Bakuran Sourdough Bâtards

This is my yard sourdough before. I just gave it a nicer name, "Bakuran" means yard in Filipino and I called it that way because all of the influences of this bread came from our Bakuran. It is my best and favorite bread this year so I made another batch before new year. In the whole 2016, I haven't made a bâtard so before the year ends I shaped my favorite breads into bâtards!

I built my levain in 3 builds, it was very active and triples in 4 hours! This levain is literally escaping out of its house!





I divided the dough into 2 to make 2 small loaves and I proofed them in this festive bowls, straight out of the box. They were employed first for sourdough bread rather than, like, salad; how cool is that? They were lined with a handkerchief and dusted with sticky rice flour.





I got too excited and made the scoring too deep in one of them! I need to practice more!





They were baked in my clay pot for 30 minutes each again on a banana leaf over heated pebbles. I burnt the other one because I utilized some live fire. The pretty one was baked using only embers, I think that is the secret in clay pot baking!

Here is the pretty one!





The other bâtard...



I cooked some soup too so I used some bread flour in the loaves because I will pair them with some soup so the bread won't disintegrate. They were perfect!



We ate the one on the right for dinner and here is the crumb. It was soft, chewy, and moist. The crust was crispy and and slightly slightly chewy. I will let the photos do the talking! :D It was so messy to cut! The taste is sweet with a slight tang! Very delicious with the soup!







Our simple New Year meal.



I think Filipinos have the weirdest interpretations of "western" dishes. We call this soup sopas (probably from the Spanish sopa) and it is the Filipino version of Minestrone and/or chicken noodle soup. It is made with macaroni (or any pasta actually; we used penne because we could not find any macaroni), chicken, carrots, cabbage,and evaporated milk. It is seasoned with fish sauce and black pepper. Milk and fish sauce? It is really weird for some people but it tastes really good to us! I think our sweet spaghetti and cheese ice cream are the weirdest; they are the most hated of my American and other friends who have a "western" upbringing. I love them all! The soup is especially comforting because it's cold here, about 25°C.





And of course, you gotta have leche flan for dessert! Smooth, dense, rich, and creamy!









It's 11:59 PM here right now! It will be 2017 already! So Happy New Year to all of You! 

Manigong Bagong Taon sa inyong lahat! 

新年快乐!     新年快樂!

Bonne année à tous!