Blog posts

Once in a while, i guess i have to make a breakfast treat for myself. But every breakfast's a treat to me being a breakfast lover. :P Though more suited for tea time, i decided made some Austrian or German (not too sure which one) jam filled yeast dumplings. But somehow, i forgot to include eggs in the dough. Nevertheless, it still was soft and moist (with flowing hot jam) and i dun think the eggs would make a significant difference.

It's been a long time that i've wanted to try this (from Reinharts BBA). The recipe asked for a small portion of pumpernickel grind flour, but i can't find that, so i used a small percentage of wholewheat. Couronne crease/ cracks didn't came out so well thanks to not making it deep enough. Flavour was great! Tasted mildly sour and of toasted sunflowers.

With my exams over, i just had to test the BBA's pizza recipe method. I made Pizza Magherita but with Romano and Mimolette cheese . I guess mimolette isn't a good melter, as u can see the lil orange bits. Also, dough hydration was way too high to toss. Just had to fold it and press it down on the pan.

Made a supposedly Dutch kinda breakfast cake last saturday. But internet's down for the last 2 days. Groninger Koek? that's the name.. lol It's made with rye flour, and it contains no eggs or fats. Very spicy smell. Also, an excuse to meddle with my dad's new camera ;)

Banana Bread, Struan Bread, and Rustic Bread. The banana bread was plain and simple, not even with nuts or chocolate chips.

I baked pitas for lunch today. They were great. I did 1/2 cup of the flour whole wheat, which is 1/6th of the total flour in the recipe. That is just about right for my taste. Making them fit very nicely into my morning schedule: had breakfast, prepared the dough, ran errands while it rose, came home 11:15ish and shaped and baked them. Simple, cheap, and totally rewarding.

After some time, several months, I am finally able to download pictures from my camera to my Linux system. Today I have sent you my first picture from Malaysia. The picture shows our Baguettes, Nutty Mardia Bread, White Unyeasted Bread and some coconut filled buns. The latter are filled with fresh coconut which we buy just up the road from our house. The coconut is split in half and the meat is grated out on a quite vicious machine that you do not want your hands to get near.

I forgot to mention that when I made the Couronne this weekend I found myself without a poolish, something I rarely forget to do. I decided to start one at 8 AM. I used 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup water, and 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast, which is a bit more yeast than I'd do in an overnight pre-ferment.

I tried baking a Couronne this weekend: The bad news: the dough was too slack for me to shape very well, so it didn't turn out terribly pretty. The good news: the slack dough made wonderful bread. Even with a quarter of the flour whole wheat, it was light and airy. We gobbled it up. The recipe was roughly the rustic bread I've baked many times.

I first started playing with sourdough breads a couple of years ago. Unfortunately they did not turn out well although I kept trying for almost a year. This I came across Dan Lepards site (and later this one) and bought his book. I followed his recipe for the levain and after four or five days realised that my previous efforts did not resemble the bubbling mass I now had. My first attempt at the White Loaf was not a success, but I think that was because the climate temperature was around 34 C and I tried to keep to his recipes suggested timings.