Cakes & Bakes: Buckfastleigh sourdough loaf

I have found my new ‘go to’ sourdough loaf recipe; a run-of-the-mill, no frills method that has worked for me perfectly every time. I give you… **loud trumpeting sound** the Buckfastleigh sourdough loaf!

It’s the unfussiest sourdough loaf recipe I’ve come across, and it’s also the best tasting. With the scarcity of strong bread flour (all flour, to be fair) because of the Covid lockdown, I bought a few kilos direct from Shipton Mill and boy, did their Extra Course Organic Wholemeal Flour make a difference to the finished loaf. The flavour was incredible; I won’t be going back to the common or garden supermarket own brand version.

The recipe came from Gordon, a small-scale baker who bakes 5 times per week, selling his loaves locally. I’m not sure if he’s based in the Devon town of Buckfastleigh – which I think may be the origin of the bread’s title.

The recipe directions are very spare; perhaps not the best to give a go if you’re a complete newbie. However, he gives a more detailed breakdown of the method (broken down into two separate posts) – complete with photographs – on the Fresh Loaf blog.

In it, he reveals his views on the matter… about which I wholeheartedly agree:

Sourdough – I do not think there is any magic to it… Here’s my take; It’s just bread. Get over it and just do it.
Sure – you can apply rules, you can take far more care with it that I appear to do, you can regiment the process and create rules – if what you’re after is something extra special. The one loaf a week you make and you want to take pride in it and make sure its the best there is. And that’s fine. I’m making basic daily sourdough bread here and for that, there is nothing special. No tricky processes, no strict timings or (within reason) temperatures. Gordon, on the Fresh Loaf blog

Want to give it a try? Click here or on the image below to save the recipe to Pinterest

Buckfastleigh sourdough loaf

Gordon

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Course Bread

Cuisine British

Servings 1 kg loaf

Ingredients

100 g wholemeal
400 g white
150 g starter @ 100% hydration
8 g salt
300 g water

Instructions

Mix, knead, leave overnight, shape into a boule, put in a cloth-lined basket/banneton, leave to prove (maybe 2 hours, do the finger poke test) and into a 250ºC oven with a cup of water splashed on the bottom (in a metal tin) and down to 210ºC after 12 minutes for another 25 minutes.

Buckfastleigh sourdough loaf ingredients

Keyword bread, loaf, sourdough

Cakes & Bakes: Bara gwyn

We bought this fab farmhouse loaf tin in an antique shop this week; I love it so much, I wanted to make use of it ASAP!

I looked in my new favourite Welsh cook book for a simple, rustic loaf recipe and quickly found one for bara gwyn which translates as, ‘white loaf’. The directions – as I have found previously with this particular book – can be on the sketchy side. It states that you should bake the loaf in a ‘moderately hot’ oven for ‘1 and a half hours’.

I found that my oven cooked my loaf in about 50 minutes. A ‘moderate’ oven to me is around 175ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4. I suggest you keep an eye on your loaf and pull it out when it’s a lovely golden brown on the top and the bottom sounds hollow when you give it a tap with your knuckles.

I’ve bought fresh yeast in Morrisons – it’s available in little trays of 4 cubed portions – too much for one baking session, but it can be successfully frozen and defrosted as and when needed. I’ve also seen it for sale on Amazon and eBay. If you can’t get hold of any, I’ve included the amount of dried yeast you should use instead.

I was in two minds if I should score the top of the loaf before putting it into the oven. I decided not to, this time. I really like the natural blow out that occurred.

The notes that accompany the recipe explain:

On bread baking day, some housewives would keep a little dough and bake a small batch on the bakestone or griddle. This batch loaf would be eaten fresh for tea on that day. It was known as bara planc (Cwm Gwuan), bara mân (Bryn, Port Talbot), picen ar y lychwan (Tonyfrefail), adopting the Welsh name used for the bakestone in specific areas. Bara prwmlid was the name given to it in Pen-prysg, near Pen-coed.
Similarly, small batches would be baked on the floor of the oven. Their sizes varied and the Welsh name by which these loaves were known again differed e.g. bara bricen (Pen-gwyn), cwgen (Brynberian), torth gwaelod popty (Rhydymain), torth ar fflat y ffwrn (Ystalyfera), torth ar llawr y ffwrn (Kenfig Hill), sôts (Dowlais) and hogen (Bwlch-llan)

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Bara gwyn

Welsh Fare: A Selection of Traditional Recipes

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Cook Time 1 30

Course Bread

Cuisine Welsh

Servings 1 loaf

Ingredients

530 g/ 1lb 3oz plain flour
1 tsp fine salt
1½ tsp sugar
285 ml warm water
9½ g/1⅓oz fresh yeast or 3g instant yeast / 4g active dry yeast

Instructions

Put the salt and flour into a warm mixing bowl
Cream the yeast and sugar and pour into a well in the centre of the flour
Cover the yeast mixture with a little of the flour and leave in a warm place until it becomes frothy
Proceed to mix the dough, adding the warm water gradually
Knead well for about 10 minutes until the hands and sides of the bowl are free of dough
Cover the bowl and leave in a warm place until the dough has doubled its original size
Turn it out on to a floured board and mould into a loaf according to the size of the tin
Put the loaf into the warm, greased tin and leave to rise again for another half hour
Bake in a moderately hot oven for approximately 1 and a half hours, according to size

Keyword bread, loaf

Cakes & Bakes: Seeded sourdough boule

For this week’s Cakes & Bakes recipe we have a delicious, crusty, seeded sourdough boule (a fancy French word for a round, slightly domed loaf).

