The recipe this time was:
400g Rye starter
450g Water
800g All-purpose white flour
1tbsp Salt

As before, whisk together the starter with the water. Add the flour and salt and mix to a dough. Knead for 15 secs, leave for 15 mins, knead for 15 secs, leave for 30 mins, knead again, leave for one hour, knead again, leave for a couple of hours.

Divide the dough into two. Knead into balls and form into baton loaves. Place on floured cloths, roll up the cloths and put the loaves into loaf tins. Leave for 3-4 hours until doubled in size.

Heat the oven to 450F. Spray the loaves with water then bake at this temperature for 5 mins before reducing to around 375F for a further 30-40 minutes until done.

Smashing.

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This recipe was another one inspired by Dan Lepard. His 'Mill Loaf' recipe, with wheat and rye, sounded nice but I thought I'd try it with a some maize flour as well for a little extra sweetness. The result was, I thought, really good, although I still have to get the right method for proving the loaves long enough without them losing their shape.

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A year or so back I read a piece in the Vancouver Sun extolling the virtues of the cast-iron skillet. The article made it sound like a real wonder-tool: an all-purpose frying pan that would pay back a little love and attention with a unique cooking experience that flimsy modern non-stick pans just can't match. It piqued my interest on a number of levels, but could I really justify the expense. Back in the days when I was paid commissions and didn't have 3 kids I used to love going and scouting round the fancy cookshops, where you'd spend $20 on the latest silcone non-stick easy grip teaspoon measure or some such nonsense. Now, though, I was back with a mortgage, a baby on the way and these kinds of thing just weren't really essential.
A week or so later I was walking up Main Street with one of the boys. For some reason we had to go to the dollar store, Welk's, at 19th & Main. It may have been halloween, I don't know. Anyway - imagine my surprise when amongst all the plastic food savers and toys designed to fall apart on their second use, I saw a selection of cast iron frying pans. There I was, expecting to have to shell out at least a hundred bucks and the dollar store had the most fantastic, simple, heavy cast-iron 12 inch skillet for only $14.
Needless to say, I bought it. I had great fun seasoning it - rubbing it with vegetable oil and then baking it in the oven upside down at 350F for half an hour. Job done! Ever since, it has given sterling service not only as a frying pan, but also for baking, especially corn bread.
Traditional southern corn bread served with a meal like meatloaf or roat chicken can make a great alternative starch. The kids love it because it's a bit sweet, and it's really easy to make. Cooking it in a skillet gives the crust a really nice caramelized chewiness.
This is the recipe I used for the one in the picture. I like it with less sugar than many of the American recipes I've seen.
4 oz butter
1 cup natural yogurt
1 cup milk
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 cup cornmeal (polenta)
1 cup maize flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

Heat oven to 350F

Melt the butter in the skillet, swirling it around well to coat the pan. Whisk eggs, milk, yogurt and sugar together and pour in the melted butter. Don't worry about scraping it all out of the skillet - what's left in the pan will lubricate and cook the outside nicely. Put the skillet back on the stove to keep hot, but don't burn the butter in the pan.
Stir in the dry ingredients and mix to a thick batter and pour it into the skillet. Leave it on the stovetop over a low heat for a few minutes until you can see the edges starting to cook. Transfer it to the oven and bake for about 30 mins or until a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.

It's probably possible to cook the whole thing over a lowish heat on the stove, if you have a suitable lid for the skillet. I'm going to try this soon and report back.

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Heady with the early success of my oatmeal bread in the machine I was all ready to try something new. At Famous Foods last week my attention was caught by an 8-grain mixture of rolled wheat, barley, triticale, spelt, soy and a bunch of other things. It looked like it would be an interesting substitute for the rolled oats in my recipe.

I bought a 1lb bag and tried it out earlier this week, substituting the oats weight-for-weight with this new 8-grain mixture in my original oaten bread recipe (not the 'rustic' one). As you can see from the picture, the results were less than inspiring. I guess the fact that the oat bread was a litle bit deflated should have been a warning, but I just wasn't prepared for this.

The problem is that the dough is too light and the bread machine program leaves it proving for too long. I'll have to try a different program (this was done on the standard, basic loaf program) and maybe a little less water.

As old Freddie Nietszche said, Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker. Mind you, he never tried making bread in a bread machine.

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I love fruity buns. Hot cross buns, currant buns, raisin bran muffins, fruit scones, lardy cake - you name it, if it's got dried grapes of any description I'm in. I did find a bakery in Kerrisdale a few months ago that had a great line in english-style currant buns and it made me very happy for a couple of days.

So I thought I'd have a go at making some for myself. I looked at a couple of recipes for sweet doughs and hot cross buns, and then thought about what I really like (and what I had in the cupboard). I ended up with this. It made 24 good sized buns about 3 inches across - about the size of a large tangerine.

