Plain White

Fresh out of the oven. A plain white loaf of bread. Straight dough. I did make it with some left over viennoiserie dough. The slight butter scent fills the kitchen.

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*Edit* I am sorry for the blurry cell phone pics. Each posting that sez 'Sent via BlackBerry' might have pics that are sometimes blurry.

Baked last night...

I know it has been ages if not centuries since I have been updating my blog. Thanks Hans Joakim for reminding me.
Did I stop baking? Not at all, but there is going a ton of things on in my life and I just cannot seem to make myself update this blog. I should. So I apologize to you all.
I will try to revive this blog again and posting pics via my mobile phone should make this easy!

This is one of the loaves I baked last night, just a variation on the Special West-Flanders brown bread. I used no broken wheat because I did ran out of it and I seem to not be able to make it to the store to get some.
I did use a mixed flour with grains inside, but only like 10 percent, so it is not like too dark.
Once again a straight dough, no sourdough, my starter is staying in the fridge. Actually after this posting I should make some dough again, otherwise I would ran out of bread by the end of the week. I bake like 4 loaves or so during the weekend and store them in the freezer. I have to admit that years ago the thought of frozen bread was something I could not imagine at all. I thought it was like sacrilege. :-)
Nowadays after being surprised how little the bread is different after being frozen or not, I do this all the time, it became my work flow. Okay, it is not a 100% like fresh bread, but it is either baking during the weekend and freeze them or go to the baker...
And since I love baking I choose to freeze them.
The picture is not perfect, but it will do for now. Talk to you guys later!

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Too dark

Just like everyone, once and a while my result is not good. This time my loaf was a bit too dark. I like my loaves well baked, but this is a bit too dark ;-)

Soft rolls - Pastry Cream - Apples

I think it is awesome what you can make out of one single dough.

I made these before (actually this recipe is slightly different though) but now I decided to put apple slices on top of the pastry cream.
I baked them lightly to keep them soft (had some problems in the past when the are baked too dark => they become too hard and even too crispy which is for this kind of dough not tasty at all.)
I am pretty sure that the reason for that is that it depends how long my oven has been turned on.

Baking is like a never ending journey in learning, and the end result might be different each time depending on various factors that you are or are not able to control.

Country Bread - Hamelman

Ready to bake...

PICS? PICS? PICS!!!

Cake!

D-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s! Home made!

Perfect Pistol Rolls

My best result ever, used plain white flour, otherwise I use a little rye or whole wheat in them. They look/taste delicious!

Random Pics

Random pics from my baking weekend :

Whole Wheat levain - Hamelman

First post of the new year! Whole wheat levain by Hamelman.
Very tasty bread, love it...

Butter Pistol Roll

This is a very tasty variation on hard rolls. It has a certain flakiness and a delicious butter taste. Oops! I told a part of the secret.... How do we get this flakiness into a hard roll? Well pretty easy. We fold butter into the dough. The trick (if you want to call it a trick) is to give the dough two folds (in 3) with butter after the first fermentation.
After folding the butter in, with a rolling pin, we divide the dough into pieces (I use 50 Grams each.) After that we make the roll shape and let the dough ferment.

Recipe :

500 Grams flour
300 Grams water
8 Grams dry yeast
9 Grams salt
_________________
75 Grams butter to fold in (divide this into two equal pieces)

Mix water, yeast, flour for about 2 minutes in first speed.
Add the salt when the dough comes together.
Mix for an additional 6 minutes in second speed.
Desired dough temperature : 22°C or 71°F
Let the dough ferment for 20 minutes covered in plastic.

Punch down and roll with a rolling pin into a rectangular shape.
Place the soft (same consistence as the dough) butter 2/3th on the dough.
Fold in 3.
Let the dough rest for about 5 minutes.
Roll again in a rectangular shape. Take the second part of the butter and do
the same as mentioned above. Roll the dough and divide into 50 gram pieces.
Make rolls, and slice.

Proof until they are large enough (I guess it took about 45 minutes, I
have a proofer so this might take longer in your kitchen.)

