Since my friend Emilie’s book landed in my Kindle app, I’ve been baking bread like a mad woman…
She’s convinced me to actually use the bannetons I own (normally, I’m too lazy), and the results have been fabulous…
It helps that I can line the baskets with the Japanese tenegui (hand cloths) that I bought from Daiso. The open weave makes them less sticky than regular tea towels. Plus they’re dead cute…
I followed Em’s shaping technique and ended up with this magnificent holey crumb in my high hydration loaves…
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I made her chocolate sourdough recipe with Callebaut 811 54% dark. The neighbours lost their minds…
It was unbelievably good, especially with the Belgian chocolate…
I tried another version with leftover Halloween candy. That was less appealing to anyone over twenty-five, but the kids loved it (yes, that’s melted Snickers Bars in the middle)…
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I’ve tweaked Em’s focaccia formula a bit to accommodate for our local flour. I think our plain (AP) flour might be lower in protein than the US ones, so I’m substituting a 50:50 mix of bakers flour and plain flour. The results have been perfect – non-cakey crumb but controlled even rise and super-crispy crust.
I made a cheese and black olive filled focaccia using her croque monsieur shaping technique…
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For the caramelised onion and goat cheese bialys, I again subbed a mix of bakers and plain flour, and ended up with easy to shape balls…
…that kept their shape (and fillings) as they rose. The crumb was super tender and the crusts thin and chewy. All twenty-four bialys (I made a double batch, as you do) were shared out and eaten on the same day…
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Finally, the overnight baguette twists were an absolute doddle to make and completely delicious. Definitely one for a future dinner party…
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If you’re a home sourdough baker (or would like to be), I can’t recommend Emilie’s book highly enough. Yes, she’s my friend, and yes, we share a sourdough starter, so my opinion was always going to be biased. But I can honestly now tell you that I’ve tried a stack of recipes from her book, and they all work brilliantly (just ask my neighbours). If you’d like to know more about it, here’s my first post on Artisan Sourdough Made Simple. I hope you enjoy baking from it as much as I have! ♥
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
This all looks amazing!
I have a question…. How do you deal with “Bread squooge”? the little bits of dough and dried flour that end up in bowls and on counters and everywhere?
Maz, as Em said below…I just scrape mine all off with the dough scraper, then wipe benches down with a wet dish cloth. It helps to have a smooth stone bench though!The mixing bowls are scraped out and then go into the dishwasher. :)
Great suggestion! I struggle more with bowls so I’ll look and see if I can find a curved scraper. Maz.
What a treat to see more of your lovely bakes! I’m just so thrilled! And you know, adjusting your local flours to suit the recipe is what it’s all about. I find that so interesting about bread baking and how it’s all relative (maybe I’ll sneak a bag of Aussie flour back with me in March, ha!). Truly wonderful, all of these loaves, Celia- I think my favorite are the bialys. They look exactly like the picture! xx
And PS: to the comment above, I have tons of dry bits all over my counter! Use a bench knife to scrape everything off; it works like a charm!
Yummm
Lovely breads. Bread with chocolate? I might have to get the book just to try out the recipe! My sourdough took a break over the summer, now that winter is here, I’m back to baking bread. Sherwood is amazing, even if I forgot to feed him for three weeks he’d spring back perfectly when I used him again. Very resilient.
Well I’m in my second day of activating my starter .. you sent it ages ago but it’s taken me a while to get the courage to bring her back to life again … she is called ‘ Constance ‘ after my darling Mother and I thought I’d buy a couple of those great bread baskets ‘ benetons ‘ ?? from the Chefs Warehouse next time I’m in Sydney … I’ll let you know with a photo or two how I go ….
Must try those bialys! Yes, great book.
Gorgeous breads, bialys etc.
I just made a regular Foccacia, now I’m worried that the flour may be different (we are in Arizona), oh well, I’ll just have to sample it to be sure it’s OK!. I bought a banneton in Paris while we were there and LOVE it, it’s the same oval one you have. I also bought a cheap and cheerful round one. Your bread making is awesome, I’d love to be your neighbour, wait, maybe that wouldn’t be a good idea for my waistline!
All of that looks amazing! After your last post I ordered the physical book and now I’m getting impatient waiting for it to arrive. Maybe I should have got the e-version! I can’t wait to try out all the recipes :)
Thanks Celia. What amazing loaves they all are!
I just ordered myself a copy of the paperback – a Xmas present to myself. I was sad I couldn’t add the St Germain wooden handled lame to my order through Amazon so went with Book Depository instead. Can’t wait for it to arrive!
Ps: I experimented this week by mixing in a jar of Xmas fruit mincemeat to a single loaf batch of dough. I didn’t get the liquid ratios right and should have let it prove longer (it was still doughy in the Centre) but my gosh, the flavor! A generous addition if walnuts also added to the deliciousness. Very Xmas-y!
