Yeasted Loaf

Finished loaf

Ingredients

• 500g strong white bread flour, plus a little extra for dusting
• 7g salt (about one teaspoon)
• 5g instant dried yeast (about one teaspoon)
• 350g warm water (around 30 degrees Celsius)

Utensils

• large mixing bowl
• scales
• oven
• baking tray or baking stone
• clean tea towel
• sharp knife
• small ovenproof tray or dish enough to hold half a cup of water (optional)
• a board or baking tray without a lip on it to act as a peel (optional)
• dough scraper (optional)
• sturdy spoon (optional - you can just use your hands)

Method

1. Add all the ingredients to the bowl and bring them together with your dough-scraper or a sturdy spoon. You should end up with a shaggy sticky mess that's kind of evenly combined.
2. Knead the dough, it will be a big sticky mess DO NOT ADD ANY FLOUR, the key to getting a light bread is to use a wet dough, adding flour will make it denser. The technique for kneading it requires some practice but it's quite fun, if messy. There's a bit too much to go into here but this is a link to a video explaining it in some detail.
3. Once you've kneaded the dough form it in your to a ball, lightly flour your mixing bowl, put the dough back in it and cover it with a damp tea towel, a plate or some cling-film.
4. Place the covered bowl in a warm place (around 25 degrees celsius) and leave it for an hour.
5. The dough should have risen appreciably, anywhere up to doubling in volume. Now we're going to fold the dough, a kind of miniature knead that helps give it structure and evens out the temperature etc. Rather that try to explain it, here's a video showing how it's done.
6. Return your dough to your covered bowl and put it back in a warm place for another hour.
7. Your dough should have about doubled from it's original volume by the time you return to it. Now we're going to shape it into a loaf shape called a batard, here's another video showing you how.
8. Once it's shaped, flour your clean tea-towel, place your loaf seam-side down on it and gently wrap it in the towel to stop it drying out. Leave your loaf in a warm spot to prove.
9. Put your oven on to preheat at 220 degrees celsius.  If you have a baking or pizza stone put that in the oven to heat up.
10. Wait for 30 minutes, check your loaf, it should have grown noticeably but not as much as doubling in size.
11. (Optional - if you're precious about your oven you can skip this step) Boil a cupful of water in your kettle, pour it into your small ovenproof dish and put it in the bottom of the oven. This will keep your oven humid and make for a lighter, prettier loaf by allowing it to expand more before forming a crust.
12. If you're feeling confident and have a baking stone in the oven:
• flour a clean board or tray without a lip on it, this is going to be your baking peel
• place your dough on the floured board, seam side down
• make a shallow cut in the dough along its length about half a centimetre deep and at about 45 degrees to the surface of the dough, you're trying to make a flap which will open as the bread expands in the oven to make it look nice
• being careful of the hot oven, slide the loaf from your peel onto the hot stone in the oven and close the door
13. If you're not feeling quite so sure and don't have a hot stone in the oven:
• place your dough on a cold baking tray, seam side down
• make a shallow cut in the dough along its length about half a centimetre deep and at about 45 degrees to the surface of the dough, you're trying to make a flap which will open as the bread expands in the oven to make it look nice
• being careful of the hot oven, place the tray with the loaf on it in the oven and close the door
14. wait 10 minutes then remove the dish of water from the oven.
15. Wait another 10-20 minutes
16. Carefully take the hot loaf (use oven-gloves) out of the oven and tap its bottom. If it sounds hollow and has a nice brown colour then it's done. Otherwise return it to the oven and test again in five minutes.
17. Place the finished loaf on a wire rack to cool.

Pizza

This recipe is adapted from one by Ken Forkish in his book Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast.

Utensils

• oven
• cling film
• large bowl for mixing and letting the dough prove in
• (optional but recommended) pizza stone
• (optional but recommended) flat (no lip on the edge) oven tray for delivering the pizza to the hot oven
• (optional) dough scraper
• (optional) blender to make a smooth sauce / pesto

Ingredients

For the dough

• 400g strong white bread flour
• 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast (other yeasts will do but will acquire adjustments to quantity)
• 8g salt
• 280g lukewarm water

For the sauce

• 400g tin of tomatoes
• (optional) one tablespoon tomato puree
• (optional) half an onion
• (optional) one clove of garlic
• (optional) herbs of your choice
• (optional) HP Sauce! / soy source / something to give it some umami
• salt and pepper to taste

For toppings

• (optional) mozzarella / other cheese / vegan equivalent
• (optional) a few thinly sliced vegetables of your choice (peppers, mushrooms, olives...)
• (optional) nuts / herbs / olive oil for a quick pesto

Method

• Mix all the ingredients together and knead too a loose sticky dough
• Form the dough into a ball, place it in a lightly floured covered bowl and leave it to prove in a warm place (around 25 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes)
• Letter-fold the dough and return it to its proving bowl
• Leave to prove until doubled in size - around 5 hours!

