Meet My Mother

My sourdough mother, that is. I finally got up the courage to try and make my own starter. After reading several sites on how to do this, including comparisons of flour, water and whether or not to add yeast to "help" it along, I decided to just do the most basic and least-additive version.

So I mixed some filtered water (since I have a water filter) with a mix of (the last of my) plain flour, bread flour, and wholemeal flour. I think my proportions were way off - it was super runny. 

The date should be 25 May 2015 midnight (start of new day)

24 hours later there were a few bubbles on the surface, but it still smelled like wet flour. And a layer of hooch had formed so I poured as much of it off as I could and added more wholemeal flour to thicken it up. 

After another 12 hours, it looked more or less the same, but my son said the smell reminded him of Thosai, the Indian fermented rice flour pancake that we like to eat. Great chance to teach him that Thosai is made of fermented flour paste. I poured off more hooch that had formed and added more flour.

Another 12hrs later, it looked like this! Reminded me of no knead dough after rising. I added still more flour (it's still too runny compared with the pics I saw on the net).

This morning (12 hours later) it had gone nuts! The plastic wrap had been pushed up into a dome by the growing mass of dough. I forgot to take a pic of it because I was so excited at seeing it and immediately pulled the plastic wrap off, which deflated the thing.

 So after feeding it a little more, I transferred it into a clean plastic jar and sent it into hibernation.

I've read that the starter should be at least be a week old before using it to bake, so in the meantime, it's recipe-hunting time! I intend to use this to make a rye loaf, which DH likes. 

The Ugliest Loaves You've Ever Seen

I haven't finished reading the Jamie Oliver cookbook I received for Valentine's Day yet, but one good thing that came out of it so far is that I've gotten interested in baking bread again. I'm especially hung up on the Coconut Buns in the very first recipe, but I have to get my head around the way that he made them.

Yesterday, I was inspired to make some loaves suitable for panini, the Italian sandwiches that are more like American subs. Unfortunately, I had very little time to shape them as my 2.5yo tot was konked out on his father's shoulder and waiting for me to takeover, so they're ugly as... *insert appropriate word*.

They looked and felt really light and holey when I slit them for today's bentos for my children though, so I think they'll pass. Because the loaves turned out much bigger than expected (hahaha), I sliced one loaf in half before splitting and filling. So each kid brought half to school.

Recipe for Panini loaves
Ingredients:
4 cups bread flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano OR 1 tsp dried oregano
Pinch ground black pepper
2 tsp instant yeast
1-1/2 tbsp olive oil
1-1/4 cups warm water (40deg C)

Method:
Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir with a large spoon till all ingredients are moistened. Dough will be sticky.

With well-floured hands, knead dough in the bowl about 5min, till dough is elastic but still rather sticky, and sides of bowl are clear of flour, flouring your hands when necessary. Resist the urge to add more flour to the dough.

Drizzle about 2 tbsp olive oil around the sides of the bowl and toss dough to coat. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and stick bowl in the fridge for 4-5 hours.

Turn dough out onto work surface and punch out all the air. Divide into 4 equal pieces, roll each piece into a round tight ball. Let rest 5 min.

Roll out and shape each piece into a rectangle about 12cmX5cmX1cm thick.  (I did this by hand)

Place loaves on silicone mat or parchment paper on a large baking tray, about 2 inches apart. Let rise uncovered in a warm place for about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 220C. Dust loaves with flour and bake in the middle of the oven at 200C for 15min, rotating pan halfway through, till loaves are brown on top and bottom.

Remove and cool on cake rack at least 30min before slitting and filling.

My No Knead Bread

HUGE holes, wonderful! I never could achieve this in the past, whether on my own or with a bread machine. Thick crust, chewy inside. Ok the super large hole at the side is due to my bread knife coming in to dig it out of my mom's pot, which has a wider base than top and couldn't come out on its own. I have since bought a better pot to make this in.

Dough, yeast, etc

I always used to prefer using the breadmaker on the Dough cycle to get whatever dough I needed for making rolls and pizza. This is because kneading by hand was always such a chore and mess, PLUS I felt the end result wasn't as good as using the breadmaker.

But thanks to a cookery show I've been watching a lot of recently, I've learnt to hand knead again, with great results. I now do my kneading in a big glass Luminarc bowl, and I've learnt how to add ingredients and handle the dough so that it really is smooth, elastic and springy after kneading for only about 5 min. From there I can make whatever rolls I want to make, with very little fuss. And along with the finished product comes a wonderful sense of satisfaction. No wonder Angela said kneading is therapeutic for her!

This increased frequency of making bread also means my package of yeast gets used up more quickly and is less in danger of expiring first. I've wasted quite a few packages of yeast in the past. Great stuff!