The summer past

I did vaguely allude to a French summer holiday in my first post, and now that I'm stuck in cold dark Cambridge with only a glass of wine for company I thought I would reminisce about my time away.

As you might imagine we ate, and more importantly drank, our way around France squashed in the car between the tent and the rudimentary camping stove. One of my favourite days was an unorganised trip to a vineyard. We turned up unannounced late morning, thinking we could potter around and try a few wines, but even after a couple of weeks in France we still had underestimated the importance of lunch. Someone kindly explained that it was very nearly lunchtime but we could join another group for a tasting session and a bite to eat. I very quickly delegated the drive home to the girlfriend and tucked into the wine.

Then lunch was served by the lady of the chateau wearing a horrible yellow and orange satin jacket. Out came rillette, bread and salad. And, of course, a glass of wine. Thinking that this was it, we both, having paid €20, filled our plates and ate a lot. This was our second mistake of the day. This course was soon whisked away to be replaced by a dish of coq au vin. Feeling slightly full we struggled, but our frequently refilled wine glasses helped wash it down. Then the dessert of sobet made from, unsurprisingly, wine was delivered. By this stage I was pissed enough to agree to have more wine poured on top. All in all, a great afternoon.

The death of the levain

I haven't posted for a while, but I have been busy making bread. Several loaves have been quite good, and I have impressed people ranging from the scathing friend to two slightly worse for wear friends in search of a midnight snack. The new proving basket has made things look slightly prettier, even if they are still a bit mis-shapen.

In search of a quiet night in yesterday evening I switched on the tv and found "The Great British Bake Off". I'd never seen this before but it annoyed me from the beginning. Firstly Mary Berry is far too skinny to be a pastry chef and the other bloke, I can't even remember his name, had such irritating hair that I found it hard to concentrate. However I did learn something quite useful. When the guy with the hair was making focaccia the dough was really wet and loose. Apparently this is what you need for bigger air pockets and a lighter bread.

This got me thinking about my bread because often it is too dense and thick. I follow the recipes correctly, the ones with a higher ratio of levain are now my mainstay, and use the correct amount of water, but I always end up putting a lot more flour into the mixture when I am working it. I don't really think about what I am doing but it seems natural to chuck a bit flour onto the work surface to stop it sticking.

I woke up this morning and popped into town to get some wholemeal flour to try out a new mix with a higher water to flour ratio. Last night I had moved the box of levain from one fridge to the smaller older one (being students we have two small fridges rather than one large useful one) and when I unclipping the top off the levain smelt and looked terrible. As I had all the flour ready, and needed some more bread, I cracked on anyway and knocked together a much wetter looser dough. Unsurprisingly it hasn't risen at all but I'll bake it and see anyway. I think the crappy old fridge might have killed my levain.

Sometimes I hate being a student and having things that don't work properly!

Back to School

Term has started again so I now find I have less time for cooking and thinking about food. However I have found time to sort out the bread, even dashing home in the car from a friend's house to put another loaf in the oven and then going back in time to pick my other friends up, and it is getting better and better. It passed the girlfriend test, which admittedly is slightly biased, and I was even bold enough to give it to some friends. Either I have kind, sympathetic friends or they actually like it!

I now have an active strong levain tucked up in the back of the fridge and a new recipe. I attribute my recent successes to white flour and a larger ratio of levain in the dough. It seems to rise much better and is the right balance between chewy and light. Perhaps I am getting a bit carried away with my progress but today I thought I deserved a treat. After trying to get dough to rise in bowls lined with teatowels, and producing several odd shaped loaves, I splashed out on a proper wicker proving basket. The price slightly dampened my excitement but I'm chuffed.

The next big test for my bread has already started. I have promised a slightly scathingly, honest-talking friend a loaf of my bread. If this batch turn out badly I'm not sure if my nerves will take it! At least the bread should look nice after proving in my new basket!

The cows

I went to the Food Festival at the weekend and was a little disappointed. It seemed slightly gimmicky and even Warburtons were there handing out slices of buttered toast. I thought that was a bit bizarre.

But there was something that was a bit exciting and I managed to track the lady in question down. For the past week I've been working with a vet who specialises in canine reproduction and it has been great, partly because it has sparked my interested again and inspires me to be a vet, but also because she owns the beautiful red poll cattle down on Midsummer Common in the centre of Cambridge. And she sells all the meat at farmers markets at the weekends. I used to cycle past these cows on the way to town sometimes and now I can eat them! It doesn't get much more local than that. Who needs city farms with a few pigs and four cattle when you can have a whole herd on your doorstep!

