Bread

Cheers, haha. Had one now, sweet death. Filling is pasticcera (Italian pastry cream) with a lemon zest

Oh fuuuuck

Mother of God.

For anyone inclined to have a go

https://www.theperfectloaf.com/naturally-leavened-bomboloni-doughnuts/

Did you use a mechanical mixer for these?

Yeah, the Kitchenaid I've just bought. Guess you could try by hand but incorporating the butter might be a mare

Homer_drooling.jpg

probably the one loaf, over the last 6 months, i've cared least about timings and measurements

scoring still needs work

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Hate working with such a huge pot of oil though

It's terrifying, isn't it?

Which recipe / guide fdid you use? I've had good success with the Paul Hollywood / GBBO one.

Back on the Pittas

Recipe / guide please!

Link above innit

I don't have the book at present but it's similar to this, except the initial mixing / kneeding is done in the bread machine and I replaced sugar with honey last time out.

The book it is from is: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14610450-the-bread-and-bread-machine-bible

Once I get it back I can share with you.

Freshly milled flour is so aromatic, the dough in proving barely smelled of yeast and yoghurt, instead it had aromas of fruits - tomatoes apples and berries. Can’t wait for it to cool down to edible temperature. Wheat, spelt, seeds

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Err, could do a little better

What grain are you using? Did you get the mockmill kitchenaid attachment?

Storing up a Christmas present wishlist.

Oh and could you mill fine enough for pizza flour?

It is indeed the mockmill kitchenaid attachment. Seems great, easy to use and to disassemble if needs must. Also using it for milling large quantities of spices for sausage making. It isn't incredibly fast and depending on how fine you grind it will take longer. People have suggested putting flour through a second time to get it finer, though my first attempt doing this I had probably ground too fine to begin with so on second grind the machine just clogged up (but it takes seconds to dismantle so not a great problem).

It is pretty much the change from going to preground or even instant coffee to grinding your own beans, it is a huge step change, but with it comes some change to technique and timings.

Greater nutritional value means the dough proves faster, wheat and rye are more thirsty when freshly ground (but spelt less thirsty). There is less protein development in freshly milled flour so a little less oven spring. But I tend to use 50-60% french organic flour in most of my breads and then make up the rest with more interesting flour.

Currently using spelt, rye and wheat from my local organic shop. I also have 3kg bags of each of those from bakery bits. Am pretty certain I'll end up buying 25kg bags of grain as it has a very long shelf life and I have adequate storage space.

Not sure about pizza flour, i'd probably stick to caputo or similar for that.

The added benefit of having the grains to hand is that I will start making my own diastatic malt for ridiculous bragging rights.

Which loaf should I give to my sister and her family?

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Right. Although they both look amazing.

First go with a banneton rather than a tea towel in a mixing bowl - went quite well!

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Wow..!

Looking to get started with baking bread having had an aborted attempt at the Tartine starter method last year. Gonna start a new starter today but as that won't be ready for a week or so, can anyone recommend a good easy non starter recipe? (as in using yeast rather than a starter). Cheers.

White bread flour (500 to 600g is a good starting point depending on the size of your tins)
60% water
1% yeast
1.5% salt
2% butter or lard. Ghee is the pinnacle.

Depending on how easy you want to go:

Mix, knead the shit out of it for ten minutes, stretch and fold once or twice an hour for two or three hours, shape and put in tin. Raise for an hour. Bake for 35 minutes at 190ish

or

Mix, knead the shit out of it for ten minutes, put in tin, wait an hour, put in oven for 35 minutes.

If you want "easy" and simple there is normally a basic no frills bread recipe on the yeast packet, erh.. that's if your using dry yeast of course.

https://www.bakewithjack.co.uk/blog-1/2019/10/17/the-overnight-great-white

I've enjoyed this as both a 100% white and ~50:50 white:brown loaf