Wednesday 19 October 2011

Bread Bakeathon #9, #10 and #11

This blog should be sub-titled 'end of the second chapter of the River Cottage Bread Book'. I've baked the Basic Loaf and now I have baked everything in the Variations on the basic bread recipe chapter.

The final three included monstery bread (heavy with oats) and hazel maizel bread, a lovely concoction involving maize meal, apple juice and nuts which made for lovely crusty brown rolls - both of which I forgot to photograph (but they just looked like brown rolls).

The last bread in the chapter was Empty-the-shelf bread, the opportunity to use up tail-ends of whatever bags of flour are to hand and anything else that might be leftover, like nuts or muesli (but Daniel Stevens advises against empty-the-Hoover-bag bread...)


My Empty-the-shelf bread included maize meal and apple juice from the previous bread, a handful of wholemeal flour, white flour, a handful of porridge oats, walnuts and sesame, pumpkin and sunflower seeds with a bit of walnut oil for luck.

I was bored with rolls by this point (and had been watching Lorraine Pascale's Home Cooking Made Easy on BBC2) so when it came to shaping we got a pain d'epi (at the front) and a fougasse. The latter is a lovely shape for tearing and sharing with a bowl of soup and is a shape I think I'll be making a lot in the future. It bakes well too and gives lots of lovely crust.

So having baked all the basics (and I think my bread has improved in the process) we now head off into the realms of 'Beyond the basic loaf'. This promises such delights as focaccia, ciabatta, brioche, bagels, muffins and pizza, all of which I have cooked before, but also includes Vetkoek (which are deep fried. I NEVER deep fry!) and barbecue breads at not really a barbecuing time of year. This should be interesting!

4 comments:

  1. Well, if you intend to try the deep-fried one, then why not make a deep fryer-fest of it, and make doughnuts too! You know you'll be glad you did.....

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  2. Ah ha! Doughnuts are on the agenda - in the chapter entitled 'Buns, biscuits and batter breads' (my children are looking forwards to the 'fun' chapter).

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  3. Bravo to you on that half marathon. I will never be a runner, wonder why not, but really admire those, like you, who manage it, and even compete when conditions are sub par.

    You've got a lovely cheering squad!

    Bread baking I know a bit more about, although my last adventures with yeast were about ... oh, let's say about 40 years ago. Perhaps this winter will bring enough chill and motivation and time to encourage me to try some more bread-making.

    You certainly do encourage me! xo

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  4. First - very well done on the half marathon. As a new runner, I know what you mean about some days flying and some days limping and feeling cross.
    And the bread - I love fougasse. Might make one this morning actually, you've inspired me!

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