Thursday, January 27, 2011

Mellow Bakers in Januari - Part 1

The month is almost over and I still didn't make all the breads for the Mellow Bakers. I'm having difficulty getting a sane rye starter going, partly because I keep forgetting to feed and stir it, and partly because I had to throw it out twice already, because of a terrible and sickening smell of the starter. So the three breads:- Three-stage 90, 80 and 70 percent sourdough rye's will have to wait a little longer. I hope to get them out of the way next month.
But I've baked the other breads, so I'll show them off here:

- Pain de Mie or Pullman bread. This is such a nice loaf. First of all I love baking bread in the lidded pullman pan. I always find it very exciting when the point comes where you open the lid and you can finally see if it's perfectly risen in all corners. These square slices just look so neat. It's perfect to make Croque Monsieurs with, and equally perfect for french toast (or "Wentelteefjes" as they're called in the Netherlands).

I remember the first time I made a Pullman loaf: I had too much dough and it pressed itself out of the tin in long flat strips... all over the oven. But not anymore, I  know I need about 600 g of flour for my pan (from King Arthur Flour), so I took 2/3 of the "home-"recipe from Hamelmans book. I let out the milkpowder and used half (oat)milk and half water in stead of all water.

- Golden raisin bread. A lovely loaf with both great taste and look. Pretty straight forward in making it. A little levain build up a day in advance and yeast in the final dough too.

Next month's breads have been announced, so see you next month to see them here.
Next post here will be the Bread Baking Day #36 post in a day or two. See you then.

8 comments:

Jo said...

Wow the crumb of both those looks fantastic and I really love the scoring and look of the raisin bread. Just gorgeous!

On your rye starter, have you tried just feeding your wheat starter with rye for a few days, it might be worth a shot? I sieve the rye I use for the starter maintenance, if it has too much bran in it can go a bit funny. I also use more flour than water for the starter than I am keeping/storing, gives it more food to keep it quiet as it always ferments faster than wheat. You probably know all this already!) Have a great weekend!

Lien said...

Thanks Jo, the problem was that my wheat starter died too... I haven't been able to move well because of a bad back. I'll make another wheat starter that I'll transform later to rye. THanks for your tips and comment!

NKP said...

Just gorgeous!
Sorry your rye is having trouble. I have been refrigerating mine in between uses, but it definitely slows it down.
Just finished my last rye today, will post them maybe Sunday.
Cheers!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Gorgeous loves! Droolworthy.

Cheers,

Rosa

ostwestwind said...

Z like Zorro for the bread ;-)

Karen Baking Soda said...

Lien I really love the scoring on that loaf! (And I envy you for your pain de mie pan, especially since you mastered how to do it; it looks perfect!

ap269 said...

I had to throw out my rye starter because it was growing mold!!! Eeeh... My wheat starter is doing fine, though ;o). Nice breads, nice pictures - as always!

rockdavinci.blogspot.com said...

Beautiful production. It will be great if you live right next door, so I can drop in for a bite. :-)