Two New Sourdough Starters

I'm bit of a maniac when it comes to bread, especially sourdough bread...

I currently use three different starters on a regular basis, strawberry, banana and yoghurt & raisin, all of which are about two years old now. Most of my breads (if not all), and some of my cakes and biscuits are made with these starters.

If you are interested in making your own starter, then join me! See the bottom right of the page, and sign up to the mailing list, or you can contact me directly to join the course too!

And now..., I've got two more potential starters that might become my regular guys. ) One of them is "Lemon" and the other is "Rose". Hah, don't they sound like people? ;D

Hello, here is Mr Lemon!

And, this is Miss Rose!

For both of them, the liquid part of the starter is done. (Oh?!, are you thinking "what's liquid part?" then, see the bottom right! Sign up to the mailing list to find out more.)

Left: Mr Lemon. Right: Miss Rose.

Now, Mr Lemon has been fed for three days, and looking nice and active, so I reckon he is ready to go. Miss Rose is looking good too but probably needs bit more time.

These two new comers are still in the state of 'not quite establish', so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they mature as well as my other starters and help me make great breads.

Meanwhile I've tasted out Mr Lemon. I made lemon and poppy seed muffins with it. 

It was ok..., it needed bit more time to mature but I could definitely see the potential in it. :) I'm doing some more experiment with them and will be posting here about their progress. ;D

Oh and! before you go..., don't forget to see the bottom right of the page! ;D

Chiffon cake with sourdough starter

Lately I am addicted to both making and eating this cake...
It's incredibly light. So light that it seems to melt in the mouth.

I've been testing out chiffon cake recipes that requires no oil. Instead of oil, I decided to use my starter to achieve that nice bit of moisture in a chiffon cake sponge.

I also tried to reduce as much sugar as possible without losing the sweetness and volume. I started off with 90g of sugar but I managed to reduce it to 60g. I think that's probably the limit since the 60g sugar sponge slightly lost its height compared to 90g one, but still tasted really good.

Ingredients:

Egg 4

Flour 50g

Sugar (white or brown) 90g-60g

Starter (strawberry or banana) 20g

Vanilla extract or other flavours of your choice

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºc. Separate the eggs. Add half the sugar to the egg white and the rest in the yolk.

2. Beat the egg white and sugar until it's reached just before stiff peak.

3. Beat the egg yolk and sugar until fluffy, add starter and mix just enough to combine them all (don't mix too much).

4. Sift flour into 3. Mix until there is no flour.

5. Fold 1/3 of meringue gently into 4. Continue the same process two more times.

6. Pour the mixture in the tin. Turn the oven down to 160ºc and bake for 30-40 minutes.

You need a bit of attention when you fold meringue in order not to knock the air out, but otherwise, it's quite simple. And when you see the well risen cake in the oven, it's sure to put a big smile on your face;D

I love Love LOVE having this cake with fresh whipped cream! They just go so well together!

This one was the one I made for Easter.

Mixed spice sponge and a thick layer of cream...

I can (and do) easily have a couple of big slices of these. :D 

'Crones'

I made something highly addictive the other day... Layered scones and I'm calling them 'Crones' because they are like cross between scones and croissants... ;)

My intention was to make really flaky scones with my sourdough starter. So I used the folding technique like you do with croissants or puff pastry but without actually folding that 'crazy' (but nice...) amount of butter.

Ingredients:

•Flour 300g

•Salt 2g

*Milk 50g

*Egg 1

*Starter (Banana yeast) 100g

*Honey 20g

Butter (diced and chilled) 50g

1. Combine all the wet ingredients (*) in a bowl. Set aside.

2. In a Ziploc bag combine all the dry ingredients (•), and butter. Rub the Ziploc bag to mix in the butter.

3. Add 1 into 2 and keep rubbing the bag until everything in the bag comes together.

4. Roll out the dough while it's still in the bag. Put it in the fridge.

5. Fold and roll out the dough at least 3 times. (See here for how you roll out and fold.)

6. Finally preheat the oven to 200ºc. Roll out the dough to 2cm thick and cut the way you like! ;D

7. Put the Crones in the oven and turn the oven down to 180ºc and bake for 20-25 minutes.

I've used my banana yeast this time but I'm sure strawberry yeast will do too;) If you like sweeter taste, I recommend you add one table spoon of brown sugar to the dry ingredients.

The great thing about this recipe is that once you prepared the dough and put it in the fridge, you can come back to it whenever you have time. I did it over three days! I must have folded more than 3 times thought. ;D

Another good thing about this 'Crone' is that once you prepared the dough in a bag, you can keep the dough in the bag while you do the folding, so you have no flour-mess to clear up. Nice, right?

