Recent Blog Entries

Hello everyone, and  Happy Canada / Happy Cañada  Day!

This is a Spanish bread called Cañadas de Azúcar, baked for today,Canada’s national holiday.

I can’t remember where I first read about this bread – liking the name, I wanted to bake Cañadas for Canada Day :^) 
I searched online and found a blog entry about this bread here. 

Cañada translates to “gulley” or “ravine”, and Azúcar means sugar; so this is a good name for this flatbread,
with its dimpled surface and sugared topping!

In tribute to Canada’s maple trees, I used maple syrup and maple sugar
in my version.

 …summertime maple leaf  

Cañadas before baking, partway through the bake (removed from oven to brush on butter/olive oil and sprinkle with maple sugar), then returned to oven for a little bit longer to finish:
   

A lovely 'hint of maple' bite to have with morning coffee :^)

 ...couldn't have just one!

There have been pretty flowers blooming, so for our national holidays, here are some blooms...

Red and white for Canada

Red, white and blue, for the American TFL’ers about to celebrate the Fourth!
  

And how about some fireworks for this time of year? The stamens on these flowers seemed to display ‘fireworks’ so I’m including these photos as part of my holiday wishes :^)
 

Happy baking, and happy holidays, everyone!
:^) breadsong

Visiting my hometown Hamburg in May, I didn't really expect to bake anything. But our little Airbnb apartment in Schanzenviertel, Hamburg's youngest and dirtiest most colorful quarter, had a fully equipped kitchen, and I had some time on hand.

Occupied house in Schanzenviertel

Richard was attending a full immersion German language class: "so that you can't say nasty things about me on the phone anymore!"

Some mornings I visited my Mom, helping her detailing her car - my mother is 93, her Honda Civic 19 years old, and both in great shape! Some mornings I enjoyed coffee and quality time with my son (who lives around the corner and works from home.)

Enjoying the sun with my Mom at the Alster river

My ABC baking group's project of the month were ENGLISH MUFFINS, so, rather than going cold turkey on baking withdrawal, I bought eggs, milk, flour and yeast, and started mixing the dough.

Out of habit, and to save tedious waiting time, I mixed the dough in the evening, and let it rise in the refrigerator overnight.

It is a bit tricky to handle the soft and stubbornly sticky dough, but oiling your work surface, hands and tools, and generously sprinkling your pan and baking sheet with semolina helps quite a bit.

The cooking was easy, each time it took about 15 minutes for one side, but only 4 to 5 for the other.

Nooked and crannied - English muffins taste best when toasted

The muffins split open into nice, nook-ed and crannied halves, toasted well, and we ate them with butter and raspberry rhubarb jam. According to my spouse they were "exactly as English muffins should be."

Just the right snack for a hungry, homecoming "school boy"!

Richard wrestles with his German homework, while I enjoy leisurely mornings

ENGLISH MUFFINS  (16 large muffins) adapted from King Arthur Flour

1 3/4 cup/397 g lukewarm milk

3 tbsp/43 g softened butter

1 1/4 - 1 1/2 tsp salt/6 - 8 g (I used 1 1/2 teaspoon)

2 tbsp/25 g sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

4 1/2 cups/539 g bread flour (I used, of course, German 550 flour)

2 tsp instant yeast (6 g was plenty)

semolina or farina, for sprinkling the griddle or pan

German ingredients for English muffins

DAY 1

Combine all dough ingredients in bowl of stand mixer, fitted with paddle (to handle the very soft dough). Beat at medium-high speed, until dough starts coming away from sides of bowl, and is satin-smooth, shiny, and very stretchy (about 5 minutes.)

Using a bowl scraper, transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl, fold it from all sides to coat with oil, then cover bowl with plastic wrap, and place in refrigerator overnight. (Or, if you want to bake the same day, let it rise until it's nice and puffy, about 1 to 2 hours.)

DAY 2

Sprinkle a large well-seasoned or non-stick pan or griddle heavily with semolina or farina. Also, sprinkle a baking sheet generously with semolina (or farina.)

Remove dough from refrigerator, and scrape it onto an oiled work surface (it is quite sticky!) With oiled hands and bench knife or large kitchen knife (also oiled to prevent sticking) gently deflate dough, and cut it into 16 pieces.

Roll pieces in your hands (re-oil, if needed) into fairly smooth balls, flatten until they're about 3" to 3 1/2" in diameter, and place the first 4 muffins on the prepared (cold) pan (or as much as fit, on the griddle,) the others on the baking sheet (they can be fairly close together.)

After their 20 minute rest the muffins look a bit puffed, but not much different

Sprinkle all muffins with more semolina or farina, cover them with parchment or plastic wrap, and let them rest for 20 minutes. They won't rise much, but puff a bit.

Cook muffins over low heat for 7 to 15 minutes per side, until crust is golden brown, and interior cooked through, registering about 200°F. (If they are brow, before they're done, place them into preheated 350°F oven for about 10 minutes, or until they're thoroughly cooked.)

English muffins are baked on a bed of semolina or farina on the stove top

Let baked muffins cool on wire rack, and cook remaining muffins in batches, until they are all done.

REMEMBER: use a fork to split, not a knife to cut. Fork-split muffins will have wonderful nooks and crannies; knife-cut ones won't.

First of May holiday in Schanzenviertel - it couldn't be more idyllic

For the First of May we were warned to stay indoors as there might be riots in the streets, by occupiers and their supporters. But absolutely nothing happened, and the mood of the crowd was festive, not ugly.

Time for another visit at our favorite café around the corner. Their wide selection really needed several trips to decide which one of their tortes and bars we liked best. After all, inquiring minds want to know!

Chocolate Mousse Torte and Cappucchino at Cafe Stenzel, around the corner

Did I mention that our apartment was "athletically located", on the fifth floor? Without elevator! We took that as a pass to unrestricted intake of pastry, brötchen, böreks, döners, and other delicacies that the surrounding eateries had to offer.

Eateries in Schanzenviertel have whimsical names, like "Four Fists"

Recently, occupied houses and graffiti covered back yards have become regular stops for tour buses. Their punky inhabitants are not too happy to be viewed as interesting tourist destination!

Tourist destination: graffiti covered occupied houses and backyards

So they put up this sign:

"In this back yard there is absolutely no: dealing, pissing, photos, police patrols! "

Peering over my computer monitor I can see it is still raining. My computer lurks in the smallest room in our house with a single window that allows a narrow view through to another room and then another window before a tiny glimpse of the outside world finally emerges. My computer cave seems so removed from the country roads under expansive skies that I was travelling on the week before.

Some free time that week had allowed me the opportunity to spend a time out of the city in Pittsworth baking wood-fired breads with my friend Laurie. I always treasure the time spent with Laurie and Rhonda and try to breath in as much country air as I can possibly hold before making the trip back to my city home.

Arriving home I wanted to further pursue the wholegrain baking I have been working on—freshly milled flour, high hydration dough and sourdough starters. I had picked up a bag of richly coloured organic unhulled sesame seeds while out of town and this was to be the catalyst for a delicious bread. I am continuing the practice of retarding the wholegrain dough in bulk. Not only does this control the fermentation, but it also allows for an extended ‘wet time’ … this is always a good thing when baking with wholegrains.

The roasted seeds mixed through the wet dough add flavour, texture and a softness that remains for days after baking. This is bread that tastes and feels as good as it looks.

Sesame Wholewheat

Formula 6 x 750g

• Mix final starter and leave to ferment for 3 hours at 26°C
• Roast sesame seeds for 10 mins. Turn occasionally to redistribute.
• Mill flour and mix with water (hold back 10% of water) and autolyse for 20 mins.
• Add starter to autolyse then mix in bowl for 5 mins. Add salt and remaining 10% of water and squeeze through bread to incorporate (dough will separate then come back together) then mix and squeeze a further 5-10 mins. The dough is very wet but should start to feel some strength by the end of this mixing.
• Add roasted sesame seeds at the end of mixing.
• Place in a fridge at 4°C for 15 hours. I gave the dough three folds at 30mins apart.
• Increase or decrease the number of folds depending on the strength of your wheat.
• Remove from fridge. Divide at 750g. Preshape.
• Bench rest 45–60mins. Shape and roll the dough on a wet cloth and then hulled sesame seeds. Proof in couche or narrow basket.
• Final proof was two hours at room temperature. Watch the dough!
• Bake in a preheated oven at 250°C for 10 mins with steam. Reduce temp to 200°C then bake for a further 40 mins.