Bake :

230°C (440°F) - 10-15 minutes (Make sure they are well baked! These times are just a guiding line, it might take up to 18-20 minutes to be fully baked depending on your oven.)

Let cool down if you can and enjoy these delicious rolls!!!

A matter of loaf and death!

"A matter of loaf and death" is the new movie of Walace and Gromit which went on premiere last night on BBC One. I was actually surprised when I read the
title that it would have something to do with baking!
The movie was great! I am a huge W&G fan and as soon as the DVD comes out March 2009 I will get it. Meanwhile check out the amazing W&G site!

Christmas '08

Christmas this year was awesome! I ate some great food (I made delicious veggie goulash!) Also I had a great result baking. I made Stollen, brownies (this was a succes!) and a "Buche De Noel" which was also awesome!
Here are some pics :

Soft Rolls (with-without pastry cream)

These look pretty much perfect. Proofing in the proofer sure is a benefit.
I slowly gain control over the new oven, but not for everything. I am kinda
disappointed, because I really seem not to be able to control baking Viennoiserie in it.
This is a real bummer, I think I will use my kitchen hot air oven this weekend to bake the Viennoiserie in. Bummer...

Submitted to Yeastspotting

Recipe :
500 grams flour
42 grams yeast (fresh)
20 grams honey
2 eggs
250 grams milk
7 grams salt
75 grams butter

Mix Milk + yeast + honey + eggs
Add flour
Add the soft butter
Add salt

Knead for about 10 minutes.
10 minutes rest covered with plastic.

Divide the dough into buns 50 grams each.
Make boule shapes.
Rest 10 minutes covered. The ones you want to fill with pastry
cream : take a small cloth, fill with some flour and make a round shape like
a ball. Punch down the dough with it to create a hole to fill with pastry cream,
do this just before putting them in the oven.

Proof for about 20 minutes (this might take longer depending how warm it is in your kitchen), egg wash them and bake.

240°C (460F) for about 10 minutes.

Like I mentioned before on this blog, I usually use cooked pastry cream, but for these ones I made it easy and used a mix. For baked goods that is okay.

Pistol Rolls - Whole Wheat

Pic of the pistol rolls fresh out of the oven!

Baguettes with pâte fermentée - Hamelman

I just sliced a piece of baguette and was blown away by the crumb. This is my best result so far. I have used and old piece of bread dough that has been stored in my fridge. I made the dough and added the old dough. The result was beautiful I think.
The taste was great too, and the crust was as sharp as a knife. I actually hurt my mouth. It remembered me at the baguettes we used to get at the local baker who is long gone.

Sunday Viennoiserie (Calvel)

4AM this Sunday morning I finished the Viennoiserie. I am satisfied with the result because I succeeded in tweaking the baking with the new oven.
They look pretty much perfect, although the apple slices could have been larger on the ones with apple, but the apple I had was a bit tiny. Like I said, I am satisfied with the Calvel recipe.

I did use a mixture of margarine and butter because I wanted my lamination better. I know this taste would have been better if I used pure butter only, but sometimes one has to make a compromise between the taste and end result, I chose that lamination was more important so I did use half butter/half margarine. Like I mentioned, I think the taste/result was great and next Sunday I will make them again.

Viennoiserie

Just a quick posting of the Viennoiserie I made this night. The lamination was okay, and I wasn't sure if I would post this, because these are the ones that are left over ;-)
but here they are :

Beer Bread (with roasted Barley) - Hamelman made in the new oven

So last night I did some test baking in the new oven.
I made the beer bread with roasted barley by Hamelman. I fired up the oven like more than an hour in advance. I did make some viennoiserie as well and baked that first and that also was an adventure. Just like my first loaf the bottom also did become too dark.
The baking stone seems to be really, really hot. Like I mentioned in previous posting, baking in this oven is nothing like baking with a hot air kitchen oven.
I did test a new technique for steaming, and the way the loaves came out was rather surprising. I did make them slightly larger, using 100grams more dough. So that also explains why they are taller as usual, but the steam seemed to work really well.
Today I am baking a couple of loaves again and hope to reproduce the result. The corn bread is bulk fermenting as I write this posting.
I post a pic of the loaves, please feel free to comment.