. No bread is an island: Portfolio for students

This post is intended as a resource for my students, giving them an idea of what breads can be made on my courses. The pics have been gathered from over the past couple of years.

It's by no means an exhaustive list, if there is a bread that a student would like to make that isn't here, then we'll have a go at making it.

To begin with, here's a comparison between the three types of yeast, with a half and half white and wholemeal flour mix.

Dried active yeast (100% pure yeast) Sainsbury's 'fast action' dried yeast (93% yeast plus additives) and fresh yeast

After an hour's proving, the dried yeast and the fresh yeast doughs were slightly better risen. The fast action yeast dough would catch up, given time

I've divided the breads into three categories:
Plain
Savoury
Sweet

Plain breads - tinned loaves, freeform loaves, focaccia, ciabatta, etc,

Ciabatta

Focaccia with rosemary

Grissini with chopped sun-dried tomatoes. The slight kink enables you to turn them over easily to cook the bottoms if they're not done enough.

I think this was two thirds wholemeal and one third white - 800g of dough just comes up to about 2/3rds of the way up the tin

Fully risen and ready to bake. I should have put it in the oven earlier and allowed the loaf to rise in the oven - oven spring as it is known.

Think I may have added sesame seeds to the mix - I made this last December, and I can't remember. Looks like it!

A batch of white rolls, huddled together to form a loaf

They were proved and baked for the first 10 minutes under a metal toasting dish - hence the flat top

Well risen, but it's not easy to see the crumb as my camera isn't that great!

More rolls - wholemeal this time.

Fancy dinner rolls

I made 70 altogether for a friends birthday party

Savoury - pizzas, sizzlers, pane casereccio,

Garlic batons. Dough rolled out flat, covered with mashed garlic and olive oil, then rolled up like a Swiss roll

This method infuses the whole loaf with garlic

Pane casereccio. Dough rolled out flat, covered with a filling, rolled up and the ends tucked in

The finished article. The filling leaked a bit - bursting with good ingredients, I say!

From memory, the filling was mushrooms, peppers and onions poached in a little sauce. Traditionally a PC would contain Gruyere and Italian sausage, but, in truth you can put anything in there!

Haggis en croute - plus some spare breadsticks

Yeast-Rise canapés - mushroom pate, pesto and mushrooms

Field mushrooms, stuffed with pesto and mushroom pate, and covered with a tasty bread dough
(dough flavoured with bouillon powder and curry powder)

Vegan pizza with mushroom pate (Pateole) and pesto, peppers and tomatoes

Sweet - spicy fruit buns, Chelsea buns, petit pain au chocolat, jam doughnuts

Swedish Tea Ring. Fruited dough rolled out as if for Chelsea buns, but covered with oil, sugar and flaked almonds. Rolled up, formed into a circle and cut half way across at intervals. Dredged with icing sugar.

Chocolate and banana bread. One circle covered with chocolate spread and banana, the other placed over the top and tucked in all round

Then given a sugar glaze when it is baked

The gooey, soft, middle. I never seem to put enough filling in - the bread always rises too much!

Christmas loaf (or Celebration bread). The slices will show up yellow, red and green - very festive! It's a variation of a stollen - and the dough can be as rich or as plain as you wish

My grandchildren call this 'Traffic light bread'!

A sugar glaze just finishes it off

Belgian buns made with soaked cranberries. The method is very similar to Chelsea buns - the difference being the dough is rolled up along the short side making for a thicker roll - the slices are cut thinner, making for flatter buns.