Saturday 29 December 2012

To market, to market, to sell some loaves of bread, I hope!

After becoming somewhat addicted to baking sourdough bread, I realised I'd finally hit upon a way to make my lifelong dream of setting up my own business in the hills a reality.

I'd been taking each week's sourdough attempts into work for sampling. They're a bunch of real foodies so I knew they'd be a tough audience. I thought some people's noses would turn up at the mention of rye, but adding spices such as cumin and cinnamon seemed to do the trick, with  everyone lining up for a try. After the first couple of weeks I got my first customer and then another, and I started putting a jar out for donations to cover the costs. It was great getting feedback from everyone and a real confidence booster, everyone was so interested in how it was made, it was great to be able to answer everyone's questions and realise just how much I'd learned in the short space of time I'd been baking bread. Even been asked if I can teach them how to make it themselves. Couldn't have asked for a better start!

And so it was I decided to take the next step and book onto Virtuous Bread's Bread Angels Course. This is a course for all those looking to set up their very own home baking business. It was a fantastic two days with the wonderful Rosie Clark and Lisa Wilson up in Kensal Rise. I was so inspired to see how far they'd come in the time since they themselves had taken the Bread Angels course. It was also really interesting to meet the other attendees and find out their stories and where they were on their own bread baking journeys.

During the course Rosie mentioned that a new start-up market had been in touch and had a vacancy on a stall if any of us would like to take the offer up. I couldn't get my hand in the air fast enough. And sure enough a week later I was put in touch with Hannah Whelan of Kilburn to Kensal Winter Market. A few emails and a phone call later it was agreed - I was to have my own section on a stall at the market for the next two Saturdays! There wasn't much time for shock and amazement, the first stall was just two days away.

My bread making experience was pretty limited to the breads baked on the courses, so I decided to keep it simple for the first week as time was tight: 12 rye sourdough loaves, and a big batch of milk and honey buns, along with some homemade strawberry jam.

I was confident on the rye loaves, but it would be my first time making the milk and honey buns.

So the night before, I made my biggest batch of rye sourdough starter and set it to refresh overnight. The result the next morning was unbelievable, the bubbles were huge. I lost most of them in moving the bowl, but you can get an idea from the below pic.


After a morning trip to get some string and labels and a few more loaf tins I had everything I needed. A day of baking lay ahead - I couldn't wait.

Turns out making 12 rye sourdoughs takes quite a bit of time, particularly in a small, alley style kitchen. But 12 I made and left them in their tins to rise. 

Here's the first batch five or so hours later...



I then set about work on the milk and honey buns. But then had my first real hiccup - my kitchen scales broke! I couldn't believe it, I'd managed to get some water in the workings and a horrible error message sat staring back at me every time I tried to turn it on (the major drawback of digital scales). What to do now? Well at least I could crack on with the jam as the amount of sugar needed was the full bag's weight, same for the strawberries. I made my first jam from my latest purchase salt sugar smoke by the great Diana Henry. The smell was just incredible and it was so quick and easy I couldn't believe I hadn't made jam before.

But now to find a solution to my kitchen scales dilemma. I tried knocking on a few neighbour's doors but to no avail - doesn't anyone do home baking anymore?

Then I set off to a local shop and hit gold. I got home, set up to go and would you believe, they didn't work! Agh, set off again to head to a big supermarket, surely they would have some, but alas, they'd just run out of stock. Clearly this was not meant to be, but I would not be beaten. My original scales were sort of coming back to life, although they kept creeping up in weight with a life of their own so I decided just to go for it.

I put some milk on to boil, keeping a close eye on it, and then left it to cool down ready to make the buns. The recipe was from Jane Mason's All You Knead is Bread, with a bit of added honey to the dough to make them even more special. I was so happy with the result, they looked and smelled fantastic coming out of the oven - even at 1am!



Then it was off to bed, but clearly sleep was not to be had as my mind raced round and round with ideas, thoughts, and the excitement of the next day ahead.

