Pannetone Time!

As the days draw in, I find myself thinking about parkin, stollen, malt loaf and pannetone - all of which I make here from a sourdough starter.

This year I am renewing my pannetone recipe, using two trial recipes, over the next 24 hours. You'll see below the stages, from sponge, to dough, to bake

Here are the first steps;

1. A splodge of starter

2. +flour, eggs, butter, sugar and water

3. + water -A squelchy sponge

 Then leave for 12 hours. We'll see what it's like tonight.

The dough made up and in the baking case

The dough risen after 12 hours at room temperature

The one on the right is the same one shown above, so a good oven lift - what will it be like inside?

Hooray! a lovely sponge....

We had an eventful baking day on our Follow-up course on Saturday. The Follow-up course is always a bit of an adventure, as we try new recipes. On this occasion, the gas supply to the oven failed, and we had to work out a Plan B to get all the doughs to my house to bake off. Luckily, the cause was discovered by lunchtime and we managed to bake off our ciabatta, alpine rye, deli white with rye and dill, and a spiced fruit loaf. It brought out the best in us!

"Thank you for a thoroughly enjoyable day.

As we were clearing up I said ‘Somebody’s left their recipes on this windowsill’ only to get home and find out it was me.

Would you be so kind as to email today’s recipes, please?

I will have to guess what to do with the fruited bread if you don’t!

In the midst of potential chaos you exuded a feeling of calm and relaxed authority which was much appreciated by us all.

The ciabatta was excellent.

Thank you again.

Best wishes,

Colin"

"Been upskilling my bread-making @littleeyebread  Superb day, excellent tuition from Malcolm, great company and a batch of bread to take home - what's not to like " Olwen

At Little Eye, we want to help bakers  get things right at home, not just on the course, so we help make small changes on request, to follow up the courses. Carolyn asked for help with a slippery dough recipe after our last class in November 2018.

"Really pleased with loaf today with adjustments as below, thanks very much for your help"

Carolyn

Quality control from a grandson as the loaves are readied for the Farmers Market - he loves the unique stottie we make.

2018

We finished 2017 with our seasonal produce - a stollen and a malt loaf - alongside our usual range of 7 sourdough loaves for farmers markets. In 2018 we are concentrating on our classes - expect a follow-up class for people who have been on the Start It Up class and want to learn some new techniques - and, as always, experimenting with new recipes and techniques.
Pictures show our sourdough stottie, a crusty, flat and spongy loaf, and our sourdough christmas stollen.

New Zealand sourdough starter

A year ago I stayed at Rachel's air bnb in Owhira Bay, Wellington, New Zealand. She was interested in making sourdough bread. We got a starter going and baked the first loaf. I dropped in last week to see her and Selwyn, and was delighted to see that not only is the starter going well, but Rachel now offers sourdough bread to visitors as part of her breakfast deal. Have microbes, will travel!

We are taking part in a global research project into how sourdough works. Our 25 year old starter is now in Tuft University lab in the US, doing its stuff. To read more about it click on this link -


http://robdunnlab.com/projects/sourdough/