Easter Bake

Just finished our Easter bake.  We baked on a Friday this week so that people had their bread before this special weekend.  We baked more loaves than we have done on a single firing and on a new schedule that we have not used before.  The results are continuing to improve as we refine our process form week to week and I hope we can keep this up.

Rustic Sourdough

Wholemeal sourdough with sunflower seeds

Bread in a wood fired oven - Improving week to week

There are still a few things to finish on the wood fired oven, but I have been focusing on improving the quality and consistency of the two types of bread I bake each week.  In the last couple of weeks we have started using a new source of flour and as a result the mixing, hydration, fermentation and proofing has all been adjusted. With what we learned baking last week some more refinements were made this week and the results are now greatly improved.

Quick lunch on bake day

Our wholemeal bread with sun-flour seeds is now being made with this new, freshly milled, wholemeal flour. This recipe needed more work than the rustic white bread, which I have been making for a long time.  This weeks changes have finally got close to what I have been aiming for.  The main difference from the rustic white method is that where the white dough is proofed cold for around 8 hours.  The wholemeal is fermented cold for 10 hours and then proofed warm for 1.5 hours.  The cold dough hold shape much better and then maintains this shape while proofing.  This results in a much lighter loaf with a more open crumb.

Wholemeal with sunflower seeds