CeciC's blog

HI Fresh loafers!!!

It  has been AGESSSSSSS since my last post. I have been baking of coz and practicing what ive learnt in the state. I can finally getting comfortable baking at home. But since the temp and my laziness to my sourdough feeding my fermentation time isnt anywhere close to accurate at all.

For this bread its simple:

40& Liquid Levain (100% hydration, half strongbow and half water) I let it ferment in my room temp for 8-9 hours (sweet smell and taste sweet as well)

70% hydration (half strongbow and half water)

25% WW flour (didnt use special flour as its would be covered by the apple taste)

75% White bread flour

2.8% salt

25% dried apple (rehydrated till its soften and moist)

Roughly mix the dough by hand transfer to an oiled container

3 fold : 40 mins each add apple at the first fold

let it ferment for another hour

divide, pre-shape and rest for 20-30mins

Final shape and proof in the fridge for 6 hours.

remove from fridge and proof at room temp for another 2 hours.

Hit the oven and bake with a dutch oven.

20min covered and 25min uncovered.

This is a very good to have on its own, accompany with soup or even spread with honey ^^ Bon Appetite

Having heard so much about SFBI, I finally went there for a 5 days sourdough workshop.

Its located up a tiny mountain which offers stunning view to town

Here comes the door front, which got me very excited as this is the door that get me started on my sourdough journey.

During the five day i got my hands on their professional equipment, their steam oven, miller, mixer Which completely blew me away! Working on a dough that I can barely lift, Instructor was very helpful on correcting my shaping and scoring technique. I dun believe any word can describe this experience in full.

This is their professional oven, which i dun come across very often in my country.

The overview on our lab and their production line, see that super big mermaid. OMG!! it is so gorgeous.

Also we got to try sonoma (not sure if I got that correctly) 100% and a 60% levaiN. One of my classmate also brought in some ash flour to make pizza and shared his recipe on a fantastic pizza sauce. 

Most import things of all, is I can land my hand on a properly fermented dough at the right consistency. Now I know why my bread Crumb ain't consistent at all. also always using volume as bulk fermentation proxy isn't always accurate. Giving me the chance to figure out what went wrong with my bread.

some nicely shaped dough

we got lots of chances to raise question and all the people there are very helpful even their workers interns would answer all ur questions without hesitation.

 Here comes the bread that i baked

Some of the work from my group.

During that time, we get to try one feeding sour, two feeding sour and 70% sourdough with the difference of retarding dough with the same formula. We explored the difference it makes on our bread (the feels on the dough, its impact on its gluten development and the final taste). Also we also tried sour rye which is very very tasty, 100% wholewheat @ 100% hydration and durum with sesame. Then you can turly compare side by side with all these variety, whereas at home i dun think we can bake so many different bread in one go. ^^

if u love baking u will definitely love the experience they offer. Photos will be up soon!

btw if your goal is to loose weight stay away from the school. They stuff that they bake off is awfully good and irresistible.

here comes with our guilt.

Highly recommend their croissant. The best i ever had.

Haven't been posting for quite sometime, due to some technical problem with my computer which doesn't display pages properly. Hopefully it gets better with Firefox. 

After reading David post on mixed seeded loaf, I decided to go back to BREAD and bake along. This week I have baked multigrain levain. I have followed the formula to the spot apart from hydration, I up it to 80%+ as the dough felt a little dry when I mixed it. For soaker, I used barley flakes, wheat flakes, oat flakes, flaxseeds, sesame seeds and corn meal. 

The crumb is not as open as I would have hoped, but considered it has 20% soaker and 50% wholewheat i guess its not too bad after all. Gonna have it for lunch tomorrow with avocado and tomato. I bet it will make a fantastic sandwich!! 

I have baked Pumpkin Pain De Mie and Pumpkin and Pepita Rustic bread for Halloween, and two batches of Pretzel.

