Orange WholeMeal

This is just a quick bread, but is looking to become one of my favourites. I didn't follow a recipe as such, and its not as exciting and imaginative as some of my previous loaves. I pretty much just looked around the kitchen and in the fridge and threw in everything I could see.

Only 20 minutes before Ms Ranty wakes up, so this is going to be a quick post.

Here is the basic recipe, feel free to tweak juice/water/cream ratios as well as white/wholemeal flour mix - let me know what you get

120 g starter

200 g water

90 g orange juice

20 g single cream

300 g white flour

200 g wholemeal flour

1.5 tsp salt

Pour starter, water, juice and cream in a mixing bowl and give it a good stir with a spoon, to make sure that the starter is well mixed in with all the other liquids.

Add the flours to the mixing bowl and mix the dough on speed 1 for 6 minutes - pressuming you are using a free standing mixer, like KitchenAid.

Cover the bowl and leave to rest (autolise) for 20 minutes. Add salt and mix for another 2 minutes on speed 2.

Place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover and leave to ferment for 3 to 4 hours in a warm place. I was a bit short on time, so I didn't do my usual stretch and fold this time, so I will definitely try this recipe again to see whether it can be improved even further with the use of stretch-and-fold technique.

Also I did the first and the second fermentations in a warm place, as I didn't get a chance to mix up the bread until 10 am and I wanted to bake it in the evening, to have some fresh bread for toast the next morning. Again, longer, colder fermentation might improve the taste and the texture even more - shall try that again.

Shape the dough into an oval loaf, place it into a heavily floured basket, cover with plastic and leave to ferment for about two hours, until the loaf has doubled in volume and you can see small bubbles forming on the face of the dough.

Bake in a pre-heated oven, at 210C (fan oven) for 40 minutes, rotating the loaf half way through to ensure even baking.

The loaf turned out quite light, with a lovely crumb and very pretty - which is important :)

We demolished the loaf before Mr Ranty had a chance to take nice photos, so just basic ones from my iPhone