yozzause's blog

 I revived my S/D culture and made this today, its a 50% Wholemeal loaf with the addition of Raw Red Onion  added at 10% and Poppy Seed at 2%. Started first thing this morning and finished  just after the evening meal. Even had time to try some  before bed time and very happy with the taste and texture.    

What a great day for baking, today was a Lemon Fruit Bread. I upped the lemon juice content to be half lemon juice half water and included the grated peel as the Myer lemons have such a lovely skin. i also used 2 free range eggs from my daughters place in Serpentine where the 3 Hens range over 5 Hectares, the lemons also came from Serpentine

 This is a good one for using those lovely Myer Lemons, there is some prior preparation to making the lemon the star of this and i guess it would also work for scones and fruit cake too, that is the soaking of the dried sultanas in lemon juice for a few hours or overnight and then drying them off again before incorporating into the mix. Combine all your ingredients excepting the sultanas and the butter and salt, just bring them together (hydrating) and then let them sit covered for 1/2 to 1 hour. then begin your mixing in earnest, i usually mix by hand on the bench top but machine is fine once the dough is formed and looking reasonably smooth you start to incorporate the butter and salt, the theory behind this is that the gluten strands have had a chance to develop, i find that i add a smear across the dough and work it in each small addition, the dough will come back to a nice smooth homogeneous mass this is when the dried sultanas are worked in. This formula has a ratio of 50% fruit which takes a bit of rolling and folding to get into the dough. Once that is done it needs to bulk ferment in a container that will allow for expansion to occur (double in size). Depending upon the weather and temperature of the room where the BF is going to occur it will be around 2 to 3 hours, if you mark the container or even take a phone pic you will have a good indication of when that has happened for you. The dough is then "Taken" and degassed "punched down" it can then be divided into portions , if its going into tins and you are not sure of the quantity required use the doubling in size as a guide to the volume required and make a note of how much you needed for future reference. But other than that weigh the dough piece and divide evenly. "Hand the dough up" bring it into a compact round shape cover with a cloth or plastic to prevent skinning and protect from draughts allow to rest for 10 to 20 minutes the dough will feel relaxed and a bit more puffy. time to shape to your desired shape, rounds , torpedoes or twists again cover, i put mine in plastic shopping bags to make like a little tent to prove. should be allowed to double in size again about an hour or so depending on its environment. they go into an oven set just under the 200C mark and baked for 20 + minutes . upon removal from the oven brush with a sugar syrup made from lemon juice and sugar melted in the microwave, it will give you a sticky shiny but tangy top crust. i was looking at the new season Oranges on my daughter's trees and thinking Orange and Poppy Seed Loaf coming up next!

i was inspired to have a go at sweet potato brioche using Tangzhong after seeing  tortie-tabby's post and added my rendition to his post, i was very pleased with that result and decided upon another crack at a brioche this time it would be Potato and Rosemary a pleasant combination that i have enjoyed in the past.

I was so happy with the last brioche bake using the Tangzhong method that i thought i would have another dash at it , this time Potato and Rosemary Brioche.

It starts with making a roux using some of the flour and milk from the recipe once this is done its set aside. The main ingredients are then bought together except for the salt and the butter they get added after the dough has formed and been rested for an hour. Once the butter and salt are incorporated into the mix its worked by hand on the bench to form a nice smooth dough, that is then placed into a bowl and covered and allowed to rise. The house temperature was 21 C so i opted to place the bowl in the back of the station wagon where it was in the sunshine and a bit warmer. The dough more than doubled in size and was brought in to be processed it was degassed (knocked back) and then divided and scaled, i required 7 pieces for the cake tin i was going to use. the dough pieces were handed up into balls and covered and allowed 10 minutes to recover. They were then rounded up and placed into the baking pan which was then placed into a large plastic bag to prove, the bag protects from draft and retains moisture being expelled from the fermentation process and stops the surface drying out. After half an hour i washed the tops with boiled cornflour wash and applied sesame seeds and back into the proving tent. Once the buns had reached full proof they were carefully placed into the oven that was set at 200C with a pan containing a terry towel and boiling water, this provides a steamy atmosphere for the early part of the bake, it was removed after 10 minutes and the bake continued for a full 30 minutes, the tin was removed and the buns were placed on a cooling rack. The aroma is exquisite, just what would be required for a home open !

 The ingredients just hydrated

The dough after including the butter and salt mixed and ready for bulk fermentation

Fermentation complete

The dough is tested and holding the shape of the finger poke test

Out of the oven and cooling down

Another successful brioche, thinking of doing Chelsea Buns like this using Tangzhong next time around with the sultanas fully soaked and plumped up in brandy or a port.

I managed to bottle 30 bottles of Australian Ale just the other day from my home brew and also kept the dregs from the bottom of the fermenter. I decided to use some of that today to raise my dough, often referred to as a Beer Barm. I quickly worked out a dough formula and was going to make a 1KG dough but then decided that a single 750g loaf would be the go. i shook the bottle up that contained the Barm and weighed off an equal amount of flour and barm combined the two and set aside, i marked the container so that we could see its progress and its time frame. In just over two hours it was crowning and set to be used. i weighed up the rest of the ingredients and made the dough which was finished at 7.00 not sure how long the bulk fermentation will take shall have to play it by ear. More to follow tomorrow as i am off to bed

Flour 420g : Salt 9g : Malt extract 9g : Butter 9g : Beer Barm 104g : Water 233g.

