FrugalBaker's blog

A friend from other state decided to pay a visit and I was asked if I could bake a sourdough bread for her. Having another opportunity to bake, I said yes of course! Also, this bake would probably be my last experiment on baking with different kind of pots as I have come to the conclusion that a stainless steel pot yields a better result compared to a clay pot. The crust is crunchier and oven spring is good too! This bake has also convinced me to purchase a cast iron Dutch Oven ASAP! No more excuses :)

Alright, so I made another sourdough and this time, the dough was well proved and I just gave the clay pot another trial run. And because everything went well today, the loaf came out as somewhat ideal, at least to my expectation. 

Like what Mini said, who cares if it comes with some birds or flowers : )

Got this pot for free from a friend yesterday and baked another sourdough to find out if clay pot can really substitute a Dutch Oven so that I can finally have some good bakes but most importantly, a good crust!

I just made a Norwich Sourdough with lemon zest and poppy seed this afternoon. Without having a Dutch Oven, baking stone or pizza stone, I had to use what I have in my tiny kitchen. So I turned to my roasting pan and my WMF stainless steel stock pot. This is what I did.

I preheated the roasting pan and stock pot at 250 dc for 20 mins prior to baking. Spritz water onto dough. Used the roasting pan as base and the pot to trap steam since it is heavy. The result? No, I couldn't get the crust that I hoped for but it solved my problem with having a pale bottom bake.

Stumped upon PDLarry's blog on TFL the other day and thought of having some fun in the kitchen. Couldn't achieve the nice swirl like Larry did as I think I let the custard cooked for too long, so it was too thick of a consistency to be piped out. Though, it tasted great...not too sweet for my liking : ) Thanks for sharing the recipe, Larry! 

I have been testing my own limit on dough hydration of late and have come to the conclusion that I shall stop at 78 percent and not to challenge myself any further unless I am feeling extremely bored over the weekend.

This bake has started out as another attempt of 1:2:3, which I failed miserably the last time I tried my hands on but I guess I have progressed a fair bit for the past month. Not only that I increased the amount of hydration, I was convinced that I could go further than that. But then, the harsh reality sunk in..

I received my two oval brotform yesterday and decided to bake for my friend. I knew I bought an 8" but they seemed smaller than expected. So, I did the volume test! I put in 3 cups of raw rice in the round brotform and did the same to the oval. I got the answer....they hold the same. My dough tend to proof quite a bit in fridge overnight and my final dough somehow weighed more than the usual, probably due to the bravery that I have nowadays on increasing dough hydration. Eventually, I persuaded myself to split it into two.

This bake started out as an experiment. I live in the tropics, my starter would peak 5 times of its size within 4 hours or so. Therefore, I was doing things the complete opposite at my end here....'How to slow down the fermentation process and maximise the flavour of SD'!

Greetings and hope everyone is having a great weekend and happily baking away!

After a few successful attempt on higher hydration, I was feeling a little brave. I chanced upon a bag of organic, hulled buckwheat the other day and thought of making good use of it. So, here's what I did and please feel to comment. 

Vermont SD Recipe, plus the following

The starter was given a 1:2:2 feeding and an additional of 10gm of water 

Here's my twist

Taking some risk of increasing dough hydration, even if it's only by a small margin has finally paid off. As a result, better oven spring, moist and chewy. Couldn't be happier! 

Happy Baking to the TFL community!

Regards,

FrugalBaker