Posts Tagged ‘Bread’
Saturday, June 25th, 2011
Last week bought with it mixed feelings. It was our last week of studying ‘pure’ bread. This week we’ve moved on to Viennoiserie, and whilst I am totally relishing the fresh challenges and new techniques we’re getting to experience dealing with enriched doughs, I’ve got to confess, I’m missing the bread ‘lab’ quite a bit.
The week was basically a review of all the techniques and baking concepts we’d covered over the past couple of months, and started where we began with baguettes. It was really good to revisit our French friends, as it helped cement a bunch of stuff that wasn’t really glued down. I guess in those first few weeks there was so much information flooding into my brain that I couldn’t really grasp hold of it all, and with baguettes being one of the most challenging breads, there was a lot to remember.
So we did a good day of mixing, shaping, rolling, scoring and baking the buggers, and I was relieved that aside from a few howlers here and there, I was pretty happy with how they turned out. For me, in many ways the scoring is the trickiest thing. You need to get the angle and depth of the cuts just right to get that spring and the famous baguette ears. I changed my technique after a bit more of an in-depth critique of my first batch, which improved results, but I’ve still got a lot of practicing to do.
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Tags: Baguette, Bread, Flat Bread, Gluten Free, Hand Mix, lavash, Miche, Naan, Pitta, Pizza, Poilaine, review, San Francisco, SFBI, Sourdough, Viennoiserie, Week, Wood Fired Oven
Posted in Opinion, Reviews, Travel | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
Well maybe not everything, but it doesn’t get much better than kicking things off with an East 17 pun. So, another week, another post. Are you bored of bread yet? You better not be.
Last week was all about European, predominantly German, style breads. Which means rye. And lots of it. I’ve got to put my hands up and admit that I’ve never been the world’s biggest fan of rye breads. I don’t mind a bit every now and then, and like the flavour in small doses, but I never crave those dark, heavy loaves like I do a good bit of toothsome, tangy sourdough.
You might be expecting me to say that having got hands on with them that I’m now a convert, but I’ve got to say, I’m afraid I’m not. I also find it hard to fall in love with breads with names like Volkornbrot and Swabian Bread. Maybe that’s because I’m shallow.
Sunflower Rye
But that doesn’t mean that last week was a lost cause, in fact far from it. We started the week with some great sourdoughs incorporating increasing percentages of rye so we could see the effects on the bread making process, and taste the development of flavour. My favourites were the sunflower, Finnish and honey ryes, the latter of which went up to around 75% percent rye flower.
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Tags: Almonds, Bagel, Beaujolais Nouveau, Bratwurst, Bread, Finnish Rye, French Coutry Shapes, Honey Rye, Pretzel, Rye, San Francisco, Saucisson, SFBI, Swabian, Volkornbrot
Posted in Recipes, Travel | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
To quote Jimmy Castor’s ‘Troglodyte‘, “What we’re gonna do right here is go back. Way back. Back into time…” because last week was all about kicking it old school, both in terms of ingredients and baking methods. We’re talking ancient grains and wood fire ovens.
Ancient wheats like spelt, khorasan (more commonly known as Kamut) emmer and, einkorn, and grains like millet, sorghum, quinoa, and teff were the precursors to modern wheat. They fell out of favour centuries ago as farmers and latterly scientists, developed the higher yield grains that we ‘enjoy’ today. However, wheats with increased yields and higher levels of protein / gluten are much harder for our bodies to digest, and less healthy. For this reason, ancient grains have become fashionable again, and are considered by many to be the future of bread.
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Tags: Ancient Grains, Baking, Bread, Einkorn, Emmer, Future, Kamut, Khorasan, Millet, Past, Quinoa, San Francisco, SFBI, Sorghum, Sourdough, Spelt, Starters, Teff, Wood Fired Oven
Posted in Opinion, Reviews, Travel | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
I seriously can’t believe that I’m now a month in to the course at the SFBI. Time really is flying by crazy fast.
Last week we moved on from more refined flours to the healthier, more wholesome, and some might say less fun, whole grains. But as we discovered, healthier bread doesn’t have to mean slicing into a loaf with the weight and consistency of a house brick. Over the week we used an array of new flours both in doughs and in preferments, including whole wheat, semolina, type 85 high extraction flour, rye, buckwheat and corn to name but a few.
Millet Bread
But before we got busy, we discussed the various challenges of baking with whole grains. In comparison to more refined flours, there are two main factors to consider when working with them (again I’m simplifying and truncating things here). The first is the lower protein percentage / quality due to the presence of more bran in the flour. This equals less gluten, and therefore flatter breads as whole wheat doughs trap fermentation gases less readily. The second thing to watch out for are fermentation times. These are again affected by the higher levels of bran (also known as ‘ash content‘) in the flours. The minerals and nutrients in bran fuel enzyme activity, and that means faster and more intense fermentation, which effects a number of stages of the production process from bulk fermentation to final proof. Interesting, right? If not, you might be in the wrong place.
