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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Special White

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 ;-)

A simple loaf.

I've had great results lately using the following recipe :

500 grams flour
6 grams dry yeast
260 grams water
15 grams butter
10 grams salt

Mixing : 2 minutes 1st speed
7 minutes second speed

Bulk Ferment : 45 minutes + one fold
Divide and shape.

Proof : 45 minutes more or less.
Bake 230°C 40 minutes.

I ususally bake using a pre-ferment or sourdough.
When I need bread rather quickly I use this straight dough method.
I use different flours and grains giving it some extra taste.

West-Flanders Brown Bread

Bread

It has been a while since I posted so here's a pic of some straight dough breads.

Bloch-Bruine Provence

I made this bread with organic whole wheat. My personal opinion is that there should be some bread flour in the dough to support the dough strength. The taste was great but I found that the slices crumbled because the whole wheat (100%) did not seem to have enough gluten. I guess using different whole wheat might solve this problem.

Pain Provençale - Bloch 50% Whole Wheat

I have made the Pain Provençale loaf again (see previous posting) but instead of using all white flour I replaced half of it with whole wheat.

Pain Provençale - Bloch

Bloch closed down. A sad day for the city of Ghent. This bakery has been there since April 30,1899 and has closed down for good on March 28, 2008.

When I was a child, I got to know this bakery trough an aunt of mine who used to bring delicious bread with her every time she visited. When I grew up I became a costumer there and every time my wife and I were in the city we would have a tea or coffee there and enjoy some good pastry. It is sad to know that we won't be able to do this any more. Make sure you check the pics. Sorry for the English readers of this blog, but the site is in my native language Dutch.

To ease the pain a bit I find comfort in the fact that all recipes should be on line shortly and available for every one. I made the Pain Provençale which I found in the local news paper.

Here's the recipe :

370 grams water
660 grams bread flour
15 grams fresh yeast
10 grams salt

Mix the cold water and yeast. Add the flour and mix, add the salt.
The dough should be still sticky, not too dry. Knead for about 15 minutes by hand.
Bulk ferment for an hour.
Fold and make a boule. Proof for 2 hours.
Shape the loaf without degassing too much and let it rest for about 10 minutes.
Bake : 220°C - 45 minutes

Rice Bread - Dan Lepard

I wanted to try this one because I never made a bread before with so much rice in it. I made Peter Reinhart's Struan bread but that contains only a small amount of cooked rice.
This bread should be baked in a Pullman loaf pan, but I don't have one so I made this in an open loaf pan. I do like the taste, but it is kinda sweet because of the two tablespoons honey in the dough. I did not like the hard baked rice grains in the crust, but I guess this won't happen when you use a Pullman loaf pan. Mmmm, I should get one to try to find out if this is correct.

Simple Milk loaf - Dan Lepard

Well, this is like the description, a simple milk loaf containing milk, some maple syrup and also some butter, flour and salt. It has a very light crumb structure and reminds me at Brioche, with a less rich taste though.

Brioche - Slice

The Brioche containing 50% butter (Hamelman) was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!

Golden Honey Oat bread

I found the recipe on this blog (see link)Uit de keuken van Arden - In the Kitchen with Arden: Brood met honing, havervlokken en lijnzaad (Golden Honey Oat Bread) and decided to try it. Very tasty indeed! Delicious bread!

Craquelin (Sugar bread)

Mmmmm, this loaf is yummie! Again, brioche like dough, added pearl sugar makes this loaf very sweet. Most of the pearls are melted and that taste is simply delicious!
I would not be eating this every day, but once and a while it won't hurt.
Craquelin

Raisin-currant bread

The dough is the same like brioche but with less butter in it. Great sweet taste. I did not have raisins enough so I added some currants too.

Quick Ciabatta crumb

After my first try I had to try to get a better result with making ciabatta, so I made it yesterday again. Just look for "Quick Ciabatta" on 'thefreshloaf.com'
The result is much better that the first time. Irregular large holes is what I was looking for and it looks real nice. The taste was great too! You would think that because of using no long fermentation that it would not taste too great. But it actually did taste great!
I do think that the amount of salt is more than enough. If this recipe over here was used in Belgium the baker would be in trouble because law over here sez that the maximum amount is 2% of salt per 1000 grams flour. This recipe uses 2.8% salt which would be illegal over here.
I am happy with the result, next time I will try one with a pre-ferment.

West-Flanders Brown sandwich

I made this yummy sandwich with a bread I grew up with. I have previously posted pics about this bread and made it several times. I grew up eating this kind of bread and needless to say, I like it a lot!
It's a straight dough.
Here's the recipe :
Makes one loaf :

350 grams flour
145 grams cracked wheat
5 grams bran
310 grams water
3,5 grams instant yeast
8 grams salt
10 grams shortening

Mix the water yeast, bran, cracked wheat. Add the salt and incorporate the shortening (I always use olive oil.)
Knead for about 10 minutes with the Kitchen Aid.
Put it in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic.

Desired Dough Temperature : 78°F

Bulk Fermentation : 35 minutes

Degass.

Make loose boule shape, cover and let it rest for about 15 minutes.

Shaping.

After 20 minutes, lightly degas the loaf with your hand. Make sure you do this only very lightly!

Proof : about 50 minutes.

Bake : 450°F About 30-45 minutes.

You should try this loaf, I think it has a great taste and some crunch. What I also like about this recipe is
that you mix the flour and cracked wheat and bran instead of using let's say whole wheat flour. It benefits the
taste for sure!

Multi flour

This bread is made out of different flours : Plain flour, Rye, Whole Wheat and Buckwheat. Also some honey is in this loaf as well as some oil. I think this bread is tasty, I kinda like it.

Stollen - Peter Reinhart

This is my stollen version from the Peter Reinhart 'bread baker's apprentice' book. It has been more than 18 years since I last made them in school, so to be honest I don't remember how we shaped them. I hope it looks okay. Taste is great though. Cinnamon and the orange and lemon zests give a delicious taste.