An early start the next morning, saw my friend Lily kindly couriering me, my loaves, buns, and jars of jam, from Stoke Newington to Queens Park. I couldn't have asked for a better day for my first ever market stall experience. It was the perfect winter's day: chilly, but with a clear blue sky and the sun shining brightly to ward off the chill.


And then for the taste test... thumbs up all round thankfully.


The first day went really well. Making my first sale was such a great experience. It was a milk and honey bun to a mum for her little boy, who I then happily watched eat it all up in a matter of seconds. I sold a bit of everything and it was great fun talking to all the other traders and hearing their stories of how they'd got to be there. There was a real mix of first-timers like me, and then a few more established stalls, such as Flour Station - talk about competition!

But I left with a big smile on my face and lots of ideas for the following week...

Cracking the rye sourdough

Ever since the Virtuous Bread sourdough course I've been on a mission to crack the 100% rye sourdough. It's such a healthy loaf, but at the same time, is so tasty and feels like a real treat compared to the nasty pre-sliced, plastic-covered slabs of rye you get in health food shops and some supermarkets.

Also, it couldn't be much simpler compared to most bread recipes that require kneading, proofing, shaping and resting before getting anywhere near an oven.

So if all that kneading and shaping has been deterring you from making your own bread then I urge you to give this a go. You'll never think of rye bread in the same way again.

Lessons Learnt

Refreshing the starter - leave your starter to refresh in a warm spot, too cold and you'll find you won't get the bubbly froth you're looking for. (PS the bigger the batch, the better the result)

Water - use only lukewarm water (ie when you dip your finger in you can't really feel the temperature as it's the same as your blood). My loaves had been prone to dryness and I couldn't work out what I was doing wrong. Until I suddenly realised I'd been adding hotter and hotter water each time, thinking that this would help the sourdough work harder and faster to make a lovely risen loaf. Clearly I was wrong, having now devoured many bread books, I have discovered that the one key thing you can get wrong in bread making is to use water (or any liquid that you are using) that is too hot - this basically kills the yeast.

Consistency - you're looking for a sloppy not stiff dough, the wetter the better!

What you'll need

100% rye sourdough starter
Rye flour
Salt

Optional:
Treacle / honey / molasses
Spices / seeds / raisins / nuts

1lb loaf tin
Butter for greasing
Shower hat / plastic bag

My guide to the perfect 100% rye sourdough
(adapted from Virtuous Bread course notes)

The first step is to refresh your 100% rye starter.

Take 20g of starter, add 120g of lukewarm water and 60g of rye flour. Mix, don the bowl with a shower hat or somesuch, find a cosy warm spot and leave to brew overnight.

I put mine to bed with me as it's the warmest room in the flat. Upon waking, you can tell it's ready when it has developed a nice bubbly top as below.


This is your refreshed starter. You can top up your dormant starter in the fridge with 40g of this.

Then take the remaining 160g of your refreshed starter, add 100g of lukewarm water, followed by 40g of treacle, honey, molasses or whatever takes your fancy. (Or you can simply use 140g of water.)
My favourite so far is treacle - it gives a lovely colour to the loaf and a real depth of flavour - but I'm yet to try molasses which I think could top it.
Then add 240g of light or dark rye flour and 6g salt. My supermarket doesn't offer a choice so don't worry if the same applies to you, a standard wholegrain rye flour will do you fine.
Again you can then make it your own, by adding a tsp of your preferred ground spice or a big spoon of soaked seeds, whole spices, dried fruits or nuts.
My two favourites are ground cumin and seeds, and ground cinnamon and raisins.

If adding raisins or seeds, you can either soak these overnight in cold water or if you forget, simply soak them in hot water for 30 minutes before adding to the mix. This will stop them from soaking up moisture in the dough.

Now it's time to get your hands dirty, mix all the ingredients together giving them a big squelch between your fingers until they're well combined.

