Traditional English loaf

An online friend from Bristol put me onto cottage loaves, a traditional English shape. It's taken some fiddling to get them right, but I finally made something I'm not completely unhappy with. A question for the UKers - does it look right? They look a bit like Muppets at the moment..



If you're interested in my failures, have a look here.

Celia

Celia
They look good, albeit like the earlier attempt ('big boy') there seems to be a slant going on. Not sure how to correct this, but wouldn't worry about a little slant, as it marks it out as true baking as against mass-produced jelly mould bread.

FWIW there is some variation in dimensions and I wonder whether you might experiment with
a) a slightly smaller top section, which should give some help to them staying upright
b) Likewise going slightly thinner on the top section

caveat: these comment come from no baking experience of cottage loaves, just recalling the ones I've seen & eaten. For both the above suggestions I wouldn't make drastic changes - they already look good and very recognisable as the style.

Final comment. They can be a bit of an awkward shape for slicing. If folk get hung up on this, I'd definitely recommend they use one as a tear-off accompaniment to soups.

They certainly look tasty

regards

Ian

Ian, thanks. I was hoping you'd chime in.

I've noticed that some of the photos Google was turning up showed a smaller top storey. All the instructions I'd seen said to use 1/3 on top and 2/3 at the bottom, but I'll try as you suggest and see how I go.

By the way, "Big Boy" was referring to my son, not the distorted loaf, but hey, if the shoe fits..



At least it turned out better than the other loaf in that batch - that one just popped the top layer off altogether...

Thanks for the feedback,

Celia

[Jenise]

Celia commented

- that one just popped the top layer off altogether...

You mean a little male stripper didn't pop out? Some bachelorette party that was.

"Male stripper"? "Pop out"? Goodness, Jenise, it's just a loaf of bread..

hahahahaha...

"Male stripper"? "Pop out"? Goodness, Jenise, it's just a loaf of bread..

hahahahaha...

Well, it bears some slight resemblance to Jenise's pepper.

Ian, thanks. I was hoping you'd chime in.

I've noticed that some of the photos Google was turning up showed a smaller top storey. All the instructions I'd seen said to use 1/3 on top and 2/3 at the bottom, but I'll try as you suggest and see how I go.

By the way, "Big Boy" was referring to my son, not the distorted loaf, but hey, if the shoe fits..



At least it turned out better than the other loaf in that batch - that one just popped the top layer off altogether...

Thanks for the feedback,

Celia

They look good, C. As to the "slant" - I wouldn't give it a second thought. I occasionally get a little "slippage" when making a challah with a large and smaller braid. Still eats fine and looks good, too.

Thanks Chef. And you're right, they tasted great! Good fun to make too..

Challah, now there's something I've never tried. I did make Swiss Zopf once, which looks like challah, but uses milk and sour cream in the dough. Can you point me to a photo of a challah with a large and small braid? I'm having trouble imagining what that looks like...thanks!

Looks good enough to eat

The top should be smaller.

Reason for the top is the same as the term 'bakers dozen' , which means 13, was the extremely severe penalties suffered by bakers who gave short measure.

Loaves had to be sold by standard weight, thus to ensure the baker didn't sel underweight he'd add a small dough ball on top.

Incidentally the bread laws which date from 1266 have been law right up to this year when the (damned) EU overruled them in the name of so called competition. Loaves had to be a full 800g (2lb) or half 400g (1lb)sizes.

[Jenise]

Well, it bears some slight resemblance to Jenise's pepper.

No no, that's Peter's Pepper. And did you not confess to growing them once? HUH?

Peter, that's wonderful! Thank you - I love knowing why things were made in a particular way. I'm going to edit my blog to include that info. That all makes sense now - I couldn't figure out why they'd willingly make such a difficult shape...

Celia

Well, it bears some slight resemblance to Jenise's pepper.

No no, that's Peter's Pepper. And did you not confess to growing them once? HUH?

Oh yeah, I grew them more than once. Quite a conversation piece, especially when all the women at the CPA firm I worked for wanted a few.