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May 16 2012
I was brought back half a loaf of Kamut flour bread from Denmark recently - certainly one of the most delicious breads I have ever eaten. A texturous, moist crumb, with plenty of hearty flavour. I was determined to have a bash at this myself and so ordered 16kg's from Shipton Mill, our flour supplier.
I developed a kamut Starter using our 200% rye mother, and refreshed it a couple of times ahead of the first attempt. The first dough I made was a runny batter, around 100% hydration (bakers percentage), I allowed it to autolyse for 30 minutes and then added the salt and mixed the batter again with a wooden spoon. I also added chopped figs and hazlenuts to the mix, and poured the whole lot into 1 pound loaf tins, and put in the fridge overnight. The next moring I baked them at around 220C, and lo and behold, I had something to be proud of, moist, good crumb, and bags of flavour.
Having been asked by the Young British Foodies to enter their competition, I decided to pimp my loaf up a bit, by refreshing my kamut mother over several days with an elderflower and honey infusion. I suspected the yeast and sugars in here would give an extra dimesion to the bread.
I was fairly happy with the end result, although proving it in a banneton meant it slumped a little bit once turned out for baking. My friend Kemal popped over to take some photographs and if I can understand how to upload them, will show his pics next.
March 16 2012
A couple of months ago, we bought an Artofex mixer from Belmont Bakery equipment, capable of mixing 70kg of dough. We selected a twin arm artofex as they are reputed to recreate the effect of hand mixing on the dough. They don't create any extra heat in the dough, which will become a massive benefit in the warmer months. It was a leap of faith to invest several thousand pounds, as up until this point we had mixed our dough and refreshed our leaven by hand. After a few days just looking at the machine, we started, tentatively (as advised by Eyal - don't rush into doing all the dough at once) to use the machine. It has been a great success, we mix the dough for the shortest possible time, allow a period of autolysis in the bowl, mix again, and then carve out into our table tops bowls for several hours of folding - and results are good and consistent. The problem, which is what I'm building up to, is, and this is a venting towards Belmonts ineptitude, is that they sold us a mixer with extremely poor paint work, and rust is breaking out all over. They have told us we're using too much water, one suggestion was that we were using the wrong type of water. "Now if you were a meat processing place I could understand all of this water being used, but in a bakery, very unconventional" I was told by the owner Paul, WHAT?
Anyway, we have several options to consider now, and are investigating a mixer from Pietroberto, along with options for re coating our existing artofex. It's fun really.
February 29 2012
This evening I called over to see a guy called Roberto. I met Roberto a couple of years ago whilst selling bread outside a pub in Clapton. There's an old bakery in the basement below my flat he told me. My appetite whetted I found him home a week or so later and explored the bakery. It's history is something like, set up around 60 years ago, changed hands a couple of times, finally run as a Caribbean bakery - lots of bun. It closed around 10 years ago and hasn't been touched since. I salvaged an old trolley that time, bu it's been on my mind. Roberto's an artist and called me a couple of days ago, asking if I could help him build a house from old bread, I couldn't help much, but it reminded me how much I wanted to explore the space again. I had memories of a vast mixer, and wondered if it was an artofex, a bi like the one we bought recently. So tonight I knocked on the door and interrupted him. The power was off in the bakey, so we walked the steep steps in torchlight. The was an old Hobart, not that impressive, then I found a beautiful bun maker, a real classic looking machine, and yes, in the far corner, an ennormous old artofex dough mixer. So, the next step is getting it out !
February 26 2012
This weekend I took off from London to Dorset, to celebrate with old and new friends. As ever, conversation turned to baking, and a question which often comes up, is how do I improve the bread I'm baking, with the most common complaint being that it's a bit dense!
Here are some simple tips;
The dough should be really sticky at first mix, (unless you're making something like bagels). Over time, the flour will absorb the water more, and gluten will build up, how much depending on the protein content of your bread.
Yeast doesn't need sugar to get active, and could be referred to as digital. However small an amount you put in, it will increase to a sustainable level given enough time.
Time, this often makes the difference between a good or bad loaf.
If you're not using sourdough make an overnight sponge. Take 50% of the water, flour and yeast from your normal recipe, mix the day before, and leave in the fridge. When you come to make your bread, leave out the addittional yeast, but do everything else the same - your bread should have better rise, flavour and complexity.
April 27 2011
We recently enjoyed the company of Bernardo, a baker from Mexico. Well researched in the latest slow ferment techniques and happy to knead the dough with us, it was a pleasure to meet Bernardo. We wish him every success with his own business, and look forward to visiting him in Mexico soon!
You may be interesed to learn that Tap water is 17 degrees here in Hackney this month, which has a big impact on the rate of dough development. I adjusted to this by folding the dough in the fridge, chilled water is another option.
Dan, a joiner from a few arches down has built us a beautiful delivery box for the workcycles bike which I brought over from Amsterdam. Watch out for it cycling around the streets of Hackney. Possibly propelled by Evan, our loveable albeit tardy young assistant.
I think that’s a wrap for e5’s first blog post. I hope to have even more exciting news soon. Ben and the team.