Strapping stout loaf

What a strapping loaf this is! For my weekly Friday loaf recipe I have followed the Dan Lepard, Stout Loaf recipe that was in last week's Saturday Weekend Guardian. See the link for the recipe and instructions. I liked the idea of the rye flour, yeast and stout doing the hard work overnight, and found the next day's instructions for mixing, kneading, leaving and resting again quite relaxing. There wasn't the need to knead to exhaustion - the 10 second kneads three times over 90mins was made easy by oiling the work surface and oiling your hands.

And look how the finished kneaded loaf turned out.

This was before having to rise again on non-stick paper for an hour. Unlike my previous loaves, I did make my Everhot work harder, by increasing the temperature to 220 degrees centigrade through the use of the grill (which increases the temperature in minutes) and then lowering the temperature by opening the oven door until it reached 200 degrees. I left the loaf to bake in the oven whilst the door was open and the oven cooling, and it didn't come to any harm.

The result is, if I say so myself, rather splendid, coming in at an impressive 8.5 inches in diameter. It tastes great - very light and malty. It does show that I have a long way to go in adapting the recipes and instructions of Master Bakers (see my earlier bread posts), in order to adapt to my food mixer. I will persevere, but for now I'm happy to have been introduced to such a good traditional recipe. Makes a stout meal with beef stew.