That gives us some time, so make your sauce / prep your toppings

• finely dice the onion
• heat a pan on low and fry the onion till soft
• add the finely diced / crushed garlic for a minute or two
• add the remaining ingredients and simmer on low for at least 15 minutes
• (optional) blend the sauce, it's easier to spread on the pizza 
• (optional) blend together some nuts, herbs, olive oil and seasoning to make a pesto, e.g. walnuts and parsley

Back to the dough

• Split the dough into balls around 340g in weight
• Lightly cover the balls with olive oil and cling film and place in the fridge for a couple of hours to a coupe of days
• Preheat oven and baking stone to 250 degrees Celsius - will take around an hour
• Shape
• Flour a peel / baking tray, place dough on it and quickly cover with sauce and toppings
• Slide directly onto the hot stone and bake for around 6 minutes
• Serve

Construction complete

So a long weekend of fairly heavy work got the main structure built, it was tiring but fun. 

Having a retired ceramicist on hand definitely helped 🙂

Treading the clay / sand mix was quite therapeutic.

Marking out the hearth, the ratio of dome height to door height is apparently important for good airflow.

Tamping down the sand-form took a while.

After a few days' drying the sand scraped out pretty easily and nothing collapsed.

A slight crack keeps appearing above the door, I keep patching it, we'll see how it goes.

Made a peel from a frond off the palm tree and a bit of ply.

Mud Oven

It's been on the cards for a while but I've finally made a start on making a mud oven. Might take a while to complete but hopefully will be done over the summer. 

Expenditure so far is as follows: 

• 18 Firebricks £65.60 (delivered)
• 2x2.4m fenceposts £26
• 5x2m treated timber £20
• 75kg fireclay £70 (delivered) 
• 1 York stone slab £0 (was lying around the garden) 

Demi-baguettes

 Fitting full-sized baguettes in a domestic oven is tricky, hence these ones will be about half normal size, this recipe makes four.

Ingredients

• 500g strong white bread flour (plus a little extra for dusting)
• 10g salt
• 4g instant dry yeast
• 350g water

Utensils

• Oven
• Scales
• Baking tray (heavier the better) or pizza stone (around 30cm by 30cm)
• Spare baking tray / flat board for delivering loaves to the oven
• Shallow oven-proof dish or tray (only has to hold half a cup of water)
• Sharp knife (for slicing the loaves)
• Two clean tea-towels or equivalent for the bread to prove in

Method

Mixing

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl
2. Turn the mixture out onto a clean work surface and knead until it becomes a smooth dough
3. Form the dough into a ball and return to the lightly floured mixing bowl
4. Cover and leave in a warm place for an hour
5. Letter-fold the dough and return to the mixing bowl
6. Cover and leave in a warm place for another hour

Shaping

1. Place a baking stone or heavy baking tray in your oven and preheat to 250 degrees Celsius, or as close as you can get
2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface
3. Divide it into four portions of around 200-220g and loosely shape them into balls
4. Pat each ball out into a flat oval
5. Fold the long edge of the oval into the centre and press down firmly
6. Repeat that for for the other long edge
7. Fold in half again, crimping the edge well to seal
8. Gently roll the dough out to form a baguette shape
9. Transfer the dough to a floured tea towel to prove
10. Repeat with all portions and cover with another tea towel
11. Leave to prove for half an hour

Baking

1. Place half a cup of boiling water into a shallow container in the bottom of the oven
2. Slice each loaf down the middle with three or four cuts, overlapping by one quarter to a third of their length
3. Transfer the loaves to the oven
4. Turn the oven down to 220 degrees Celsius
5. Bake for five minutes then remove the water
6. Bake for another 7-10 minutes
7. Remove from the oven and leave to cool

Savarin

Ingredients

    For the batter:

• Strong white flour 225g
• Salt 1 teaspoon
• Dried instant yeast 7g
• Milk 150g
• Caster sugar 2 teaspoons
• Eggs 3
• Butter unsalted 85g

    For the syrup:

