Lemon Barley cob - dough too wet

[AntonL]

Baked up a lemon barley loaf on Monday night. It is a fairly quick loaf, which is goo as I had to work late, and not too large, which means that I shoudl be able to eat it myself before it goes too stale.....




(One day I will take them when it isn't dark outside and/or with a tripod).

The loaf worked well, but seemed rather wet - Dan, is it supposed to be that damp? I proved it in a BreadsETC basket, lined with a cloth, but as sooon as I put it onto the baking tray it started to flow.

Still, it tastes really very nice, and won the approval of my usual tasters. The lemon is just enough for you to taste it, but not so much that it overpowers the taste of the barley. It also helped keep me going after my blood donor session yesterday...

Anton

[peter]

I agree with you Antoni. It is a very wet dough, even by Dan's standards. It is impossible to end up with anything other than a flat bread with about 3 cm depth.But it is delicious.

I will cut back the water a little next time.

Regards, Peter.

[AntonL]

I was going for 100-125gms of water next time (everything else staying the same). It will be ineteresting to see what the difference is. As long as it tastes the same I will be happy.

Cheers

Anton

[Dan Lepard]

I do apologise - looking at the recipe it is a mistake, and I'm guessing that at some point the recipe was halved yet the leaven amount remained the same. My reasoning is that I'd never use 60% leaven in a recipe together with commercial yeast. So use this:

100g barley flour
150g strong white flour
3/4 tsp salt
75g white leaven
150g water
1 tbsp lemon juice
zest 1 lemon
30g honey
3/4 tsp fresh yeast

This makes the total liquid (incl the half in the leaven, lemon juice and a bit for the liquid honey) about 200g, to appx 285g flour (incl the half in the leaven) - making it about 70%

I will now go and hang my head in shame.....

Regretfully

Dan

[Fiona]

Dan - no need to hang your head in shame. Have you ever used a cook book and found it had no mistakes - I never have.

Anton - I found this rather slack too but must admit to not always sticking religiously to Dan's recipes - if it seems too dry too slack - I add liquid or flour as long as the salt percentage is roughly correct it generally tastes fine.

I'll have another go this weekend.

[AntonL]

I agree with Fiona - no need to be ashamed. I make mistakes all the time....and when I do people stop receiving email.

Will try again this weekend.

[Dom]

Tried the lemon barley cob for the first time this morning with Dan's amended recipe.

Although the dough was moist and sticky to knead, it was easy to shape, and didn't flatten overly. It's a great, flavourful moist bread, one of the best that I have made so far. I used an oat topping rather than salt flakes. I also put the dough in the fridge overnight after the '1 hour' rest, giving it a turn when I took it out, then shaping it after it had a chance to return to room temp. Seemed to work OK.




Dom

[AntonL]

A little more "bread porn" as Stig calls it. This is using the revised recipe.



This is when I was proving it. It was still quite damp and sticky, but a lot better from the previous time, so I am assuming that it was supposed to be like that.

The finished article

Lovely and lemony.

As you can tell - I used a tripod and had more light this time....I am now starting to find computers frustrating. I think I knead (haha) a new job.

Cheers

Anton

[stig]

whoah there! naked bread porn is taking it a bit too far - was that unbaked dough fully consenting???

[AntonL]

All dough used in these pictures are fully consenting. TBH I think that they enjoy it. No dough was harmed in the making of these images.