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My friend gave me a large chunk of Serrano ham as gift, combined with some good parmesan cheese, this bread is super delicious.

Light Rye Sourdough with Ham and Cheese

- levain
whole rye, 81g
water, 65g
rye starter (100%), 9g

1. Mix and let rise 12-16hours.

- final dough
bread flour, 485g
water, 316g
salt, 10g
Serrano ham, 120g, cut into small cubes and steamed until done
parmesan cheese, 150g, grated
all levain

2. Mix everything but ham, autolyse for 20 to 60min,mix @ medium speed for 3-4 min until gluten starts to develope, knead in ham.
3. Bulk rise at room temp (~75F) for about 2.5hrs. S&F at 30, 60, 90min.
4. Shape into batard, put in basketes smooth side down, put in fridge over night.
5. Next morning take the dough out to finish proofing, about 70min for me. Score.
6. Bake at 450F with steam(either put in preheated cast iron pot and cover with lid, or put dough on preheated baking stone and pour water in another cast iron pan to create steam) for the first 15min, take out the pan with water, keep baking for another 30-35min. Turn off oven and crack the door open a bit, and leave the breads inside for 10min before taking out.

Both Serrano ham and parmesan cheese have very strong flavor, this bread is a full meal all on its own.

The rest of this ham will last me through many more sandwiches, breads, salads, and pizzas.

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Haven't been blogging much lately, but actually baking a lot. Ever since I started making laminated breads, they have become my signature gifts to people. This batch is for some family friends. Since they are Chinese, I thought it would be nice to add some Asian elements -- mixed matcha powder into the dough, and used red bean filling for some.

Matcha Croissant with Sourdough Starter(Adapted from ABAP)
Note: for details and tips on making croissants, please see this post & this post.
Note: this recipe makes about 12 large danishes.

-levain
starter (100%), 35g
water, 59g
bread flour, 105g

1. mix and leave at room temp for 12 hours.

-final dough
bread flour, 422g
water, 148g
milk, 128g
sugar, 68g
salt, 10g
instant yeast, 7g
butter, 21g, softened
matcha powder, 16g
levain, all
roll-in butter, 287g

1. Mix everything but the rolling butter, knead until medium gluten developement. Then follow the steps here.

Lately I got some question in terms of the "right" dough consistency of laminated breads. I have said in a few prior posts that "drier dough yields better crumb". Now I would like to emphasize 2 conditions for that statement:

1. "Better crumb" in my mind is honeycomb like crumb with open large holes of even size. Walls of holes should be crisp and thin, clearly defined. If a different kind of crumb is desired, then this technique obviously would not apply.

2. Drier dough yields better crumb IF IT CAN BE ROLLED OUT WITHOUT BUTTER LEAKAGE. Butter leakage here means butter being smeared into dough layers. In the most extreme case, one can see butter layer being exposed. More often, the dough seems fine from outside, but there's still butter leakage inside due to warm weather, or improper handling. A sheeter can roll out doughs easily in a short amount of time, so it can handle very dry doughs. We as human with limited arm strength and varied experience in lamination would need to find a balance point: the dough is not so dry that it can't be successfully rolled out, yet it should be as dry as one can handle to achieve the most optimal crumb.

For this batch, I used 148g of water (in addition to milk). The crumb turned out very well, however, observing closely, you can see the walls being on the thicker side -- some layers are stuck together.

For 2nd batch, I used only 128g of water (with no filling this time). Now the walls are thinner, however, since it's dryer and harder to roll out, the holes are less even.

I realize that I might be splitting hairs at this point, but it's a well known fact that I am a type A obsessed lamination fool. :P For the plain ones with no filling, I smeared them with homemade kumquat marmalade, a pairing I highly recommend.

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Chinese Red Dates (see wiki here) can be found in Asian markets, in dried form. They are often used in soup/congee dishes, supposely have great health benefits, especially for women. I love to make them into paste as fillings for buns/breads. The process is tedious since you have to peel off the skin one by one, but it's so incredibly smooth and delicious that the effort is worthwhile. You can also buy ready made red date paste/filling at Asian markets, but this homemade version is SO MUCH better.

For these buns I used the 30% rye sourdough lightly enriched dough I have grown to love. Since I buy big cartons of heavy cream from Costco, I am always trying to use it up before expiration, which is why I like to enrich my bread with heavy cream, not butter(those are saved for croissants!). In this dough, there isn't even milk/water, heavy cream and (a tiny bit of) egg provides all the liquid and enrichment. This dough is very soft and light, perfect for soft buns/sandwich loaves.

Note: makes 8 rolls
Note: total flour is 250g

-red date paste:
dried red dates without seed, 225g
water, 3 cups
brown sugar, 1/4 cup
oil, 3 Tbsp
tapioca or wheat starch, 1 Tbsp

1. boil dates in water until soft, about 30min
2. peel off skin
3. mash and put back into pan, heat and stir until most water is gone. Add sugar, stir until completely melted and absorbed. Slowly add oil in batches, until absorbed. Add tapioca stach, stir until smooth

-levain
rye starter (100%), 5g
water, 23g
medium rye 32g

1. Mix and let fermentation at room temp (73F) for 12 hours.

- Final Dough
bread flour, 175g
rye flour, 38g
egg, 30g (I just used one egg, it's more than 30g, but oh well)
sugar, 18g
salt, 5g
heavy cream, 180g
levain, all

1. Mix everything , knead until moderate level of gluten developement. A relatively thin windowpane can be stretched, but holes can appear. (If this dough is used for making Asian style soft sandwiches, it will need to be kneaded to full developement, a strong windowpane is necessary.)

2. Rise at room temp for 2 hours, punch down, put in fridge overnight.
3. Divide into 8 parts, round, rest for 1 hour.
4. Roll flat into oval, put in filling

Seal

Fold in half

Cut in the middle, leaving ends un cut

Flip open into heart shape

5. Proof at room temperature until almost fully. About 5.5hours at 80F. When pressed the dough should slowly spring back a little bit. Wash with egg or milk.

6. Bake at 375F for 15-20min.

Made one into flower shape, this one is easy -- just fill, round, press and cut. I decorated it with white sesame seeds in the middle.

Light and soft, with super yummy filling, perfect as breakfast or snack.

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One other way for me to use up heavy cream is a "not so angelic" anglefood cake.

Note: fits a 17CM anglefood mold

cake flour, 80g
heavy cream, 160g
vanilla, 1/2t
sugar, 75g
egg whites, 5, about 150 - 180g

1. fold cake flour into heavy cream and vanilla
2. beat egg whites until foam, add sugar, beat until soft peaks
3. take 1/4 of egg whites and mix with 1 to lighten
4. take 1/2 of remaining egg whites and fold into 3, take care not to deflate
5. put 4 back into remaining egg whites, fold until even, take care not to deflate
6. fill mold, bake at 340F for about 40min

7. cool upside down, unmold.

It's softer and more moist than real angelfood cake, there's less sugar, so it's also not too sweet. Perfect without any icing.

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Yet another good way to use up heavy cream, and left over egg yolks (probably from the cake above), is pot de creme. I especially like this maple syrup version. 

I highly highly highly recommend the Darigold Heavy Cream (>40% fat ratio), so creamy and rich. I found it in Costco at Seattle, apparently it's owned by Pacific Northwest diary farmers.

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Laminated dough is all about balancing: can't be so weak that it doesn't have enough strength to lift in the oven to create honeycomb crumb, yet at the same time, it can't be so strong that it's impossible to roll out without butter leakage; it can't be so wet that layers are smeared/stick together, yet if it's too dry, it will take a lot of pressing to roll out, butter layers will easily smeared into dough layers. In this case, I wanted to add black sesame (one of my favorite baking ingredients) into croissants (one of my favorite breads). The first time, I started out with my usual croissant recipe without changing anything -- too dry. The 2nd time, I added more water -- too wet. The third time was a charm, it was just right. Dough and butter went smoothly together during rolling and folding, and final breads had great open crumb with even honeycomb holes.

Sesame Croissant with Sourdough Starter(Adapted from ABAP)
Note: for details and tips on making croissants, please see this post & this post.
Note: this recipe makes about 12 large danishes.

-levain
starter (100%), 35g
water, 59g
bread flour, 105g

1. mix and leave at room temp for 12 hours.

-final dough
bread flour, 422g
water, 122g
milk, 128g
sugar, 68g
salt, 10g
instant yeast, 7g
butter, 21g, softened
black sesame, 75g
levain, all
roll-in butter, 287g

1. Mix everything but the rolling butter, knead until medium gluten developement. Then follow the steps here.

Black sesames are REALLY fragrant in baked goods, combined with butter, these croissants are to die for.

I have received many questions regarding croissants - how much liquid in the dough, egg or no egg, what flour, how much butter ... In fact, I don't think the exact ingredients and ratios are important. What's important is that the resulting dough is of the "right" consistency -- i.e. the same consistency of the butter block, so that they can be rolled out evenly together. In my poolish croissant blog post, I have written about all the lessons I have learned. The key to successful croissants are not some magic ingredients, or magic ratios, it's about making the right decisions about how much to knead, how wet/dry the dough is, so that it can be rolled out without butter leakage, yet at the same time, has enough "lift"/"strength" in the end to create honeycomb holes.

Once the dough consistency is right, the rest is just science, not art. Be patient to roll out, keep everything cold, pay attention to details. Get the process down into a routine, then it can't go wrong. A lot of people ask why their croissants have tight crumb even though they have NOT noticed butter leaking while making the dough. The answer is simple -- when the dough/butter are folded into that many layers, you often can't see it even when butter layers are smeared/leaked into the dough layers. Yes, sometimes the leakage is so serious that you can literally see/feel the butter, however, more often then not, the inner butter layers are just pressed/melted into the inner dough layers without you ever noticing. The key to prevent this is: keep it cold & relax (both the dough and yourself).

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Can't believe that I have never baked with spelt yet, well until last weekend that is. I finally got some spelt flour and went to town with it. In my typical "jump in with both feet" way, I make a 100% spelt souroudgh. Two sources were helpful with my research:
http://www.breadtopia.com/spelt-bread-recipe/
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/13934/100-spelt-levain-bread (Shiao-Ping)
However, my ratio and fermentation schedule ended up being quite different form both of them, but the thing I learned from their posts held true: spelt has quite a bit of gluten, but not as much as wheat, and more delicate, which means it's the best to handle it gently and try hard not to over rise/proof.

Spelt Flour, 298g
Spelt Starter(100%), 105g (I started with my white starter, and fed it with spelt (1:2:2) 3 times to convert it "mostly" to spelt)
Agave, 28g (if use honey, might need more since agave is sweeter)
Water, 193g
Salt, 7g

1. Mix everything autolyse for 20 to 60min, mix by hand until even.
2. Bulk rise at room temp (~75F) for about 2.5hrs. S&F at 30, 60, 90, 120min.
4. Shape, put in basketes smooth side down, put in fridge over night.
5. Next morning take the dough out to finish proofing, about 45min for me. Score.

6. Bake in cast iron pot at 460F with lid on for 20min, lower to 430F, take away lid, bake for another 25min.

The dough is fairly wet & loose, so I chose to bake in cast iron pot to keep the height better.

I like the addition of Agave in the formula, which complements with the spelt flavor well. Honey or other sweeteners would do as well.

Crumb is quite open, and I really like the slightly "bitter"/earthy taste of spelt, no wonder it's used so often by other bakers.

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As long as we are still eating this baguette at least once per week, I am gonna keep the variations coming. At this point I am just using whatever I have on hand, and I often get happily surprised!

1)With 10% tapioca flour. This is my recent favorite, extra thin/crispy crust, and very open/delicate crumb, similar with the effect of rice flour in breads.

AP Flour, 375g
ice water, 315g
tapioca flour, 50g
salt, 10g
white starter (100%) 150g

-Mix flour, tapioca flour, icewater, and autolyse for 12 hours.
-Mix in salt, starte, then follow the basic 36 hour sourdough baguette formula here.

2)With 10% chestnut flour. Different flour has such different effect on the dough. Same old 10%, chestnut flour weakens the dough quite a lot more than other flours I have tried. That means it's easier to get open crumb, but harder to get high volume and neat looking scoring. The flavor, however, is great. Chestnut flour has such special fragrance.

AP Flour, 375g
ice water, 315g
chestnut flour, 50g
salt, 10g
white starter (100%) 150g

-Mix flour, chestnut flour, icewater, and autolyse for 12 hours.
-Mix in salt, starte, then follow the basic 36 hour sourdough baguette formula here.

3)With 10% corn flour. I used corn flour(masa harina) for tortillas, and these baguetts really do have a noticable corn tortillas taste. This flour is extremely thirsty, which is why I used a lot of water here.

AP Flour, 375g
ice water, 335g
corn flour, 50g
salt, 10g
white starter (100%) 150g

-Mix flour, corn flour, icewater, and autolyse for 12 hours.
-Mix in salt, starte, then follow the basic 36 hour sourdough baguette formula here.

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Norm's Onon Roll is one of the most beloved recipes on TFL, as well documented here. It can also be found in "Inside the Jewish Bakery", a book well worth reading/owning. I have made this formula exactly as is before, however this time, I took the two things I like the best about this recipe and changed the rest:

1. The onion filling recipe using dried onion and poppy seeds is what makes this bread so tasty. I used the formula from the book:
dehydrated chopped onion, 45g
boiling water, 340g
oil, 14g
poppy seeds, 10g
salt, 4g
-mix boiling water and dried onion, soak for at least 30min
-drain and use paper towel to dry onion mixture well, reserve onion water for dough
-mix in oil, poppy seed, and salt. Cover, keep refridgerated for up to 2 weeks

2. The shaped rolls have to be "fully" proofed to keep the flat profile and the signature dent in the middle. By fully proofed, it means when I press the dough with my finger, it won't spring back at all, yet it won't collapse either.

Norm's original post and the recipe in his book use a lightly enriched sweet dough for this bread. I decided to use my own sourdough rye dough instead, making use onion water from the filling formula above.

Note: makes 7 rolls
Note: total flour is 270g
-levain
rye starter (100%), 11g
water, 19g
medium rye 35g

1. Mix and let fermentation at room temp (73F) for 12 hours.

- Final Dough
bread flour, 189g
rye flour, 41g
egg, 32g
sugar, 19g
salt, 5g
onion water from filling, 57g
heavy cream, 116g
levain, all

1. Mix everything , knead until moderate level of gluten developement. A relatively thin windowpane can be stretched, but holes can appear.
2. Rise at room temp for 2 hours, punch down, put in fridge overnight.
3. Divide into 7 parts, round, rest for 1 hour.
4. Smooth side down, press into onion filling mixture, flatten into 1inch thick disks. Filling side up, put on baking sheet, cover.

5. Fully proof at room temperature. About 6.5hours at 72F. Press a hole in the middle, the dough should not spring back, nor should it collapse.

7. Bake at 400F for 15-20min.

Rye sourdough complements well with onion flavor. Crumb is fluffy and soft.

Thank you Norm for the inspiration!

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This organic fruit/veggie delivery service is really taking me to places I have never been -- in last week's case, it's beet! I roasted them in oven for 70min until tender. Peeled, cut some into chunks and put in salads. For the rest, I mashed and used the vividly red puree for this bread.

Bread Flour, 325g
WW Flour, 100g
Beet Puree, 220g
Starter(100%), 150g
Water, 190g
Salt, 10g

1. Mix everything autolyse for 20 to 60min,mix @ medium speed for 3-4 min until gluten starts to develope.
2. Bulk rise at room temp (~75F) for about 3hrs. S&F at 30, 60, 90, 120min.
4. Shape, put in basketes smooth side down, put in fridge over night.
5. Next morning take the dough out to finish proofing, about 60min for me. Score. Shockingly red, isn't it?

6. Bake at 450F with steam for 15min, lower to 430, bake for another 35min.

Finished bread is less red than the dough. I read that acidity would help keeping the red color, being a sourdough loaf, I thought that the PH value would be low enough, guess not...

I could tell that the sour beet puree (lots of it too) had a weakening effect on the dough, but the bread still ended up with good volume

Open moist crumb, with a subtle beet taste, great as a grilled cheese sandwich.

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Followed this recipe online to make red velvet cupcakes with the leftover beet puree.

Very happy with the deep red color both before and after baking, without food coloring!

In order to keep the color red, a lot of lemon juice was used in this formula (to keep PH low), which means the cake itself is noticably sour. That's why icing is necessary for this cake - to balance out the acidity. I don't think its taste is authentically "red velvet", but if you want a red cake with no artificial coloring, then it's fills the bill. It's egg free too.

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This is inspired by the brandy roll formula from the book "A Handmade Loaf". I have made 80%+ of the recipes from that book, with variations, all have been great.

Note: makes 10 cloveleaf rolls OR 12 golden horn rolls (I double the recipe and made both)

Note: total flour is 250g

- levain

starter (100%), 13g

milk, 22g

bread flour, 41g

1. Mix and let fermentation at room temp (73F) for 12 hours.

- Final Dough
bread flour, 203g
sugar, 25g
salt, 5g
butter, 50g, softened
egg, 25g
milk, 50g
water, 59g
brandy, 25g
levain, all

1. Mix everything but butter until gluten starts to form, add butter, knead until moderate level of gluten developement. A relatively thin windowpane can be stretched, but holes can appear.
2. Rise at room temp for 2 hours, punch down, put in fridge overnight.
3a. For cloveleaf rolls, takeout, divide into 10 parts, round, rest for 1 hour. Divide each part into 3, round, put all 3 into a muff tin hole.

3b. For golden horn, takeout, round, press flat, rest for 1 hour. Roll out into a 14inch round (about 1/8inch thick), brush with melted butter, cut into 12 parts

Take each piece, roll out tightly

4. Rise at room temp for about 6 hours. The dough would have double. Brush with brandy, shift powdered sugar.

5. Bake at 400F for about 25min for cloveleaf rolls, 20min for golden horns.

Brandy brushed on surface made the roll crispy on the outside

But soft and shreddy on the inside

This is basically a "poor man's" brioche formula made into rolls. Sourdough starter and brandy lends sutle layers of flavor, but you can't really taste the alcohol at all (which makes sense since it would have disappeared during baking).

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We live in downtown Seattle with lots of good restaurants, however very few of them have good bread.  The other day, I went to a pretty upscale bistro nearby for lunch, great food but the "baked on site sourdough bread" was below average. The baguette was tight crumbed and hard to chew, the walnut sourdough was also tough with little flavor. It's a shame that a place with such fresh and imaginitive menu doesn't pay more attention to their bread offering.

Came home and made this walnut soudough to satisfy my bread craving. Threw in some sweet potato puree, ww flour, and maple syrup for more flavor.

Bread Flour, 228g
WW Flour, 70g
Sweet Potato Puree, 105g
Starter(100%), 105g
Water, 152g
Salt, 5g
Maple Syrup, 18g
Walnuts, 77g, toasted

1. Mix everything but walnuts, autolyse for 20 to 60min,mix @ medium speed for 3-4 min until gluten starts to develope, mix in walnuts.
2. Bulk rise at room temp (~75F) for about 2.5hrs. S&F at 30, 60, 90min.
4. Shape, put in basketes smooth side down, put in fridge over night.
5. Next morning take the dough out to finish proofing, about 70min for me. Score.
6. Bake at 450F with steam for 15min, lower to 420, bake for another 25min.

Sutle sweetness from sweet potato works great with sourdough, maple syrup, and ww flour. Walnuts adds fragrance and crunch.

Cheese, red wine, good sourdough bread - my idea of a perfect meal.

I found a very good cheese shop nearby, this German limburger cheese is deliciously stinky (it was compared to "body odor", and I still bought it!).

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Using the same batch of sweet potato puree, I made some muffins

With topping and some cream cheese filling so they are extra yummy. Forgot exactly which recipe I used, but I do remember it's a good basic pumpkin muffin recipe I based these on.