I’ve been doing quite a bit of baking this month!
For Easter, I baked eight dozen hot cross buns – two dozen yeasted and the rest sourdough (not including the batch I made for Dan). They were hoovered up, mostly by Small Man, who over the course of the Easter break ate 23 in total. In the photo below, half were coated in a milk glaze (for Small Man), the rest in crabapple jelly (for Pete). They do get fussy here…
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Small Man is studying for exams, so he’s ravenously hungry all the time. I was feeling lazy and he was starving, so I baked a batch of our man’oushe fougasse (they’re very easy to make). Small Man loves za’atar and he ate two of the fougasse for morning tea…
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On Saturday, I mixed up two batches of sourdough – a high hydration (90%) dough, and a white sandwich one. I’m always amazed that two formulas with such similar ingredients can produce such different results. I wrote a bit about dough hydration here (point 6)…
The high hydration dough was seriously soupy and fiddly to work. It needed numerous folds over the course of the day to build structure. But it was worth the effort, because the finished loaves offered a thin crispy crust and a very tender, elastic crumb…
This isn’t the bread I make most of the time, because it doesn’t suit our routine very well – it needs to prove during the day (so I can look after it), which means baking quite late in the afternoon. Usually I make the overnight sourdough recipe because it’s so easy, and I can shape and bake it in the morning, giving us fresh loaves for the day.
Having said that though, these high hydration loaves, with their open, delicious crumb, are definitely the family favourite…
By contrast, the sandwich loaf was classically shaped with a tight, but still tender, crumb. It sliced and toasted brilliantly. I baked the Romertöpf version this time – it made a nice change not having to preheat the oven…
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Inspired by an email from my friend Sally, I tried the black pepper and Parmesan loaf from the Josey Baker Bread book. I followed the instructions fairly closely, but I cut the salt down by a third, and only proved the shaped dough at the end for an hour rather than two to three. I find Priscilla never needs such a long second rise…
Even with the reduced salt, the loaf was still very strongly flavoured. It was also the most artisan-looking loaf I’ve baked to date, with a dark burnished crust and an elastic, open crumb…
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My cousins Kathryn and Lynette were in town last weekend, and we ended up having an impromptu dinner at our house. With nothing planned, we rummaged through the fridge and freezer to pull something together. The freshly baked loaves were a huge hit, and we accompanied them with tapas-style chorizos, smoked trout with homemade lime mayo and assorted antipasto, edamame beans (not in the photo) and a slice of the fondue cheese log. It was a wonderful night of catching up and nibbling!
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Any exciting bread being baked at your house at the moment?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Hi Celia, I do wish you could make it to the Kneading Conference in Skowhegan, Maine this year. Check out their program here: http://kneadingconference.com/
Oh how I wish I was a your neighbour Celia!
Fabulous and scrumptious from beginning to end.
Have a beautiful week ahead.
:-) Mandy xo
HI Celia’ I read your posts avidly and how I wish I could make bread like your self, I have a question for you, can you make a short video on how you make your sour dough bread and post here I am sure I am not the only one who would welcome it. I look at your bread and wonder why mine do not turn out the same, and I know so well practice makes perfect and I keep on practicing getting better slowly
Sally
Hi Sally, no video, but I did write a very detailed tutorial with photos here. Hope that helps! https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2014/12/12/an-overnight-sourdough-in-pictures/
Every single one of those loaves of bread look incredible!! I also wish I was your neighbor!!
Celia, your bread looks stunning. You are a real star barker :)
Oh I really NEED to learn how to make bread…
Everything looks amazing but wow – that last loaf, What an incredibel colour! We had chorizo yesterday….you mentioned it and then we got cravings :)
Gosh your baking is inspiring. We’ve been so busy here and the kids are powering through so much food (growth spurts) that I just seem to be alternating between plain and fruit overnight sourdough. But I laugh that Little Man (6 months old now) loves chewing on crusts of Pickled Fig, sultana and Sunflower/walnut sourdough. Just a little bit fancy indeed
You are such an inspiration Celia – that last loaf looks incredible. It must have been so nice to have an impromptu with your cousins and be able to pull out a feast from that well stocked kitchen of yours! I agree with Mandy – wish I was your neighbour too!! x
What gorgeous bread!
What an awesome recap and some seriously excellent links to wrap it all up. Cheers for the wonderful share Ms Celia :)
Wow! What a collection! So interesting to see such different looking loaves from the same kitchen :)
I have been making some fairly basic loaves here at Casa Debbio. It is either that or go down the mountain to the shops.