The ideal of Pretzel came to me when I was at Beer Garden for Octoberfest, I brought a pretzel from one of the stalls, its a total disappointment. First its crust tasted and felt like rubber, the crumb was dry almost like a softed cracker and the taste is blanded, so I decided to bake my own. My first pretzel batch is a disaster, as its a little over proof and it sticks to the paper. Then I found out its not even parchment paper @@. It is super soft so Its impossible to have it dip into Lye bath. Ummmm Baking bread is always full of challenges and disappointment. 

One on the left is my second batch the ugly one on the right is my first attempt. Its like a scary bread for halloween rather than one for o Octoberfest

After my disastrous First Attempt, I googled and watch a few video, found out that they will have their dough chilled or even frozen for easier handling. which is why the people can always carry their pretzel dough around like its an unproofed dough, Phew ~~ thats as quick and easy fix to my mess. 

<

The look of pretzels are like an evilish laugh of a bread.

I have also baked a Soy and Honey Sour Pain de Mie with 20% soy pulp (Left over from my Soy milk)

Got a question from my boss asking can sourdough be something else other than crunchy and chewy bread last week. I told her OF COZ we can sourdough can work it magic and transform a bread beyond our imagination like cake, biscuits and of coz different style of bread. Then I baked a batch of bagel and this Pain de Mie, just to show her that sourdough can be not sour and it can also be fluffy soft. 

This formula is adapted from Our well respected friend on this forum, Txfarmer, I have reduced the percentage of Condensed Milk and substituted wholewheat flour for some of the bread flour. It gives me full and complete flavor of wheat. I can proudly say that this is one of the best sandwich bread you will have. 

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It has been so long since my last post, have been baking different bread but i get overwhelmed by work ><.. Finally i catch my breath, here is my lastest bake.

This is a simple recipe with overnight poolish, since I havent got time to refresh my starter last week so I used overnight poolish instead.

33% preferment @ 100% poolish

70% hydration (withholding 5% to mix with yeast n salt)

10% Rye

90% white bread flour

Build the poolish 12hours before i mix the dough, with unexpected even I have leave it in the fridge for a couple more hours.

Mix the dough and autolyse for 1hour

Dissolve yeast in the remaining water, squeeze into the dough mix well till they come together.

bulk fermentation: 2 hours

Divide the dough and rest for 15 mins

final proof: 1.5 hrs

Bake in dutch over @ 240 covered 25Min, 15Min uncovered.

It has light crackling crust n very soft crumb.

It is a very good indulging bread, sometimes we just need a break from all the wholegrains. :P

My new family members

It has been a few months since my last post. Have been busy with work and stuff. Still i have skim through the sites and have seen so many awesome breads baked by our TFLers.

Recently I have been mainly working on BREAD - By Jeffery H.

Tried a few recipes on its sourdough bread. They are all very tasty and perfect bread for toast, sandwiches and even just to have it by itself.

N the one that I love the most is this Mixed Seeds Wholewheat Levain with lots of goodies in it. Its fantastic aroma of toasted seeds and the mixed grains crust added to its flavor profile. Heres for formula Ive used with a bit of modifications from his original formula.

- Change it to a pure levian dough

- Increased the hydration

- omitted the honey

This post has been submitted to Plotziade No.2 and Wild Yeast

36 Hour Method

I used a young Levain, which was fermented at 25C for 8 hours, which is a little less than double when i ready to mix. 

I pan-fried the bacon, seperated the drippings and bacon, both are added with starter and salt. 

It fermented at around 27C for 3 hours and went right back into the fridge for 12 hours. It has doubled in size in the fridge, it then warmed up for 2 hours, which pushed it passed the double mark and closer to 2.25.

Since the bulk fermentation was a little too long, after pre-shape it rested for 15 minutes. then final shape n proof for 30 mins. 

I will double the bacon next time, as its taste isnt too strong. 

The Second Crumb shot is from the first loaf, it seems to me that the second loaf has overproofed  in the fridge