Word up Folks,
Time for another low down of how the empire's coming along.
Last Thursday I had a message from my buddy Jim who's in the Farmers Market Business - I'd been onto him about getting a pitch and at the last minute he offered me a spot for the next day. I couldn't say no, and had the benefit of knowing I could call upon the support of the muffin making duo Emily and Josh who are now on the scene. I started cracking at midnight, and worked flat out until 7 a.m. I made around 10 white loaves with olives, sun dried tomatoes, and sprigs of rosemary pushed into the top. I made 5 x pure wholemeal. I made some overnight sponge with walnut and raison, and I made a rye, wholemeal and white combination with sunflower and pumpkin.
It was clearly a pretty stressful undertaking. I even did my Level 1 Food Preparation exam online at about 4 a.m. I got mixes wrong and spent a fair bit of time cursing myself. My kitchen at home was floured! But by 7a.m. I had wiped the surfaces down, delivered a loaf to the neighbour below who I feared I had kept awake (she slept through) and was ready to leave when Josh came around at 8 a.m.
We set the stall up, photos attached, and the day went quite well although the clientele around Finsbury Square weren't ideal. The Celtic bakery were around the corner and had much more passing trade. I sold loaves here for around £3.50 for a 600 gram loaf. I think after expenses (congestion charge, seeds and olives, oil, flour), fortunatley jim let me off the £40 pitch fee - yep, I think I made about £35.....
The next day I had a stall at the local shop. So prepared sourdough and an overnight sponge which I took to the wood fired oven at 8 a.m. the next day. I've got much better at using the peel now, but the problem I'm having is that as I take the loaves from here to there, they cool down and don;t rose long enough before going in the oven - they're a bit small. Sales were okay, as it makes a big difference if the baker is with his bread. But it was a bit boring so I left after a few hours. Emily muffin was there with a cake providing some support.
That night we had a much more fun event. By chance the pub around the corner which is squatted was hosting it's first ever evening market a mixture of gig, pub, cocktail bar etc - basically a mini festival. I bought a really crazy sweatshirt which blew my profits but it went down well and we've been invited back and the plan will be to do soup and bread.
Today we toured some restaurants and cafes. picked up a couple of orders 2 loaves a week to one place and about 5 loaves a day to another - I took the 60/40 with seeds, a wholemeal and the sourdough - but I can see that the market we need is higher end restaurants, where the likes of Rhodes and Gails bakery are selling to. To dazzle these guys I suspect a website and business cards will be a more appropriate introduction than me rocking up with a cardboard box full of delicious bread. Altough will persevere with that.
Josh and Em have orders for banana cake and muffins at a few places as well now.
We're looking at how we could make this viable, and reckon if we do it togtether need to be selling about £500 a day, that could be in other types of food as well, and the premisses we use could possibly double up as a retail outlet. But it's daunting.
Well, if anyone fancies slinging some advice, that'd be great. Otherwise, hope you're enjoying chilled out baking. Rest assured I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't get a kick out of it. Just gotta meet the bills at some point.
Smiles.
Monday, 1 March 2010
Monday, 15 February 2010
BEN'S BREAD-MAKING CAREER
Ben took a 5-day course I gave at the beginning of February. Within a week he was out there selling his own breads. I'll let him tell his own story...
Oh my God! I'm turning into a bread. Well, there's so much I want to say to you all. Firstly, wasn't it such a great week, I would probably miss you all more, if it wasn't for the wonders of e-mail, all these tales of bargain scales and wot not, it feels like we've hardly left.
For my part, the last week has been dominated by bread. At the end of the course my local wood fired pizza place agreed I could use their oven, and an organic shop, that I could have a stand selling bread... and then my friend Sara lent me her cellar to use for preparations, and a bike and bike trailer to cart the stuff to the oven.
Well, in terms of the actual process and end product things have gone pretty well, but not without disasters, and panics. I left the salt out yesterday until the 3rd knead, buggerations, it took ages to work it all back in, and I'm still praying there aren't people at home spitting out lumps of doughy salt.
In technical terms, I bought a pair of electric scales from a local kitchenware store near my folks in Suffolk, I wouldn't recommend them as they have a fault, the zero doesn't show immediately, it takes about 15 mins for them to warm up (a few oo ers there I bet), but pressing down a bit on the edge means i can see it. Anyway, I bought bannetons from a company called Candi Gifts in Lowestoft as I didn't have time for the Germans to deliver. I've actually got plastic ones for the long thin bread, but they don't work very well, you have to put loads of flour in, which isn't great for the oven I've actually adapted my technique in the wood oven to using tins, so the bread goes into the tin just before going in the oven, I let it harden up, and then flip it onto the stone when it's tough, but obviously only 2 days in, there's loads of time to try and change things.