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Tags: Ash Content, Baking, Bread, Buckwheat, Corn, Course, Filone, Hazelnuts, Levain, Millett, Pear, Poolish, power, prairie, Rustic, Rye, San Francisco, Semolina, SFBI, Whole Grains
Posted in Opinion, Reviews, Travel | 2 Comments »
Monday, May 23rd, 2011
What. A. Week.
Despite the past two weeks at SFBI being fantastic, one of the things I’ve been most excited about getting stuck into is making sourdoughs and science behind the rise. I’ve done a fair few sourdough experiments at home in the past, but never really nailed it, so the past week really ticked some major boxes for me.
We started our foray into the world of sour by looking into it’s history and mythology, and of course touching on the famous San Francisco Sourdough. It’s interesting stuff (at least to me), and as a few readers have expressed an interest in knowing more, here’s a potted version.
Sourdough was discovered / invented by accident in ancient Egypt at around 1500 BC. The story goes that some women making loaves on the banks of the Nile left a couple out in the humid, sunny conditions. They discovered their omission, and added the dough that had started to leaven to the rest of their batch. They liked the resulting lighter bread and it’s flavour, and kick started a great bread making tradition.
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Tags: Baking, Bread, Culture, Egypt, Hand Mix, History, Leavening, Natural, Nile, San Francisco, San Francisco Sourdough, SFBI, Sourdough, Starter, Still, Yeast
Posted in Opinion, Reading, Reviews, Travel | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 16th, 2011
So week two is over, and man did it go fast. After last week’s baguette-fest, we’ve started to mix things up both in terms of bread varieties and formulations, including the use of pre-ferments.
The pre-ferments we used last week are kind of like junior sourdough starters, and mostly come in three styles. Liquid or ‘poolish’ (first developed by Polish bakers), a stiffer sponge also known as ‘biga’ (used traditionally by the Italians) and the more solid Pre-Fermented Dough (PFD). Unlike sourdough starters, they contain a small quantity of commercial yeast to kick start fermentation, and are usually left to develop for between 12 and 24 hours before being added to a final mix. Not only do they add character and flavour, but they also help aid gluten development allowing for less intensive mixing.
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Tags: Biga, Braids, Bread, Egg, Multi Grain, Pain Meunier, Pan, PFD, Poolish, Pre-Fermented Dough, Rye, San Francisco, SFBI, White, Whole Wheat
Posted in Opinion, Reviews, Travel | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
Whilst doing some San Francisco research a couple of months ago, the missus sent me a link to this set of photos on The Selby blog featuring a bakery called Tartine. The minute I saw the pictures of the breads, pasties and all those other good things, we knew we had to pay them a visit.
After doing a bit more digging, I found this super inspiring video on the accompanying Tartine bread site.
Tartine Bread from 4SP Films on Vimeo.
I’m not sure about all that accordion playing, but I. CAN. NOT. WAIT. TO. TRY. THAT. BREAD.
Hmmmmmmm.
Tags: Bakery, Bread, Cafe, San Francisco, Tartine
Posted in Opinion, Travel | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
So, after a fair few months of planning and saving, I’ve got some exciting news. Hand To Mouth is re-locating to the US for six months. The wife and I are upping sticks to head to San Francisco at the end of April, where I’m going to be doing a professional bread and pastry diploma at the awesome San Francisco Baking Institute.
Photo: Unknown
The seed for this adventure was first planted a little over a year ago when I read this post on the Chow blog. My wife and I were feeling increasingly disillusioned with our careers / industries, and had been talking for some time about opening our own cafe bakery. But with very little in the way of experience, we didn’t really know where to start. It was beginning to feel like it may always be a bit of a pipe dream, and then I read the Chow post and a large penny dropped.
So we did some research, found out more about the course, talked about it for a while, and decided to go for it. To be honest, it’s all a bit scary, but also exhilarating. If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you’ll know that I’ve been bitten by the baking bug, but this is a whole new ball game. I’m going to be well out of my comfort zone, and when you throw into the mix quitting a perfectly good, well paid job at one of the UK’s most respected ad agencies, you’ve either got a recipe for disaster, or the best thing I’ve ever done with my life.
We don’t have any time frame on when / if we’re going to start our own business, but that’s partly what this trip is all about. As well as doing the course, we’re going to do some work experience, travel around the States, and generally immerse ourselves in country’s food culture, whilst getting a plan together of the kind of business we want to open. But I guess there’s also every chance that we might end up by missing our day jobs, and we’ll yearn to return to London at the end of our adventure. Only time will tell.
So can an Advertising Wanker be transformed into a Master Baker? You’ll have to keep it locked right here to find out.
Tags: Advertising, Baking, Bread, Chef, Course, Escape The City, Life Change, Master Baker, Pastry, Professional, San Francisco Baking Institute, Travel
Posted in Opinion, Travel | 5 Comments »
