Sugarowl's blog

I'm still baking somewhat, still struggling with energy levels, and more blood work is due (I hate needles).  As a mom of two active boys, I find myself alternating between cooking mac and cheese, homeschooling, and lots of "stop bugging your brother" moments. Thank goodness for coffee!

I had neglected my starter for a month or two (maybe 3?). I pulled it out the other day and it was NOT moldy! :) I took a small part of it that hadn't gone grey and now I  have about 150g in the fridge waiting anticipating a small loaf bake soon.

In other news, I did recently discover that Publix does carry Einkorn flour. I found some at the Port Canaveral location for $10/ 1lb. They also have the Arrowhead Mills rye flour. I'm undecided whether to try the Einkorn flour.

My goal for this week is to make a loaf of bread and a batch of biscotti. My boys have been asking for me to make more "dipping cookies." If I have time, I plan to make more tamago boro (little egg biscuits). I want to try making them in the oven this time and with different flavors.

Currently we are preparing for a road trip. We are going to Chincoteague, Virginia for a family vacation.For the trip, I plan on making mini muffins, biscotti, and probably some basic sugar cookies. The ones for my relatives will be frozen for the 3-day trip up there. I know it doesn't take 3 days to drive to Virginia, but we are taking our time since our boys have never seen mountains (Florida is very flat).

I did the Infinity loaf challengeon October 30, but I'm just now getting around to posting it. I did not really like how the bread came out. It was very crumbly and a bit sandy. That said, I'm not really partial to cornbread either.

The "other" flours I used were rye, oat flour, and corn meal. For seeds, I used soaked bulgur wheat and toasted pecan pieces. The inclusions were fine. I'm not so sure about the cornmeal and oat flour though. I'll try it again after the holidays. And soak the cornmeal next time.

I posted somewhere else the exact quantities so I'll go back and look at that later.Found it: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/73115/nothing-too-exiciting-here#comment-527139

The biscotti that I made came out pretty good. I did this November 4. on The only thing is that I should've sliced them a little thinner or baked them longer. Or both. the recipe I used is from Joyofbaking.com: Chocolate Almond Biscotti. The only changes I made were to use toasted pecans instead of the almonds. The dough was a little tacky.

Sorry for the late posts, it's been really hectic around here.In October, I made around 3 dozen muffins plus 3 dozen cookies every week for 3 weeks for a fundraiser. Not much sold. But when I was at their display, it was so overcrowded with prepackaged snacks that it made sense that they didn't sell.

Currently I have 300g of starter rising to start 3 different breads tomorrow: two chocolate breads with cherries and pecans and one I'm not completely sure about yet.Probably a whole wheat and bread flour tangzong milk bread.

On Monday and Tuesday I'll be baking bread, cookies, and muffins for when we go see my parents for Thanksgiving. The cookies with be sugar, oatmeal, and 2 kinds of biscotti: The one I just posted and one with cocoa powder and cranberries. Also part of my future lineup is to make a 1/2 semolina biscotti to see if the texture is different when I come back.

So I made a loaf of bread last week. I think I really need to knead longer and/or ferment longer. My starter seems to rise just fine, but even after several hours, the bread itself doesn't rise as much as with commercial yeast. My house is 76F. I would put it outside but our screens are torn and the squirrels would chomp on it.

For today's bake, I'm trying out a multigrain loaf for a possible upcoming community bake.

134g Bread Flour (25g in starter)

133g Whole Wheat Flour (25g in starter)

13g Rye flour

60g Oat Flour

60g Cornmeal

30g Malted milk powder

1 T Olive oil

8g Salt

100g Starter (50/50 water/flour mix)

Mix ins:

10g Sunflower seeds

20 grams Pecan pieces

20g Bulgar wheat

320g Liquid

         50g water in stater

        40g hot water for soaking the bulgar wheat

       200g hot apple cider for soaking the whole wheat

What I did:

Day 1: fed starter, left it out until puffy, then put it in the refrigerator overnight.

Day 2: Soaked the bulgar wheat and whole wheat for 2 hours. Bulgur had absorbed all its water. I mixed in everything but the mix-ins in my mixer until it formed a ball (about two-3 minutes). Let rest for 30 minutes, then mixed on low/medium for about 3 minutes then turned out onto table for hand kneading. Kneaded until  smooth-ish (see picture, probably kneaded more). Let rest for a bit (I don't know the exact time). then stretched it out and added mix-ins and did gentle stretching and folding to incorporate without tearing the dough. I realized at this point I had added too many pecans, but it didn't look like enough when I measured them out, hence the 20g instead of 10g pecans pieces.

