Elsie_iu's blog

I was suddenly craving white sandwich bread. That’s very uncommon for me as I always prefer whole grain sourdough bread. Then, I figured out I actually wasn’t craving any white sandwich bread but the store bought purple rice coconut white sandwich bread. Easy solution: drop the white flour and sub in whole wheat, put in some purple rice flour (the original version only mix in cooked rice) and include a coconut kaya jam filling. You get something not only healthier but much more flavorful (coconut milk in both the dough and filling!).

Apparently, these are inspired by Ian aka the King of Buns as referred to by dabrownman. As I can never allow myself to follow a recipe exactly, of course I have changed things up to show my own character. Unlike Ian, who blended the cream cheese with the dough, I put in chunks of cream cheese. Also, candied orange peels and sunflower seeds are incorporated to make the rolls more interesting. Rye flours are usually used along with orange and earl grey, yet to break the tradition, I chose to use barley flour (which resembles more of Ian’s rolls as well).

After a few not-so-successful bake, I decided to cheer myself up with a loaf of golden sourdough bread. To be exact, it’s quintuple (aka five times) positive energy sourdough. So how does it add up to five? I’ll count it for you.

Cornmeal          

Masa harina      

Turmeric  

Golden tea leaves

Toasted white sesame seeds  

See? I didn’t lie to you!

After working with sprouted wheat, it makes total sense to start venturing into the zone of sprouted spelt. This time, I decided to make it fully-loaded rather than leaving it plain.

20% Sprouted Spelt Sun-dried Tomatoes Cheddar Sourdough

Dough flour:

150g     50%       Whole wheat flour

This is my second attempt at both barley flour and sprouted white wheat flour. I’ve wanted to retry working with barley flour since my failed first try. After Ian posted his Guinness Rye Barley Wild Rice Bread, I decided that I’d be brave and incorporate barley into my bread again.

30/30 Freshly Milled Barley/Sprouted White Wheat Sourdough

Dough flour:

90g       30%      Freshly milled pearl barley flour (since I can’t get whole)

I figured out that I’ve only shared my pumpkin pancake recipe on this site. Not that I like it any less but I don’t always want pumpkin pancakes nor have the mood to roast and mash a pumpkin. This base recipe is the one I turn to most often when I’m craving pancakes. It’s my proud no-fail formula that I’ve took at least 40 times to perfect.

 This is the version following suggestion 2 below.

Finally! The white wheat berries are back in stock! I bought a bag of it and decided to put it into use immediately by sprouting and milling it into flour. Not sure how it would affect the dough, I started out at a low percentage of 20% sprouted flour. 

Recently, I read some comments on an old discussion topic here about the length of proofing time required for whole grain sourdough bread. Dabrownman mentioned that it is easy to over-proof whole grain bread because of the high bacterial, yeast and enzymatic activities. I wonder if I was letting my bread to proof for too long sometimes such that the oven spring was minimal at times, so I deliberately cut the proofing period by 20 minutes this time to see what its effect would be.

I know it’s spring…not fall but the pumpkins sold in supermarket look gorgeous. If you’ve read my previous pumpkin pancakes post, you know I hate pumpkin. However, I can take it when it’s mashed and mixed into pancakes and bread, and to be honest, I adore the striking yellow-orange colour they add to the dough.

Finally, I shared a bread recipe with no crazy combinations.

I feel like I was experimenting with some rather uncommon sourdough for too long. Not that they didn’t taste good but I’m suddenly craving a slice of plain and simple dark rye bread. Though I love the aroma of rye, I prefer the texture of wheat so 40% whole wheat and 10% whole spelt were included. 

 50% Dark Rye Sourdough with Dark Malt and Aromatics