It shouldn't be too stiff, if it is, keep adding water until it's almost too sloppy to pick up.
I find I need to add up to 50g of additional lukewarm water to the mix to get it to the right consistency. 

Not much to look at I know. But stay confident, this sloppy, odd looking dough will provide you with the most beautiful bread I promise.

Grease your 1lb loaf tin with butter (not oil as this will form pools in the bottom and fry rather than bake your bread).




Then wet your hands and have a bowl of water handy. Scoop the mix up using your scraper to make sure you get every last bit and then pass it from one hand to the other shaping it into a sausage shape that will fit snugly in your tin. If the mix sticks to your hands, wet your hands again. The wetter the dough, the better your loaf will be!


Then simply plop it in your tin and don't touch it again!

No matter how tempting it is, don't flatten it or spread it into the corners, you should almost be able to see your handprint on the top, as on the left.

Leave as is and don it with the shower hat again. Then place back in a cosy warm place for between 3 - 5 hours.
You'll  know it's ready when the dough has risen to the top of the tin and small holes have started to form on the top.

When it's starting to look near ready, pre-heat your oven to 230 / 210 (fan).


Now you have another
choice on how to dress
the top of your loaf.

Here's a couple of examples of what you can do to make your loaf look even more tasty when it comes out of the oven.

Savoury spices / seeds - sprinkle wet mixed seeds on the top
Sweet spices / raisins - sieve flour on the top

When your dough is ready, take off the shower hat and add your topping of choice, then pop it in the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, drop the temperature down to 210 / 180 (fan) and bake for another 30 minutes.

To test your loaf is ready, slide it out of the tin and tap it on the bottom with your fingers - it should sound hollow - if  it produces more of a dull thud then simply pop it back in the oven for another couple of minutes.

When ready, take it out of the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack. Once cool, wrap in greaseproof paper or foil and store in an air-tight container.


And now for the hard part - if you can, wait at least two days before tucking into your rye sourdough bread. It will be edible before, but the crumb structure takes time to develop and the flavour of the spices really develops over a couple of days. Believe me, it's worth the wait. Your loaf will then last for a week, if you don't eat it up before then. It also freezes really well.


If this has inspired you to give it a go, do let me know how you get on. I'd love to see your pics and hear what flavour combinations you went for. If you'd like to find out more about the wonderful world of sourdough, you can book on the Virtuous Bread course here.

Sunday 9 December 2012

My first encounter with Sourdough

After discovering Virtuous Bread I'd initially booked onto their Basic Bread course, but after doing some more research I decided to take the plunge and go headfirst into the world of sourdough. The idea of making bread from just flour, water and salt appealed to me after a life-long obsession with cake and biscuit baking where there was always baking powder, bicarbonate of soda or of course, self-raising flour to do the job for you.

I'd booked onto a course with Jane Mason, the mastermind behind Virtuous Bread, on the 10th of October. With a day off work I was looking forward to trying my hand at bread baking - I couldn't think of a better way to spend the day.

I turned up at her lovely home in Hammersmith, right on the riverside, with rowers working their way up and down on a beautiful sunny autumnal morning. I was greeted not by Jane but Lucy Heeley - it turned out Jane's parents were over from Canada for the book launch of Jane's book 'All you knead is bread' later that week and she was taking them on a tour of London. At first I was disappointed not to be meeting and being taught by Jane, after reading so much about her and the real passion she holds for bread baking and sharing this with others. However, my disappointment did not last long.

There were three of us on the course: myself, a lady in retirement who had been bought the course as a birthday gift from her son, and a lady over from Singapore who wanted to start baking her own bread.

We started the day with tea and a chat about why we were all there. Lucy, it turned out, had spent a year doing the Leith's Diploma of Food and Wine, something I'd previously looked at, but sadly the cost was just too prohibitive. Through the connections she'd made at Leith's she now helps run courses at the school and has been working with Jane to teach the basic bread and sourdough bread courses.

