Blog posts

In this short post I describe how I prepare sourwort (lactic starter) nowadays for bread making with emphasis given to starter freshness and simplicity of technique.

Only a small quantity is prepared at a time just enough for a single bake (no propagation, no fridge storage, no additives). Made and used fresh each time ensures greater control over starter behavior, robustness and overall microflora liveness.

Equipment requirements include a means of keeping the starter warm while fermenting and a small size French press coffee maker.

Procedure

I find that if I don’t make baguettes often enough I get very rusty. I haven’t made baguettes in about 4 months so was really very overdue. I’ve always thought that epis look really nice and never tried making one, so here is my first effort at an epi. I also hadn’t done a seeded crust in quite some time so that was also overdue.

I wanted to make some more discard cookies and this time chose to try something different.  It's fall and approaching the holidays.  Molasses cookies seemed like a good candidate.  Did a quick search and decided to use this recipe from Cooking Classy as the base for my discard recipe.  Happy to say that I'm really happy with how these turned out!

I have always loved eating these delicious crispy flaky pancakes from my homeland and always wanted to try making them.  They are definitely best eaten right off the frying pan so they can’t be better than homemade.

After taking a go at an olive polenta loaf a few weeks ago, I wanted to try the saccharification process highlighted by Benny in his loaf that's currently featured on the homepage.  I didn't have diastatic malt powder on hand, so I used honey as it's supposed to also have amylase.  The polenta definitely seemed a little sweeter after the process, but then again, I added honey to it, so it's a little hard to attribute the source of the change.  Pretty straightforward approach otherwise.

   I’ve made breads in the past using Guinness but I have to say this version by far was the best one yet.  I combined fresh milled rye, spelt and whole wheat which were all sifted to a high extraction.  I added some mashed potatoes with a little bit of honey and some olive oil for good measure.

A double build was used for the levain but you could easily just do one build if you desire.

Psyllium husk is usually used in gluten-free or keto style breads where the gel that it forms can act as a binder and helps the loaf to retain its structure without slumping.

For a long time now, I've tried using psyllium husk together with my lower protein flours (around 11.5%) to see if I could make a better bread with these weaker flours and the results have been usually somewhat unclear.

So this post is my attempt to describe in one place some things that I've learnt, both good and bad, about the use of psyllium husk in baking in a non-gluten-free context.

I’ve just uploaded a new video to my YouTube channel about dough development.  Novice bakers might find it useful.  In the video I demonstrate some of the techniques I use to develop dough strength.  Hopefully someone finds it useful to them.

My index of bakes.

Fermentation is everything.Photo is of dough right out of fridge after 48 hrs. Amazing movement still after that length of time. Formula has 40g of levain in 400g of flour. TDW 700g. Fed old rye starter from cold storage 2 feedings of T80. Let ferment 24 hrs. Stirred up usual formula with 1 hr fermentolyse and 3 folds in 90 min. Bulk ferment went over but will be a habit from now on! They just get better and better. Amazing crumb and crisp crust with beautiful crumb color due to the bit of rye and wow the flavor. Dough handles so beautifully. Can’t get over this flour.

Roosterkoek (or roosterbrood) are a traditional bread or bread rolls cooked over the braai (BBQ). The name is Afrikaans for rooster ("grilled")  plus either koek ("cake") or brood ("bread"). They are usually eaten piping hot together with the meat.