I made Hamelman's Country Bread for an uncle who knows his food. He spoked approvingly about the baguettes in France and I was really tempted to bake some for him and get his opinion on my baguettes. It was also an attempt to get my daughter to eat my breads. She is not a fan of hearth breads and I did not want to bake those soft cotton sweet dough breads found all over the country. The only time she liked my bread was a simple plain white loaf. When I asked her why she liked it, she replied that there were no raisins in the bread. To my chagrin, she does not mind supermarket breads but rejects most of my breads, especially when they are walnut and raisin.
Its probably stale by now but I made an attempt at claypot bread. I probably need a few more practice to get the hang of it but it was fun. Perhaps I am too used to the conventional way of making bread but I think the old way makes bread that is predictable and better looking.
It was a bread making marathon for me this weekend as I experimented with Jeffrey Hamelman's 70% Rye sourdough using the Detmolder 3 stage method and tried shaping some of Richard Bertinets Fougasse and Epis. Pictures in
Made a sourdough walnut raisin with added rye and atta this weekend. Its been a really busy weekend and by the time I got home to bake bread with the ready starter, it was already 10 pm. There was no choice but to mix the dough and put it into the fridge, no folding. I continued the process the next morning but the dough seemed a little sluggish even after 2 hours in the warm tropical environment. I resisted the temptation to add instant yeast and let Carl's Starter do its work. Fortunately, it delivered as usual. It has never failed once and I am glad it didn't disappoint this time.
It was another weekend baking binge as I experimented with local herbs for my pesto ciabatta. I subscribe to Dan Lepard's philosophy to use local ingredients and there was really no way I can continue to use herbs imported from Europe.
I experiment with a local herb called Laksa Leaf. It is so named as it is used mainly in this local dish. The flavor of the Ciabatta with the Laksa herb pesto was out of this world. When I made a tuna sandwich with the loaf, the herb complemented the tuna very well.