After heading for bed and placing the dough into the fridge at 9.00 last night i retrieved it at 5 this morning and at 7.00 it was knocked back given recovery time and shaped at 7.30. The shape is a new one that i haven't done before and quite pleased with the result. you roll out 6 strands of dough lay 3 down in the horizontal plane and three in the vertical plane over lapping alternatively in the middle, from there you proceed to plait three strands together away from the centre which produces a star effect, you then roll these arms under the loaf to make a ball. Voila! Cutting and tasting still to come, and if the taste testing proves to be ok and anyone wants to try using the Australian Ale Barm i'd be happy to make some available to you to try ( Perth Western Australia). Mean while i have some of the ferment that i fed on with more w/m that looks like it needs to be used or fed again pretty much like you do with a sour dough, except that it's not a sourdough its just propagation of the yeasts that were used in the brewing process Saccharomyces cerevisiae

FOOTNOTE With many people suffering shortages of yeast this may be the way to go!

And the taste was very good too, I will be trying it again with extra feed of flour thrown in to the equation.

SEMI SOURDOUGH 50% WHOLEMEAL

This dough was made using some sour dough starter straight from the fridge mixed with the wholemeal flour and all the water and allowed to stand overnight in the morning the rest of the flour salt malt olive oil salt and dried yeast were added and mixed by hand on the bench. It had a 2 hour bulk fermentation period was taken bench rested and then shaped. The dough pieces were weighed off at 160g each, unfortunately i wasn't able to find my fluted baking sheet so placed the dough pieces onto a couch to proof . From there the loaves were then transferred onto two flat baking sheets washed and seeded and scored and placed into a very hot gas oven with a steam tray on the bottom. This was removed after 10 minutes and the temperature was dialed back and the trays swapped places in the oven, after a further 10 minutes the heat was turned off and the door of the oven was left open for another 5 minutes to get a drier crust.

The main idea is pre fermenting half the flour in an effort to get some more complex flavour into the bread with the extended over night time but with the convenience of having a bread that will be more predictable and easily controlled time wise by using dried yeast as well.

Here is a foursome! no not Aussie rowers. The dough was 50% wholemeal and has kipfler potato chunks and fennel bulb slices and in time to be cooled enough for lunch @ 250g each, Roll on lunch time.

  This was a follow on from my previous dough using up the last of the cottage cheese and mixing it into the wholemeal flour first like butter into flour for pastry, it worked well breaking the cheese down and less stickiness in the dough. I can also now say it tasted divine!

During the week my wife gave me a book she picked up for 50 cents from a charity shop " The Laurel's Kitchen Breadbook" and i thought i'd give a recipe a go, i chose the Cottage Cheese Herbed Loaf.
I did divert a bit from the recipee as i chose to make it 50% wholemeal rather than 100%, i also used slightly less flat leaf Parsley as my bunch was under the weight suggested i did include some fresh time from the garden though. It ended up being a rather sticky dough due to the cottage cheese breaking down slowly during the mixing. i think if i was doing it again id mix the wholemeal flour and the cottage cheese together first to assimilate the cheese earlier. I also got to use my Romertoph clay baker for the first time, which was another charity shop find. I was suprised with this loaf as it was carrying high proportions of Cottage Cheese, Flat leaf parsley including the stalks and some sauted onion. I used Compressed yeast for this one. This was a tasty bread that went well dipping into a Malaysian Laksa and excellent on its own with a lashing of butter. I'm sure it would keep well but alas half was gifted and the other half has gone.

Can you bring some bread for our old friends gathering?  Sure can, so this is what i put together  i chose to do 20% wholemeal breads,  some sticks using fresh compressed yeast with butter and an egg in the mix . After hand mixing the dough was split into two one half getting an addition of chopped apricots and soaked fennel seeds the other half getting white sesame and dark malted whole barley grains.  i had made a sourdough loaf the day before and that was cold retarded overnight in the fridge this was straight mixed and 4 hour bulk fermented no stretch and folds,  1 hour after shaping on the bench in its banneton then o/n in the fridge, it followed the sticks into the oven it was baked in a dutch oven.  im sure the folks are going to be happy with these!

I finally got around to having a go using a Beer Barm, the flour was 20% wholemeal flour with 80% Black and Gold  supermarket  flour.

The Beer Barm was from the residue in the bottom of the fermenter from a home brew that i did before Christmas, a London Porter. The  barm is grown on like you do with a S/D starter  given a few feeds  and in this case used at a rate of 25% in the dough. the dough had a very nice aroma no doubt from the maltiness of the LP. Suprisingly this dough was very slow taking around 9 hours to bulk ferment and a further 3 hours to proof in a banneton. It was baked in a dutch oven lid on for 15 minutes lid off for a further 25.

This loaf had great flavour and mouth feel no doubt in part from the long fermentation period, i wasnt in any hurry anyway.

4 types of bread baked for christmas lunch

bottom left is a Potato and Rosemarie s/d with white flour

bottom centre is a 1kg  brioche plait white flour

bottom right is a multigrain using London Porter as the  liquid content

 top is two curved epis  with black spanish olives and fennell seeds

flours used were an imported italian Granoro il Primo tipo "00" and a multigrain from a local providora in Fremantle.

All were very much enjoyed  by family and friends along with other fine christmas fare on a 36 degree C day.