First up, we needed to get our rye sourdough breads on the go. She led us through to Jane's kitchen which backed right onto the river and drew our attention to the bowl that sat in the middle of the table. After pulling away the plastic cover, a brownish, frothy liquid sat at the bottom of the bowl. This it turned out was what a refreshed sourdough starter looked like. Something we'd all be aiming to achieve if we wanted to make our own.

We each poured out the necessary amount into our own bowls, I was transfixed by all the bubbles in the liquid. We then added flour, water and salt and had the choice to start tailoring the bread to our own tastes... treacle, honey, spices and seeds... so much to choose from. The heady world of bread baking was already pulling me in.

I opted for treacle to give it a good colour and a depth of flavour along with cumin and seeds. Then it was time to get our hands dirty. After plunging our hands into the mix, we squeezed and squelched until we had combined all the ingredients into what basically resembled a wet sticky mass. Turns out that was the job done for rye sourdough. All that was left to do was to grease our little loaf baking tins, and with wet hands scoop up the sticky mass and shape it into a rounded oblong and simply plop it in the tin with a shower hat on top to rise. This would take anywhere between 3-5 hours, depending on the heat in the kitchen.

After this eventful start we then sat down for more tea and some delicious toasted raisin bread with jam (all home baked of course). Divine! Once we'd had our fill Lucy talked us through the science behind sourdough, explaining it in simple terms, and patiently answering our very many questions.

Then it was back to the kitchen to make a wheat sourdough. This bowl of refreshed starter looked somewhat different to the first. It was off-white to begin with and very gloopy and stretchy; almost like melted mozzarella cheese. Again we each pulled and stretched our portions into our individual bowls. Then added the basic flour, water and salt. We had the choice of white, wholemeal, and spelt flours, I opted for a 50/50 mix of wholemeal and white spelt. Then we got our hands in and combined the ingredients once more. This time the mass took the form of what I had imagined a dough to look like. Once done, it was time for our first knead!

Lucy showed us her technique, kind of a two-handed, stretch and pull method, where the heel of your right hand stretches the middle to top of the dough upwards while the heel of your left holds and pulls the bottom of the dough towards you. From the very get-go you can see the glutinous strands working their magic, as a web becomes visible in the dough each time you stretch and pull. Lucy set the clock and we kneaded our hearts out for a whole 10 minutes. With each of us developing our own unique technique that worked for us. The method didn't seem to really matter as long as you were creating a stretch in the dough to form the glutinous web. It was surprisingly hard work kneading for a solid 10 minutes, we all seemed to end up using our whole body in the kneading movement with a rocking motion from hip to foot as we stretched and pulled, all the while looking at each other's to see how our own compared. As we'd all chosen a different flour combination each of the doughs had taken a slightly different route, with some more stretchy (glutinous) than others.

At the end of the 10 minutes we performed the 'windowpane test' to see if we'd kneaded sufficiently. We each picked up our doughs and started to pull and stretch them in mid-air as you would to draw curtains, the dough thinned to reveal thin panes through which you could see the daylight coming through when held to the light - hence the name. Aha we'd all pretty much cracked it, but Lucy still made us do a couple more minutes kneading just to be sure and make sure we'd truly mastered the kneading technique. After which, it was time to let our doughs (and us) rest. We popped our doughs under a tea towel for an hour while Lucy talked us through the plan for the rest of the day and started to get lunch prep under way.

We then performed our first stretch and fold of the dough. This apparently helps to create those lovely big holes you get in sourdough bread. We each took our doughs, which were already starting to look bigger than before, and in a clockwise motion pulled a small clump of the dough up and away from us and then pulled it back into the centre, then moved to the next section until we'd gone round the clockface. Then we had to flip the dough over and quickly smooth over the surface with our hands lightly pulling from the top to the bottom until the surface looked nice and smooth - easier said than done! Then it was time for them to rest for another hour.

