Author: Paul

I'm just a regular type older fella, living on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada, who enjoys bread making and sharing the adventure. I've been at this on a steady basis since 2007 when I decided to look for better bread than what was available in the local grocery. I now own a bakery so I guess I've done OK with this hobby. You are cordially invited to add comments, questions and musings of your own to any of these posts; this isn't intended to be a one-way communication. I'm not an expert and likely won't be one for years to come. But I do want to share my experiences and what I have picked up to help spread this "bread baking" virus. Because as habits go, it's a darn tasty one!
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Brioche: a quasi-fail (#bba)

Sometimes you think you’re doing the right thing but it turns out you’re not.

This was one of those times.

Although, in reality, it’s a small problem and nothing that can’t be resolved by EATING THE EVIDENCE. Still, it would have been nice to get it a little closer to “right”. Woe is me. Let me tell you what happened…

I decided to give bread #4 in [easyazon-link asin=”1580082688″]The Bread Baker’s Apprentice[/easyazon-link] Challenge a go yesterday and of course (since you already know what the post title is) it was Brioche. There are three variations of it to choose from and I went with Rich Man’s version. This one  has a whole whopping pound of butter in it, vs the Middle Class and Poor Man’s versions with a half and a quarter pound of butter, respectively.

So let’s follow along the process.

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As you can see, the ingredient list isn’t exactly strange. Except that we’re not using just a little bit of that butter, we’re using the WHOLE thing. The recipe indicates that, in baker’s percentage, this loaf is 87.7% butter in the end. In case you’re thinking that means it’s 3% other things, allow me to explain in a little more detail.

Continue reading “Brioche: a quasi-fail (#bba)”

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#BBA Challenge No. 3: Bagel love

img_0021-1Here we go, Reinhart’s Bagel recipe from [easyazon-link asin=”1580082688″]The Bread Baker’s Apprentice[/easyazon-link], Challenge #3:

Since I’ve got a pattern going so far, let’s keep at it: Step-By-Step snaps of the whole process. And I’ll try to keep this going until, well, until I don’t. I have to say it’s not exactly the easiest thing to set up a small photo studio in the even smaller kitchen and it needs a little planning. This may not always be possible. Today, it is.

So first sep: The sponge…

This is simply a bit of yeast, about half the total flour and 2.5c of warm water. It’s mixed up and left to bubble up for a couple of hours. Since it’s likely you’ve seen flour and water together before, I skipped the before picture and went straight to the exciting “all mixed” snap.

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After this, the sponge bowl got covered with one of the handy dollar store showercaps and set asisde to do it’s yeasty, spongy stuff while I went ahead and Continue reading “#BBA Challenge No. 3: Bagel love”

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Artos: #BBA Challenge Bread No. 2

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Recipe number two in the [easyazon-link asin=”1580082688″]The Bread Baker’s Apprentice[/easyazon-link] Challenge series is “Artos: Greek Celebration Bread“. In the preamble, Peter Reinhart tells how this is a holiday and festival bread that covers multiple variations.

The basic recipe is easily turned into “Christpsomos”, a Christmas loaf, by the simple additions of raisins, cranberries and walnuts or into “Lambropsomo”, an Easter loaf, by adding raisins, dried apricots and almond slivers, braiding and nestling red-dyed hard-boiled eggs. There are numerous local and not-so-local variations on this basic spiced bread.

I went with the christopsomos version since I did happen to have raising and cranberries, although I passed on the walnuts since we’re not big fans here.

So here we go, the step-by-step evolution of my first Artos bread…

Continue reading “Artos: #BBA Challenge Bread No. 2”

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Anadama Two Two – #BBA

Since the first loaf in [easyazon-link asin=”1580082688″]The Bread Baker’s Apprentice[/easyazon-link] Challenge, blogged recently, was such a success, I decided that I’d give the recipe another go and this time keep track of the process with step-by-step pics.

It again proved to be a rather simple, straight forward loaf with little in the way of “tricky bits”. It does span several hours but as with most breads, that time is simply letting the dough rest or proof and it’s not time you need to babysit it.

So if you’re up to a play-by-play with photographic documentation, let’s get started.

The first step which I have no pics of (I’m sure you can picture it quite well in your heads) was to soak the coarse cornmeal for 12 hours. So I got my little bowl, my warm water and cornmeal and went to town. Ok, I just poured them in the bowl and covered. Not exciting. Fast forward to the next morning…

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The next stage is to create the preferment, although I think technically this doesn’t qualify as it has the cornmeal in it, Regardless, I tossed the cornmeal mush into the bowl with about half the flour, instant yeast and a little more water.

Continue reading “Anadama Two Two – #BBA”

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#BBA Challenge: basic schedule

[easyazon-image-link asin=”1580082688″ alt=”The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread” src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51f8aSiQREL._SL160_.jpg” align=”left” width=”146″ height=”160″]For those interested in following along with the rough dates for each bread bake in [easyazon-link asin=”1580082688″]The Bread Baker’s Apprentice[/easyazon-link] Challenge, here’s a table of the breads and their approximate due dates. This doesn’t account for time off for holidays and , you know, life. It’s simply a first look based on the rough draft of “one a week”. Expect it to be different once the group’s settled and things get looked at a little closer.

According to this base schedule, then, we’d possibly be looking at finishing up the Challenge around early March 2010, if no breaks were included and we went right through non-stop.

We won’t be getting to Sourdough bread until at least early December so anyone who still hasn’t fired up a starter has a fair bit of time to go before it is needed. I’d recommend making sure you’re been working your new starter maybe two months prior to requiring it. This would include a week or two to create the culture then a few weeks more for it to strengthen.

This schedule, to reiterate, is just something I worked up and is not “official”. Even when a more definite one gets published, it’s been stressed that anyone can work at their own pace, skip weeks and recipes as needed, etc.. Continue reading “#BBA Challenge: basic schedule”