recipes/baking-pastry/baking/bread/hamburger-brioche-buns-large

So here they are...