sourdough muffins

I was just going through some of m old photos on my camera and came across these sourdough muffins that I made quite some time ago.

Sourdough muffins from Northwest sourdough
http://www.northwestsourdough.com/discover/?p=2670#more-2670

These beets are from our own garden, and I have more than I can consume.  The original recipe from Northwest Sourdough calls for sweet potato, and I replaced with my beets:


mix all wet ingredients in a bowl:

• beets 8oz (baked and peeled)
• Sourdough Starter @ 100% hydration – 6 oz
• Oil – 2 oz
• Honey- 3 oz
• eggs - 150g
• milk – 226g

mix all dry ingredients in another bowl:

• unbleached white – 10 oz
• Ground cinnamon- 1 teaspoon
• Baking soda – 1 teaspoon
• Baking Powder- 2 teaspoons
• Salt – .3 oz  or about 1.5 teaspoons

pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients.
bake at 425 for 20 – 22 minutes.

Results:
Gorgeous colour on the outside--only.
the texture is cake like, very soft and fluffy
not sweet enough

The following is another sourdough muffin recipe from Sourdough home.com
http://sourdoughhome.com/index.php?content=blueberrymuffins

1 egg	1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt	1/4 cup oil
1 cup sourdough starter	1 cup ww flour (I used spelt)
1 tsp baking soda	1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup blueberries (I use 1 cup)

Preheat oven to 425F.
Combine dry ingredients in small bowl. Stir in blueberries. Combine wet ingredients in medium bowl. Add dry ingredients to wet ones.

Bake at 425 for about 20 minutes.

Result:
The texture is not as fluffy as the one above, but it is still great
I think I have added some diary product in the batch to add moisture (can't remember how much I've added though.)

I'll definitely use these two recipes again.  It is a great way to use up any excess starter.

SFBI's miche

I have made this bread three times so far. Each time I threw in a different technique to see if I could get a better loaf than the previous one. I'll continue to make tweaking as I'm still trying to tackle the temperature issue. The following are some notes about the process:

SFBI's miche: source from David on thefreshloaf.com forum

Take #1

I didn't follow the starter built-up but used my own usual starter built up. So the flour composition and the hydration are deviated from the formula. Here are my steps:

1. 4 folds at 50 mins interval
2. shaped and proofed in room temperature for about half an hour, then retarded the dough in the fridge for about 18 hours (9am-3pm)
3. after pre-heating the oven to 500C, I put the dough in the oven straight from the fridge
4. turned the temp. down to 450C, baked for 20 mins
5. turned the temp. down to 430C in convection mode for 40 mins
6. took the loaf straight out from the oven

The bread looked burnt and charred. The sung beautifully. Crack was found around the loaf. After 3 1/2 hours of cooling, I could no longer wait more. The loaf was still a touch warm, and when I cut it, the crust was really crisp and bits of crust were flying all over the place. The crumb was amazing, with transluscent cell structure. Very chewy and flavourful.


Take #2
Baked in dutch oven

In this attempt, I did follow the starter build-up schedule. However, I don't think the end result is active enough to give the loaf a nice rise in the oven. Anyway, here are the steps:

4 folds at 50 mins interval
shaped and retarded in fridge right away (9pm-2pm)
took the dough out from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for about 1 1/2 hours
after the oven has reached 500c, took the dutch oven out, put pie weight in it, then laid the dough into the dutch oven
baked for 20mins at 450, then removed the lid, baked in convection mode for 38mins in 430C

I'm not sure if it is the starter or the limited size of the dutch oven, the ovenspring wasn't as nice as my first attempt.

Take 3:
I decided to use my own starter build-up. Returned to the bold bake method. A successful loaf. Forgot to take pictures.

Take 4:
In this attempt, I changed my stretch and fold style to stretching the dough to a big rectangle first, then do the envelop fold (thanks to Mark Sinclair's video). This results in a very gas_sy dough. By the end of the 4th fold, the dough is loaded with gas...no large bubble on the surface but the gas is trapped in the cellular structure. I decided to retard it in the fridge right away. No need to proof in room temperature before or after.

Due to my work schedule, the dough ended up in the fridge from 11pm to 10.20pm. I took the dough out from the fridge and loaded it in the pre-heated oven right away. Same timing and temperature.

This time, the dough has an amazing ovenspring, the best of my 4 takes. Unfortunately, it also has the most burnt flavour from the crust.

My next attempt will be to create the same lovely ovenspring and crumb texture but not the charred crust. I have to tackle two big factors: temperature and timing.

Leader's Olive Cheeks

The recipe is from Daniel Leader's Local Breads p. 179. Though the recipe asks for black olives. I only have some green olives sitting in the fridge. The green olives doesn't really contribute much colour to the bread.

