This is one of those recipes.
When I was kneading the dough, the texture was so silky and bouncy that I just knew it was going to be most fine. I was so confident about this that I made another batch while the first was rising!
The recipe comes from Dan Lepard’s The Handmade Loaf – I amended it slightly to use yoghurt and water instead of the specified whey, and the resultant loaves were tangy and delicious as a result.
The dough is made with an interesting mix of flours – Italian 00, maize flour and bakers (bread) flour. The crumb is quite tight and chewy – a young friend pointed out that this would be the perfect bread to have with a cheese fondue, and I think she might be right!
Clever to use yogurt and water to equate whey – got to be pretty close. I was surprised to learn that the cheese industry considers whey to be a waste product – they have trouble finding economical ways to use it – here in the U.S., it’s mostly used for pig food (lucky pigs!). However, its protein content is so high that recently it’s been used to make those trendy ‘nutrition bars’ and such – so maybe it’ll have a value eventually.
I’ve never really understood why our bread industry did not make more use of whey – ???
Doc, isn’t parma ham made solely from pigs fed on the whey left over from making Parmesan cheese? We keep the buttermilk left over from when we make our own butter for cake baking!
How funny that you should choose to make this bread Celia, I was only looking through The Handmade Loaf yesterday and wondering why I’d never seen anyone make or blog about this particular bread. It looks delicious and I’ll have to put maize flour onto my next shopping list. I’m not sure whether I can get white though, so it’s good to know that it works with yellow maize flour.
C, the nice thing about THL is you can look in the fridge and think…”ooh, I have mashed potato/cooked rice/half a can of stout leftover” and then turn to the book and find a recipe to use it up. The yellow maize flour was fine, I couldn’t find white either! :)
That looks just about perfect.
Grazie, Deb! :)
I believe your young friiend is correct. I think this bread is gorgeous and I can just see it a my fondue party.
Norma, thank you – ever since she said it, I’ve been imagining melted cheese and Kirsch. Sigh…I’m showing my age now.. :)
Beautiful baguettes !
This is why I love making bread. Sometimes everything just works out right and you have perfect bread!
I’m making some today, too.
I think this is definitely one of those recipes that lends itself to adaptation to local ingredients. I think I used yoghurt whey last time I did it, so it would have had a similar flavour to yours, though I didn’t make baguettes, don’t they look splendid!!
Looks like a perfect thin but crunchy crust you’ve got there – Yum, my sort of bread!
Jo, it was quite a chewy crust – the loaves were very pale, and I probably left it in a bit too long trying to brown them up. I’ve since made it again, and again had the lighter colour crust. I wonder if we can save the whey and freeze it until we have enough?
Yes, you can freeze the whey. I do it all the time, but it keeps a long time in the fridge too. If you make labneh from your yoghurt, then use the liquid drained off as ‘whey’. That’s what I do. I love the taste it gives to bread!
Oh my, that looks great. You’ve done it again.
Thanks Sue! These were great fun to make!
Oh, my do those look wonderful!!! I’m going to have to check out that book soon. I’m not sure where I’d find maize flour or Italian ’00’ flour. I like the golden color and nice, crunchy looking crust!
Melanie, you can’t go wrong with that book, it’s a great resource and more than that, a great book of bread travel stories. The 00 flour is becoming more commonly available here in Australia, but I had to track the maize flour down at the markets (although I think health food stores might stock it).
I’ve never heard of mixing yoghurt and water to make whey. Good tip! I think I’m going to have to get a sourdough starter. Your bread just looks too good not to try!
Claire, the tip was Dan’s suggestion in his book, and it certainly worked well enough. You’d have fun with a SD starter, especially in Qld, where the warm temps would keep it super-active!
Absolutely perfect Celia…, it even looks silky & spongy soft.
I’m saving this to try once I have my sourdough starter going again. What is Italian “00” flour?
The loaves look so soft and springy. Delicious!
Looks so good, I’d just slather it in butter if I could!
Anna and Manuela, thank you, but they’re not spongy and soft baguettes, they’re actually firm and chewy in an Italian sort of way. Lovely elasticity in the crumb, and a delicious flavour!
Manuela, 00 flour is Italian flour – there’s more about it here.
Chef, thank you, I wish you could try some, and I wish I could find a maize only equivalent for you!
Oooh the possibilities to make iterations suited to cheese fondue! :D
Those really do look super! We’re doing lots of baking at the moment – by we, I mean of course, Pete! Mostly sourdough and plain whites at the moment!
I thought I left a comment-
and it was about the beauty of form
and food! Because you have certainly attained
both here.
Fondue- slathered butter- avocado with sea salt and black pepper- or just a piece torn off and paired with a chunk of
hard salami- YUM!
Lorraine, it’s been too long since my last fondue.. :)
Kavey, thank you! It’s the reverse here – I make the breads, Pete makes the jams.
Heidi, my apologies dearheart, I moved your earlier comment into the wrong spot. Now you’ve left two, and I’m very grateful! Thanks. :) xxx
Looks lovely. I am sure I have some maize flour in the pantry…must try this recipe.
Wow! You had me at “This is one of those recipes.” I went to Harkola during the weekend and bought some protein enriched bakers’ flour and wholemeal flour. Now, I just have to get the household liking sourdough and I’ll be all set 8).
SG, you’re not supposed to be eating wheat! But maybe this is less bad, since a large part of it is corn? :)
Soooooy, Honey tells me you went mad at Harkola! :) What else did you buy? The Manildra bakers’ flour there is very cheap, isn’t it?
Lol Celia, yesh it’s sooo cheap, it took me alot of self control to not buy 3 of the 12.5kg bags!(Wholemeal, bakers and protein enriched) We so should have told you that we were there so that we could have gone mad together! I remembered the moghrabieh and bought a bag.
I had my eye set on a 2kg jar of red peppers, but chickend out at the last moment and got 2 smaller jars. Bought alot of cranberries, nuts and noodles. I could have spent the whole morning there.