Ever have a bad bake? Lately for me, it's been happening far to often. Admittedly I am no professional baker. Nor do I have scientific ability to judge what went wrong. But this has been ridiculous and really annoying. Take this weekend. Lousy weather made it a great time to stay home.
My first attempt was Saturday, when I attempted a triple bread bake. It turned out either jinxed by the cold, bad levain, or the scheduling,or the hydration or just not having a damned clue. The end result was two loaves impossible to salvage or consider ingesting. The third was a baguette, which surprisingly made the cut, so much so we polished it off with some cheese for dinner. The other two unfortunates went into the bin.
I hate doing that, so I went back, fed the starters twice in the same day, and commenced this morning to mix, this time with only two loaves on the schedule. The first was my old standby "mountain," a sort of play on a campagne bread. Today I added poppy seeds into the mix. The other loaf was a hybrid I found on Nils site for quark brot. I adapted it by using some Fage Greek style yogurt, which my wife happened to have bought at zero percentage fat content, which sort of mimics the lighter quark cheese.
Success, two fabulously light loaves and with a picture perfect look as well. Is it okay to boast? Hope so. Ahhh finally!
This whole bake was intended for Zorra's bread bake day, I missed the day and the cut, so I hope she will accept this late entry, my gesture for a wonderful celebration of one of my favorite staples in food.
Mh love the shiny crust. Excellent bread. Yoghurt is probably better than Quark which is quite dominant.
Posted by: Nils | October 24, 2009 at 04:47 PM
Thanks Bren, I think my schedule and a mix up of unmarked flours could be my latest gaf! A white spelt and AP flour bin could be reeking havoc on my latest loaves!!
Welcome and come back again soon!
Posted by: Jeremy | October 23, 2009 at 04:45 AM
sorry you missed the cut but that's some absolutely gorgeous looking bread!
Posted by: Bren | October 23, 2009 at 01:15 AM
Nothing worse then making menhirs and monoliths for spreading good cheese or salami? Still wondering about my levain, maybe it's off or something, loaves tasted good but not good enough, back to the drawing board or mixer!
Posted by: Jeremy | October 20, 2009 at 07:24 AM
Those are killer loaves which would do any bakery proud! So glad you persevered. Bread-baking is like horseback riding. When you fall off, you have to get back on right away!
Posted by: MC | October 20, 2009 at 07:03 AM
Nice, Jeremy!!
It's weird how one day's killer loaf turns into a nasty floor-mopping dough the next. Sometimes it's like the starter refuses to cooperate no matter what it's fed. The freshest, most intoxicating stoneground rye, and it goes "Naaah, don't think so." Bread mojo?
Glad you turned it round and got some lovely loaves after all! Your mountain is the top one, yes?
Posted by: Hans Joakim | October 19, 2009 at 05:19 AM