This morning I baked a walnut levain bread… and some crumpets!

The recipe for the bread was similar to the Pain de Campagne I made earlier in the week but with roasted walnut pieces folded into thedough before bulk fermentation.

I used less yeast than required but it took 30mins more than stated for the dough to increase by 2.5 times it’s volume. If I were to make this again I would use slightly more yeast and let the volume double – as there was less oven spring than I had hoped for.

A very nice tasting bread though – especially with some cheese!

I have tried to make sourdough crumpets with sourdough discard a few times recently but have not been impressed with the results – so I also had a go at making some basic crumpets.

The hardest part is getting the temperature of the pan right – too cool then the bubbles don’t develop/pop and the middle does not bake through – too hot and the bottoms get burnt! So the recipe I followed advised to start them at a medium-hot temperature and then lower once the bubbles start popping. This seemed to work quite well and while they haven’t been eaten yet, they look pretty good!