Bread Techniques

Do you keep your starter in the fridge?

January 14, 2013
Thumbnail image for Do you keep your starter in the fridge?

If you keep your starter in the fridge you can be of help with the starter taste test experiment I’m carrying out as I type for my sourdough book.  I’ve started to feed 6 different starters, a mix between using different flours and different hydrations, and one of them I’m keeping in the fridge.  I would […]

Read the full article →

The book that made me a better baker

December 5, 2012
Thumbnail image for The book that made me a better baker

A few months ago Ibán Yarza, the talented Spanish writer and baker who translated Dan Lepard’s The Handmade Loaf book into Spanish asked me what books I would recommend.  I would say the book that introduced me to the science behind baking influenced me greatly, it filled-in the gaps and was a great partner to […]

Read the full article →

Dough Globe by the Foundry Mint Digital team

November 20, 2012
Thumbnail image for Dough Globe by the Foundry Mint Digital team

There has been a song my 5 year old sings that keeps popping into my head whenever I thought about writing this post, it goes; “I don’t want to grown up, I want to be a Toy ‘R’ Us kid…kid…kid…kid”.  When adults used to ask me as a kid, “what do you want to do […]

Read the full article →

Sourdough baked in a tin – no need for proving baskets

November 15, 2012
Thumbnail image for Sourdough baked in a tin – no need for proving baskets

This is an example of the practical thing that will be in my book, my whole aim with the book is to follow-on from the principals of this site; to demystify the world of sourdough. And Yes!  You can put the sourdough dough in a tin for the last rise just as you do a […]

Read the full article →

Difference between good crumb and perfect crumb – Sourdough

October 28, 2012
Thumbnail image for Difference between good crumb and perfect crumb – Sourdough

The two loaves below are both made using the same recipe and the same flour; 100% white rollermill.  I want to show the difference between a good very acceptable crumb and a perfect crumb for a white wheat loaf, sourdough.  As soon as you start mixing other flours such as rye to the recipe it […]

Read the full article →

Baking by Numbers – that’s what bakers do

October 4, 2012
Thumbnail image for Baking by Numbers – that’s what bakers do

I’ve heard and read professional bakers claim they’re good bakers because they’ve been baking for ‘x’ amount of years.  Oh really?  How does following a recipe make you a good baker?   The flour you buy whether you’re a homebaker through a supermarket or if you’re a professional baker buying direct from the miller is […]

Read the full article →

Easy Way to Shape Tin Loaf – Twin High Tin

June 8, 2012
Thumbnail image for Easy Way to Shape Tin Loaf – Twin High Tin

This is an old method of shaping loaves for tins to ensure a more even crumb according to Paul Merry.  Since in this country we’re all about sandwiches, big holes or a holey crumb is not traditional (well since sandwiches have been around).  You might have seen this method of shaping two dough balls into […]

Read the full article →

Sourdough Held for 36hrs to Acidify

May 26, 2012
Thumbnail image for Sourdough Held for 36hrs to Acidify

At the same time I held the pouliche (poolish) loaf in the last post here for 36 hours in order to achieve a sourer crumb, I also had this sourdough sitting alongside it for the same reason. This dough was made mild, as per my usual sourdough loaf of 30g starter fed with 100g of […]

Read the full article →

The 36 hour Pouliche (Poolish, Sponge) and the Correct Spelling

May 23, 2012
Thumbnail image for The 36 hour Pouliche (Poolish, Sponge) and the Correct Spelling

After the last post here, on this old method of making pouliche (poolish), I experimented further creating more of an acidic crumb, mimicking somewhat a sourdough loaf.  The reason for the experiment was to see if the pouliche would maintain enough yeast cells over this period of time (in the fridge) to make a good […]

Read the full article →

A Forgotten Type of Poolish, Pouliche (Sponge) Loaf

May 16, 2012
Thumbnail image for A Forgotten Type of Poolish, Pouliche (Sponge) Loaf

In the last post here, I said since the experiment with the poolish showed signs of activity it had inspired for more experiments, only this time not exhausting the yeast to see whether I could produce a good loaf. A poolish is equal amounts of water to flour, how much yeast you add and the […]

Read the full article →

A Levain and a Poolish hung out together

May 13, 2012
Thumbnail image for A Levain and a Poolish hung out together

I carried out this experiment with the full intention of predicting a failure with the poolish.  What I wasn’t prepared for was that the result wasn’t the complete failure I had anticipated, this led to further experiments with the poolish, very successful ones in fact. It’s established a sourdough dough will give you plenty of […]

Read the full article →

Scoring, Slashing Sourdough

May 8, 2012
Thumbnail image for Scoring, Slashing Sourdough

I’ve already posted lots of photos on scoring/slashing loaves in this post here, but Nicola asked me last night to show her how, and since I had 2 loaves already in the fridge for baking this morning it would be easy to video scoring them…well easy because I had a second pair of hands to […]

Read the full article →

What a Difference Too Much Moisture Makes

April 26, 2012
Thumbnail image for What a Difference Too Much Moisture Makes

I made these yeast rolls today from the same batch of dough, and wanted to share the extraordinary difference in baking them one batch after the other.  I made the dough last night, bulk proved and shaped, then refrigerated overnight, baked this morning. I pre-heated the oven as usual, added water to the bottom of […]

Read the full article →

Oxidising Fresh Flour, Over-Oxidising & Over-Mixing Dough

April 3, 2012
Thumbnail image for Oxidising Fresh Flour, Over-Oxidising & Over-Mixing Dough

The subject of the need to oxidise fresh flour and also the need to introduce oxygen when mixing dough and the consequences of over doing it, which produces an inferior loaf both in appearance and flavour is a huge subject with nerdy-type of details.  These details cover the effect of the gluten-forming proteins as well […]

Read the full article →

How To Kill Your Sourdough Loaf

March 8, 2012
Thumbnail image for How To Kill Your Sourdough Loaf

If I’m experimenting then I expect to have a few failures but failures that happen when you know why and you were in a position to stop it I find frustrating, it’s a kicking-myselt type of situation.  I wanted to make a loaf for my meeting with John Letts yesterday, he was kindly providing some […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries