jennyloh's blog

I'm back from more than 2 weeks business trip and couldn't wait to start on the Jeffrey Hamelman's challenge.  Well,  it didn't quite happen.  With my failed attempt of the Jeffrey Hamelman's Baguette with Poolish,  and failed attempt to make my own malt flour,  still looking for high gluten flour for my Jeffrey Hamelman's bagel,  well,  I adhered to my son's appeal for Olive Bread.  He simply loves olives.  

At least my Olive Bread turns out as expected, although I thought for a moment, that I lost my touch on shaping the dough as the olive started spilling out,  making it difficult to fold the dough without affecting bubbles.  

It turns out surprisingly soft and chewy on the inside.

 

See recipe - click here. Olive Bread

 

 

 

I thought I'd share my (not bake),  but steamed chinese rice cake here.  This is something that is so dear to my heart,  as it reminded me of the time that I spent hours helping my mom doing this,  every year diligently, for some festivities.  Now that I'm away from home,  it's just something to remind me of home, family,  and I want to pass this little tradition to my little boy,  he did help out,  and did it well indeed.

 

This is a unique kind of cake that I probably see in Singapore/Malaysia,  and probably Taiwan, and the taste is chewy as it uses rice flour,  I forgot to take the inside.  This is usually filled with glutinous rice,  and other stuff like mushrooms, dried shrimps,  and even peanuts.

Details in www.foodforthoughts.jlohcook.com.

FYI - the word on the cake means "long life".

Jenny

I saw Floyd's posting on this recipe.  Wanted to try out.  I also saw some seeded recipes,  and wanted to add in the seeds. I need some advice here,  as the the bread turned out a little dense - see the crumb below.

Ingredients:
Preferment
125g All Purpose Flour 85g water 2.5g salt 2g yeast
Day 1:  Mix all and leave rise for 1 hour,  then refrigerate it overnight.
Final Dough
350g Bread Flour 225g water 40g extra virgin olive oil 5g rosemary leaves (I used dried) 7.5g salt 2.5g yeast All of the preferment
Seeds (I added these in as I wanted a seeded bread)
50g Sunflower seed  20g Sesame seeds
Bake sunflower seed for 15 minutes in oven at 150 degree celsius. Turn the seeds occasionally. Fry sesame seeds for about 5 minutes over fire.  Stir constantly till brown.  Put in a bowl and cover overnight.

Day 2:  Mix dough first,  and add in preferment,  knead well.  I added the seeds last after I've kneaded the dough well. Mix the dough and seeds well together. (Should I have waited after the 1st rise to add in the seeds?)
Rising/Proofing:  Rise for 1 1/2 hours, (Floyd suggest a 3 hour bulk rising with 2 folds,  which I should have followed).  1 fold and shape.  Proof for 1 1/2 hours. (The dough have doubled well,  my first rise should have been longer??)
Bake:  Steam the oven at 250 degrees celsius,  and  bake at 230 degrees celsius for 50 minutes,  and bring down the temperature to 200 degree celsius for 20 minutes.  (did I bake a little too long?)
Looking for some advice please?
Jenny

Recipe from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Bread - White Bread Chapter





I have an interesting bake last night.  This bread is very very tasteful,  with the caraway seeds,  brown sugar, and orange zest.  The taste is exceptional.  Somehow, this reminds me of gripe water that we give to babies.  Very very refreshing taste...if you are one of those that like caraway seeds,  try this...

Ingredients:

3/4 cup water
2 tbsp brown sugar
Zest of 1 orange, grated
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 package yeast
2 cups of bread flour


1.    Boil water, sugar, orange, butter and caraway seeds for 3 minutes.
2.    Mix 1 cup of flour, yeast and the boiled ingredients (after cooled).
3.    Knead well and let it rise for 1 hour.
4.    Add rest of flour slowly and knead well.
5.    Shape into loaf pan and let proof for 1 hour.
6.    Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 1 hour


This bread is so easy to eat,  we had ate 3/4 loaf in the morning.  Eat it plain or just put tuna,  taste just as a good...

 

I made these today with a chef.  This recipe was meant to go into a bread machine,  which of course,  the machine is me.  I made this all by hand. I tried 2 things today.  1 was to cover the loaf with a claypot to bake,  and another stay in the claypot to bake.  Of course it turned out that the one that stayed in the claypot got a nicer crust - golden brown.