'Crones'... can they be a next 'Cronuts'? :D

Purple sweet potato bread

Since we fired up the oven for the pizza, I decided to have a go with baking my bread in the stone oven for the first time.

The bread I chose was Purple sweet potato bread, a variation of simple pain de campagne. I added purple sweet potato powder as I was mixing the dough, which coloured the dough nice baby pink;)

So, the verdict of baking in the stone oven is...
'Not too bad but needs work'...

Although the thermometer said it was around 280 ºc, I don't think the bottom heat wasn't high enough and also the heat circulation wasn't great. I think I need to learn how to build a better fire. :)

The bread still came out ok. The crust was thinner and softer than usual, which I would have liked to be tougher, but Lana prefers softer crust and she actually ate the whole thing! (She normally leaves the crust...)

I couldn't really taste the purple sweet potato but still the colour was pretty.

Pink + Pink♥︎ I made some salmon sandwich. 

Sourdough Pizza

The sun is shinning, it's nice and warm outside. That means one thing... Time to fire up our stone oven in the garden!

Last Saturday when I woke up I knew it was going to be a pizza-weather day so I made pizza dough with my strawberry yeast in the morning ready for the woodfired pizza evening;)

Ingredients:

Starter 125g

Strong flour 230g

Semolina 20g

Milk 160g

Honey 10g

Salt 3g

Olive oil 2tsp

Using sourdough starter to make pizza dough takes more time, but since it's getting warmer the dough rises quicker and most importantly it tastes so good!

The good thing about making your own pizza is I can put as much cheese as I want (although it seems that however much cheese I put on pizza it's never enough...;D)

I thought I made too much dough for two big people and one little person, but we ended up eating them all! 

I was absolutely stuffed but it was just too good to be left...

Croissant - Strawberry yeast

It's been a while since I made croissants and last weekend I had a sudden craving for the buttery pastry.

I choose my strawberry yeast in order to achieve a nice flaky outside. (my strawberry guys are the best when it comes to the crust!). My guys did a great job. The croissants came out with flaky layers and they smelt heavenly!

I used the same recipe as the one with raisin starter, but I added a tea spoon of honey in the dough. Because it's pretty cold now, the proofing took much longer this time, in fact I went to sleep during the final proofing....;D

The following morning, we had freshly baked croissants.... yes, nothing can beat freshly baked croissants on a Saturday morning! They were simply beautiful, probably the best croissants I ever made! And it had no yeast but my starter!

I just love those moments when a long process comes down to a perfect success, and it definitely was one of those moment. :D

Forget about the amount of butter! It's a 'Buttery Heaven'!

And, mini ones for Lana;)

Cheesy Loaf

I love cheese.
I am quite possibly addicted to cheese.

So, this one was for the cheesy hole in my stomach.

I made a basic white loaf with my yoghurt and raisin yeast, and added cheese in the dough as I was shaping it.
It was midnight when I finally started baking the bread, and the smell of cheese coming from the oven made my sleepy stomach rumble...

First I had a slice just as is. The loaf was soft and springy and it had a 'not too strong' cheesy flavour to it. I was very happy with the bake. But then, when I toasted it, it went up to the next level! The cheese in the bread got slightly melted and it was like cheese toast.The crispy cheesy crust was amazing too!

Cheese melting in the bread..., yum yum..;D

I used mozzarella (that was the only cheese I had...) this time but next time I'll go for bit more stronger ones like cheddar or emmental.

Orange brioche

So, as I mentioned before (on my Orange custard cream post), here is my orange brioche made with my banana yeast starter. It has a orange jam sauce mixed in the dough and orange custard on the top.

I think these buns are a perfect example of how versatile the sourdough starter can be. They've got such a nice soft texture and buttery richness that I'm sure they are pretty different from what you imagine as sourdough bread;)

Being quite a wet dough, it's pretty tricky to handle it so I strongly recommend using a mixer for kneading. You will also need to knead (oops..;D) longer than ordinary loaves (such as my Strawberry yeast bread) and it might be difficult to judge whether the dough is ready or not. But don't worry, when in doubt, we always go back to the basics. Feel the dough, stretch it to see it's nice and stringy and doesn't break.

This rich dough takes more time to prove too. I left the dough overnight to let it prove (it was about 10 hours on a warm day, so it can be longer on a cooler day) and then rested it in the fridge for half a day. This resting action is quite important to make it easy to shape the bread.

