Tag Archives: dough

Ciabatta

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Today, it was ciabatta day for the bread group on the farm, and as I’ve missed a few sessions I thought I’d have a look in.

It’s a tricky dough to work with, and thus has a high potential for comedy. This is particularly true by the time it has had olives, rosemary or sun-dried tomatoes worked into it. The latter are particularly problematic because they can, in the hands of a novice, produce a loaf that looks like the result of a splenectomy.

Ready to fold
Sundried tmatoes and olives
Stretchy dough
Folding in three
Divided into three

Things have changed a lot since the early days,when the results were a bit hit and miss and often ended up on the bird table. These days we have a group of quietly determined bakers producing loaves which generally look like the pictures in books, so that we hardly ever have to use the words rustic or artisan. (If you aren’t familiar with the terms artisan denotes that the loaf looks hand made. Rustic means it looks like it’s been hand made by someone using a shovel.) Fortunately they still aren’t perfect, and I am grateful for that, as it makes things more interesting.

Washing up
Animated discussion
That ciabatta moment
Concentration
More concentration

 

As you can see, ciabatta is open to a number of interpretations, including the rosemary shadow effect – I might try that next time I bake.

Ciabatta and olives
Ciabatta
Ciabatta again
Ciabatta rolls
Ciabatta and rosemary
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Ciabatta with the shadow of rosemary

A funny old day

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It started with an early morning shopping trip for pizza ingredients.

When we got to the farm a Common Blue fluttered by, which seemed a good omen.

Sadly it didn’t continue and in the absence of a mixer I ended up making 30 pizza bases by hand. As a result I now have an arthritic hand that feels like a baseball glove. When the mixer finally arrived I managed to do the next 60 bases in half the time the first 30 took.

Meanwhile I had a few incidents with clingfilm whilst wrapping the individual portions. If you’ve ever had dealings with oiled clingfilm you will know what I mean. If you haven’t, I’m sure you can imagine it.

I converted to foil for the last 60 – far easier, though it also had its moments. It was a surprise, on knocking the roll off the work top, to find it hit my foot like a an iron bar. When you look at the thickness of foil wound onto a catering size roll you can see why this feels so heavy.

I did grab a few minutes in the middle of the day – seeing three Small Tortoiseshells on the buddleia – it’s just coming into flower and the weather is coming right for butterflies.

Unfortunately I didn’t have time to take photographs.

I used the new Hobart mixer today.  Once we got it in the kitchen, and once we worked out the way to fit the guard so that the fail-safe let us switch on, it worked well. Our old one doesn’t have much in the way of safety equipment so this was all new to me.

Then the new incubator arrived. More about that later.

Finally, we rushed off and got Julia to work with four minutes to spare. She had been on the farm all day preparing a grant application and we had hardly seen each other. It’s the European grant, which is now corrected, completed and polished. We had an email yesterday telling us the fund may not exist now, but nobody is sure, so all that work may be for nothing.

It’s not quite the relaxed lifestyle we were hoping for, though at least the goats didn’t escape today.

 

 

 

Artisan baking – the inside story

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It was a depleted Baking Group today, a mere shadow of its normal self, as many of the group are in India. There has been a distinct lack of contact from any of them, which leads me to believe that they are probably enjoying themselves far too much. We certainly did.

Everything went fine until the bit where we left the dough to “double in size”. It didn’t. In fact it was hard pressed to show any sort of interest in rising at all. That was probably a fault of the room temperature. It had been below freezing last night and wasn’t much better this morning. That in turn, was a fault in me, because I hadn’t anticipated the temperature.

As a result, the flour was cold and the air was cold. Even I was cold and I’m insulated like a walrus. With hindsight I should have warmed the flour. I should also have turned up an hour earlier and warmed the room. I don’t suppose our Indian contingent are having these problems.

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The proving did not go well, with only one out of four rising properly (there’s always one, isn’t there?) Even after standing the bowls in the door of the oven, the extra heat only warmed the top if the dough, the underside remained determinedly cold. The three of us with underdeveloped dough decided, after two pots of tea and a patient wait, that it was time to proceed regardless of the rising. Things actually turned out quite well despite this.

We managed one plait, one fougasse, a flat bread and a boule, using rosemary from the garden. I use those names to add credibility to what we produced, and provide a clue as to what they were meant to be. They all managed a second rise in the oven, producing slightly larger than life varieties of what had been intended.  That’s the beauty of hand made bread, it never turns out badly, it’s just “artisan baking”. If it had been a bit rougher round the edges it would have been “rustic”.

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Fougasse and boule

OK, to be honest, the plait was a bit rustic, as it pulled in rising and produced stretch marks where the pattern crossed. I’m going to have to do better before the next class.

I’m not sure about the other bread because I’ve only cut into mine but I’d say that it looks more dense towards the bottom so there’s a lack of kneading as well as a lack of proving going on. Having said that, the dough felt good and produced good windows when stretched. It also tastes good, which is really what home baking is about.

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Plait, complete with stretch marks

Final verdict – has its faults, bit rough round the edges but great taste. Bit like me really.