The bakers' thread

[Archie_tect]

Wow, that Weekend Bakery recipe is a lot of work over 3 days for 15 croissants!

 

[Reynard]

Actually, the Weekend Bakery recipes are brilliant.

The one for speculaas is Lotus biscuits, eat your little flavourless hearts out...

 

[vickster]

I’ve been baking again, I need to widen my repertoire and eat bananas more quickly
Banana and choc chip muffins

 

[figbat]

My love affair with the sourdough starter continues - this loaf is near-identical to the last one, unheard of in my kitchen! And my wife thinks it looks like a cycling helmet.

 

[C R]

My love affair with the sourdough starter continues - this loaf is near-identical to the last one, unheard of in my kitchen! And my wife thinks it looks like a cycling helmet. View attachment 560979

She is right

 

[Tail End Charlie]

My love affair with the sourdough starter continues - this loaf is near-identical to the last one, unheard of in my kitchen! And my wife thinks it looks like a cycling helmet. View attachment 560979

That looks exceptionally good. Any chance of a photo of when it's cut?

 

[figbat]

That looks exceptionally good. Any chance of a photo of when it's cut?

It’s quite a tight crumb but soft and very robust - easily takes a firm spread without tearing.

 

[Reynard]

Good thing with a tight crumb is that your marmalade doesn't fall through the holes.

Anyways, I made a lovely soda bread using atta flour and creme fraiche. It's lovely topped with home made gravlax...

And I plan on trying this at the weekend as I've an itch for peperkoek that wants scratching...

https://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/my-dutch-speculaas-gingerbread-with-rye-buttermilk-honey/

 

[figbat]

I’ve switched flours for today. The sourdough starter seems to love this one, getting all worked up when fed with it and giving an impressive prove overnight. Loaf still a bit warm to cut but looks, smells and sounds good.

 

[figbat]

I’ve switched flours for today. The sourdough starter seems to love this one, getting all worked up when fed with it and giving an impressive prove overnight. Loaf still a bit warm to cut but looks, smells and sounds good.
View attachment 563319
View attachment 563320

 

[SteveF]

A chocolate Babka, my 1st attempt...

 

[figbat]

For the last few Christmases, since I became a born-again baker, I have baked a lot for the festive season, often to take to parties or give away to family and friends. This year the baking spreadsheet had to be cut-back somewhat since our planned small gathering has been kiboshed. However, I also bake because I can and because I like to, so here’s a small showcase of this year’s efforts:

On the tin is a panettone - yes it’s loaf-shaped because I was only making a small one this year so it wouldn’t fill the normal panettone tin, plus my wife likes to slice it and toast it so this facilitates that. Nobody other than me likes traditional fruit cake hence this alternative.

On the plate are:
- deep-filled mince pie
- Italian hazelnut biscuits
- shortbread
- mini stollen.

Not shown is the mincemeat ‘Bakewell’ tart that will be for dessert after lunch since - again - nobody but me likes Christmas pudding.

Merry Christmas!

 

[figbat]

Not shown is the mincemeat ‘Bakewell’ tart that will be for dessert after lunch since - again - nobody but me likes Christmas pudding.

Now shown - not actually cut until today as we were all stuffed yesterday.

 

[figbat]

Just a relatively standard farmhouse-type loaf today. I used up the half-and-half flour I had and topped it up with strong white, so it’s a kind of 25:75 loaf. I used dried yeast for this as it was a last minute decision to make a loaf for today and my sourdough starter was still in the fridge. However I still wanted to be able to bake it for lunchtime today without getting up at the crack of dawn so made a low-yeast-content dough last night and proved overnight in the garage (cool but not frigid). Then I just needed to second-prove this morning and bake.

 

[annedonnelly]

I was given a cookbook from Shetland for Christmas & finally got round to making Shetland bannocks. I think we'd call them griddle cakes in this part of the world. Plus carrot & lentil soup.