S1E3 Signature: Bread
It's Bread Week, which is essentially the High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) of baking. Essentially, it's time for me to get really buff arms and drink a lot of tea.
My first bread week bake is supposed to be my "signature loaf", meaning that I should pick a recipe that I am known for. I don't usually repeat myself on bread recipes, so I figured that my "signature loaf" would be something that I'd never made before. Makes sense, right? I'm glad we're on the same page.
Every baker on the show made a loaf with some kind of addition (olives, nuts, seeds, etc.), so I chose a recipe for a loaf of bread with honey and walnuts.
Time allotted: 3 hours, 30 minutes. On your mark, get set, bake!
The recipe that I used starts by dissolving the yeast in warm water and adding a little flour to get the yeast going.
I let it rest for ten minutes until it was starting to get nice and bubbly, and then added honey, salt, and olive oil.
Then it was time to start mixing in the flour. I always mix and knead my bread doughs by hand because it gives me more control over it. I also love the feel of the dough once it gets to its smooth elastic stage.
I modified this recipe to have 1/3 whole wheat flour. That way, the bread had no calories and I can eat as much of it as I want. Don't look it up, just trust me.
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And then it was time to knead!
I transferred the dough to an oiled bowl and covered it with a damp towel to rise. Meanwhile, I chopped and toasted my walnuts (which were actually pecans but don't tell the bread).
Just over an hour later...
She has risen! Next, I knocked her back and kneaded in my walnuts.
And then it was time to cover it and leave it for its second proving.
Here's a before and after of the second proof:
I was trying to make an oblong oval-shaped loaf, but it turned out a little more egg-shaped.
I dusted it with flour and made three diagonal slashes into the top. Then it was time to bake!
The recipe that I was using yielded two loaves, so I halved the recipe. Therefore, I figured that it would probably cook a little faster, and decided to take it out after 35 minutes.
It looked beautiful!
I flipped it over and tapped on the bottom. It sounded hollow, so I decided that it was done!
It smelled incredible. I told Evie that we had to let it cool down fully before eating it and she was pretty upset.
Time: 3 hours, 3 minutes
Judgement time:
The structure of the bread looked great, but it was definitely a little bit underbaked. I did the Paul Hollywood classic "it turns back into dough" squish.
So disappointing. We also decided that it could have used more salt, as the overall taste was quite sweet.
It was delicious nonetheless, and the loaf will probably be gone tomorrow.
I do consider myself a good bread baker, but my biggest weakness is that I want to eat it so bad that I rush the baking or I cut into it before it's cool. It doesn't help that Evie will make puppy-dog eyes at me until I cave and let her cut into the fresh loaf.
I still have two more challenges to redeem myself for bread week. Let's all hope I can learn from this.
Recipe used:
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