Left out on  counter for 2 hours, shaped into a loaf, put into bread pan, then put in refrigerator at about 3:30pm.

Day 3: 7:30am Took pan out of refrigerator. At 11:57am it was noticeably bigger, so I preheated the oven to 325F (dark pan). Scored bread and put in cold oven. Oven came up to temp at 12:05pm. Started timer for 30 minutes.

Dough had a sandy feel while kneading, I might soak the cornmeal next time.

Pictures still to come, but I'm pretty sure I didn't knead it enough since that seems to by my self diagnosed problem with bread.

I attempted to make pizza with King Arthur 00 Pizza flour using their recipe on the back of the bag. The recipe was called "Detroit Style Pizza". I have no idea what that is but I had hoped it would make 1-12" pizza if I halved the recipe. It did not. Also, this was my first attempt at homemade pizza dough. It is not pretty and way too crispy. But for better or for worse here it is.

Next up, I made another 123 sourdough bread in a bread pan. My additions were: milk powder,regular Hershey's cocoa powder, and maple syrup. The liquid was a Guiness stout. The flour as mostly all purpose, with 20g rye, 10g wholewheat, and 30g bread flour.

Here's the recipe:

100g starter

200g Guiness beer

300g Flour (as said above)

2T of hershey's cocoa powder (regular kind)

1T milk powder

1T maple syrup

1tsp of salt

I mixed it all together for a bit, maybe 5 minutes. Then I let it sit out for an hour and then popped it into the fridge over night. This morning about 9am, I took it out and let it warm up. at 10am I did a lamination with it. Since I could stretch it thin, I shaped it and left it to rise in the baking tin. I then baked it at 350F for 10 minutes and then at 325F for 40 more minutes. I brushed butter on it at the 30 minute mark. My pans are dark, so I have to bake at a lower temperature. The internal temperature was 201F.

The bread is soft, with a light chocolatey flavor. It was not overly sour as it as last time when I made a plain white bread with a Yuengling lager. I'm guessing the "smooth" on the label means something? I don't know anything about beer. All I know is that I hope my father in law likes the other beers I had bought since I don't drink. I did find a non-alcoholic Guiness black label on the shelf, but I was unsure if it would perform the same or not.

So far the bread is good, but I think I'll leave the pizza part up to Dominoes for now since I may have gotten myself into a baking frenzy starting next week. Our church is having a fall festival and I volunteered to help them out if they wanted bake sale items for their pumpkin patch.I casually mentioned 3 dozen muffins and cookies. I'm thrilled they want some samples but also super nervous at the same time. Either way this will be a good way to test out if there is actually a demand for non-cake mix muffins in my area.

In other news, I've been working on a garden box and it's almost done. As soon as hubby puts the last of the supports in I'll order the compost/dirt from a local place that delivers. My kids want to plant sunflowers and other colorful flowers. I'm going to put veggies on my side, and being that I'm in zone 9 means I can still plant beans, corn, tomatoes, and possibly little squash if the weather stays warm this year. the kids are excited to see broccoli trees growing too. I try to grow interesting looking things, so I'm on the hunt for long eggplant and sesame seeds. One year we grew yard-long beans and we didn't harvest them soon enough. The kids ran around with "dreadlocks" on their heads. :D

So I started 2023 with a bang, on the side of my loaf that is. I have made about 5 loaves this year and all have proofing and kneading issues (and shaping). I even forgot the yeast in my steamed buns! My goal is to get better at timing (and organizing!) my sourdough bakes. What worked out for me last year or the year before doesn't seem to work out right now. With kids, everything is always changing as they get older (at least I don't have to move the crayons up to a higher shelf anymore). I have learned from every bake at least. Well, whether I'll remember or not is up in the air, hence why I am posting here, so I don't forget.

The pictures are not in chronological order. I will say that adding carrot juice to bread was not as tasty as I had hoped. And I learned not to leave the broiler on to long to warm up the oven for proofing (no longer than 5 minutes). I also need to sharpen my knives.

So here's to (mostly) yummy failures and hopefully better future loaves!

