Bicycle bread – the most beautiful bread in the world?

Well, it is the global launch of bicycle bread. So called because it looks a bit like the tires on my bicycle after a long winter. Don’t let that put you off.

This is a brilliant, delicious, beautiful and tasty bread (I am so impressed with myself I may explode sometime soon, clearly – or else maybe one of you will shoot me) and it will be on sale from tomorrow at The Real Cheese Shop in Barnes along with Emmeline’s cracker bread.

In this bread, shaping is all….recipe below.

Bicycle Bread recipe

270 g of refreshed 1857 (that is a wheat sourdough)
700 g warm water
100 g whole wheat flour
1000 g white wheat flour
20 g light rye flour
20 g honey
25 g salt

If you want to speed it up, 6 g yeast.

Day 1:

Refresh your wheat sourdough

Day 2:

Knead all the ingredients together without the salt for 10 minutes. Add the salt and knead for another 5 minutes.

Shaping yeast free:

Let rest for one hour.
Pull out of the bowl and stretch and fold and then replace in the bowl and let rest for one hour.
Pull out of the bowl and divide into four equal portions and stretch and fold, forming into a loose ball.
Let rest for 30 minutes.
Stretch and fold and shape into loose balls.
Let rest for 30 minutes.
Stretch and fold and shape into firm sausages.
Let rest for 10 minutes.
Slit from top to tail, leaving a good couple of inches (5 cm) at the top and the tail and turn inside out. Shape into circles and place on a baking tray that you have covered with polenta. Cover and let rest 45 minutes to one hour.
Sprinkle lavishly with flour.
Bake in a preheated oven at 230 degrees for 30 minutes.
Admire.

Shaping with yeast:

Knead and let rest in the bowl for 60 minutes.
Remove and divide into four pieces.
Let rest for 10 minutes.
Shape into the firm sausages and let sit for 5 mintues.
Slit and shape into circles and let rise for 30 minutes.
Bake as above.