As you may have seen from an earlier post I'm pretty happy with the sourdoughs I've been knocking out of late. But there are times when only a couple of slices of soft, doughy farmhouse will do - most especially for a bacon sandwich. After a few tries with various recipes (and investing in a loaf tin) I've settled, in the last week or so, on the following method.
Using supermarket flour and dried yeast the cost of the loaf was 30p.
43 Comments
A couple of weeks back I itemised everything I ate and drank for a week and it came to £41.88. That was pretty much a typical week of shopping and eating for me excepting, of course, that I was always aware that I was monitoring what I ate - but add, say, a few more quid and we're definitely hitting my average spend. Following on from this I thought it might be quite interesting to see what a week's menu would look like at around the £30 mark - and this lot is the result. I should point out that the total of £32.59 did include £3.96 for coffee. I rather shot myself in the foot there I guess, but the normal 'cheap' beans which are my mainstay were not available - had they been I'd have saved around £2. I also used a 'premium' bread flour this week, rather than the 60p/1.5kg supermarket one I normally use. As before, for the cost of each individual dish I have counted every ingredient, save for seasoning and spices (and I've made an overall allowance for these in the 'store cupboard' line item). The link for the torta de naranja recipe will take you to the Peckham Rye Eats blog - it was Lisa who introduced me to this lovely cake when I went round for dinner recently. Thanks Lisa! Behold! Behold my tangy crumb! Click to enlarge! BEHOLD THE CRUMB! DO IT! I'm sorry, but really - crush my huckleberries in a vise and call me Abelard if that isn't just about there crumb-wise. Slightly sticky texture? Check. A sour tang? Check. I think this is probably the one, the recipe I'm going to stay with. I'm not sure I could do any better with the basic domestic oven I've got.
So what's different? Well, the weather, for one thing; and rather than the 60p a kilo supermarket flour of my last few attempts I went for a more expensive flour from Bambuni (Shipton Mill, I think), which I'm sure Huey will consider the absolutely crucial determinant; I'm now using a starter that I, erm, started from scratch; I'm also now using a proving basket and a peel (to transfer the dough onto the heated stone in the oven lickety-spit); but, really, I reckon it's mainly down to three factors:
|
SHORTLISTED FOR FOOD BLOG OF THE YEAR 2014
follow/subscribe:
blog archives:
November 2014
|