I haven't got brioche tins but tartlet tins worked ok. I added some orange custard on the top, then put a small piece of dough to cover it.

Not only were they a good energy booster in the morning, but also they were an excellent treat with coffee in the afternoon. :)

Ingredients:

Starter (banana) 125g

Very strong flour 250g

Salt 3g

Honey 50g

Butter 50g

Egg1+Egg yolk 2 + milk = 168g

Orange jam sauce 2-3tbsp

*I will post the brioche recipe some time but for now, please refer to the Banana buns Recipe for the method.

Strawberry yeast bread - 3

It's already September but we are still enjoying the summer heat here in England, which is great for being out and about, but not so great for my sourdough starters...

While it's hard to maintain sourdough starters on hot days, there is an advantage that we can take in this heat. Instead of making and keeping a fully matured starter, I often do the straight method by using a liquid starter.

Because of the hot weather, the liquid yeast gets very active and ready in much shorter time, and the dough rises much more easily.

My strawberry starter took 3 days, and banana starter was ready in only 2 day! By using this method not only will nice crusty sourdough bread be ready in 3 to 4 days but also you have less job in maintaining the starter (therefor less likely to fail...).

You can use any fresh or dried fruits (make sure they aren't coated with oil) or vegetables, but the ones with high sugar are easier to get started. Strawberries are perfect as they are cheap in summer and have a really nice flavour to it. Bananas are good all year around too.

All you've got to do is to follow the steps of Strawberry yeast starter until step two, then use that liquid to make your dough.

I made strawberry one again... this time with the strawberries that I used to make the liquid starter. Look at this beautiful crust! :D

Good bread and cheese is my ultimate sandwich combo...

More about strawberry yeast bread? Have a look at:
Strawberry yeast bread - 1
Strawberry yeast bread - 2

Milk & Honey loaf

Hello everyone, it's been a little while since my last post... but I'm still here and baking breads and cakes more than ever.

Because of the recent heat wave here in the UK, it's been a little difficult to maintain my starters (by the way, I call them 'my trusted guys'). The house gets too hot for my guys if I leave them outside the fridge too long but then I do need to take them out to the room temperature when I want to use them... Hum, the timing is even more important now in this hot weather..

I keep checking the conditions of the guys (I normally have only one starter out while the others rest in the fridge). If it's looking less energetic I feed a bit. I also leave it at the coolest place in the house (which is Lana's room!) during the day.... yes I'm like a mad man (or mad baker in this case.)

Though, I believe that anyone who keeps their own starter will understand what I mean... The longer you've had the starter the more you feel attached to it. ;D

Anyway, look!, my guys do respond to my hard work! They are coping with the heat ok and still producing awesome breads!

This one is our recent favourite Milk & Honey loaf. They are nice and soft with a good crust outside, and every bite there is a slight sweetness from honey. Not only does it taste good as is but also it's an excellent choice for sandwiched or cheesy toasts... hum yum yum...

How does everyone keep their starter in this heat? ;)

Melon Pan with banana yeast - 自家製酵母メロンパン

I've made melon pan so many times both at work and home that I've lost count of it, and eaten even more since I was a little kid. I love melon pan and perfecting my own melon pan is something that I've been trying for a long time.

And finally, I think that day has come! I made melon pan a few days ago, and it was the best melon pan I've ever made! What made me even more proud was that I used my own banana yeast. Baking classic Japanese breads with my own starter is another challenge that I've set myself. So, I'm very happy that not only did these melon pans taste one of the best ever but also came from my yeast (Thanks to my trusted guy, Mr Banana Yeast!)

I feel I'm one step closer to my dream... ;D

Two of my top tasters fighting for one...

Lana loves melon pan too. She decided she wasn't going to share with Andy and had her own one!

Strawberry yeast bread

For me there is no doubt that home baked bread is the best, and specially, the one baked with your own starter is better than best...

As some of you might already know, I'm very passionate about sourdough starters and naturally occurred yeast. I've so far tried making starters with raisins, bananas, lemons, coconuts, pineapples, apples, whatever is available at the time...

Currently I'm currently looking after (yes, I care them like pets...;D) strawberry yeast. And it's probably one of the most successful starters ever! To start the yeast, I cut the top bits of the strawberries (eat the actual fruits, of course!) and do the same way as the raisin yeast.

Although I don't put the fruits in the bread dough, there is still a hint of strawberry flavour and sweetness in the bread. And also unlike many sourdough breads, this bread doesn't taste sour and is nice and soft, which is great for my daughter. ;)

A strawberry on top to make it look like a cake.

Croissant with raisin starter

After making the tiny croissants, I had an urge to make proper croissants.

