I consider myself quite a balanced person…when it comes to eating bread. With last week’s bread on the sweet side, this week I decided to have something savoury. I saw the Onion and Bay Loaf in Dan Lepard’s The Handmade Loaf as just the perfect answer. The recipe is for a hybrid (mix of natural leaven and yeast). Since I always like to see if a certain yeasted or hybrid bread can be converted to pure natural leavened, I omitted the yeast in the recipe and increased the starter by 100g. Worked. Very Well. Not usually crazy about crusts, however, this time, everyone fought for it; the taste of caramelised onions was so gooooood.
Enjoyed as a triple-decker ham and cheese sandwich by 12-yo. Wiped out in 10 minutes flat. Yum!
(originally authored circa 2006)
Replies
Looks and sounds lovely, TeckPoh! I've also been eyeing that recipe in Dan's book, but like you, I tend to baulk at anything that's not leavened 100% with starter. Unlike you, I haven't thought to try increasing the starter and doing away with the fresh yeast.
Now that you have blazed the trail, guess which bread is on the agenda in this household this week? THANKS for setting the precedent!
Cheers
Ross
Hi TeckPoh,
That looks fabulous. I've been eying off this recipe for a while and with the promise of 100% starter is even more appealing.
I'm wondering if you lessened the milk content in the mix? I'm assuming your starter is 100% hydration?
Cheers and thanks for the inspiration,
Bree.
Bree, I followed the recipe's amount for milk (280g), but, having said that, I'd sub with soy milk or water (bread may be a wee bit less moist) in a pinch.
Thanks TeckPoh,
I don't need to sub with an alternative, just wondering if the increase in starter (ie. liquidish) made a difference to overall consistency.
I'll be testing this out tomorrow. Yum!
G'day Teck Poh,
I was wondering whether you decided to do long fermentation times for this recipe as you've made it 100% sourdough. Did you proof it for 2 - 2 1/2 hours, then form the loaf and do a proof for another couple of hours rather than the shorter times given in the recipe?
Many thanks (I've bought the onions in anticipation this afternoon!)
Dianne