We have experienced some extreme hot weather over here in Perth Western Australia for the Christmas / New Year break record temperatures with 42 degrees and sustained high 30's for a couple of weeks the only baking was the poor plants in the garden that got well and truely frizzled
Fortunately we have just had a bit of a reprieve which was really good as i had a bread baking class that was booked through an on line agency this last Sunday, The participants were both newcomers to bread baking and as part of the service i travel to them and we have a baking session in the comfort and familiarity of their own kitchen. i have in the past been able to conduct classes in a technical college which was great with the latest whizz bang mixing machines proovers and ovens etc but i realised that after those classes the participants went home to a much different environment. So now that the Technical college has closed i thought what could be better than have someone come to you that could coach you through the process. I bring along all the necessary bits and pieces as well as the ingredients and we make two doughs by hand so that the sense of feel can be appreciated, but quite happy if they have a machine and want to use that too. All that is required is some bench space and a working oven.i am able to show them the little tricks that we can employ to achieve desired results in the home setting. i am able to tailor the days class to the participant, from first timers through to more experienced enthusiasts that would like that guiding hand for the day.
There is a on line booking agency that promotes a range of local and indeed Australia wide experiences, and creative workshops and they take care of promotion and bookings and payments. They have a huge range of different classes from clay throwing , cooking, sour dough bread baking, candle making, painting, drawing, pasta making, sushi making , cocktail classes and so on. Lots of the classes are held in the larger venues with varying numbers being able to attend where as i offer either 1 on 1 or just you and a friend and i come to you. So i have done a couple of these now and i must say it is a really good feeling when you have been able set people off in the right direction so here a few pictures of yesterdays baking day where newcomers to bread baking Kim and Sophie tackled a 50% Wholemeal Coopers Stout dough with two loaves being produced 1 with raw onion incorporated and baked off in the Romantoph Clay baker whilst the other was proven on a linen couche before being hand peeled onto a baking sheet. and scored. A rich fruit dough was also tackled and this was made into Cinnamon Scrolls
I recently posted about a trip that Lachie and i did to check out the red wheat and meet the man growing it . Tim very kindly gave us some samples to play with and yesterday i collected some from the Big Loaf Factory where it is stored. i located the Kenwood attachment i purchased many years ago Judy says i paid $10 i thought it was $5 but thats no matter. i was actually going to put it to use, it came with a booklet that you read only if you cant get it to work, i did try installing up side down and was wondering how the hopper was going to attach! All systems go turn it on and they recommend the high speed on the Kenwood. i was surprised how quickly it was doing its job, it was on its coarsest setting so i thought i would process again on the mid setting and got a very nice result. Due to the lateness of the hour i decided that i would have a go with the fresh milled flour the next morning. 
I formulated a dough to make a single 750g loaf it was to be a 50% W/M FRESHLY MILLED RED WHEAT and it is "BEAUFORT" the Spring variety and 50% Bakers flour: 2% salt: 2% fresh compressed yeast: 2% Canola oil this was to assist countering the wholemeal abrasive effect on the gluten strands: i started with 65% water but added more during the mix , at least 20ml possibly more. i wanted to keep the dough simple to evaluate the taste of the w/m fresh flour. i started off by soaking all the fresh w/m flour 220g in all the water 285g and letting it sit for 2 hours, i didnt want to wake my wife with kitchen noise and i thought it would benefit the dough to soak the w/m. i usually do this when im using w/m especially if im adding my stout! i was giving the Noodle machine its 2nd dough making task, i was impressed with the way the dough was forming and developing with the gentle action of the paddle arm , it has the same action as the bread makers but a much larger squat mixing bowl and it doesnt bake the loaf like the bread machines but does have a proving warmer and timer function but i have yet to use that its been pretty warm here in Perth of late with a record summer heat averaging 33 degrees for summer. The Salt 9g the oil 9g and the fresh yeast 9g were all added. The mixer was set for 15 minutes and it became obvious that it would take more water so i added 20ml or possibly more than that, the dough developed nicely and was taken from the mixer a little cooler than i expected it was placed in a bowl covered and placed into the micro wave out of the way to prove. Judy and i then headed off for our Fit for Life class. upon our return the dough had risen higher than i had anticipated and was taken immediately i was anticipation 3 hr bulk fermentation but it was ready in 2hr 50minutes. 
The dough was degassed and handed up for a short bench rest it felt very good in the hand. After 15 minutes it was shaped and placed in the Banneton in a plastic bag for a final proof of 1 hour.