This time I decided to use no yeast but my raisin starter. For the raisin starter, I do the same as the raisin yeast, then combine the liquid with the same amount of flour. I feed the starter for 3 days (I do 'water : flour = 1:1').
I've explained it very simply here but the makings of a starter is a bit more complicated than that and needs a great deal of attention... I'm still experimenting in order to achieve 'the one'. Anyway..., hopefully I will be able to share the details of the raisin starter on another post some time soon.

So... back to the croissants! The process of folding a sheet of butter is very similar to puff pastry. I have made an illustration below to show you how to do it. Hope that will help. ;) One thing to remember is to work quickly in order to keep the butter cold. We don't want the butter to melt into the dough.

After hours of preparation, I finally got my croissants! They weren't as airy as French ones, but still nice and crisp, very good indeed! I say they are more like 'Le Croissant au Japon' (forgive my french...;D). They were so addictive that I had a few for breakfast and five (or maybe more... I lost count...) for lunch... They didn't make it for dinner...

I shouldn't think about the amount of butter I consumed from them..., well, I don't care... I went for a run the following morning anyway...;)

Ingredients:

Raisin starter 200g

Flour 400g

Milk 200g

Sugar 50g

Butter 40g

Salt pinch

Butter (for folding in) 230g

1. Take the raisin starter out from the fridge to bring it to room temperature.

2. Combine all the ingredients and knead in the standing mixer for 10 minutes.

3. Leave it in the fridge overnight.

4. Prepare butter for folding in the dough. Wrap the butter with cling film and make a sheet of 20cmx 20cm square. Rest it in the fridge.

5. Take put the dough from fridge and roll it out to 40cm x 40cm square.

6. Fold the butter in (see below for how to do it). Chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

7. Repeat the process two more times.

8. Wrap the dough in a cling film and rest it overnight.

9. Roll out the dough to 3-4mm thickness. Cut each edge so that you have a nice rectangle shape.

10. Cut the dough into triangles. Make a small cut on the short side.

11. Roll the triangle from the wide end to the pointed end. Place the croissants on a baking tray, cover with a cling film, and leave them for 3-4 hours.

12. Preheat the oven to 200ºc.

13. Egg wash the croissants and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the croissants are lightly brown.

Rye bread with dates

I made another rye bread with my rye flour sourdough starter. This time I added some dates and date syrup. Unlike last time I used rye flour only, which I think made the bread even denser.

I baked in a mini loaf tin and the bread came out so solid and dark that it looked like a brick. I thought "If I get hit by this, that could actually hurt me..." Cutting the bread was tough too. I felt like I was sawing the bread rather than cutting...

Anyway, the bread tasted good. Because it was quite hard, I needed to chew more, which made me eat less. (good good... :D) I also tried dipping into my pumpkin soup. That was amazing! The unique flavour and bit of saltiness of rye flour brought the sweetness of pumpkin very well.

All in all, these rock hard mini loaves weren't not bad at all. ;D

Rye bread

I've experimented with raisin yeast, lemon yeast, banana yeast in the past. Now, I've started a rye flour sourdough starter. If this starter goes well, it'll keep for years.

I'm using a very simple technique, which requires only rye flour and water. After three days of 'feed' the starter became bubbly. So I took some of the starter out and put the rest in the fridge to let it 'sleep'.

I mixed some rye flour (100g), strong white flour (100g), salt (1/2tsp), oil (2tbsp), and handful of walnuts together with the starter (200g). Then I added water and kneaded to form a dough.

I rested the dough overnight in room temperature and the following day shaped the bread to put in a loaf tin and rested it for a few hours.

So... now, it was time to bake. I covered the loaf tin with foil and baked for 40 minutes at 190ºc, then turned the heat down to 170ºc and baked another 30 minutes. The bread didn't rise much and looked pretty dense. But it smelled good.

I didn't taste the bread immediately because I remembered someone said before that rye bread tastes better a day after it's baked. So I patiently waited another day....

Finally...., we had it! First we cut a slice and tried as is. I was like..."!", "This is just like those german rye breads!" and Andy was like..."It's nice!" We put some cheese on too. Then we did our clasic thing... "I'm gonna have another piece, do you want one?", "Yes, go on!"...nom nom nom... "Another one?", "Yes, please." nom nom nom.... So..., the bread was gone... here we were again, greedy greedy...

I was very pleased with the result as I thought the starter wasn't 100% successful. Although it was very tasty I'm still going to work on the recipe. Once I'm confident with the recipe then I'll share how to make the starter and the bread so please bear with me. :)