Even though I have followed the method in the book, the rolls never really doubled in volume after the fermentation period. After retarding the rolls in the fridge overnight, I took them out and let them sat in room temperature for a couple of hours. However, their size remained more or less the same. The finished product wasn't as impressive as the one in the book.

If you like olives bread, you'll enjoy this bread, and it tastes particularly wonderful if you eat it within a couple of hours. Little rolls don't keep well like the huge sourdough batard or miche that I usually make.

Leader's Whole Wheat Miche

This Whole Wheat Sourdough Miche is based on the formula in Dan Leader's book, the Local Breads.

However, I have made several tweaks:
- levain built is based on a 45g starter, 50g water, 95g white flour and 5g ww flour (this is the levain built for his other sourdough Pain Au Levain recipe)
- I did 2 Stretch and Fold at one hour interval
- after proofing for about 3 hours, I put the dough in the Le Creuset saucer pan (which has been pre-heating in a 505F oven) and covered it with a stainless bowl. The bowl was removed after the first 20 minutes of baking
- baked for 42 mins (40 min should have been ok). Then turned off the oven and let the bread sat there for 10 mins

After the bread had been cooling for about 3 hours, at around 9pm, I couldn't help but decided to cut a slice and give it a taste. The bread was quite ordinary. The crumb was really closed and evenly distributed. I guess I should cut down the kneading time. Also, the flavour was rather ordinary. Maybe I got used to the flavour of a long retardation? Ok, I'll let the dough proof in a cooler temperature for a longer period of time in my second try.

Jason's ciabatta (using yeast)

I have been busy baking, making sourdough bread and all. I guess I should really start updating my baking activity on this blog...

So Mark has invited some friends over for a New Year dinner and he asked me to make some bread as appy. Since we'll be dipping the bread in balsamic vinegar and olive oil, I'll have to make the kind of bread that is good for dipping, i.e. ciabatta!

Generally speaking, ciabatta is a yeast based bread. Some will use a pre-fement like a biga. Some sourdough die-hard will subsititue the yeast part with sourdough starter. Since I need to make a no fail bread for guests, I decided to follow a ciabatta recipe that was posted on the fresh loaf forum:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2984/jasons-quick-coccodrillo-ciabatta-bread

This recipe has been receiving rave reviews by many users. I have heard about this post for quite a while, but never got a chance to give it a try (my preference is still making sourdough bread). Now will be the time.

Ciabatta is a wet dough, and the high hydration content has contributed to the big holes and open crumb. Yes, I am aware that the dough will be very slack, but I didn't expect that it wouldl be so slacky that it was almost impossible to shape it into a form. The dough simply kept spreading on my brand new marble board (my X'mas present!). I was so relieved when I finally pushed them into the oven.

The taste was amazing. I have no regret. Will I make it again? Possible not. I'll try out some other ciabatta recipes.

Muffins with homegrown raspberries

I don't remember where or how did we obtain our raspberry plants. What I notice is that there are two different varieties that grow together in the same spot. How do I know? Well, one matures in the summer with smaller but sweeter fruit and the other one is ready in the fall with bigger size and less intense sweetness.

We have been snacking on these raspberries and putting them in salad (with homegrown salad of course!). One day, I looked at the pint of raspberries sitting in the fridge and there was also a small container of sour cream, and I decided to make some muffins. After searching on the net for recipe, I settled down on this one and quite satisfied with the result:

Topping

• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• 1 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)

1. Preheat oven to 375F degrees. For topping, in medium bowl combine brown sugar, flour, butter and cinnamon. Rub with your fingers to form coarse crumbs. Refrigerate until ready to use.
2. To make muffins, butter a 12-cup muffin g mpan. In medium bowl, whisk 1 1/2 cups flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt. In large bowl, usinixer, beat egg and medium speed until frothy. Add sugar and melted butter. Beat until pale yellow for 1 minute. Beat in sour cream, vanilla and lemon zest until blended. Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed until almost blended.
3. In bowl, toss the raspberries with remaining 1 tablespoon flour. Using spatula, fold in raspberries into batter. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full with batter and sprinkle with topping from refrigerator. Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove muffins from pan and let cool.

I skipped the topping as I intended to freeze these muffins.

Apple tartlet from homegrown apples

The pastry dough is based on Sugar's (Anne Olson) recipe. Originally, the tartlet recipe, which I had made before with great success, is from the Cooks Illustrated magazine. However, the CI's pastry dough is cream cheese based, and I don't have cream cheese at home, so I had to pick a different dough recipe to work with.

The crust turned out amazingly flaky. (I had to add an extra 3 tbsp of water to make the dough comes together). Hubby just made homemade coffee ice cream. What a winning dessert!

