Bread baking course part II
Fresh out of the oven; baked sourdough bread
Isn’t it funny how my blog seems to have transformed into a bread baking blog in the last couple of days? For those of you that do not like bread, I can assure you that all will go back to normal quite soon. But today was our second part of the breadbaking course we had in Vianen given by Robert Verweij from Teest, Edwin Klaasen from Desemenzo en Albert Steehouder from backery Steehouder. We had been “slaving” the entire week between the first day last week and today to make our own sourdough starter. And ofcourse that was one of the things that we did today; bake our own bread with our very own sourdough starter.
My sourdough starter shortly before it is being processed into the dough behind it
We started the day with adding our starter to (already kneaded) dough, incorporate that and put it in a basket to do the initial rise. While that was left to stand, Albert showed us what happened if you took one dough and gave it various kneading times starting at 3, then 6, 9 and 12 minutes in total in a machine. Below you can see how the different breads looked starting from the left with 3 minutes and working upwards to 12 minutes.
Can you tell the difference between these breads?
We got to feel how the dough reacted to kneading, how it changed from being hard and unyielding to soft and stretchy. Quite a good exercise this as it does let you see and feel (and afterwards smell and taste) the difference. Truth be told I would have probably stopped kneading after 3 minutes as it looked fine to me at that point. Once we got to the tasting though, there was a mark-able difference between the different breads with 9 minutes being most peoples favorite. We tasted bread baked with different flours (from soft to harder), we tasted sourdough bread that we baked and the secret recipe of Edwin’s Woeste knoest- brood.. 
Albert holding up two different types of flour
I almost feel we did more this last day then we did the first day and that was already a lot. We made a ‘partybread’ (comparable to a christmas stollen), we made baguettes again for lunch and they were soooo good. We also found out that making one of those…. mmm, I think they are called ‘pain d’epi”? is really not as difficult as you would think… You need a pair of scissors and of you go!
Making pain d’epi was not as hard as it looked!
Pain D’Epi ready to be baked
I could go on about all the things we learned and well, It’s worth the time and effort and while I certainly liked the no-knead method it does in no way compare to this bread. We had it tonight with fresh pesto, mozarella, rocket and strips of grilled peppers and it was SO good… I’ve got more flour so I will for sure be baking more in the weeks to come!I’m sure it’s gonna be trial and error but at least now I know what I do wrong (or I have an idea what it might be..lol)
I was thinking of giving you a recipe but I decided against it. First of all, they are not mine to give, and secondly I am going to be doing some more breadbaking and will share those recipes with my own findings. We’ve done a lot of things today that cannot easily be put into one clear instruction on how to make this, so you’ll have to wait for more info…
Weighing the flour
Appetizer
Asian
Bread
Breakfast
Desserts & other sweets
Healthy
Very good photos, Simone! Will you share the sourdough bread recipe? It looks so delicious!
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 23rd, 2011 at 11:41
I will eventually post a recipe but I want to first do some more testing…
Just try to make sure it actually works!
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It looks great! I can see a difference between 3 and 6 or 9 minutes, but less difference between 3 and 12 (or 6 and 9) Very interesting!
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 23rd, 2011 at 11:42
It was even more interesting if you could actually taste and smell the different breads, as there was a big difference! I’m not a big fan of white bread in general but it was interesting to see the differences purely by kneading longer
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Wow, beautiful! I really like those épis baguettes.
Cheers,
Rosa
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 23rd, 2011 at 11:43
Love them too. They were sooooo tasty! I brought some of the flour home to try my own version of this
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Gorgeous simone makes me put on a pot of soup…wish you were close to me
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 23rd, 2011 at 11:43
Well looking outside I want to make a pot of soup too.. Raining again here.. You?
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This series is for us tryers in baking bread fabatstic guide.Thank you for sharing:)
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 23rd, 2011 at 11:43
You’re welcome!
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Ohhh wat leuk, dit is echt voorpret voor mij! Ik ga 7 september bij Levine aan de slag. Er gaat niets boven zelf gebakken brood
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 23rd, 2011 at 13:37
Nee zeker niet! Ben benieuwd hoe het je vergaat bij Levine. Doe haar de groeten in ieder geval…
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I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: that class sounds so cool! And the breads look gorgeous, especially the first one!
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 23rd, 2011 at 22:02
Gorgeous and delicious!
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The loaves with different kneading times was especially interesting! Very awesome to actually be able to see the difference. I bet it would make a world of difference to any baker to be able to feel the difference between the doughs. I know I could have really benefited from that when I first started making bread. The pain d’epi look so pretty! I’ve always been curious to try making some but somehow I’m always scared off. I love seeing the bubbles in the dough that’s been cut
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 24th, 2011 at 11:07
Yeah I think those separate loaves and feeling and tasting the difference was definitely a big eye opener… Feeling the dough was even more important then tasting the results afterwards..
I’m not sure if my french bread will come out looking that good but I’m gonna give it a go soon!
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Simone – this is such a beautiful post. The black and white phot of the guy with the scoop of flour is alive. I could almost stick my hand into it. I am sure your bread is delicious. Looks like you have really enjoyed this baking lesson!
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Simone (junglefrog) — August 24th, 2011 at 11:08
We sure did Mona! Loved it…
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So you liked baking with your very own sourdough?
See I told you bread baking is not that difficult at all and – to my mind – the result compared to store bought is worth every minute! Am looking forward to see and hear more of your bread baking adventures!
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oh no… you left me hanging!!!! I have my sour dough starter all ready to go (from part 1 of the series). What are the chances that you would share that recipe one on one… maybe accidentally email it to Dave@eRecipecards.com
I promise not to post it or pass it on.
Did you make the Pain D’Epi from the sourdough recipe?
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Simone (junglefrog) — September 8th, 2011 at 00:07
He Dave… O sorry for that! I’ll see what I can do ok..
We did not make the pain d’epi from the sourdough. We used french flour for that, which I will attempt to make soon, so stay tuned! I’ll get to that recipe… 
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