But somehow with this formula,  the bread didn't rise too much,  I might have overproof it - 1 1/2 hours.  Went out for supper during that time,  by the time I got back, the dough looks more than ready.  The one with the claypot covered had a little more rise,  as I baked it immediately after I return.  Here it is:

 

The one that goes into the claypot,  didn't rise much. Just a little jutting up from the top that I score.  

 

Both were not as crispy as I like....I still do not have baking stone....sigh....I can't find it in China yet....can someone send me one?!....  But the inside is chewy, soft,  and the taste is a little more salty - I don't know if this is because of the salt I added or the chef that was quite well fermented....weather was good over here in Shanghai...warming up...

 

 

The crumbs are well spread out,  not a lot of holes. And the 2 loaves have slightly different taste,  somehow the boule turns out to be less salty,  why?  perhaps I left it overnight in the fridge,  it had absorb what ever is in the dough.

 

I guess I can say this is a pass?...

 

Jenny

www.foodforthoughts.jlohcook.com

 

 

Every end of the week,  I'm so looking forward to my baking.  I think it has become an obsession.
Baguette on Friday night, with my old dough from the 5 minutes fresh baked bread.  I forgot to add yeast and salt to the dough, but it worked as well, as I had put aside for slow retard rise.  
I think at least I got the scoring right this time.  Better than most other times. Click here for details.

Ciabatta on Saturday morning.
Woke up this morning, thinking about my Ciabatta dough waiting for me.  I was excited to see how it turns out.  Lovely crumbs,  soft on the inside,  crispy on the outside.  Click here to see details.



Well,  I'm going to make chicken sandwich for lunch this afternoon.
Jenny www.foodforthoughts.jlohcook.com
 

2 bakes in a day.  This wholemeal roll is a mixed of bread flour and wholemeal.  Wanted to try something else for a change  small rolls using the water roux starter,  with 2 bites and they are gone.  I didn't expect it to turn out so tiny,  measured carefully at 40g per piece.  Anyway,  the most difficult I find is try to shape this.  I read the instructions and  after the 5th ball, I think I got it.  Shape the ball into a cone shape,  roll flat into triangle,  and roll it up from the bottom (wider part of the triangle).  Give it a few roll to tighten it a little. Let it proof for about 1 hour, until it is puffy.  I always wonder if I proof enough?  Well, it had a good oven spring,  and certainly the taste is pretty good,  soft and sweet and a little salty.  To read more:  here's the link.  

I had an interesting bake today. Using the 5 minutes a day fresh baked bread recipe, I decided to try my hand on baguette again. 

 

The result was quite satisfying. Large holes,  crunchy crust,  and when I press down,  it bounces back.  The taste is quite interesting,  even though I didn't put much salt,  it is quite salty on the crust.
check out the details of the recipe and method here.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/painauxraisins

Followed the recipe above from Floyd,  I had a lot of fun doing this, especially the shaping of the dough.  Somehow the 1st method of shaping caused the middle to rise more than it should, perhaps I shaped it too tightly.

The 2nd with raisins,  I think I put too much raisins,  all the raisins started to spill out.  

 

 

Interestingly, the dough didn't turn out as sweet as i thought it would be. The dough had a good oven spring.  It was so nice to watch it "grew" in the oven.  And I learnt about sugar glaze and egg glaze from this experience.  It was nice to see the shine,  just that the hands get sticky handling the bread after that.

Thanks Floyd - for the great recipe.

 

 

For the love of bread,  I woke up 5 am,  with 4 hours of sleep just to see this bread rise and baked.  I didn't regret.  

Adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads,  I tried my hand again on this Pain de Campagne Poilane.  In addition,  I also tried using a claypot to bake this.  

I'm quite satisfied with my results,  the crust was crispy,  the texture is amazingly soft unlike those others that I tried.  I would have liked more holes,  but I think what matters is the taste.  The taste is good,  a little sweetness, if I changed to sourdough,  it probably has better effect.

My 3 days experiences are here with recipe:  http://sites.google.com/site/jlohcook/home/breadmaking/pain-de-campagne-poilane

 

By the way - after it cooled, the boule cracked a little and seem to have shrunk. Is that normal?