For the dough...

I had another go with the pain de levain style bread this weekend, following my hunch from the first time and making a much lighter loaf with more wheat flour and less rye starter. I was very pleased with the result. It rose really nicely and pretty vigorously for a sourdough. The trick of wrapping it in a floured cloth and leaving it to rise in loaf tins to stop it spreading out too much worked well again, although I still haven't quite got the hang of what's required to stop the dough sticking completely.

The recipe this time was:
400g Rye starter
450g Water
800g All-purpose white flour
1tbsp Salt

As before, whisk together the starter with the water. Add the flour and salt and mix to a dough. Knead for 15 secs, leave for 15 mins, knead for 15 secs, leave for 30 mins, knead again, leave for one hour, knead again, leave for a couple of hours.

Divide the dough into two. Knead into balls and form into baton loaves. Place on floured cloths, roll up the cloths and put the loaves into loaf tins. Leave for 3-4 hours until doubled in size.

Heat the oven to 450F. Spray the loaves with water then bake at this temperature for 5 mins before reducing to around 375F for a further 30-40 minutes until done.

Smashing.

   

Click here to download:

Light_rye_sourdough_take_two.zip (533 KB)

The traditional French 'Pain de Levain' has always been one of my favourites - a fantastic blend of the lightness and crustiness of a French baguette with a hint of sourness and a background rye roundness of flavour. I also love the caraway flavour that is often associated with rye bread, particularly in North American variations.

     

Click here to download:

Light_rye_sourdough_bread.zip (277 KB)

This recipe was another one inspired by Dan Lepard. His 'Mill Loaf' recipe, with wheat and rye, sounded nice but I thought I'd try it with a some maize flour as well for a little extra sweetness. The result was, I thought, really good, although I still have to get the right method for proving the loaves long enough without them losing their shape.

A year or so back I read a piece in the Vancouver Sun extolling the virtues of the cast-iron skillet. The article made it sound like a real wonder-tool: an all-purpose frying pan that would pay back a little love and attention with a unique cooking experience that flimsy modern non-stick pans just can't match. It piqued my interest on a number of levels, but could I really justify the expense. Back in the days when I was paid commissions and didn't have 3 kids I used to love going and scouting round the fancy cookshops, where you'd spend $20 on the latest silcone non-stick easy grip teaspoon measure or some such nonsense. Now, though, I was back with a mortgage, a baby on the way and these kinds of thing just weren't really essential.
A week or so later I was walking up Main Street with one of the boys. For some reason we had to go to the dollar store, Welk's, at 19th & Main. It may have been halloween, I don't know. Anyway - imagine my surprise when amongst all the plastic food savers and toys designed to fall apart on their second use, I saw a selection of cast iron frying pans. There I was, expecting to have to shell out at least a hundred bucks and the dollar store had the most fantastic, simple, heavy cast-iron 12 inch skillet for only $14.
Needless to say, I bought it. I had great fun seasoning it - rubbing it with vegetable oil and then baking it in the oven upside down at 350F for half an hour. Job done! Ever since, it has given sterling service not only as a frying pan, but also for baking, especially corn bread.
Traditional southern corn bread served with a meal like meatloaf or roat chicken can make a great alternative starch. The kids love it because it's a bit sweet, and it's really easy to make. Cooking it in a skillet gives the crust a really nice caramelized chewiness.
This is the recipe I used for the one in the picture. I like it with less sugar than many of the American recipes I've seen.
4 oz butter
1 cup natural yogurt
1 cup milk
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 cup cornmeal (polenta)
1 cup maize flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

Heat oven to 350F

Melt the butter in the skillet, swirling it around well to coat the pan. Whisk eggs, milk, yogurt and sugar together and pour in the melted butter. Don't worry about scraping it all out of the skillet - what's left in the pan will lubricate and cook the outside nicely. Put the skillet back on the stove to keep hot, but don't burn the butter in the pan.
Stir in the dry ingredients and mix to a thick batter and pour it into the skillet. Leave it on the stovetop over a low heat for a few minutes until you can see the edges starting to cook. Transfer it to the oven and bake for about 30 mins or until a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.

It's probably possible to cook the whole thing over a lowish heat on the stove, if you have a suitable lid for the skillet. I'm going to try this soon and report back.

     

Click here to download:

Corn_bread_in_a_cast-iron_skil.zip (566 KB)

In the end, the secret to making a decent loaf with the 8-grain flake mix was to reduce the amount of water a little and cook it on a shorter program.

   

Click here to download:

Multigrain_loaf.zip (228 KB)

Heady with the early success of my oatmeal bread in the machine I was all ready to try something new. At Famous Foods last week my attention was caught by an 8-grain mixture of rolled wheat, barley, triticale, spelt, soy and a bunch of other things. It looked like it would be an interesting substitute for the rolled oats in my recipe.