I'm selling the sourdough and the white with overnight sponge, but customer feedback suggests a rye bread, spelt and wholemeal would probably be great hit. I'm going to try my loaves down near Columbia road market tomorrow although I haven't figured out how I will be able to park and transport my goods, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. I'm not sure this is going to be viable financially, but will continue to give it a shot. I was charging £3.25 for a big one - about 800g and £2.25 for a small one 500g, but it's taking all hours of the day at the mo. My mum suggested I sell bread and butter puddings as well which I thought was a pretty good idea.
Thanks so much for the encouragement guys! Much appreciated!! Incidentally the bread tastes really good, so that's a result. Oh yes, I've bought my flour from Marriages in Chelmsford, I'm using their organic at the mo which they're doing at £10 per 16K sack. But having found out the flour in it comes from 16 different countries I don't think I'll stay with that. Actually if I keep doing this I'd like to source from the small places.
Happy baking,
Ben
Oh my God! I'm turning into a bread. Well, there's so much I want to say to you all. Firstly, wasn't it such a great week, I would probably miss you all more, if it wasn't for the wonders of e-mail, all these tales of bargain scales and wot not, it feels like we've hardly left.
For my part, the last week has been dominated by bread. At the end of the course my local wood fired pizza place agreed I could use their oven, and an organic shop, that I could have a stand selling bread... and then my friend Sara lent me her cellar to use for preparations, and a bike and bike trailer to cart the stuff to the oven.
Well, in terms of the actual process and end product things have gone pretty well, but not without disasters, and panics. I left the salt out yesterday until the 3rd knead, buggerations, it took ages to work it all back in, and I'm still praying there aren't people at home spitting out lumps of doughy salt.
In technical terms, I bought a pair of electric scales from a local kitchenware store near my folks in Suffolk, I wouldn't recommend them as they have a fault, the zero doesn't show immediately, it takes about 15 mins for them to warm up (a few oo ers there I bet), but pressing down a bit on the edge means i can see it. Anyway, I bought bannetons from a company called Candi Gifts in Lowestoft as I didn't have time for the Germans to deliver. I've actually got plastic ones for the long thin bread, but they don't work very well, you have to put loads of flour in, which isn't great for the oven I've actually adapted my technique in the wood oven to using tins, so the bread goes into the tin just before going in the oven, I let it harden up, and then flip it onto the stone when it's tough, but obviously only 2 days in, there's loads of time to try and change things.
I'm selling the sourdough and the white with overnight sponge, but customer feedback suggests a rye bread, spelt and wholemeal would probably be great hit. I'm going to try my loaves down near Columbia road market tomorrow although I haven't figured out how I will be able to park and transport my goods, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. I'm not sure this is going to be viable financially, but will continue to give it a shot. I was charging £3.25 for a big one - about 800g and £2.25 for a small one 500g, but it's taking all hours of the day at the mo. My mum suggested I sell bread and butter puddings as well which I thought was a pretty good idea.
Thanks so much for the encouragement guys! Much appreciated!! Incidentally the bread tastes really good, so that's a result. Oh yes, I've bought my flour from Marriages in Chelmsford, I'm using their organic at the mo which they're doing at £10 per 16K sack. But having found out the flour in it comes from 16 different countries I don't think I'll stay with that. Actually if I keep doing this I'd like to source from the small places.
Happy baking,
Ben
Sunday, 6 December 2009
FOLIC ACID IN FLOUR?
You may not be aware that the UK government is proposing legislation that would make it mandatory for all flour mills to fortify flour with Folic Acid. I am against this additive in flour. You can read the entire argument at http://www.fostersmill.co.uk/page7.htm . If you are against this proposal you can sign a Downing Street petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/folic-acid-mills/
Thursday, 3 December 2009
CONTAMINATION
I’ve often been told, “my sourdough's dead”. Sorry folks, it’s virtually impossible to kill it off. You can keep it almost indefinitely at room temperature, in the fridge or even freeze it. It’s still alive and well, simply dormant. If kept at room temperature it’s at its most vulnerable, so you have keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t start to grow mould. If it does, scrape off the mould and refresh. How many times? Until you get to the consistency you want and the acidic smell is bearable. Say 3 times. If it’s been kept in the fridge or freezer all you need do is allow it to return to room temperature and refresh it a few times, as above.
