My personal challenge: baking my way through "How to Bake". This post is my experience baking and learning new skills from tackling each recipe in Paul Hollywood's, "How to Bake". I will also document any recipe changes that I made - mainly as a result of not having the ingredients on hand (i.e., we never have regular sugar in the house) - and how the recipe fared. I will not be providing the recipes that are in his book. Have you made a Cottage Loaf before? After watching GBBO, I realized this is a staple and as common as a normal bread loaf. As a result, I had to learn!
Like I mentioned in a previous post, over the holidays my husband and I were glued to The Great British Bake-off for the holidays and one episode we saw made a traditional Cottage Loaf. Being a newbie in the bread world or an American (or perhaps both), neither of us had heard of a Cottage Loaf. So the next day, I Googled a recipe for a Cottage Loaf, and it turned out to be more of a sad mound than two round loaves stacked like a proud snowman. I decided to add garlic and a few herbs to the Cottage Loaf recipe that I found online because I was craving the combination. I made sure to fold in the garlic gently on the second proof as to not mess up the rise, but even still, the result was not quite pancake level, but close.
See below for details. The loaf on the left was from a Googled blog recipe and the loaf on the right is from Paul Hollywood's cookbook "How to Bake". Now, I know that garlic can interfere with the rise, but I have never had issues with other bread recipes, so I truly believe it comes down to the recipe. But, read on and you be the judge!
Here are some of the lessons that I learned while baking two Cottage Loaf recipes:
The Ingredients in the Google Cottage Loaf. The Googled Cottage Loaf recipe used 60g of butter compared to 30g of butter in Paul Hollywood's Cottage Loaf recipe. When you add fats to dough, the fat essentially coats the flour molecules and inhibits making strong gluten bonds. These gluten bonds get stronger and tighter during the mixing process, but also when formed properly, help trap the gases from the yeast. This fermentation process helps dough become tender and fluffy. But, my guess in the Googled Cottage Loaf recipe is the fat was nearly double the amount in Paul Hollywood's recipe and while the instructions for kneading and rise times were identical, the fat inhibited the process of creating strong gluten chains. Thus, my first attempt at a Cottage Loaf resulted in a terribly sad and deflated loaf.
The Scoring. I did not have a blade to score the dough and only had a dull knife to score the bread which was ineffective as you can see by the pictures. Now, since I have worked in a kitchen before, I learned one of the Golden Rules which is: "A sharp knife is a safe knife". I clearly did not follow this rule, but going forward I highly recommend stocking your kitchen with a scoring blade or tool to properly control the direction the bread expands. While my second Cottage Loaf looked a lot more like a traditional loaf, I could certainly improve the scoring through a sharp blade.
What Does Garlic Do? Yes, garlic inhibits yeast growth due to its anti-microbe properties. I have added fresh garlic to dough and it still resulted in an extra fluffy tender dough and crispy shell. My main tip is to allow the dough to complete the first proof before adding fresh garlic. Alternatively, you can roast the garlic and then add to the dough. By roasting the garlic, you will be cooking down the potency of the anti-microbe properties.
Cottage Loaf History. I have read a few different blogs and online sites to learn about the Cottage Loaf. The stacked nature of the Cottage Loaf is speculated to have saved space in tiny bread ovens that were either tall and thin like beehives or to double on the baking when sharing ovens in the towns. Either way, I think it makes for a rustic and homey bake. And, very odd shaped sandwiches - we toasted in the oven and dipped in soups! Yum.
On that note, I hope that you find a recipe book you enjoy, or this one, that I am currently baking my way through. Either way, enjoy baking and nourishing yourself and your family.
All my light and all my love.
Namaste,
Jordan
All my light. All my love.
Namaste,
Jordan
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