Anne-Marie B's blog

Some years ago, Dan Lepard published a recipe in The Guardian that contained saffron and ricotta cheese made with yeast. I made it once or twice, but decided I wanted to convert it to a sourdough. I added too much ricotta to the first attempt, but second time round worked really well.

Two big pinches of saffron in 100ml of boiling water. Let it cool and add to the dough. I also chopped the saffron threads, so the loaf has these lovely orange flecks throughout. It makes a beautiful soft and moist loaf.

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A delightful little boule.

Made with tangzhong. Add butter, a little maple syrup and a frothy coffee.

I enjoyed making Injera so much that I thought I would try the Moroccan version. It is much lighter because it uses semolina and plain flour. I also added 3 tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds to the batter.

Moroccans have them with a melted butter and honey sauce or farm cheese. We had them for dinner with soft white cheese and grape tomatoes. This morning we grilled them ever so lightly and had them like pancakes, with maple syrup, cinnamon and lemon. Delicious.

No sourdough or yeast. A quick savoury loaf made with coarse polenta, sweet corn kernels, rosemary and grated parmesan. It is really good with a just a bit of butter.

I found a tiny little book on fermentation in the library. Almost small enough to slip into a shirt pocket but big on inspiration. The author is Sandor Katz. The first thing I tried was his Injera. It is delicious and sour and tastes a bit like a soft, spongy pumpernickel. Very easy. A keeper.

Most ginger cake recipes contain too much sugar, molasses and butter for my taste. I found this one online. It is mainly sweetened by dates and I replaced the molasses with malt extract (no molasses on hand at the time). It is not a very sweet cake at all, somewhere between a loaf and a cake. Made with spelt flour and was left to rise for about 8 hours. Great with butter and it even makes good toast.

100% Organic White Spelt Flour. A tiny bit disappointed that they did not rise more. I thought that the spelt flour gives it a subtle hint of caramel flavour. My partner tasted them and commented, "Mmm, these panini have attitude". 

Instead of discarding some when I feed my rye starter, I have been experimenting with cakes and baking. I found this recipe on the internet but used a cup  of leftover sprouted grain whole wheat flour instead of cake flour. Before it went into the oven, I thought there was not nearly enough batter to make a decent sized cake. But it must have quadrupled in volume and came right up to the rim by the time it finished baking. It is moist and surprisingly light. I think I have just discovered my favourite chocolate cake.