The Porky Gourmand

My home made bread – Whole meal boule

06 Feb 2009 at 17:17

Kiplagat

Baking, Random Recipe

Baking boule whole meal

I love baking bread by hand, it is a slow but rewarding process. This bread took about 4 hours to prepare & bake. I am still a novice at baking, but the results so far have been very rewarding. You cannot compare home baked bread to the commercial crap in the supermarket. The only bread I buy now are from little bakeries that do artisan style bread. The bread at these bakeries may cost more, the taste & craftsmanship justifies the premium.

The first bread I baked was a foccacia, it turned out so good I thought I was born baking. Second bread was a white boule, it was a total disaster….. really bad. I always try to get better with every bread, the perfect loaf seems elusive. I’ll get there on my 10,000th loaf……

Recipe for this boule

I have adapted this recipe for myself from a variety of sources. Still trying to achieve the perfect bread.

300 grams sifted whole meal flour

200 grams plain flour

250 ml water

100 ml milk(room temperature)

2 teaspoons instant yeast

1.5 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon caster sugar

Prep & Baking

Sift flour into large bowl. Add salt,yeast & sugar. Mix well

Add water & milk to flour. Mix well creating the dough

Let dough rest for 30 minutes

Take dough out of bowl, knead on floured surface for about 15-20 minutes until gluten in dough is well developed

Place dough in a bowl, cover with cling film, let it rise till it doubles in size. That will take about 2 hours.

Remove from bowl, knock it down. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.

After rest, turn out the dough on floured surface, shape the dough then place on baking tray. Cover with tea towel. Let dough proof for 45 minutes.

Bake in 220 degree oven for 45 minutes……Then let bread cool on wire rack for about 15 minutes.

This bread does not need any spread, I just dip it into some extra virgin olive oil with balsamic vinegar. yummo!

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5 Comments

• by Kaasa

  07 Feb 2009 at 07:37

  Reply

  

  Just saw your blog on the Kenyan Aggregator… thought I was the only one who loved to cook or bake bread.

  The boule came out looking good, though from the photo, it appears slightly dry. What I do is use buttermilk instead of plain milk. Also, I sometimes add a little Olive oil into the mix.

  You have some good cookbooks there

  Also, for a twist, try making a balsamic vinegar reduction and dipping the bread into that and the Olive oil.

  I reduce my balsamic with white sugar but if I want it less tart, I use cane sugar.

  Thanks!

  Kaasa.

  kaasa1.wordpress.com/

  • by porkygourmand

    09 Feb 2009 at 18:53

    Reply

    

    @Kaasa thanks for dropping by, thanks for the buttermilk tip, i’ll try it. I normally add olive oil to my bread. I am still experimenting with with baking in nairobi (high altitude), baking is different here than at sea level. Love your blog, spotted the pad thai on the front page.

• by Kaasa

  10 Feb 2009 at 07:24

  Reply

  

  Thanks for visiting my blog. Yep, love me some Pad Thai (I found the perfect restaurant that does it just right). I just put up a video on my blog of ‘Fish Liboke’ which is a Congolese dish I love to eat.

  I always just fiddled around with the knobs when baking in Nairobi because of the altitude.

  Here’s another site I love: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/dining/index.html

  I’ll keep dropping in!

• by nobs

  23 Feb 2009 at 20:40

  Reply

  

  hey for sure any meal depends on its cooking and as i can look the ingredients of every meal above it makes it sweet/delicious before it comes out of the kitchen for sure.
  ******Thank you*****thank you****

  • by porkygourmand

    23 Feb 2009 at 22:13

    Reply

    

    @nobs, thanks for dropping by..