Meanwhile we had a lunch of tasty lentil and vegetable soup with lots more bread and cheese. I could have quite happily gone for a nap after all that food, but no, it was time to shape the wheat doughs. Under Lucy's direction we stretched and folded once more before rolling, stretching, smoothing and all other manners of movement that by the end were beyond me. Lucy made it all look so simple. Somehow we all got our doughs into the correct shape (basically a long, fat oblong) and placed them as gently as we could on a floured tea towel and then covered them again to do their final rise.

Next it was time to move onto making some swedish crispbreads. Lucy had already made the dough, which had some milk and spices added to it, as it had needed time to proof before we could start to make the finished product. Our first job was to pluck small little clumps of the dough and shape them into balls (hopefully of a relatively equal size). Then Lucy masterfully demonstrated the shaping technique.

On a floured surface Lucy rolled the dough up and down with a mini rolling pin, flipping it over, time and time again, adding flour as she went so the dough didn't stick to the table or the rolling pin. Then once it was about 50cm long by about 8cm wide she sprinkled some sesame seeds, cumin seeds and rock salt over it and then rolled this in using a funny looking knobbled rolling pin which created an unsurprisingly knobbled pattern on the rolled dough. This was then simply placed on a greased baking tray ready to go in the oven. Now it was our turn. We each had a go with varying degrees of success, but after working our way through the full mix (of about 40 balls) we'd pretty much mastered it and were churning them out, up to four at a time, by the end. Lucy cooked them as we went so we got to taste test while working the production line. They were really crunchy and packed full of flavour - particularly the ones with cumin added. I was amazed when Lucy said that if well-wrapped and stored in an airtight container they could last happily for a year. They're perfect if friends pop over at short notice for a drink, particularly dipped in hommous or somesuch.

Then it was time for the final sourdough of the day. Scones!!! One of my favourite things with a cup of tea. We watched and learned as Lucy rolled out the dough she had again pre-prepared and simply shaped it into rounds using cutters and popped them in the oven.

Then we had to sit and wait for them to cook followed by the endless torture waiting for them to cool enough so we could tuck into them. Apparently, they're best eaten fresh on the day of cooking, so alas we had to relent and fill our already full stomachs with even more. Still warm, served with butter and apricot jam, they were a thing of beauty, with a real depth of flavour compared to a standard scone. It was impossible to have just one...

After this, we somehow pulled ourselves back off the sofa as it was time to cook the rye and wheat breads. The rye sourdoughs had each worked their way to the top of the tin, so we topped them with our preference of seeds or flour and popped them in the oven for 40 mins. We then did the 'prod test' on the wheat doughs; basically prodding your finger into the dough and if it pops back to its original shape then it's ready to bake. All our doughs passed the prod test so in the oven they went. Lucy thankfully picked them up one by one and placed them on the baking tray to go in the oven. While they cooked, we cleaned up the kitchen one last time as Lucy talked us through everything we'd done that day.

It felt like being a child when it was time to check the breads, as Lucy pulled first the rye breads from the oven and did the tap test on the bottom of each to check they sounded hollow. They looked perfect! And then the wheat bread - wow, they'd grown huge and each one looked fantastic.

We each formed our own little pile of sourdough goodness to take home with us, along with a Virtuous bread bag to put it all in, a scraper and of course, most importantly, our very own starter! After thanking Lucy for a wonderful experience and for putting up with our incessant questions, we left in a buoyant, happy mood, with our bags wafting out the scent of freshly baked bread.

It truly was a lovely day, spent in good company, creating wonderful looking, smelling and tasting sourdough goodies. I couldn't wait to try it all out for myself back at home.

If you're thinking of taking the plunge - I have no reservations but to say go for it. You'll never look back! Find out more and book up here.

PS - sorry for the lack of photos, I was too busy taking it all in to even think about doing this.