Today's baking day again, as last week's bread is coming to an end... hold on, which bread? Indeed, I have to admit we're running a bit late, so let's try some catching up. I should not mention that there was a particularly good bread before the one that I'm reporting about now...
So, before getting ready doing the bread for the coming week, let's have a look at last week's White Rustic Boomerang. I'm still chasing the idea of having a proper rustic white bread with a good crust outside and a light, open structure inside. I know, I could do some research and follow a recipe, but my nature of achieving certain results is usually by trial & error. You could also call me a stubborn donkey!
The approach of the day was called 'pre-dough'. I made my usual yeast-mix (3 spoons of dry yeast, 2 spoons of sugar, 100ml of water and 50ml of boiling water) and mixed it with 200 grams of strong white flour, kneaded it and but it to rest not just for 1 hour but for a whole day. Of course, I put it in a warm place and covered with a wet cloth.


Now this is how it looked like after coming out of the cupboard... it did grow, which is nice. But it also developed a thick hard 'skin', which is less nice. But, I needed to continue with what I had, so I added 200 grams more flour, some salt (not enough) and some water in a desperate attempt of getting a nice smooth dough. After some serious kneading I was almost there...
Oh well! All there was to do is getting it into shape (no, it's not a half-moon shape, it's a baguette shape bent to fit into the oven), make some cuts and add a bit of herbs: olive salt, thyme and rosemary. And then I was remembering that I forgot about the oil that I usually put in the dough... so this time, we just had some oil sprinkled on top.

The masterpiece was then resting under cover for about an hour before going into the oven, 30 minutes at 220 degrees. The result left me with mixed feelings: On one hand it had a nice crust and a good and even inner structure. On the other hand it was missing some salt, it was missing the oil (or butter) in the dough and it certainly didn't turn out light and airy. Let's see if I'm more lucky next time!

Today we'd like to introduce you to the Arbitrary Hedgehog Bread. I should not mention that it turned out really, really nice, because this one will be a bit difficult to put into a recipe that one could follow. Nevertheless, it makes a good story.
Let's start with stating that I had no particular plan as to what kind of bread I wanted to do. We finished with the previous one, so there was a certain urgency to do a new one. I also need to mention that I wasn't in the best mood for baking for reasons outside the scope of this blog. Usually, that would not be a good outset!
Anyway, while our zuccini and the lamb where in the oven getting ready for dinner I started measuring the flour. There was a nearly finished pack of strong white flour and a nearly finished pack of rye flour and the next thing that caught my attention was flames shooting out of the oven!
After getting the situation under control again I returned to the flour to find the electronic scales having gone back to stand-by, so I just added a bit more flour to get an amount that I felt comfortable with. Luckily I've done the sugar- water- and yeastmix earlier, so at least that was done properly measured. However, now I simply added some salt, a splash of olive oil and another splash of cider (you see what I mean by 'arbitrary'), mixed everything together, got reminded that dinner by now was ready... things were getting hectic!

All there was left for me to do was quickly (but using good old stress-releasing brute force) knead the dough, cover it and let it rest while we were having dinner. Now don't ask me how long I allowed it to rest, I estimate about 90 minutes, after which I returned to the dough for more stress releave. As a matter of fact, there was a moment it almost looked like I was trying to do a pizza, but I thought better and rolled it up to a more bread-like shape. Did some deep cuts, rubbed some thyme into the wounds and covered again while I was preheating the oven to roughly 220 degree.

The rest was fairly simple.. get the dough into the oven, wait 20 minutes, take it out, tap (sounded 'proper') and resist the temptation to sample it right away.

So, after another 10 minutes the whole ordeal was over and done, and, much to my surprise we had a good looking, hedgehog-shaped (can't you see?), gorgeous smelling bread with a subtle crust and a nice and tasty inside. maybe a hint on the soft side, but hey! You should always leave some room for improvement!

Cider Rye Loaf, not as difficult as you might think.

So finally my first post in this blog! I must admit I am a bit of a lazy writer... never really like writing essays at school and still no different, apart from the fact that I am not at school anymore.

Lately, I've been following recipes for breads since we've changed to the new yeast and they seem to work. Also I've found out that when a recipe calls for a certain amount of dry instant

yeast, you should use the double for dried active yeast.

As the bread ran out in middle of the week, it was

my turn to make some bread and I decided for a Cider Rye loaf from Dan Lepard.

Seems like rye bread has a reputation of being difficult to make but to my surprise and as the recipe stated it was pretty easy. You just need patience really :)

First you need to prepare the overnight mixture.

Next day, mix the rest of the ingredients and rest for 30 minutes.

Shape the dough in a nice ball shape and place on an ovenproof dish. Leave for 2 hours.

Put it in a cold oven, lid on and set temperature to 200C for 30 minutes. Take lid out and leave for more 15 minutes. In my case, after testing the bottom of the bread, I decided to leave for 5 minutes more.

The result is a nice moist loaf! All that and no kneading required :)

A different bread for a different purpose!
Usually, we do the bread for the week for eating it at breakfast. It should be an interesting bread (who wants same-old all the time?), should go well with butter, jam, Nutella or peanut butter. Hopefully, it should last us the whole week without getting too dry or too chewy.
Now, this time the brief was slightly different: We bought clams, and we didn't want to do them with either rice or pasta, so bread was a good idea. Something that would help soaking up the sauce, too. Like a French baguette... alright, we could have just bought one, but that would be too easy, right?
I was looking up a few ideas from my cooking books, knowing that you won't be able to do a baguette unless you prepare the dough the day before. I found two interesting suggestions, one being Portuguese and the other one from Lebanon. I wonder if that is a good idea...

So, here we go: 350 grams of strong white flour, 50 grams of barley flour. One teaspoon of salt, 1 table spoon of sugar. 2 table spoons of olive oil. Extra virgin, obviously! Prepare the yeast as usual (or as per instructions), 100 ml cold water, 50 ml boiling water, 2 table spoons of sugar and 3 table spoons of yeast. I'm happy that since the last time, my yeast does behave as it should. 10 minutes in a warm place and you see it bubbling away!

Mix everything and attempt making a nice, smooth, elastic and not overly sticky dough out of it. Chances are you won't succeed, because I didn't allow for sufficient liquid. No, no beer. No cider either. Instead, I opted for more olive oil (still extra virgin and, if I may add, I prefer unfiltered). Don't ask me how much oil I added in the end, I'd say about 2 more table spoons. Once the dough was okay. I smeared it with more olive oil and left it covered to rest for one hour.
After that, I split the dough in half, as I expected we would want only half of the bread with dinner, while the other half would serve a few days of breakfast. Also, I didn't want the dough balls to be that big (as a matter of fact, the Lebanese recipe suggested splitting the dough in 12!). As you can see, the result did have some resemblance with Naam (but that would be totally different again!)
Again, rub it in olive oil (did I mention 'virgin'?) and leave it resting covered while the oven gets preheated to 230 degree. Yes, let's turn it up full blast!
Just before slipping the 2 breads in the oven I sprayed them with cold water, so the top would not turn to charcoal prematurely. I left it then in the oven for about 15 minutes and gave it another 10 minutes at about 150 degree. See, I did say in the beginning that today we were doing something somehow differently.

We do enjoy the result and it did serve the purpose brilliantly. It's soft, but not too soft, and it soaks nicely. It has a very subtle sweetness, too. And after cutting I even found a suitable name: Evil Bunny Bread. But then again, that's just me...