prettyfish's blog

This week I was inspired by some of the cool recipes on this site that mix cooked potatoes into the dough, so I thought I'd try it. I made rolls and bagel squares, inspired by PalwithnoovenP's recipe on this site. My bagel squares turned out quite misshapen and ugly, but taste great. I am not sure why I can't get the surface smooth. Rather than pan-frying them like in the recipe, I baked them. I also omitted the onions, so effectively its a 50:50 potato and flour bagel dough. 

My rolls turned out prettier, it's a 50:50 mix of WW flour and cooked potatoes. I used yeast rather than my SD starter.

Crumb:

Happy baking!

A few weeks ago I attempted a bake using corn flour, inspired by Dutch style soft corn bread. It's basically a soft fluffy bread good for toasting, baked with a hint of corn flour for colour and flavour. Anyway, I felt like baking buns and decided to incorporate some corn. Ingredients:

• (100%)  600 gr flour, 80% plain white 20% finely milled corn flour
• (2%)      12gr salt
• (17%)    100 gr SD starter (100% hydration rye)
• (60%)     360 gr water
• 5 tbsp of fresh corn kernels 
• Handful of seeds for topping (I used pumpkin)

Method:

• Autolyse flours and water for 30-35 min
• Knead in KA on low (all ingredients aside from the seeds) for approx 6 min
• S+F over 3-4 hours whilst the dough rests covered
• Turn out, portion dough out and let rest 10 min
• Shape each bun making sure to create surface tension
• Bake in hot oven (230 celsius) with steam 20 min, remove steam and bake till done. I baked for a total of 32 min.

Overall they tasted great but were a tiny bit dense. I also should have taken them out of the oven 2 or 3 minutes earlier, the tops went a bit dark but still tasted good. Recently I've been adding a tiny pinch of yeast to my bun doughs to get a lighter texture, in future I think I'll keep doing that.

Happy baking!

One of my favourite baked goods is a crusty and seedy roll, perfect as a sandwich or eaten open-face like the Germans do. Once again I tried to increase the nutritional content by using Spelt rather than white flour, and by adding a chia and flax seed soaker. I added SD starter for flavour, but also used yeast because I was baking the same day. These tasted great and were a good balance of chewy and fluffy on the inside. The recipe below made 8 rolls, but if you want them larger just divide into 6 rather than 8. The hydration is quite high so the dough is messy, but this improves the texture. If you prefer denser rolls I would decrease the hydration slightly.

• 500 gr flour (300 gr spelt, 200 gr ww German type 1050)
• 100 gr SD starter at 100% hydration, made with whole rye flour (my darling "Steve")
• 5 gr dry yeast
• 12 gr salt
• soaker made of 3 tbsp chia seed and 2 tbsp coarsely ground flax seeds, soaked in 50 ml water (all water should be soaked up by your seed mix, drain excess if needed)
• seed mix for topping (in this case I mixed poppy, sesame, chia and sunflower seeds with some spelt flakes)
• 350 ml water 

I start the soaker and simultaneously autolyse flour and water for 30 min. Then I add the remaining ingredients (except for the topping) and knead in KA on low speed for approx. 10 min. I let the dough rest and proof with an occasional S+F for 3 hours or until doubled in size. Spelt flour prooves quickly, so keep an eye on it. I preheat the oven as hot as it'll go, for me that 240 celsius. I turn out the dough, divide into 8 and let rest 10 or so minutes. Using a fair bit of flour on the work surface, I shape the rolls and try to build some surface tension by dragging them towards me with the bench scraper. They will look a bit flat, but there's a lot of oven spring once they bake. I spritz the rolls with water and top liberally with the seed mix, patting it in as I go. Once they're all seeded, I add some quick slashes (although this isn't neccessary). I bake at a high temp with steam for 25 min, then another 8 min without steam at a lower temp (180 C).

This weekend I baked my recent go-to Sourdough ft. my own starter (he's called Steve and is a 100% hydration rye starter). 

• For flour I use a 50:30:20 ratio of wholegrain spelt, regular wholegrain flour and coarse white flour (type 1050 in the German system, its a bit like a "weak" wholegrain flour with a fairly high protein content). 
• I autolyse for an hour, knead in KA for about 5 min, S+F for about 4 hours. I use 70% hydration and 10% starter, which is a bit sloppy and messy but makes for a tender, well airated dought despite the high amount of wholegrain flour.
• I shape in the evening, bulk ferment in banneton in fridge overnight and bake next day straight from fridge. . I bake in a rippin' hot DO with plenty of water spritzing, 25 min covered and 22 min uncovered. This is a great recipe for a tangy SD that is also nutritious. The spelt flour is slightly sweet and very tender. Sometimes I top it with seeds etc. but this weekend I left it plain.

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Happy baking!