However, contamination is another matter. My sourdough loaves went tasteless about a month ago, no tangy aftertaste at all. The loaves, whether baked after being in the proofer, or retarder overnight, certainly rose. But the taste was zero. I realised that “mother” (or the leaven if you prefer) had been contaminated with commercial yeast. There are several possibilities of how this happened and I’ll come back to that in a moment. Curiously, Chris R contacted me and reported the same problem. Not surprising as I’d recently given him some leaven.
Fortunately I had a very dormant pot of “mother” sitting in the fridge, untouched for more than 3 months. It smelled pretty high and some water had separated from the flour. Back in July I’d been given some stone-ground flours, by the miller at Foster’s Mill, and wanted to try them out. I’d converted some of my existing, and at that time untainted leaven, by taking a portion of it and refreshing it 3 or 4 times with the Foster’s Mill flours and by doing so diluting my existing leaven to a minimum in the refreshed leaven. I then made some very tasty loaves using the Foster’s Mill flours and leaven. Holiday time came so I stored the remaining Foster’s Mill leaven in the fridge. Luck was on my side as the stored Foster’s Mill leaven was uncontaminated.
Here are a few tips to keep commercial yeast from contaminating your precious leavens:
o Never use a utensil to mix a sourdough leaven after it has come in contact with commercial yeast
o Never remove excess leaven from a mix that also contains commercial yeast and put it back in the leaven container
o Never take excess water out of container that contains yeast and put it aside for future use
If your leaven(s) are in perfect condition I suggest you store a portion of each in the freezer. Should any of your leavens in regular use get contaminated you’ll have a backup supply. A word to the wise is sufficient.
Carl
2 December 2009
However, contamination is another matter. My sourdough loaves went tasteless about a month ago, no tangy aftertaste at all. The loaves, whether baked after being in the proofer, or retarder overnight, certainly rose. But the taste was zero. I realised that “mother” (or the leaven if you prefer) had been contaminated with commercial yeast. There are several possibilities of how this happened and I’ll come back to that in a moment. Curiously, Chris R contacted me and reported the same problem. Not surprising as I’d recently given him some leaven.
Fortunately I had a very dormant pot of “mother” sitting in the fridge, untouched for more than 3 months. It smelled pretty high and some water had separated from the flour. Back in July I’d been given some stone-ground flours, by the miller at Foster’s Mill, and wanted to try them out. I’d converted some of my existing, and at that time untainted leaven, by taking a portion of it and refreshing it 3 or 4 times with the Foster’s Mill flours and by doing so diluting my existing leaven to a minimum in the refreshed leaven. I then made some very tasty loaves using the Foster’s Mill flours and leaven. Holiday time came so I stored the remaining Foster’s Mill leaven in the fridge. Luck was on my side as the stored Foster’s Mill leaven was uncontaminated.
Here are a few tips to keep commercial yeast from contaminating your precious leavens:
o Never use a utensil to mix a sourdough leaven after it has come in contact with commercial yeast
o Never remove excess leaven from a mix that also contains commercial yeast and put it back in the leaven container
o Never take excess water out of container that contains yeast and put it aside for future use
If your leaven(s) are in perfect condition I suggest you store a portion of each in the freezer. Should any of your leavens in regular use get contaminated you’ll have a backup supply. A word to the wise is sufficient.
Carl
2 December 2009
TWO TALES OF SOURDOUGH
Tale the First
On arriving in Italy in May I immediately set about refreshing my three sourdoughs which, after more than 72 hours in the car were totally dormant. Within hours of refreshment two leavens started to show definite signs of revival. One, the 100% hydration white leaven, looked inert. But, having told you on numerous occasions that it’s virtually impossible to kill off a leaven, I didn’t panic. However, two days later it still seemed inert, if not as dead as Monty Python’s parrot. At this point I went into semi-panic mode. I refreshed the inert 100% hydration white leaven again.
As a back up I decided to take a small portion of the stiff white/wholemeal (68.97% hydration) sourdough and convert it to 100% hydration white. I added water to the portion of sourdough and dissolved the sourdough as thoroughly as I could. I let this mixture rest so that most of the wholemeal flour and some of the white flours sank to the bottom of the container. I poured the cloudy liquid through the finest sieve I had available, hoping to eliminate as much wholemeal much as possible, and weighed the liquid. To this I added an equal amount of white flour. The result looked a bit stiff so I added a bit more water. After a few hours it started to show signs of life. I left it a few more hours and refreshed it with equal amounts of flour and water. By the next day is was bubbling away happily. Each time I refreshed it any remaining wholemeal flour was reduced. I could relax.