When are you opening up your bakery Celia?
re towels…….I always use them and sprinkle them with brown rice flour and it keeps dough off the towels. Love chocolate with bread…….scheech, guess I’ll have to order this book!!
Oh, I use linen towels, shake them out, dry them out and reuse :)
I will definitely be buying this book. I can’t resist the sound of it. Most of my many hundreds of cookbooks are bread books.
About 8-10 years ago a friend from Victoria came to Western Australia. In her case was a little bit of sourdough starter. I had managed to kill quite a few over the years, but I hoped I could keep this one going. I have!!! I still bake my sourdough bread from it and love trying new recipes.
Thanks for the thumbs up about this book. It will be lovely to have a book written for the home sourdough baker.
Such wonderful bread. Mine from your starter never looks that fluffy. Any recommendations?
Hahaha yes! Buy Emilie’s book! Also, try using a higher hydration recipe! x
I bought this book for my kindle app this morning and after a quick browse I cant wait to get baking!
I think you may be an artisan bread maker too Celia:)
I bought the book at the end of last week and then we left town! Now that we’re home, I can’t wait to jump right in. And I love the little cloths you’re using. I need to go on a quest to find those, too! You are a good leader of the bread baking pack, Celia. :-)
These all look so yummy.
Everything looks great!
Still waiting for my book to arrive and getting impatient! Hoping it has some tips to stop the dough sticking to the tea towel even when it’s copiously covered in flour.
You are AMAZING! All looks incredible. I stopped using my banneton, not sure why, need to dig it out again 😀
All “keepers”. Thank you!
My copy arrived today YAY!!!!
Great!!! Two new bread baking posts. I waited so long for them. I love it when you write about your baking adventures. So interesting for me because I’ve been a sourdough baker too for two years now. My sourdough’s not female but male and his name is Karl because I got it from a baker named Karl. Wish you good luck with your Priscilla adventures and I’m looking forward to more pictures and inspiration. Happy baking!
Tina
Thought the idea of bannetones was that one need not use a cloth? I use cloths if I must use a plain basin. Yes, rice flour much easier although if you get carried away you may need a jackhammer to get through the crust. If you are in SA, Gaganni’s warehouse have bannetons and scrapers. FOF shared your dried starter with me, many thanks, it has been on a few adventures, although some of its offspring have come to sticky ends.
I received my book about 5 days ago and pondered which of the recipes to choose to make until today! They all looked so tempting…. I ended up making the everyday bread rolls and then had so much starter left I made one of your recipes, a round banetton(?) from your basic recipe. Both turned out very well, I found the rolls a little bit sticky to shape but I think that was my fault, you live and learn with bread doughs don’t you? They baked up very well and taste good, just as I like them. Will be trying out something else from the book very soon, while I’m in the mood!
Yes! A new bread book to play with. After reading your post I promptly downloaded the e-book and can’t wait to begin baking. Bialys for sure, a double batch to share at a potluck dinner.
I wonder if you can explain this to me Celia. As you know I have made bread with your recipe lots of times now, very successfully I might add, but what puzzles me is how Emilie’s recipes differ in the amount of starter she uses, only 50 grms. compared to yours using 150g! I have used her recipe for basic bread rolls and it was good so I wonder why the difference?
Jeannette, it’s just a different formula. When I first started baking sourdough, most recipes used a greater amount of starter. If you look at my high hydration tutorial which is much newer, you’ll see that it uses much less starter as well. So glad to hear that the rolls worked well!
Thank you Celia for responding so quickly to my message. I have just read through the directions for the high hydration dough and I can see what you mean, I should have looked at that before troubling you. I’ll have more confidence now with all the recipes in the new book. x
No problem at all! Have every confidence, the book is awesome! And thank you again for supporting my darling friend by buying it! xx
Hi Celia Wow love this blog,so inspirational, Can I purchase Priscilla starter so I can get started Have just bought your friends book Thanks again for inspiring us
I’m sorry Lyn, I don’t sell my starter. Em’s book has instructions on how to grow your own though!
Ok and thanks for your prompt reply . I saw a few blogs where they said u had sent dried sourdough starter guessing now they were friends cheers
Ah sorry. I’ve given a lot away over the years but I don’t have any to share at the moment. I’ll put a note on the blog when I do!
Hi Lyn, I’m not sure if you’ll see this, but Emile who wrote the book I mentioned is now selling her dried starter, who is basically a clone of Priscilla. Her blog is The Clever Carrot. :)
Thanks Celia appreciate that Wow i keep revisiting your blog,bread looks simply scrumptious You are amazing
Hi Celia
I bought myself the book for Christmas looking at your incredible experiments. Not only does your friend talk up Priscilla, she has many lovely things to say about you and your very inspiring blog in her foreword.
I just wanted to say thanks for all the inspiration too.
Thank you for buying her book and supporting her, she’s a fabulous human being as well as being a genius baker (and yes, very kind too!). :)