The lady who was at the market on the stall was lovely and the meat itself did look fantastic. I can even get hold of cuts like the blade, flank and skirt to make some cheap steak dinners. Check back for the all important taste test.

The next batch of bread is also in the oven as I speak, and hopefully it should be more promising. The chef and levain actually rose this time so I'm cautiously optimisitic.

Have to go now, off to move the red poll cattle with the vet to do some AI. I think I might have found my dream job.

Attempt #2

Looking back I think I was a bit hard on myself. The bread hadn't risen and was too dense but it tasted good and had a crunchy but chewy crust. The start wasn't a success but it had promise.

A couple of days ago, after my initial attempt I decided to tweak a few things. The main problem with the first batch, I think, was the lack of yeast. I could start right from the beginning again with the raisins in the fermenting jar, but I'm inpatient and will always take a short-cut if there is one. I had the remain yeasty water from the first jar in the fridge and having decanted some off I decided that the yeast cells might need a bit more food to get them growing again (several years of a veterinary education has taught me something). Raiding the cupboards I found some honey and spooned in a dollop. I gave it a shake and forgot about it.

A telephone call and a chat about my bread earlier today reminded me that I had something brewing in the bathroom so I quickly ended the conversation, such is the importance if my bread, and went to investigate. Twisting the lid off the contents nearly fizzed all over me. I definitely think that there is more yeast in there now! A quick ten minutes later and a new mother is sitting comfortably in the warm. After another trip to the pub tonight I'll prepare the chef. Fingers crossed for bit more success this time.

I have also started a proper soughdough culture too, potentially to add to my baking woes. This relies on cultivating the natural yeasts that occur in the flour. Apparently whole wheat flour is ideal to start this process off so my Cornish gift is useful once more. I started the culture using 50g water and 50g flour on the same day I fed the yeasty water for the pain levain. Rediscovering it again today bubbles and a sour smell were obvious so I fed it again with the same amount of flour and water. The idea is to feed the culture every couple of days when there is signs of life and dispose of half each time. Give me a couple more days and hopefully it might get a bit more exciting.

On a different note all together I found out something very exciting today. Well something exciting if you live in Cambridge and like food. I'll tell more once I've done a bit of research, and taste testing, at the Cambridge Food, Garden and Produce festival tomorrow.

This is my cat Christopher who decided to come home after two nights away on an adventure. He has nothing to do with bread or baking, but he does like spicy sausages!

The results of the first attempt

I made the levain yesterday morning and added the final batch of flour, water and salt to make the final dough for the bread. My initial enthusiasm with the chef, maybe because I was a bit merry from the pub, had waned once the levain was made and had left to rise. Supposedly it was meant to double in size, but even after a whole night in the airing cupboard not much had happened. Nevertheless I ploughed on and mixed and kneaded until my arm hurt.

Knocking back the dough twice during proving was almost unnecessary as there was very little air to squash out. I had read that you can leave the final dough to rise in the fridge overnight for an even better aroma so as a last ditch attempt I tried this.

After a night of dreaming about light pillowy bread I got up early to bake my loaves before work. Optimistically I hoped something had miraculously had happened in the fridge but nothing had. I had got this far, I thought, so I might as well bake them. Taking them out after thirty five minutes I was surprised at how appealing, if small, they looked. Cutting into them, however, was as I imagined. Thick, compacted crumb with few, if any, holes. I am disappointed.

Thinking about where I might have gone wrong it seems obvious to start with my yeast. In my yeasty fermentation jar there was an alcohol smell and bubbles so I thought that it would be ready. This initial stage to encourage the yeast to grow is quite a delicate process, I think, so I might have done something wrong. I have read in other places that spring water should be used because tap water can be chlorinated and this can kill yeast cells rather than encourage them.

My next plan is to tinker with my raisin yeast. I drained the raisins out and have the yeasty water in a jar in the fridge. I think I'll try and cultivate this further because there must be some yeast cells in there. I have also started a sourdough culture, just flour and water, and hopefully that might yield something. I have discovered that this process is a lot more complex and challenging than I first thought. The airing cupboard will be full of experiments for a while now though, I'm not giving up until I make something that can be described as bread!

Returning from the pub....

I made it home in one piece and now the mother has turned into the chef.... It's looking pretty good and my biceps are burning so I'm happy.

The chef. He is already springy and growing.