My starter and, as a result, dough are getting quite lively in this warmer weather!

The seeds add texture and and depth of flavour, with distinctive little hits as you crunch through individual seeds. You could even lightly toast them before adding them to the dough – something which I’ll try next time.

It’s a very versatile loaf, suitable for accompanying all manner of meals and perfect for sandwiches. It makes for great toast too! We enjoyed ours liberally spread with a lovely soft goat’s cheese on day 1 – and then it was transformed into the aforementioned toast and served with poached eggs on day 2. Both fabulous!

Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest

Seeded sourdough boule

2019-07-04 15:46:25

Yields 1

Prep Time

23 hr

Cook Time

1 hr

Total Time

24 hr

Prep Time

23 hr

Cook Time

1 hr

Total Time

24 hr

Ingredients

350g/12⅓oz water at 27ºC/80ºF
108g/3¾oz fresh sourdough starter (100% hydration) that has been refreshed the night before and again in the morning
400g/14oz strong white bread flour
140g/5 strong wholemeal bread flour
150g/5oz lightly toasted mixed seeds (sesame, poppy, sunflower, pumpkin, flax, linseeds, pine nuts etc.)
6g/¼oz fine salt
a little rice flour for dusting your banneton

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If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the warm water and starter to combine
Knead in the flour, cover with a reusable food cover / cling film and let the dough rest in a cool environment for 1½ hours
Add the seeds and salt and mix until all the ingredients come together into a large ball
Lift and fold your dough over, do a quarter turn of your bowl and repeat three more times. Repeat hourly 3 more times
Shape your dough lightly and place it into a dusted banneton
Cover again and refrigerate (overnight) for 8-12 hours
Remove from the fridge and allow to warm and prove until the dough has risen by about 50%. This normally takes about 2 hours in a kitchen that is about 18-20ºC
Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/Gas mark 7 for ½-1 hour (also preheat your La Cloche or baking stone if using)
Gently remove the loaf from the banneton, slash the top of with a lame (grignette) and put it into the oven
Bake for 40 minutes, turn the heat down to 190ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 5 and bake for another 10-15 minutes depending on how brown you like the crust
Allow the loaf to cool completely (at least an hour) on a wire rack before slicing

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Seeded sourdough loaf

Since I revived my sourdough starter a fortnight ago, we’ve been enjoying pancakes (for brunch on Justin’s birthday), waffles and last week’s raisin bread. This week, I made a seeded sourdough loaf.

To begin with, I used my go-to overnight sourdough recipe and simply added a selection of seeds. It’s a very good recipe for using up bits & pieces of packets of seeds you have in the cupboard. However, if you don’t use seeds that often, rather than buy a bag each of say sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and linseeds, Morrisons (and all large supermarkets, probably) do little packets of ready mixed seeds.

Also, I changed the order of cooling and proving. Vanessa Kimbell recommends proving for a couple of hours and then putting it into the fridge. To begin with, I do the final folding at night and put the loaf in its banneton straight into the fridge. Then, in the morning, I bring it out to prove while the oven preheats – that way round works better for me!

It made a delicious, crusty 1kg loaf. Sliced, it’s perfect with bowls of soup – or on its own with just a bit of butter. The good thing about home-made sourdough bread is that it can last over a week without going mouldy. After a number of days, as the loaf begins to go hard, it makes brilliant toast or bruschetta; the twice-cooked seeds impart an even nuttier taste.

If you want to try it out, click here to save the recipe to Pinterest for later

Seeded sourdough loaf

2019-04-18 13:05:06

Yields 1

Total Time

24 hr

Total Time

24 hr

Ingredients

350g water at 27ºC
108g fresh sourdough starter (100% hydration) that has been refreshed the night before and again in the morning
540g strong white bread flour
50g mixed seeds (anything like sesame, sunflower, pumpkin, flax, pine nuts or linseeds)
6g fine salt
a little rice flour for dusting your banneton

Add ingredients to shopping list

If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the warm water and starter to combine
Knead in the flour, cover with a reusable food cover / cling film and let the dough rest in a cool environment for 1½ hours
Add the seeds and salt and mix until all the ingredients come together into a large ball
Lift and fold your dough over, do a quarter turn of your bowl and repeat three more times. Repeat hourly 3 more times
Shape your dough lightly and place it into a dusted banneton
Cover again and refrigerate (overnight) for 8-12 hours
Remove from the fridge and allow to warm and prove until the dough has risen by about 50%. This normally takes about 2 hours in a kitchen that is about 18-20ºC
Preheat the oven to 220ºC for ½-1 hour (also preheat your La Cloche or baking stone if using)
Gently remove the loaf from the banneton, slash the top of with a lame (grignette) and put it into the oven
Bake for 40 minutes, turn the heat down to 190ºC and bake for another 10-15 minutes depending on how brown you like the crust
Allow the loaf to cool completely (at least an hour) on a wire rack before slicing

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/