Mushroom focaccia -- naturally leaven

Most focaccia uses a pre-ferment, not sourdough starter. Since I'm all into using wild yeast to bake, I'm happy to try out this focaccia recipe using sourdough starter. The source is from Daniel Leader's book, Local Bread. In his recipe, he uses semolina starter. I don't bother starting a second starter, so I used my regular starter in this recipe.

As it turned out, the focaccia has fantastic flavour. I can't stop eating them!

See photo:

before baking

after baking

Sourdough hamburger bun

The recipe is based on the Wild Yeast blog.

Instead of using whole wheat, I used unbleached white and replaced 53g with spelt.

The buns didn't rise much, and so not much overspring either. I noticed a strong buttery taste when the bun was consumed on the same day, but the buttery taste decreased the next day.

A nice bun recipe using sourdough starter, but I don't think the texture is soft enough for hamburger bun.

Canada Day bake

So the second loaf of the pain au levain has been sitting in the fridge for...about 27 hours now. Time to bake!

The oven was on at 300c for about 2 hours (we'd just finished having roasted goose breast for dinner). I cranked it up to 44oc, took the dough out from the fridge, did the normal routine: slash, spray and steam, then put it right into the oven (yes, straight from fridge to oven). In order to make sure that it will still get a decent overspring in the oven, I covered the loaf with a large stainless steel bowl for the first 20 minutes.

Many people praise how wonderful the overspring is when the dough was covered during the first xx minutes of baking. I never really bother doing it. Since the author of the bread states that retarding the dough will affect overspring, I got a bit worried. So time to use this little trick.

The bread rose nicely, with beautiful blister all over.

Next, I increased the oven temperature to 475C, and got ready for my sourdough bagel bake. This recipe is based on Reinhart's Crust and Crumb. I only made two changes:
1. I added 1/4 tsp of active dry yeast to compensate for the 0.8oz starter (recipe calls for 8oz starter but I only got 7.2oz);
2. retarded in the fridge for only 5 hours instead of overnight

Though the amount of yeast is tiny, I can definitely small the yeasty scent from the bagel :(

The bagels were overproofed a bit. Though I was on schedule, the addition of this small amount of yeast did mess up the activity of the dough. When I boiled the bagels, they floated right up. Fortunately, the finished products came out beautifully (I baked them for 15 minutes instead of 12 minutes)

I have a feeling that the texture will be more like a sandwich bun than a bagel. But that's all right, these are yummy artisan bake and I'll savour them one after after!

Pain au Levain

I've been blogging my bread making results to TFL forum since last year. I guess I should start recording my experiences here. So here I go.

The recipe is based on Hamelman's Bread book. Since I've just refreshed my starter 2 days ago, I used it in the recipe instead of following the levain build. After mixing all the ingredients, the dough seemed a bit dry, so I added an extra 1.5oz of water to the mix.

When I divided the dough in half, instead of the 1.5lb piece as described, mine came out 2lbs. No idea why. I baked one according to the schedule, and refridgerated the other half. The book says retarding this dough overnight isn't recommended. Well, I'll find out the next day.

This bread offers really nice texture and taste, much better than the SF SD from C&C. Will give it a try again.

Too risky

oh yes...don't try some new recipes the night before if you need to bring your baked goods to a fund-rising event the next day...that's the lesson I learned tonight.

I should have done the same old scone recipe. How difficult it is to make scone? Not at all! However, if you get a not-so-reliable recipe, the outcome will be a disappointment. For some reasons, I tried this scone recipe. The source is from Canadian Living and there is a seal of "Tested till perfect" on the page. Sounds good? Sure. So with all my heart, I gave it a try.

I followed everything on the recipe except replacing the fake sugar (splenda) with real sugar. The dough seemed to be very wet when I tried to pat it down to 2cm thick. It shouldn't be that wet. However, I proceeded with the rest. When I took the scones out of the oven, they didn't rise much at all. The flavor was there, but they didn't have the normal scone texture due to the high level of moisture.

I'll snap some pics tomorrow.

Bread

I've tried making bread from scratch before, the type of bread that requires using yeast, kneading (or whatever method), fermenting...I'm talking about the whole meal deal here. Then my husband showed interest in bread making also, and he started creating a sourdough starter to make our own sourdough. The bread department thus moved over to him.

