Elsie_iu's blog

I feel like I should share a HK style bread recipe on this site as someone from HK so when my mom requested some coconut buns, I decided to make it immediately. This is a kind of very typical and popular enriched bread in HK and though I only crave it at very rare occasions, my mom adores it wholeheartedly. I modified the traditional recipe by nixing butter and decreasing sugar in the dough while adding sourdough and tang zhong for flavour and tenderness respectively. An egg is skipped in the filling and condensed milk replaced the sugar. 

I’m recently on a Japanese kick which you may be able to tell after my recent bake of seaweed shio koji bagels. Miso’s always been one of my favorite condiments. I use them not only for roasting veggies and marinating all kinds of protein, but also for mixing up a savory salad dressing or tossing with pasta so needless to say, it’s my broth base of choice for ultra rich ramen. Incorporating miso into bread seems to be a pretty good idea so why not give it a go?

I have to admit, my love for sourdough and whole grain happened more recently, bagel is the one that stole my heart first. I love it for its chewy and doughy texture that’s much more satisfying than an airy slice of sandwich bread. It’s therefore not difficult to predict at all that I gradually switched from white sandwich bread to more hearty whole wheat bread and finally to whole grain sourdough. My love for bagels still lingers, though after all the flavorful whole grain sourdough, they might taste slightly less exciting.

This bread should be my first post. I don’t know how I could post any other recipes before this one is even shared.

Though I enjoy a stack of pancakes for breakfast from time to time, I’m not one with a sweet tooth and would almost always go the savory route for my bread. The combo of sesame and cheese is a match in heaven and is undoubtedly my all-time-favourite. If you’ve ever had sesame crackers or breadsticks with your cheese board before, you know what I mean.

I’ve been experimenting with different flour combinations lately. The two recipes below are what I baked the last two Saturdays. The onion rye SD was inspired by Ian’s rye porridge recipes and I modified dabrownman’s bran leaven method to put into use in the cinnamon SD.

50% rye with onion and potato

For the dough

50% dark rye

20% whole spelt

30% whole wheat

95% whey

12% starter

Ok, full disclaimer here: these are NOT sourdough pancakes (by the way, if anyone have luck producing SD pancakes that don’t spread like crazy but stay super thick, I appreciate it if you could share the recipe), that’s why I hesitated to even share the recipe here. However, they are so good I felt like keeping them from you would be an unforgivable crime. If you are like me that you prefer your pancakes thick and slightly hearty rather than super thin and airy, these pancakes are for you. Seriously, any canned pumpkin pancakes are no competition for them.

After last time’s polenta porridge bake, I find myself having affection for the creamy crumb that is hardly achievable with a non-porridge recipe. That’s why I decided to try subbing oat for cornmeal and play around a bit by incorporating whole grain flour other than whole wheat.

1st attempt:

This is my first blog entry and porridge sourdough.

I have started baking bread for less than a year and they are almost all no-knead overnight artisan bread. Since the start of this year, I have been trying my hand at sourdough as I successfully made a starter at the first attempt. Though, as a year 1 student, time is not something I have a lot to sparse so all of my loaf are essentially no-knead, stretch and fold type. 

This is my first trial of porridge sourdough inspired by the Polenta and Rosemary Sourdough from The Perfect Loaf.