Yummy… Those look so amazing..
All sounds wonderful Celia, partic love your impromptu nibbling at the end – what a feast from the freezer! have just baked with Edna, Priscilla’s offspring today, the results were very yummy and enjoyed at lunch and dinner but I have to say my loaves vary every time I bake and much as I enjoy the variety it’s all down to accidental changes each time – in awe of your carefully planned, beautiful loaves!
My bread always looks like your toasting loaf so I am going to try a higher hydration loaf. The Management would like the more artisan finish. Your loaves look magnificent.
I just love baking bread Celia and just love looking at your beautiful loaves too.
That is a lot of baking. So many hot cross buns! I do like the look of your casual dinner party. Good luck to small man with his exams xx
Just stunning – your photos are so good that I can almost smell the bread. Do you have a large oven or do you bake one loaf at a time? How lucky are your boys (and neighbours)!! I love reading your posts.
I haven’t baked for a couple of weeks – been a bit busy with research work. It must be time to get my starter out and get moving again!
Your bread is so inspiring Celia!!! I’ve been venturing out of my no knead bread safety net this month and trying a few other types. I made a plaited white loaf last week and I’ll try foccacia this week. Truthfully, I’d bake bread everyday if I could but my waistline protests!! Jan x
I had a burst of baking over easter with hot cross buns and bread – followed by very little bread baking because I have bought fluffy white bread with intentions of using it in baking and ended up just eating it. My starter is needing attention.
Gorgeous bread things happening at your place as always Celia. I love the look of that black pepper and parmesan loaf. Yum!
What gorgeous looking bread – I have a theory that a starter loved, fed and used often has a supercharged population of natural yeasts and maybe that is why Priscilla works so speedily, or maybe it is some special Australian sunshine yeasts in there? It would be so interesting to see under a microscope what is in there as compared to someone whose sours take a long time to rise. How warm is your kitchen while the dough is rising usually? I love the crumb of that wet dough, it looks stunning! Hugs, Jo x
I think Priscilla is a bit of a supercharged starter anyway – everyone who bakes with her finds her very active, at least initially. She is also very mild flavoured, and copes well with a very very long bulk prove – I’ve had her go 100 hours in the fridge, but the final loaf was very sour. Kitchen is usually around 18 – 20C in winter, up to 30C in summer! Cooler overnight which is when a lot of the bulk proving happens.
WOW so much bread… I have been doing one a week and I think that is a lot :) I now have a white as well as a rye sourdough starter and I have to alternate making the bread :) Liz xx
Celia all you have to say is Bread and I’m in! I never get sick of it! X
Lovely! I always say the latest loaf I bake is my best yet but still nothing compared to yours! My sourdough efforts are never consistent although I do use the same recipe each time. I love the variety and surprise. Bread, yeah!! :-)
OOohh! We like! I’m going to try that high hydration loaf today. Thanks, C!
Hugs, Maz
I love impromptu dinners with loved ones. They always taste the best!
Beautiful looking loaves Celia. x
It all looks so delicious! Your loaves are always gorgeous. We’ve been at it with our sourdough and the boys love it, hubby too of course. My big bake is next week as I volunteered to bake all the sweets for one of the teacher appreciation days at school as well as cookies for their luncheon another day!
OMG – Just need a knife and a hunk of butter – YUM :)
These all look so amazing! I’ll have to try one out sometime! Your post on hydration is a really great resource. I don’t do much bread baking–mostly pastries, cornbread or cakes. I actually just recently posted a an angel food cake recipe with strawberries and whipped cream.
WOW! I just LOVE seeing all your bread creations. It’s so inspiring :D
As usual, Celia, you bring bread baking to the highest possible level, and do it in a way that it seems effort free!
in awe, as always!
Thanks for the inspiration on the parmesan loaf, hon! It was a treat! :)
You should speak at the Kneading Conference. It’s 25 miles from where I grew up. :)
I’ve made a few loaves of sourdough and have been playing with adding more filtered water and I added some cheese to one. Gone in a jiffy!
Your bread looks like it was proved in a basket, I’m dying to get one! I baked Charlie’s hot cross buns for Easter, a batch of my favourite naan recipe for an Indian feast we hosted last Friday and on Tuesday I baked naan pizza with the same recipe for a dinner party that night. I usually don’t bake a lot of bread as it’s too dangerous to have around the house.
Golly – no one could complain about an impromptu dinner at your house. What a spread. The links to hydration are very useful – still need to get to grips with this. I’m rubbish at maths and it still seems to baffle me. Love the black pepper and Parmesan loaf.