Please see here and here to learn more about concentrated lactic acid sourdough (CLAS).
This one is for fun. See my spelt noodle and soba posts for more details.
Hi all been doing some test bakes during our daily power cuts in South Africa, can’t get much bread baking done so been experimenting with panettone. Last bake below, starter wasn’t perfect but risked it.
I mostly followed Mauro Morandin recipe, replaced the fruit with chocolate and whole eggs instead of yolk, adjusted the hydration accordingly. Happy with the results so far, will use yolks next time, flour looks to be strong enough to handle the long fermentation. First dough was 15h( 22-26c ) and final proof 6,5h (30c).
For appetizers before dinner tonight I wanted to have some bbq pork gua bao and pork shrimp and chive dumplings. This was a second try at sourdough gua bao and finally successful. I’m not sure why the previous attempt at this didn’t work without the hit of IDY because this time the only real change was the addition of sweet potato. The gua bao will get filled with bbq pork after re-steaming just prior to serving so the filling isn’t in these photos.
So this is the big weekend where I have to have the three layer tropical carrot cake ready. I baked the cake on Thursday, once cooled fully wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated until this morning. Today I made the frosting and iced and decorated the cake. The orange stuff on top is candied orange zest. My cake carrier unfortunately is a bit to short for this decorated cake so some of the frosting at the center got smooshed. I would increase the frosting by 50% so I’d have more than enough next time.
As far as I can tell these are a first ! No one’s ever posted an Apple Yeast Water levain bagel. I used to make bagels all the time. Have always and only used the formula from Wild Yeast blog. They are always perfect. I always use a lye bath. It’s extremely easy and so dilute there’s no danger at all.
Three qts water and add 3 tsp lye. Bring to boil. Can reuse stored water. I’m stirring up another batch of bagels in the next couple days so covered and left on back burner.
I like to tinker with my formulas over time. I haven’t done a country sourdough in a while and wanted to try it using a stiff levain. I kept the hydration to a comfortable 76% since I haven’t done this style of a bread in quite a while so didn’t want to go crazy high.
The quarter sponge system was a method of professional breadmaking developed in Scotland and was designed to produce tall, airy tin loaves with the minimum amount of yeast possible. The quarter refers to the fact that a quarter of the total recipe water is used in the first sponge.
I've tried it a few times before, but the loaves were never as tall as they should be and lacked oven spring.
Not liking to give up on my breadmaking missions, I decided to have another go.
Been on something of a viennoiserie jag lately brought on, of course, by the holidays, visitors and deliciousness. With 7 dozen croissant, 4 dozen kouign-amann and one chausson aux pommes under my belt (gonna need a new one if this keeps up), a few brainworms have been nibbling on my thoughts.