700g All purpose (bread) flour
300g Cake flour
100g Butter
2 eggs
650g Milk (I used 1%)
2 tsp brown sugar
150g white sugar
grated zest of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp yeast
150g currants

First of all I made a sponge. This is not a cake, but a paste of flour, liquid and yeast that is left to ferment for a while before being used as the basis for the real dough. It helps really develop a gluten network and gives a structure around which the softer starches of the cake flour can form.

For the sponge, I warmed the milk to around 30C and poured it into a bowl containing 500g of the bread flour, 2tbsp brown sugar and 1tsp of dried yeast. I beat this well with the cake-beater attachment of my mixer, covered it and left it to stand for an hour.

Meanwhile, I washed the currants in hot water briefly and then strained and rinsed them under the cold tap.

I then poured in the melted butter to the mixture and added the rest of the flour, the spices, the eggs, the lemon zest and the white sugar together with another tsp of yeast. With the dough hook attachment I mixed the whole lot together. When it had started to come together, but before it had formed a proper dough, I added the currants and left it kneading in the machine for around 3 minutes.

I then removed the dough from the mixer, covered it with a plastic bag and left it to prove for around 90 minutes.

Once it had doubled in size, I turned the dough out onto a floured workspace, kneaded it very lightly and cut it into four equal parts. Working each part in turn, I made a rough sausage and cut each into 6, forming each into a round ball with a taut surface by repeatedly pulling the sides down and in under the bottom. I placed them on a greased baking sheet.

I left them to rise again - not for quite long enough: they really do need to be left to double again. They baked in the oven at 475F for around 15 - 20 minutes. After baking, I glazed the tops by brushing with a sugar syrup made with 2tbsp white sugar and 2tbsp water boiled quickly on the stove.

I was very pleased with the result. The dough tasted great with the lemon zest giving it a hint of citrus without the overpowering nature of candied peel that you get in traditional hot cross buns. Nutmeg and lemon go together really well, and I think the ginger helped give it a warm richness. The currants were great, especially having been washed in hot water - giving them an extra chance to plump up and get nice and juicy.

Next time I make these, I might try adding a tsp of salt - I omitted it by accident but they weren't too bad considering. It would also be nice to see if there's a way to make them keep their soft, pull-apart texture into the second day. They didn't keep particularly well and seemed to dry out a bit by day two. They were still very toothsome and would have been great toasted! I'll have to do some experimentation into what helps breads keep their softness.

Unfortunately, it turns out the rest of my family don't like currants, raisins or sultanas. My wife gamely ate one and pronounced it very nice, but I could tell her heart wasn't in it. So in the end, I had to take them to work and offer them to my co-workers, who seemed to appreciate them. I can't complain though, my lovely wife puts up with all this baking, so it's a bit much of me to expect her to eat it all as well!

I think I might have to dig out a recipe for lardy cake next...

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A highlight of any trip to San Francisco is the classic white sourdough bread. I found a great recipe that lets you get pretty close to the real thing at home. Apparently there's a specific strain of bacteria in the air in San Francisco whose presence during fermentation produces specific sourdough qualities. Maybe those prunes were Californian, because I reckon I've got the right stuff in my leaven!

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1. The formed loaf waiting on a makeshift peel before being slid onto the hot baking stone.
2. The first attempt - no salt and not enough heat from beneath = not fully cooked
3. The second attempt - overcompensated slightly but it tasted fantastic
4. Cheese. Branston. Lettuce. Say no more.

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I haven't worked out how to attach a photo to a post I've already sent. I forgot to add a picture of the inside of the loaf to my earlier post 

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The instruction manual that came with my bread machine contains only a small handful of recipes - one for each mode of operation. There are two 'quick bake' modes which promise fresh bread in around an hour and a half, so I thought I'd try them.

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I may have mentioned a few posts back that for oaty bread I prefer using the thicker kind of rolled oats. If you've really been paying attention you'd also have noticed that I ran out recently and was planning a trip to Famous Foods to get some more.

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For many years I would use bread recipes by people like Delia Smith and others. They're fine and give a great grounding in the basics of breadmaking. However, I always got frustrated when it came time to leave the dough to prove.

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Back in the UK I had a few stabs at making sourdough bread. On the whole I was quite pleased with the results. Combined with the traditional French baguette flour that I had found an online source for, I made some breads that I considered to be rather special. I also had some dismal failures, but that's part of the fun of sourdough.

After a week of bread machining, I was itching to get back to some real breadmaking. I thought it was about time I kicked off another leaven starter.

This time I tried a different approach, suggested by Dan Lepard in his book 'The Handmade Loaf'. The book itself is very attractive but rather daunting. However, he claimed that his sourdough method almost guaranteed a good, healthy leaven within a week.

So day one, I mixed a couple of tablespoons of white flour and a couple of tablespoons of wholewheat flour with about 50ml of warm water, and a couple of tablespoons of live natural yogurt. Into this I also mixed a couple of dried prunes. He suggested raising or currants but prunes were the only dried fruit we had. I put the lot in a jar and left it, partially covered.

