Sourdough Bread with Great Oven Spring

Ingredients and directions same as here

Only difference is baking directions

• pre-heat dutch oven to 230°C for 30min or more
• transfer dough with parchment paper into pre-heated dutch oven and spray with water and quickly put the lid on
• transfer the dutch oven in the pre-heated oven and turn off the oven... yes turn it off!
• leave the dutch oven in the heated oven for 20min
• after 20min, remove the dutch oven cover, admire the oven spring and turn on the heat to 230°C with fan
• bake for 15-20min till desired color
• cool for few hours before serving

Foodnote: Wanted to bake a plain sourdough bread to eat with rendang or SCS butterscotch butter with butterscotch spreadable. Saw this tip online and I just have to try it because I love to see the oven spring. It didn't disappoint and it really gives a very impressive oven spring. I will probably be doing this from now on :) Always good to learn new things to improve my bakes.

Sourdough Bread with Inclusions

Adapted from here.

Ingredients best for 1 loaf

70g active starter

210g water

315g bread flour

7g salt

4g diastatic malt

Dry Inclusions: +/- 1 cup depends on ingredients and how much you want

For sourdough starter: I add 50% water + 50% bread flour to any amount of starter (1 tsp up to same amount of water/flour. Leftover scraping also can use) and leave it for at least 4hrs or overnight. Can use unfed starter but have to leave mixture up to 24 hours and then shape. Sometimes to speed up fermentation, place newly fed starter in oven and place a bowl of hot water beside it to create warm environment.

Directions

• in a bowl, mix starter with water
• add in bread flour, salt, malt and mix till even (to add dry inclusions eg. seeds, nuts, dried fruits at this stage)
• cover bowl and leave for 1hr 
• first fold and fold 2x after 30min (to add fresh inclusions eg. blueberries together with 1st fold)
• check for window pane... if not fold again 1-2x
• cover bowl again and let it proof till double in size (~ total 8 hours from mixing... up to 24hrs if starter have not been fed and not active)
• shape and place in banetton that have been lightly dusted with rice flour
• let rest for 30min and keep in fridge till ready to bake (~8hrs or within 3 days)
• bake with top bottom heat and fan at 230°C in pre-heated dutch oven for 20min covered
• open cover of dutch oven, and bake for another 10-15min depending on desired crust coloration
• let cool for few hours before cutting

Foodnote: Find that this works best so far for sourdough with dry inclusions so. This time I bake 1 loaf with Origins california treat that have almonds, black raisins, cashew nuts, cranberries, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. I chopped the whole almonds and cashew nuts to make it smaller. The other loaf is with mixed citrus peels that I bought from Phoon Huat. Turns out well and inclusions are evenly distributed. 

Going to try the following flavours sourdough next:

- pumpkin cinnamon

- apple cinnamon

- orange or purple sweet potato

- fresh blueberries + lemon zest

- cheese + cranberry

- walnut + cranberry

- and many more woohoo

So excited to bake more sourdough to share with friends and families. 

Burnt Cheese Cake

Ingredients

250g cream cheese

60g castor sugar

5g flour

1 egg + 1 yolk

150g whipping cream

Directiona

• pre-heat oven to 230°C
• using a spatula, cream the cheese
• add sugar and mix till smooth
• fold in flour and lightly whisk in the eggs
• add in the whipping cream and mix evenly
• lined a small mould (I use 12 inch) with parchment paper
• pour in the cheesecake batter and drop it few times to remove air bubbles
• bake for 30min and increase the temperature to 240°C after 30min to bake for another 5min till top of cheesecake is burnt
• cool the cheesecake and enjoy

Foodnote: Found a packet of cream cheese in the fridge and I can't remember why I bought it hehe. So I look for a simple recipe for burnt cheesecake to try and tadaaa. I like that the recipe is easy and I don't have to make a big portion. I can just keep it all to myself and eat it bit by bit everyday ahaha. Anyway it tasted good even though there is no vanilla or lemon juice like other recipes... and I like simple basic recipe. Also, it taste soooo GOOOD when left in the fridge overnight. Yummeh! #mustbakeagainsoon