In the meantime, and I can’t explain why, the original 100% hydration white leaven I’d brought from home. sprang back to life.
The point of this tale is that 1) it really is difficult to kill a leaven and 2) you can convert another leaven to replace it, although it will forever have an ever-decreasing amount of the host leaven in it.
Tale the Second
Every Sunday I refresh, as per my instructions to you, my stiff 68.97% hydration white/wholemeal sourdough three times in preparation for making bread the following day. On Monday I made the dough and before long realised either that I’d done something completely wrong (it does happen!) or the sourdough wasn’t doing its job – the dough seemed totally lifeless, dead. After 5 hours proofing in the bannetons nothing had happened. I baked some of the loaves and they looked terrible. I allowed the remaining loaves to continue proofing and after about 8 hours they seemed ready to bake. The result was just about acceptable, but not good.
I refreshed the leaven again and left it at room temperature, but nothing happened. That night I refreshed it again and put it somewhere warm (28oC/82oF). Overnight the leaven doubled in volume. I refreshed it again and returned it to the same warm place. Again, it doubled in volume over 8 hours. The next time I refreshed it leaving it at room temperature. The wild yeasts in the sourdough were clearly active again.
The point of this tale is, don’t throw your “dead” sourdough away. It may not be dead, it might just need some tender loving care.
There are two 100% sure ways to kill the wild yeast in your sourdough leaven 1) in a hot oven(!) or 2) with a strong anti-bacterial spray.
Here endeth the tales…
Carl
25 June 2009
On arriving in Italy in May I immediately set about refreshing my three sourdoughs which, after more than 72 hours in the car were totally dormant. Within hours of refreshment two leavens started to show definite signs of revival. One, the 100% hydration white leaven, looked inert. But, having told you on numerous occasions that it’s virtually impossible to kill off a leaven, I didn’t panic. However, two days later it still seemed inert, if not as dead as Monty Python’s parrot. At this point I went into semi-panic mode. I refreshed the inert 100% hydration white leaven again.
As a back up I decided to take a small portion of the stiff white/wholemeal (68.97% hydration) sourdough and convert it to 100% hydration white. I added water to the portion of sourdough and dissolved the sourdough as thoroughly as I could. I let this mixture rest so that most of the wholemeal flour and some of the white flours sank to the bottom of the container. I poured the cloudy liquid through the finest sieve I had available, hoping to eliminate as much wholemeal much as possible, and weighed the liquid. To this I added an equal amount of white flour. The result looked a bit stiff so I added a bit more water. After a few hours it started to show signs of life. I left it a few more hours and refreshed it with equal amounts of flour and water. By the next day is was bubbling away happily. Each time I refreshed it any remaining wholemeal flour was reduced. I could relax.
In the meantime, and I can’t explain why, the original 100% hydration white leaven I’d brought from home. sprang back to life.
The point of this tale is that 1) it really is difficult to kill a leaven and 2) you can convert another leaven to replace it, although it will forever have an ever-decreasing amount of the host leaven in it.
Tale the Second
Every Sunday I refresh, as per my instructions to you, my stiff 68.97% hydration white/wholemeal sourdough three times in preparation for making bread the following day. On Monday I made the dough and before long realised either that I’d done something completely wrong (it does happen!) or the sourdough wasn’t doing its job – the dough seemed totally lifeless, dead. After 5 hours proofing in the bannetons nothing had happened. I baked some of the loaves and they looked terrible. I allowed the remaining loaves to continue proofing and after about 8 hours they seemed ready to bake. The result was just about acceptable, but not good.
I refreshed the leaven again and left it at room temperature, but nothing happened. That night I refreshed it again and put it somewhere warm (28oC/82oF). Overnight the leaven doubled in volume. I refreshed it again and returned it to the same warm place. Again, it doubled in volume over 8 hours. The next time I refreshed it leaving it at room temperature. The wild yeasts in the sourdough were clearly active again.
The point of this tale is, don’t throw your “dead” sourdough away. It may not be dead, it might just need some tender loving care.
There are two 100% sure ways to kill the wild yeast in your sourdough leaven 1) in a hot oven(!) or 2) with a strong anti-bacterial spray.
Here endeth the tales…
Carl
25 June 2009
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