Two Large Boules and a Spicy Ginger Cake

Already the freezer stock of bread is running low, but the supply of Bacheldre Dark Rye and Gilchester Pizza Flour is just about exhausted.   There was enough to make a refreshed Rye Sourdough, but the wheat levain needed to be switched over to an alternative flour for its second refreshment to build up the amount needed to make these 2 loaves.   The rye sour had one refreshment from stock; the wheat levain had two refreshments.   There is still some Gilchester Farmhouse flour [c.85% extraction] in the cupboard, so I built this into the final formula for the bread, and used it in the Ginger Cake described below.

Two Large Boules

Alison found some Marriage’s Organic Strong White Flour for me on Saturday, so the levain build was complete, and I could start dough mixing this morning [Sunday].   Here is the recipe, formula and method:

Method:

• Autolyse flours, water and rye sour for 1 hour
• Add levain and form dough.   Add salt and develop.
• Rest for 15 minutes, then mix a further 10 minutes.
• S&F after 1 hour.   Bulk Proof 2 hours.   Knock back after 1½ hours, gently.
• Scale and divide.   I made 1 boule @ 1000g and 1 just over 1500g.   Carefully mould dough pieces.
• Proof upside down in bannetons for c.3 hours.
• Tip out of the bannetons, cut the top of the loaves and bake in a pre-heated oven with steam.   I baked the 1.5kg loaf for 1 hour and the 1kg loaf for just less than 45 minutes.
• Cool on wires

The steam has given these loaves a lovely shiny appearance.   They are quite bold and have expanded well around the cuts.   The crust has a few cracks appearing.   The crumb gives evidence of well developed dough and proper attention to fermentation.   We are both looking forward to a week of enticing sandwiches for lunch.   Photographs shown below:

Spicy Ginger Cake

The British contingent here may have come across Dan Lepard’s “Honey and Treacle Cake” in The Guardian Weekend Magazine on Saturday.   I’m quite a fan of these “blended” Ginger cakes, and one of my students made Dan Lepard’s “Whisky Ginger Cake” [see his website for this one] in the Confectionery exam last Monday…and it really is loaded with alcohol too!

Alison saw this article and decided it was a healthy option because it had no refined sugar in the recipe!!?   Well, this is my take on it, although the Mascarpone and Orange Icing  is down to Alison.   It’s very spicy and full-on ginger.   The finished cake texture is exactly how I like to eat cake; you decide for yourselves.

Recipe, formula and method are shown below.   I’ve made a good few changes to the recipe published in the Guardian, so I’m happy to list it below as my own take.

It is not so clear in the table above, but I have tried to show the formula in relation  to constituent parts, so 16% is proportion of spice, and 154.3 is proportion of syrups, both to flour.   Fruit is 172% of flour; this could perhaps be lower 

Method:

• Gently heat the sugars, butter and whole spices to 80°C in a pan.
• Lightly beat the egg
• Sift together the flour, baking powder and ginger powder.
• Strain the syrups off the whole spices.   Add zest plus dry ingredients and fold to form a smooth batter.   Fold in the egg.   Fold in the fruit.
• Scale equally between 2 loaf tins.   Bake at 160°C for 40 minutes
• Cool on wires.

Photographs of the finished crumb are shown.   Lovely cake, but neither of us ever really eat much of the stuff; let’s hope it will keep the week in the fridge?

Best wishes

Andy