The aim of this mixture was to bring together ingredients that should provide a good combination of yeasts (from the flours and the air) and lactic-acid producing bacteria for the sourness (from the yogurt). The dried fruit was supposed to be another source of yeast, although to be honest I suspect the prunes I used had been washed pretty thoroughly in the factory, so I don't know if they really helped. The flour, of course, also provides the food for those organisms so they can start producing gas, acid and lots of little baby yeasts and bacteria.

After 3 or 4 days adding 2tbsp plain flour and 50ml of tepid water and giving it a good mix each day I had a really revolting-looking mess. In spite of its appearance, it was rather gratifying to find it starting to smell like real sourdough. < /p>

I strained out all the fruit and bran, poured away 75% of the mixture and then blended the remainder with around 100g flour and 125ml of water. Having repeated this twice, on day seven it was finally ready for action. This is how it looks now - as you can see it's nice and frothy on top. The consistency is a thick liquid - similar in consistency to runny honey. I have now made a couple of loaves with it and am pleased with its performance. More about that later...

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One of my favourite breads for making the traditional way was an oaten loaf. I use coarse rolled oats - not the finely milled oatmeal that is sold in supermarkets for porridge (or porage). They look kinda like they've just taken each grain and lightly squashed it with a padded hammer. These make for a great texture to a loaf when mixed with regular white bread flour. They do need soaking, which can be achieved in the machine by putting the oats in directly after the water and then delaying the program by at least an hour. When I tried making this bread without soaking, it ended up pretty patchy, dry and inedible. Adding the oats also seems to impact the amount of water required to make a good loaf.

This is the recipe as I tried it first in the machine:

480g water
25g butter
150g  rolled oats
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
450g all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp yeast

Cooked on the basic program for a 2.5lb loaf, medium crust (3 1/2 hrs with 5-6 hours sitting before the program started).

This produced a loaf that was a little on the moist side, but still very tasty. The crumb was soft without falling apart too much when spreading on it. Unfortunately the top of the loaf had somewhat sunk - probably because it rose a little too vigorously. I'll have to try it with less yeast.

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Over the past few days I've made more white bread. The first one was with this recipe:

350g water
25g butter
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp brown sugar
500g flour
1 tsp yeast

I solved the problem of the bread making content with the observation port. The bread wasn't bad - I set it on the 'sandwich, 2.5lb' setting. Not too crumbly.

I had intended the next day to make a similar loaf but with cream of tartar to see if it made any difference. The next being Friday, I was invited out for a beer after work with some of the team. Now, I don't go out that often any more. So one beer became two, and before I know it I was on the number 19 at midnight just waking up in time to hear my stop being called.

I did manage to get it together enough to set the bread machine off with the same recipe on Friday night. This won't come as a surprise to readers who know me and my tendency to start cooking when drunk. I made a smashing whisky soufflé on my stag night, but that's another story. However, I realised on awaking that I couldn't for the life of me remember whether I put the tartar in or not. Either way, the bread was OK. Bread machine bread is not very aesthetically pleasing, though, is it? A definite touch of the elephant man about it. It also leaves these annoying holes in the bottom. I understand that in developed countries you can buy bread machines with retractable whirling thingers, but in Canada we have to make do with this.

I'll have to try the tartar thing again next week. Next time, I'll remember to make notes as I go.

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For the first trial I went for a pretty standard white bread recipe:

450g Water
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp salt
50g butter
750g All-purpose white flour (Rogers bleached)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 1/2 tsp instant magic yeast

Being a new toy, I wanted to watch it do its stuff so I set it off immediately. Unfortunately it was already around 9.30pm. I gave up waiting at midnight just as it was starting to bake. By then I had already realised that the dough had risen so much it was touching the window at the top. Unfortunately this meant that it was sitting in the pan until I woke up next morning - not good for cooling or drying out. But that's not the point - I got to watch it mix & knead.

The results were OK. It tasted fine, although the crust was quite thick. However, the smell for some reason wasn't that real fresh bread smell you get from cooking loaves in the oven. Hopefully that's just down to the newness of the machine, otherwise I'm going to go off it very quick. The consistency was pretty good with a large crumb that didn't fall apart when buttering. It toasted really nicely, thanks presumably to the sugar.

The cream of tartar is something I've been experimenting with in bread I've made by hand over the past couple of years. The theory is that a slightly acid environment helps strengthen the gluten. Now I can theoritically make batch after batch in identical circumstances, I can see whether it really makes any difference. Results by hand have been inconclusive, but that's just as likely because I can't be arsed to be consistent with the hand kneading and other ingredients.

First impressions: I'm definitely not a bread machine convert yet...

Next time, I'm going to try the delayed program, so it's just done when I get up. I bet you can't wait.

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