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!