• Caster sugar 170g
• Water 210g
• Rum or other spirit (optional) 5 tablespoons

    For topping (all optional):

• Glacé cherries, half a dozen
• Desiccated coconut, small handful
• Fresh fruit
• Cream

Utensils

• Large mixing bowl
• Sieve
• Wooden spoon for beating
• 21cm diameter cake tin (needs to be quite deep, mine's 7cm deep)
• Baking parchment for lining the tin
• Oven

Method

Lightly adapted from Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery

1. Warm the milk to body heat, either in the microwave or on the stove
2. Sieve the flour into your large bowl
3. Add the yeast, salt and sugar to the bowl
4. Rub in the butter, doesn't have to be super fine just enough to break it up into 1cm sized chunks
5. Stir in the warm milk
6. Add the eggs
7. Mix together with a wooden spoon, it doesn't matter if it's still a bit lumpy at this stage
8. Cover and leave in a warm place (around 25 degrees Celsius) for around an hour until doubled in volume
9. Beat the mixture with a wooden spoon for around five minutes, it should thicken slightly
10. Line your tin with baking parchment
11. Pour the mixture into the tin, it should be less than half full to allow room for expansion
12. Put your oven on to preheat at 180 degrees Celsius
13. Cover the tin lightly and place it in the same warm place as before
14. When the mixture is 1cm away from the top of the tin it is ready to bake (45min - 1hour)
15. Place on a baking tray in the hot oven for 25 minutes
16. Whilst the cake is baking boil the sugar and water together for 10-15 minutes until it thickens slightly
17. Remove the syrup from the heat and add the alcohol (optional)
18. When the cake is baked it should have a pale golden colour all over, you can test the centre is cooked by inserting a skewer in the middle and seeing if it comes out clean
19. Leave it to cool for 2-3 minutes
20. Turn the cake upside-down onto a large dish or plate
21. Pour most of the syrup over the top of the cake and leave for 10-20 minutes to absorb, retain a little syrup and serve alongside as a sauce
22. Add your desired toppings and serve

Double-fermented pumpernickel

This recipe is inspired by one from Tartine Book No. 3 just adapted to suit my sourdough method and with less fermented rye than the original.

Ingredients

(Yields two large loaves)

	Ingredient	Weight (g)	Baker's percentage
Levain build	50% hydration white flour starter	150
	Strong white flour	300
	Cold tap water	300
Fermented rye-chops	Rye chops	100
	Cold tap water	200
	Sourdough starter	Dessert spoon
Final dough	Strong white flour	400
	Wholemeal spelt flour	300
	Tap water 30°C	365
	Salt	15
	Black-strap molasses	50
	Levain	750
Overall formula	Strong white bread flour	800	73%
	Wholemeal spelt flour	300	27%
	Water	715	65%
	Salt	16	1.5%
	Fermented rye chops	200	18%
	Black-strap molasses	50	5%

Method

This recipe follows my standard sourdough method with a couple of additions - refer to that for more detailed instructions - brief method below:

1. Add all the ingredients for the levain build to a large bowl and stir until mixed together thoroughly
2. Add the ingredients for the fermented rye chops to another smaller bowl and mix thoroughly
3. Cover both bowls and leave overnight at room temperature until the surface of the levain mixture is covered in small bubbles.  The rye chops should have absorbed most of the water and smell sweet.
4. Add all of the remaining ingredients except the fermented rye to the large bowl and bring together
5. Knead the dough until it has moderate strength
6. Strain any excess water from the rye chops with a sieve
7. Lay the dough out on the work-surface and cover with the rye mixture
8. Fold the rye into the main dough, and work it until the dough comes back together. In the interim it will be messy and sticky, persevere.
9. Form the dough into a ball, cover and leave at 25 degrees Celsius to prove till doubled in size (around 2.5 hours), folding after 50 minutes and 100 minutes.
10. Shape the dough into two large loaves and place into floured bannetons or a couche
11. Leave to prove again for around two hours at 25 degrees Celsius, meanwhile set the oven  (filled with two baking stones if you have them) to preheat to 250 degrees Celsius
12. When the loaves are a bit less than doubled in size, slash them and load them into a steamed oven, lowering the temperature to 220 degres Celsius as you do so
13. Bake for 10 minutes with steam
14. Bake in a dry oven for another 15-20 minutes till the loaves are nicely browned (they will take on a lot of colour due to the molasses) and they sound hollow when tapped on the bottom
15. Remove the loaves and leave to cool on a wire rack