I was using the clay baker and i decided to soak the lid and had the oven up full at 250 on the gas knob. the dough was rolled out onto my small hand peel slashed with my new $5.00 lame slid into the cold Romantoph the lid placed on and it the hot oven. 
The plan was to leave at the high temp for the first 15 minutes reduce the temperature and remove the lid all executed to plan. the bake continued and the aroma being generated was intoxicating. 
the bake went well and i did increase the temperature a bit toward the end to promote the colour, normally my doughs would also contain malt sometimes milk but i wanted to assess this loaf purely on the w/m ability. tasting still a little way off as the loaf cools 
At the T junction and a bitumen rd my first error turning left, and i soon realised after a couple of ks my mistake as i should have had my next turning coming in a short distance . A U turn soon had us back on track and another dirt rd this on a little more lumpy but still pretty good compared to some i have had to endure. This rd led to the farm and it was great to see Lachie and son Monty already engaged with Tim beside the storage silos. 
Lachie and Monty had camped out in swags overnight at a nearby small town of Quindanning quite an adventure already!After a good firm farmers hand shake Introduction from Tim we got on to the story of the Red Wheat and Tim showed us both varieties, the RGT Accroc a winter variety and LRPB Beaufort a Spring wheat. we listened to how the wheat had performed for Tim as a crop and how it fitted into the rotation but also how they could be grown further apart in the season so that it spread the risk quite a bit especially with frost. Lachie was sampling the grain for taste which he liked and detected that the Accroc was considerably harder to chew. Tim was quite interested in our enthusiasm and what we could hope to do with some of his wheat and we promised to keep him informed and hopefully produce a loaf made entirely from his own wheat even.
Anyway we were conscious of taking up to much of Tim's time so got out the Hessian bags and Tim filled them generously 4 x bags, 2 of each both variety. Lachie presented Tim with some of Big Loaf's produce the famous Cinnamon scrolls the Pane Ancient and their signature Big Loaf. Tim then mentioned Lupins which he also grows and said that we need to get more lupins into the human diet which he and Lachie agreed as they are a great source of protein not the kind we Bakers are usually chasing which is the gluten content of wheat flour. Anyway we were gifted with a bag of lupins to have a play with too. 
We also stopped up by the Header that had brought in the harvest and Tim showed off the great invention that his uncle had produced locally the Harrington Seed Destructor. This clever device destroys weed seed at the time of Harvest so that it does not need eradicating with sprays in the next growing season.
Tim also touched on Flax growing which apparently was quite wide spread at one time and that it supported a process plant for fibre in WA. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a big market for the seed and other than being a good rotation crop. The benefits of Flaxseeds or more commonly known as Linseeds are great, just look them up. Anyway we were told we could go to another farm that Tim runs and help our selves to a sample from the 7 tonne bin. So we made our farewells and Lachie invited Tim to bring the family to the Bakery for a tour when they were next down in the city. We headed off and went to the other farm where Lachie scaled the bin and remarked on the quality of the linseed. We were both aware of the dangers of grain bins and explained to Monty the dangers of sinking into grain and that people have died this way. I was so pleased that Lachie and Monty had made the trip not just because they are nice blokes but pleased that Lachie had come in his landrover ute and not on one of his motor bikes with six sacks of grain the subaru would not have coped at all well.
The day wasn't over though as we decided to visit Darkan's sheepfest and it was one of those great country show / field days with log chopping and shearing competitions and of course sheep showing . i went home via Collie arriving home at around 3pm and 580klm on the clock but a great day out. The next part of the fun will be in the next few weeks when we mill some of the samples and see what we can come up with watch this space.
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This morning i had porridge left over from breakfast and i wanted to do something a little different so i decided to sort out the cupboard a bit and ended up with these 3 lovely loaves that would be ideal company for a cheese board its ended up being Apricot and Porridge Oat Bread with 26% Wholemeal Spelt. 3 X 510g loaves. it was going to be 2 x 750g loaves but thought 3 x 500g was easier for sharing. I didn't make this a sweet dough , there is not sugar or high fats usually associated with fruit breads. I worked out my dough formula but modified it as i went along as i only had 195g of w/m spelt so instead of 50/50 it ended up being 26% w/m spelt and 74% black and gold plain flour. cooked porridge was 20% and chopped apricots were 20% also butter ,salt, malt, milk powder, and yeast were all 2% each so it was a fast dough 1 hr Bu;k Fermentation the water was added at 50% but more was required which would have equaled another 4%. i was cautious as both the spelt and the porridge tend to give a sticky dough, but i did need to have a reasonably slack dough because of the dried apricots sucking in some of that moisture. Very happy with this stage just the cooling and taste testing to be done, oh and to break out the cheeses!
