Recent Blog Entries

Well, I leave the baking of breads to Floyd (my husband, and the webmaster of this site), but I figured I'd post this in my baking blog here because, well, maybe someone would find it fun (and besides, I suspect Floyd won't mind). Our son turned 4 on Sunday, and for his birthday he wanted to have a Pirate Party. So, I made him a Pirate Ship Cake!

read more to see how it was done!

My boy wanted a strawberry cake, and I was a bit surprised at how pink the thing turned out to be. A few calculated slices and some picks to keep the pieces from falling, and we'd turn this into the scariest strawberry cake on the seven seas!

There's the pirate ship! I left the mast off until we arrived at the pizza parlor where we planned to have the party.

The ship was named after the birthday boy, with sugar skulls and a grape fruit-roll flag, pirouline cookie cannons, and chocolate malt-ball cannon balls

which turned out to be quite popular with the kids.

Arr there be a treasure chest filled with gems and dubloons by the cap'n too!

There she is, all assembled. The ice-cream cone crows nest was supported by a straw nestled inside of more pirouine cookies. The only part that wasn't edible (aside from the picks that held the shape of the ship and the straw, was the pirate flag hanging from the top of the mast. Oh, and the pirates of course.

The kids loved it!

I started making bread about six months ago, I've been enjoying making bread so much that I've started TAFE to become a baker. My goal when I started was to produce a soft white sandwich bread in as short a time as possible. Now that I can do that I'll share what I've learnt. The first thing that I think is important is to use percentages and weight I do not measure by cups etc, I also keep an eye on time and temperature. Since approaching breadmaking with an engineers hat on so to speak my bread has improved considerably. So here is how I make a rapid bread from start to finish in about two hours. First I work out how much dough I need, today I'm going to do two baguettes at 450g and a lunch loaf at 550g which is about the maximum capacity of my oven, using two oven shelves never seems to work. So I need a dough of 1450g and I'm using the following formula.

• 100% Flour
• 58% Water
• 2% Salt
• 2% Olive Oil
• 1% Sugar
• 1% Yeast
• Total -- 164%

I would usually use bakers flour and 1% bread improver however I wanted to test a cheap all-purpose flour with a protein content of 10.8% (Savings Brand in Austraila) and to see the result of no improver.

For my weights I do the following.

• 1450g / 1.64 = 884g -- dough weight divided by our 164% gives the required flour weight.
• 884 * 58% = 513g -- All other percentages are relative to the flour.
• 884 * 2% = 18g -- Salt
• 884 * 2% = 18g -- Olive Oil
• 884 * 1% = 9g -- Sugar
• 884 * 1% = 9g -- Yeast

On a higher speed I work the dough for roughly 8-10 minutes. At this point I want a dough with temperature of about 28°C, I usually get the water temperature(20-22°C with the current warm weather) set by adding a couple of ice cubes(tap water is about 26°C here) to a jug of water before weighing the water off. Kneading the dough will warm it up a bit which is allowed for in the water temperature.

I pull the dough out and give it a "window check" if it's not up to scratch I'll give the dough some hand work. I've seen mentioned here somewhere not to tear the dough but this is exactly what I've been taught at TAFE and hence what I do which rapidly develops the gluten. I suppose there are many schools of thought on kneading :-)

I then let the dough sit again for 10 minutes to again relax the dough before shaping. I split the dough into the required weights and shape. For the lunch loaf I would usually punch down and roll a baguette shape, cut in half and put in the tin with pointy ends in the middle. But today I tried splitting the dough in half and putting 2 balls in, my loaf suffered as I didn't degas it before balling it (almost no oven spring).

For the baguettes I punched down the dough folded the sides in and then rolled it whilst maintaining tension. I slice the baguettes before prooving as doing so afterwards can be difficult.

For prooving I use a plastice storage container to which I add boiling water for steam. The rise takes about 30-60 minutes and may sometimes need more boiling water added to keep the heat up if the weather is cooler.

A spray of water and some seeds and into the oven at 220°C. I pour some water onto an oven tray on the bottom of the oven for steam. I turn the temperature down to 210°C and bake for approximately 25 minutes, a bit shorter for baguettes and rolls sometimes and usually a bit longer for loaves.

From todays effort I can say I rushed a bit and should have left the dough in the proover longer and the gluten was a little under developed. But not a bad result considering my mistakes and cheap flour and it still tasted good with some brie ;-)

Thought someone out there would enjoy the soap opera of a sourdough newbie..LOL!
I have been studying the techniques of many mentors here..I had my notes on the long
proof of my starter,autolysing, folding & shaping, slack doughs, retarded rise..too many
facts for my feeble brain I fear!! I took my starter out Friday, poured out but 1/4 cup
and fed with 1/2 c flour & 1/2 cup H2O..a little later bubbling and very happy..into the
oven with the light on overnight..Saturday morning (12 hours later)slowing down..so I feed
& back into the oven. Sunday morning..I think I waited too long..still bubbling..but there
is hooch too. I mix my starter, yeast,milk,lemon juice & flour..cover and let sit 30 min.
Un oh..really stiff so I add a bit of H2O..way too sticky..then flour..still a mess.
I cover and decide to let it sit for 45 min..while I make Sunday breakfast..french toast,
fresh strawberries & bacon. My husband decides to assist and dumps the dough out on the
bread board ..OK..I tell him wait..not ready yet and cover it up. We eat..I go back
to my doughy mess..hmm not too bad..dough has relaxed ..so I fold..put it to rest ..I'm in
the shower and now remember I haven't put in the salt, sugar and olive oil!!..another 45 min
has gone by and it has risen..Hmm..I know I am committing bread suicide..I pour my dough into my food processor..add the salt, sugar and olive oil and do the wicked deed..and pray.
I let it rest again..fold and back into the bowl. A hour later..it has risen nicely..so
I divide and fold and into the fridge ... and so the sourdough rises.. I hope
until tomorrow...
I do have a dilemma..usually I get out of work at 2:30 PM..but tomorrow 5:30..
if my house is pretty cool ..in the 60's ..can I take my bread out of the fridge to rise
@ 6AM ish? so I can bake tomorrow night..and/or can I wait until Tuesday to bake..when I
get home earlier?

Surprisingly, the sweet potato didn't gave as much sweetness as i expected. But it actually helped tenderize the dough and really keeps it moist. The bread came out soft and nice (without added fat), and didn't go dry even in the fridge after more than a day.

Perhaps later on, i might experiment with yam, avocados, zuchinni, carrots & ...parsnips?? :P