However, my interest in bread making never stops. We have several books at home on bread making, and I always keep an eye on new publications. Recently, I checked out a new book from the library: The River Cottage bread Handbook. It is probably the smallest bread book we've read, but it is packed with essential information and helpful photos. Great binding and nice printing. On the same day that I've checked out the book, I baked a bread. It was very satisfying. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the bread. No worry, I need practice. There will be more bread to come.

homemade yogurt

Yogurt is good for you. It helps nurturing healthy bacteria that our body needs. Of course, besides the health factor, I do enjoy eating it. Unfortunately, buying yogurt regularly means creating many plastic waste. I do buy the 1.75 kg container instead of the individual one serving size and use the reusable container to pack my yogurt everyday, however, there is still another container to throw away. As a result, we've started making our own yogurt.

Surprisingly, it is very simple to make. If you don't believe me, try searching on the Internet "homemade yogurt" and you'll find lots of how-to info with pictures and videos and much much more.

What I'm going to journal here is our experiment on making yogurt.

First, we'll need a starter, and that I use some from my trusted yogurt that I always buy. When you buy a yogurt, read the label and make sure that the ingredient says it contains ACTIVE BACTERIAL CULTURE.

Second, get a litre of milk (buy those come in a bottle so you don't need to create another waste).

Third, an optional item according to our experience, is the powdered milk. Many recipes on the Internet says adding powdered milk will create a more solid texture. We've tried both with the powdered milk and without, and found the difference is minimal.

Choose organic ingredients if you can. When you think about the amount of hormones given to cows, buying organic milk/yogurt will become a natural choice.

Now is the process:

• Preheat the convention oven to 200C. When it reaches 200C, turn the oven off.
• Heat the milk on low heat (I use a glass pot) up to about 110C
• OPTIONAL: if powdered milk is used, whisk in half a cup in the warm milk. Make sure that you mix it really well in the milk or you'll end up having milk solid in the end product
• Turn off the heat, stir in half a cup of the starter (yogurt). Don't let the mixture temperature goes over 130C. Place the pot in the pre-heated oven. Let it stands for about 10 hours.

If you start making the yogurt after dinner time, you'll have freshly made yogurt for breakfast the next day. Of course, make sure that you keep the yogurt in the fridge after the 10 hours of curing.

Here are some of the ways we use our yogurt:

• blend with fruit and juice and you'll have a creamy smoothies
• add some blueberries (or any fruits) and you'll have a tasty fruit yogurt
• mix a spoonful of yogurt in the homemade salad dressing
• etc.

See "active bacterial culture" in the ingredient

This is how the homemade yogurt looks like in the pot

Time to enjoy the finished product!

Carrot Cake

I have been making carrot cake with our homegrown carrots for quite a few times already. They are delicious ;) Have you tried pulling the carrots off the ground just an hour before using them for baking?

To be honest, fresh carrots like this should be eaten raw, and yes we do eat them raw! Give a carrot a quick bath and get ready for a juicy crispy bite...hmm...trust me, you really have to try growing carrots.

So why I want to use them in baking?

The carrot seeds were sowed since last summer (same as the beet seeds). Their fate is similar to our beets (see my previous post) and we really need to finish eating them soon. So today, I pulled a whole bunch of them (sorry, forgot to take a picture), made a quick carrot salad and for the not so good looking part of the carrots, I used them to make a carrot cake.

You can find carrot cake recipes easily in cookbooks or on the Internet. I have compared quite a number of the carrot cake recipes and found that the ingredients are more or less the same. So I'm not going to repeat the cake recipe here. The only difference that I made in my recipe was that I used FRESH carrots ;) I also used eggs that were purchased from my husband's colleague who raises his own chickens in his farm somewhere in the Fraser Valley (I think) . If you have farmers market in your area, you may want to buy eggs directly from them instead of those from the supermarket. The quality is much better, though the size of the eggs will vary. When you finish the eggs, give the egg carton back to the farmer so that the carton can be re-used.

Beet Chocolate Cake

Beets are root vegetables which are supposed to survive during winter in the ground. Unfortunately, we had a pretty harsh one last winter. Heavy snow storm hit the area with three feet of snow covered the ground. Many of the winter crops that we grow in our yard failed to withstand it. Beets are one of those.

They have to be harvested. Now what can I do with them? I made a batch of beet soup with homegrown carrots. The soup will go into the freezer and they will become our handy light meal. I still have a whole bunch of beets left after the soup. So after searching on the Internet, I found something unexpected:

Beet Chocolate Cake

Yes, you heard me.

But why not? I like chocolate cake, and I like beet. The reviews of the recipe are all very positive. So I decided to make one. And I made a couple adjustments:

• used 2oz of semi-sweet chocolate
• replaced 1/4 of flour with organic cocoa powder
• roasted the beets in foil in the oven instead of boiling in water; added organic apple cider in the blender to help with the puree process

The recipe is right. I tasted the chocolate but not the beet. It is a fantastic recipe to use the extra beets. Next time, if I want to make it fancier, I may add a layer of choclate ganache or liquored icing.