Batch 500

Yesterday, Friday, saw the baking of the 500th batch of bread since baking began. This post to celebrate the occasion.

The ingredients. The bulkiest being two and a half pounds of the right hand flour and a little over a pint and a half of cold water. Kick-off 0730.

During the first knead. The pasty.

Still with the first knead. The leg of mutton.

Still with the first knead. The growth.

After the first rise, some four hours later.

Weighed in. The dough at just under five and a half pounds, has lost an ounce during the first rise.

Second knead, first state.

Second knead, second state.

Tinned up. In the cheap and thin, but entirely satisfactory, loose bottomed tins from Hong Kong, noticed at reference 1. Notice how they are slowly going brown around the edges, in the way of baking tins the world over.

Binned up, before second rise. Inflorescence of the aloe having now made it into the light of day, but just hidden behind the lid of the bin. See reference 2.

About to be binned out, after second rise. Not remnant of previous batch, left. The rule being that it has to be eaten before one starts on the new. Careful habits from times when food was not as plentiful as it is now.

The product, around 1530, just about eight hours after kick off. Note the slight bubbling to the left - which can be much worse if one gets the rises wrong. And bubbling tends to be a feature of the bottom loaf rather than the top loaf, so the temperature in our fan oven is not as even as is claimed by the manufacturer. Slightly darker brown than usual, but why I do not know.

Tins in their cooling position. I have just about learned how to get the loaves out of the tins without either dropping them or burning my wrists.

First loaf into the freezer at 1700, still slightly warm.

Second loaf opened at 1800. Entirely satisfactory.

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/06/tins-from-hong-kong.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/12/proper-light.html.

Reference 3: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=bake+bread. Highlights from the early years of baking. Sadly, the link to the Dropbox copy of the breadsheet no longer works and I do not feel inclined to find out why, Dropbox having been knocked off my perch by the combination of the OneDrive offering from Microsoft and the BT Cloud offering from BT. Another good company with a good idea which was taken over by the big boys. No room at the inn for the little guys.