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

Pau Sambal / Burger Malaysia

Ingredients

50ml warm water

1/2 tbsp instant yeast

1/2 tbsp fine sugar

> mix everything together and put aside for 5min till bubbly

2 cups flour

2 tbsp fine sugar

2 tbsp milk powder or condensed milk

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp butter or vegetable oil

50-80ml water

Fillings

sambal ikan bilis

cucumber

salad

Directions

• in a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients together and mix well
• add butter and mix using hands
• pour in the yeast mixture followed with water (a bit at a time) and knead till a dough is formed
• cover the bowl and proof for 1-2hr till dough is puffy
• punch down the dough and lightly knead to smoothen the dough
• divide the dough to desired size (44 - 45g each = 10pcs), round and transfer to parchment paper
• cover with shrink wrap and let it rest for another 30min
• lightly flatten before deep fry in very low heat till golden brown (be patient so that the inside is fully cooked)
• once cooled, cut into two and fill with sambal, cucumber and salad

Foodnote: Was thinking of burger but ended up with this Malay burger instead hehe. Turns out very well. I kept some frozen so that I can eat it other day. Yum yum. Craving satisfied. 

The recipe can also be used as donut or fill with peanut paste.

No Knead Cranberry, Walnut and Honey Bread

Ingredients

3 cups of bread flour

1 tsp active dry yeast

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp honey

1 1/2 cup warm distill water

1/2 cup chopped walnut

1/2 cup dry cranberry

Directions

• in a large bowl add bread flour, dry yeast and salt
• in another small bowl add honey to warm water and mix thoroughly
• add the honey water to the dry mixture and mix till well combined
• add walnut and cranberry and mix well
• cover the bowl and let it rest for 1-3 hours (till dough double in size)
• transfer dough to well floured working surface
• fold the dough a few times and shape it into a ball
• transfer dough into a bowl/banetton and let it rest for final proofing
• pre-heat oven with a dutch oven at 230°C
• 30-45min transfer dough to a parchment paper, score and bake dough covered for 20mins and uncovered for 10-15min
• cool on a rack for 1hr or so

Foodnote: Need a good bread fast to bring to a gathering at my friend's place. Just use yeast because if not my yeast will cry in the fridge since I'm always using sourdough starter hehe. Fast good and yummy woohoo. This bread is a hot favourite with my friends who ate it with Golden Churn spreadable butter with avocado oil.

Maybe next time I might try to add honey to my sourdough bread with inclusions eh.

Brioche Bread

Ingredients

Sponge

128g all-purpose flour

7g active dry yeast

120g warm milk

Dough

320g large eggs room temperature (~5eggs)

384g all-purpose flour

105g sugar

12g sea salt

227g soften butter

Egg Wash

1 large egg

1 tbsp water

~ Sea salt for sprinkling

Directions

• 
  mix all the sponge ingredients in a mixing bowl and using a hook attachment, mix till well combined and put it aside for 45min
• once sponge have air pockets, add in eggs, flour, sugar and salt and mix on medium till well combined then increase to medium high till dough pulls away from sides and is very elastic and shiny
• add in butter about 1 tbsp at a time at medium speed for about 15min and increase speed to medium high for about 7min (test window pane)
• cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 1hr or double in size
• once dough has doubled in size, turn out onto a floured surface and punch down dough
• divide in half using a bench scraper
• cut each half into six equal pieces and flatten each piece into a rectangle, then fold short ends in towards each other as if folding a letter
• flatten again and tightly roll into a log starting with the short end... repeat with all pieces
• place 6pcs of dough into a greased loaf pan and cover with plastic wrap and rest for 1hr or double in size
• pre-heat oven to 190°C and prepare the egg wash
• once dough is ready, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with salt
• bake for about 30min or top is deep golden
• let cool completely before baking

Foodnote: Butter make everything taste better and since I am a butter hoarder hehe and a fan of bread... so Brioche it is!! This is quite challenging. I think I did wrong as I can't get to the window pane stage :( I just go ahead and proof to 1hr and proceed to the other steps while praying hard it will turn out looking like bread hehe. It still double in size on final proofing though pheeewww... Finally I have a very super soft bread. Will I make this again... eeerrr unlikely. Maybe will try to find a better and easier to handle brioche bread dough.

French Baguette

Ingredients

475g bread flour

65g all purpose flour

2g instant yeast (SAF gold)

3g diastatic malt

10g salt

380g filtered water

Directions

• mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl
• make a well and add in water
• mix all ingredients are well combined till shaggy mass is formed
• place dough in a clean and lightly oiled bowl
• rest the dough for 3hr, folding it 3x every 45min (LFTB and turn smooth side up)
• after 3hr, lightly flour the counter and transfer the dough (smooth side down)
• divide into 3 portions
• pre-shape each dough (pat and roll to tighten the dough) and rest for another 30min
• final shape the baguette to baguette tray and let it rest for 30-60min
• pre-heat oven to 220°C
• score the baguette right before baking and spray with water
• after putting the baguette on a tray in the oven, place also a bowl with ice to stimulate steam
  
  
• bake for 20-25min (turn tray 10min into baking and remove the bowl of water)
• let it cool on a wire rack for 1-2 hours

Foodnote: One of my niece makes awesome homemade mushroom soup 😘👌 and she is so nice to share it with me. So I thought I'd make her homemade french bread. 

Saw this recipe on youtube and the baguette looks really good so of course must try. Everything is good and dough is very easy to handle... except next time I will lower the baking temp to 220°C instead because I think Asian are not very used to dark crusty bread... I think lah. I also need to improve more on how to shape french bread

I really love this recipe and will try to make it again for practice.

Katzoomi Bread (Sourdough Shokupan)

Ingredients

Sweet Starter

40g active starter

40g water

40g bread flour

20g sugar

Preferment

100g starter

40g water

100g bread flour

Main Dough

120g bread flour

20g sugar

5g salt

25g water

20g whipping cream

all of the sweet starter

all of the preferment

20g unsalted butter

Directions

• prepare the sweet starter in a container: mix starter with water and add flour with sugar
• prepare the preferment: mix starter with water and add bread flour
• leave both at room temperature for 2.5hr and keep the preferment in the fridge
• let the sweet start peak for about another 2hr
• add all ingredients in a mixer except for butter
• using a dough hook, mix everything for about 10-15min
• add in the butter and mix till windowpane stage
• divide dough into 2, round and rest for 20min
• shape the dough: roll it long and roll it
• put dough into greased loaf tin and let it proof to 50% (2hrs or more)
• apply egg wash (1 egg + 1 tsp milk)
• bake at 180°C for 35-40min (might want to cover it with foil if the top get too dark)

Foodnote: Saw this loaf of bread and just have to make it since it is using sourdough starter instead of yeast. Love it but it does takes a long time to prepare BUT in terms of taste... ooh la la... really super delicious. I only ate it the next day. After slicing, it was lightly toasted and spread with butter. The texture is so soft with crispy crust and the taste oh so divine. I have to stop myself from eating the whole loaf hehe.

Will definitely make this again but for quick fix yummy loaf will be using the killer toast recipe. The smell of fresh baking bread permeating the house... simply awesome!