I recently baked the Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread by King Arthur. It was a delicious flop. It tore horribly during kneading even with lots of resting time. I subbed oat flour for the rolled oats, so I essentially lowered the gluten and possibly the water as well. It also didn't call for an autolyse for the whole wheat portion. I had previously used Floyd's Honey Whole Wheat on here and didn't have those issues. But my kids don't like that much whole wheat (as I found out when I made the Approachable Loaf). So the first pictures are of my failed Vermont Honey Oatmeal loaf that looks like it exploded in slow motion and if it hadn't cooked it might have ended up all over my oven.

Tonight I made Floyd's Honey Whole Wheat Loaf, I changed it a little bit to match my kid's preferences. I halved the ingredients to make one loaf. So instead of 8oz of whole wheat and 4oz of bread flour, I used 4 oz of whole wheat, 4 oz of bread flour, and 4oz of all purpose flour. I and my kids like the softness of an all purpose flour, the bread flour is too chewey. I used half-half creamer instead of the evaporated milk and added 1 tablespoon of olive oil. for the Honey, I  used half honey and half maple syrup (I had a some left in a jug) Other than that I pretty much made the recipe like it was. It came out much nicer than the Vermont loaf. It was easier to work with and no tearing!

It's probably weird to say that I like the shine on the loaf. It's like a tiny victory. I brushed some my of half-half creamer on top. My husband is not as enthusiastic as I am about there being a shine, but he did bring back pictures of what the recent rocket launch did to the launch pad. It's pretty entertaining seeing all the stuff that got blown off this time around. :D

Edit: I was going to go buy store bread but asked my kid if he wanted me to buy a loaf or make one. He said he would rather me make this again! (happy dance time!). So I made two more loaves tonight (11/19) since we had two slices left. Now to figure out why it's crumbly compared to the store bought. The crumbly part was my husband's complaint, other than it not being pre-sliced.

I made the Walter Sands white bread from King Arthur in October and tried doing a swirl. I rolled my dough a wee bit too thin in the middle, but it was offset by having a pocket of sugar peeking out at the end. It was gone in 3 days. The only problem I had was that the swirl kept separating from the bread. It was not fun to pull it out of the toaster.

And today I made a variation of the Better Banana Bread but with a few changes using a recipe from one of Mimi Fix's books. If came out really good. Lightly dense, but not fall apart-y or rubbery.

My Changes:

1. I forgot the butter, but #2 made up for it I guess

2. I used 8oz of sour cream (full fat) in place of the yogurt

3. I used 3 medium bananas at 320g total

4. Brown Sugar 120g which is about 2/3c packed

5. I did use the 1.5cups (180g) of all purpose flour, but I used 30g (1/4c) each of whole wheat and rye. Not enough rye flavor came through, maybe just 60g of Rye next time.

6. I upped the salt to 1tsp

7. I upped the baking soda to 1 tsp since I cut out the baking powder

8. I used 1 tsp of cinnamon. Not enough, maybe use 2tsp next time.

9. Finally I used 1/2c each of dark chocolate chips and peanut butter chips (Reeses has PB chips in the baking aisle now!)

Here is the recipe with my changes:

2 eggs

3 medium bananas (320g)

1 cup (8oz) of sour cream, full fat

2/3 packed brown sugar (120g)

1.5 cups (180g) All purpose Flour

1/4 cup (30g) Whole Wheat Flour

1/4 cup (30g) Rye Flour

1 tsp of Salt

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp of Cinnamon (not enough to taste it over the chocolate unfortunately)

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter chips

I used 3 dark, small loaf pans (5"x3"x1.5") so I baked it at 325F for about 40 minutes. It was still under cooked at 30 minutes. Use the same directions as the Better Banana Bread above.

Not much to say, except I'm re hydrating my 2g of dried starter from 3(?) years ago. I've been feeling better and store bought bread prices have been going up. Almost $4 a loaf here for the basic stuff. I've got bubbles in my tiny starter which is half rye and half whole wheat. If anyone remembers, I was having water problems when trying to get it going the first time. So far I have only been using filtered water and no bottled, so my fingers are crossed this stays alive (it's hurricane season and people panic buy the bottled stuff).

On another note, I found a glass bottle of regular yeast starter in my refrigerator door, from 2018. I made rolls with it, no problems at all! I made the Cafeteria Lady rolls, but they came out more like biscuits. And so on I go to look for something more like that of Hawaiian rolls we had in our schools down here. I'm guessing the tangzong method.

I haven't been able to do much baking but school for the kiddos start next week, so I'll have lots of time to bake (and rest) and have a nice smelling kitchen. It's been a very busy year.