Laurie and I had a great bake in Pittsworth. For me it was an interesting experience going back and baking in a much smaller oven than I had been using at Chester Street. Size does make a difference :)

The day before the bake while the oven was full of fire, Laurie and I travelled out along straight flat roads to local biodynamic farmer Barry Bowden.  Barry is milling grains and selling flours under the name of Red Gum Milling. Laurie has been using Red Gum Milling flour for quite a few years now and I have always been a little jealous that he had such a great local resource at his disposal. Barry is an ingenious bloke … he has built his own milling and sifting equipment that sits within a large flour-coated shed on his farm.

Barry has been growing and milling all manner of biodynamic grains depending on the seasons and his clients requirements. His large industrial granite stone mill feeds into a rustic, almost steam punk looking sifter where two different streams of flour are produced depending on the screens he has in place. Even though the mill wasn't running at the time I found a bag of sifted bran and was impressed by the beautiful bran separation he could achieve. Puts my little Komo shredder to shame :)

I arrived back in Brisbane  a few days later with a few kilograms of Red Gum Milling’s ‘plain flour’and couldn't wait to bake with it. It is most definitely a high extraction flour, and although Barry couldn't give me an extraction level, I would guess that it was 80% or higher. It has lovely golden colour and fresh aroma but what surprised me most about this flour was its strength.

I started with a rough hydration level of 75% but quickly had increased this to 85% … this probably still wasn't enough. The finished bread was pretty chewy and the crumb was tough but delicious. Perfect for spreading butter :)

I have been baking a lot of wheat breads of late and I need to start diversifying. Spelt has been a long time challenge of mine, and although I have baked successful white spelt breads on a hearth, I find they are usually to dry for my liking. For me, it’s actually the colour of the spelt bran that is most appealing—rusty coloured bran that peels off nicely even in my little Komo mill.

The nicest spelt breads I have eaten have been baked in tins—and this seemed to fit nicely with my current method of baking wholegrain breads using lots of water. The tin supported the slack dough through it's final rise and pushed it further upwards during the bake.

This has been my go-to bread all week … I cannot get enough of it! The crumb is soft and moist—hardly comparable to the dry crumbly feeling that some breads seem to have.

100% Wholegrain Spelt

Formula 2 x 1350g tinned loaves

• Mix final starter and leave to ferment for 3 hours at 26°C
• Mill flour and mix with water (hold back 10% of water) and autolyse for 20 mins.
• Add starter to autolyse then mix in bowl for 5 mins. Add salt and remaining 10% of water and squeeze through bread to incorporate (dough will separate then come back together) then mix and squeeze a further 5-10 mins. The dough is very wet but should start to feel some strength by the end of this mixing.
• Place in a fridge at 4°C for 15 hours. I gave the dough three folds at 30mins apart.
• Increase or decrease the number of folds depending on the strength of your wheat.
• Remove from fridge. Divide and preshape.
• Bench rest 45–60mins. Shape and proof in tins
• Final proof was three hours at room temperature. Watch the dough!
• Bake in a preheated oven at 250°C for 10 mins with steam. Reduce temp to 200°C then bake for a further 60 mins.

And it seems the word is out on the street that I am baking at home again … and this has meant quite a few ‘home sourdough’ have been baked for friends and family.

Happy baking to all ... I know I am!

Cheers,
Phil

This is the bread I have been practicing on in the last few weeks, it came out really good, huge success with everyone who tested it. and I consider it to be my first success with 100% Whole Wheat.

Formula: 

250g of whole wheat flour 

150g of water

4g of yeast 

0.25 TBS of salt

25g Canola Oil (Corn Oil will work the same)

1.5 TBS Dark Brown Sugar

30g Whole Rye Grains

30g Flax Seeds

Technique:

1. The Day before the bake combine Whole Rye and Flaxseed grains in a medium bowl and pour boiling water on them until covered. be sure to add enough water, the rye absorbs a lot of water.

2. The day of the bake, strain all the water of the grains were soaked in and add all of the ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer. mix on the first speed for 2 minutes until a uniform dough is from. At this point the dough will seem very wet, but it will become more stiff thru the  kneading process.

3. Knead the  dough for 9-11 minuets on medium- high speed. this may extreme a lot and I  am sure a lot can argue about over developing / over oxidizing the flour, but I have found that this is the only way to produce a decent crumb of a Straight-Dough 100% Whole Wheat bread.

4. Proof the dough for 60 minuets in a sealed container  - fold.

5. Proof for another 60 minuets - shape to batard .

6. Proof for 60-75 minutes.

7. Bake in a 230° oven for 15 minutes - with steam. and another 30 minutes on 210° without steam.