I bought a 1lb bag and tried it out earlier this week, substituting the oats weight-for-weight with this new 8-grain mixture in my original oaten bread recipe (not the 'rustic' one). As you can see from the picture, the results were less than inspiring. I guess the fact that the oat bread was a litle bit deflated should have been a warning, but I just wasn't prepared for this.

The problem is that the dough is too light and the bread machine program leaves it proving for too long. I'll have to try a different program (this was done on the standard, basic loaf program) and maybe a little less water.

As old Freddie Nietszche said, Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker. Mind you, he never tried making bread in a bread machine.

I love fruity buns. Hot cross buns, currant buns, raisin bran muffins, fruit scones, lardy cake - you name it, if it's got dried grapes of any description I'm in. I did find a bakery in Kerrisdale a few months ago that had a great line in english-style currant buns and it made me very happy for a couple of days.

So I thought I'd have a go at making some for myself. I looked at a couple of recipes for sweet doughs and hot cross buns, and then thought about what I really like (and what I had in the cupboard). I ended up with this. It made 24 good sized buns about 3 inches across - about the size of a large tangerine.

700g All purpose (bread) flour
300g Cake flour
100g Butter
2 eggs
650g Milk (I used 1%)
2 tsp brown sugar
150g white sugar
grated zest of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp yeast
150g currants

First of all I made a sponge. This is not a cake, but a paste of flour, liquid and yeast that is left to ferment for a while before being used as the basis for the real dough. It helps really develop a gluten network and gives a structure around which the softer starches of the cake flour can form.

For the sponge, I warmed the milk to around 30C and poured it into a bowl containing 500g of the bread flour, 2tbsp brown sugar and 1tsp of dried yeast. I beat this well with the cake-beater attachment of my mixer, covered it and left it to stand for an hour.

Meanwhile, I washed the currants in hot water briefly and then strained and rinsed them under the cold tap.

I then poured in the melted butter to the mixture and added the rest of the flour, the spices, the eggs, the lemon zest and the white sugar together with another tsp of yeast. With the dough hook attachment I mixed the whole lot together. When it had started to come together, but before it had formed a proper dough, I added the currants and left it kneading in the machine for around 3 minutes.

I then removed the dough from the mixer, covered it with a plastic bag and left it to prove for around 90 minutes.

Once it had doubled in size, I turned the dough out onto a floured workspace, kneaded it very lightly and cut it into four equal parts. Working each part in turn, I made a rough sausage and cut each into 6, forming each into a round ball with a taut surface by repeatedly pulling the sides down and in under the bottom. I placed them on a greased baking sheet.

I left them to rise again - not for quite long enough: they really do need to be left to double again. They baked in the oven at 475F for around 15 - 20 minutes. After baking, I glazed the tops by brushing with a sugar syrup made with 2tbsp white sugar and 2tbsp water boiled quickly on the stove.

I was very pleased with the result. The dough tasted great with the lemon zest giving it a hint of citrus without the overpowering nature of candied peel that you get in traditional hot cross buns. Nutmeg and lemon go together really well, and I think the ginger helped give it a warm richness. The currants were great, especially having been washed in hot water - giving them an extra chance to plump up and get nice and juicy.

Next time I make these, I might try adding a tsp of salt - I omitted it by accident but they weren't too bad considering. It would also be nice to see if there's a way to make them keep their soft, pull-apart texture into the second day. They didn't keep particularly well and seemed to dry out a bit by day two. They were still very toothsome and would have been great toasted! I'll have to do some experimentation into what helps breads keep their softness.

Unfortunately, it turns out the rest of my family don't like currants, raisins or sultanas. My wife gamely ate one and pronounced it very nice, but I could tell her heart wasn't in it. So in the end, I had to take them to work and offer them to my co-workers, who seemed to appreciate them. I can't complain though, my lovely wife puts up with all this baking, so it's a bit much of me to expect her to eat it all as well!

I think I might have to dig out a recipe for lardy cake next...

A highlight of any trip to San Francisco is the classic white sourdough bread. I found a great recipe that lets you get pretty close to the real thing at home. Apparently there's a specific strain of bacteria in the air in San Francisco whose presence during fermentation produces specific sourdough qualities. Maybe those prunes were Californian, because I reckon I've got the right stuff in my leaven!

       

Click here to download:

San_Francisco_Sourdough.zip (502 KB)

1. The formed loaf waiting on a makeshift peel before being slid onto the hot baking stone.
2. The first attempt - no salt and not enough heat from beneath = not fully cooked
3. The second attempt - overcompensated slightly but it tasted fantastic
4. Cheese. Branston. Lettuce. Say no more.

I haven't worked out how to attach a photo to a post I've already sent. I forgot to add a picture of the inside of the loaf to my earlier post 

The instruction manual that came with my bread machine contains only a small handful of recipes - one for each mode of operation. There are two 'quick bake' modes which promise fresh bread in around an hour and a half, so I thought I'd try them.