:)

8/9 Edit: a few days later and I've got black mold on the rim. I am bummed. I was trying to get enough going to do a bake this week of one of Trevor's loaves or some sourdough cinnamon rolls. I guess I'll stick to regular yeast for now and when I do restart it will be the bottled water and pineapple juice method again. Dang, dang, and dang. Well, I guess I'll try making the BBA's cinnamon rolls this week with a bit of rye added. I have a 3lb bag that expires at the end of the month (never buy flour from or fulfilled by Amazon).

Edit: 10/6/2022: I found a jar of more of my dried starter in the back of a cabinet. Hooray!

So my rye starter from almost 2 years ago is going strong. I did a 1:2:2 feeding and it doubled in 6 hours so I decided to bake a 1-2-3 loaf with it. The dough was super sticky, like octopus sticky (https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/60884/sticky-shaping-sticky-dough-or-when-it-too-sticky). I first tried wetting my hands, but that only worked a little bit, so then I had to just use flour, about 1/4 of a cup and it still stuck (like chewing gum, #3 on the link) to my Silpat. I suspect my starter may have run out of food (or I didn't let it rise the second time enough) since my rolls didn't rise very high, they stayed pretty squat. They tasted fine with a bit of a zing from rye flour. My youngest said it was too salty and my oldest smeared peanut butter on top and loved it.

My measurements were this:

50g starter (all rye, it was a 1:2:2)

100g Water

125g AP Flour

25g Rye Flour

25g Malted Milk Powder

1/2 T olive oil

4g Salt (I was going for 3g, but it poured out a bit fast and it's hard to pick out salt from flour.)

And melted butter for brushing right before going into a 375F oven for 15 minutes.

i did a few stretch and folds, did a letter fold a few times, and more stretch and folds over the course of a few hours. Then popped it in the refrigerator over night. Hardly any gluten development, if any. I did not see any strands, just big blobs of chewing gum. So I'm not sure why it was like this. I am a beginner when it comes to dough, but I've had better luck the commercial yeast no-knead bread. I want to to try Trevor's loaf bread next, the one where he uses bread flour, rye and spelt. He has a good video I've watched a few times, so I guess I'll go feed my starter and hope for the best for next time. Here's a link to his loaf: http://www.breadwerx.com/make-sourdough-pan-bread-video/ I wish I could make bread that pretty and take pictures that well.

Revisiting The Approachable Loaf from the 2020 Community Bake- part 3

(Link here: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/62486/community-bake-approachable-loaf-bread-lab)

I tried the loaf again. The kids were at school/daycare so I could pay a bit more attention to the dough. I wish I had taken pictures of the process, then you all could tell me if the dough was done. Next time!

So the changes from last time are 100% whole wheat with the addition of vinegar and I rounded off the oil to 30 instead of 27ml. I prefer round numbers because that's what my jars do. I also accidentally added 2 grams of yeast to the preferment, so I compensated by only adding 3 grams to the final dough. It fermented fast, about 3 hours to doubling, but the strings were short.

I did a gentle mixing and then left it alone for a while before kneading. For the kneading I gently did some Rubaud and stretch and folds. I also squished it some. I know, squish is not very descriptive, but that's what I did when it would start to tear. I did that maybe 3 times then I left it alone for 30 minutes. Came back and did the same thing again. The third time I did one Rubaud followed by several coil folds. I noticed throughout the kneading that the dough went from sticky and shaggy to smooth and sleek. I was glad I could take time to notice that. I think the kids being away helped with that. After 30 more minutes I shaped it.

I baked it at 425F for 30 minutes. Again it was too hot or my bread was too close to the top as the top got singed. It rose higher than my first loaf. I'm not sure if that was the vinegar or the gluten development and gentle kneading. I have noticed that whole wheat rises better when I use vinegar, but I think it was probably both.

Here are the ingredients

Preferment: WW Flour: 352g + 352g water + 2g yeast

Final Dough:

166g WW Flour

60g Water (This bumped up the hydration to around 80%)

40g Honey

30g Olive Oil

10g Salt

3g Yeast

1tsp Apple Cider Vinegar

I'll post pictures tomorrow after I cut into it.

I wasn't able to get to making bread as soon as my last post because I've been sick with sinus stuff and now the doc suspects anemia. So now that I'm not sick and only dealing with low iron I was able to bake some bread today. I still have a lot of breads to try on my wish list, but I think I may stick with one (or two, possibly three) for now.