Daily Sourdough Bread

This sourdough bread is easy to make and very flexible in timing. I got the recipe from here and I modified it slightly by adding in wheat germ and chia seeds. At the same time, I reduced the dough by half.

The whole process is divided into 3 parts. The first part is creating the preferment and letting it develop over 12 hours. The second part is creating the final dough and shaping which takes around 3 hours. The last part is the baking which can be done on a separate day, but not longer than 4 days from the creation of the final dough. The dough is kept in the fridge after the second part of the process until you are ready to bake.

preferment
* 72g bread flour
* 5g rye flour
* 75g water
* 30g of starter

Preferment is created by using part of the flour and water together with the starter. This preferment is allowed to ferment and will be used to proof the main dough after that. By using a preferment, the bread has better flavours and the time to proof the final dough is faster.

final build
* 303g bread flour
* 20g rye flour
* 100g wholewheat flour
* 25g wheat germ (5% addition)
* 25g chia seeds (5% addition)
* 10g salt
* 275g to 295g water
* the preferment

Total flour (excluding starter) - 500g (20% wholewheat, 5% rye)
Total water (excluding starter) - 350g (70% hydration) to 375g (75% hydration)
Total ingredients - 940g (with wheat germ and chia seeds)

Method

Combine all the ingredients for the preferment and mix into a thick paste. Let it stand and rest for about 12 hours. It will get bubbly. I did it in the  morning before going to work. By the time I am back from work, it is ready to be used.

Combine the rest of the ingredients except the preferment and the salt. No need to knead yet, just let it stand for about half an hour. This is called “autolyse“, a method to pre-create some gluten and to reduce the kneading time.

All the ingredients except salt and preferment

Add the preferment and salt to the rest. Now it’s time to mix. I used the Bosch mixer to knead and develop the gluten. If it feels too dry, you can add the additional 20g of water slowly. The wheat germ and chia seeds can absorb water, making the dough drier than the original recipe.

Shaggy mess before kneading

The dough comes cleanly off the sides during kneading, almost ready

From the time of adding the preferment, shape the dough after 2 hours. The kneading should have been completed long before that. Just leave the dough in the machine bowl and cover it to prevent the dough from drying up on the surface. You wouldn't want the dough to be left outside for too long in case it gets over-proofed. When you put the dough in the fridge, it will take some time before the cold temperature puts the wild yeast to sleep so the dough will still be proofing for a while in the fridge.

I shaped it into a boule and placed it in a bannetton. Cover it with cling film to prevent it from drying in the fridge. Transfer it to the fridge for as long as you need, but not more than 4 days.

Dough is shaped and floured

Before going into the fridge

The night before baking, I took the dough out of the fridge and let it proof in the living room while I sleep. The next morning, about 7 hours later, it is ready to bake.

Fully proofed dough

Preheat the oven at 240°C together with the cloche. I use a cloche to trap the steam. This helps the dough to rise better and also forms a nice brown crust. After 20 mins, I remove the cover and let the bread continue baking to dry up the crust and develop the brown crust. Bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until the bottom sounds hollow on tapping. Or until the internal temperature is around 96C.

Nice crust and "ear"

Let the bread cool down before cutting into it. Enjoy! :)

I forgot to add 25g of flax seeds in this version. If you want to do so, soak 25g of flax seeds with 50g of water for 24 hours before adding it in the main dough.

Rye Sourdough English Muffins

Another recipe to make use of the "discarded" sourdough starter.

Ingredients
120g starter that has been stored in the fridge (mine is a 100% hydration rye starter)
200ml milk
344g all purpose/plain flour
1 TBSP sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
Semolina or cornmeal, for dusting

Method
Mix starter, flour and milk in a large container. Mix to combine, cover with plastic wrap, and leave out for 8 hours or overnight.

Starter, flour and milk mixed and left overnight in room temperature

Result overnight. Bubbles are obvious and doubled in height

After the overnight rest, add sugar, salt and baking soda and mix well. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 4-5 minutes.

Roll out to 2 cm height and cut with a biscuit cutter into rounds. You can re-roll the scraps, but you may need to let the dough rest before cutting more muffins from them. Place muffins on a piece of parchment dusted with semolina and let rest for 45 minutes.

Cut into rounds and resting on semolina

Spray frying pan lightly with spray oil. Cook muffins for about 6-8 minutes on each side using low to medium heat, or until browned on the top and bottom and cooked through. Don't use too high heat or the top and bottom will be too brown and the middle remains uncooked.

In a frying pain, lightly coated with oil

Waiting to be eaten

Sourdough Walnut Bread

Esther has been buying walnut bread for the past few weeks. And I have been trying to perfect a loaf of sourdough bread. So, instead of just baking a simple sourdough bread, I added walnuts to my loaf. The good thing about bread making is that the end product is edible even if the baking fails. :p

As usual, for the sourdough bread, we need to create a levain first which will be used to "lift" the final bread dough.

Levain
52g bread flour
20.5g water
22g active sourdough starter (100% hydration)

Active starter means after feeding, the starter will double or triple its size within 12 hours. It depends on the temperature you are keeping the starter in.

Start by dissolving the starter in water. Then add in the bread flour and mix until the flour is fully incorporated. I flattened it in a glass jar to monitor how much it rises overnight. Cover the opening of the jar with cling film.

Levain created

Notice the bubbles in the levain left overnight in room temperature

Final Dough
208g flour
23g whole wheat flour
165g water
5.5 salt
94.5g of levain created above
46g toasted walnut


Method
In a stand mixer, mix the flour and water at low speed until it forms a shaggy mass. Cover and autolyse for 60 minutes. During the wait, you can toast the walnut.

Shaggy mass of flour and water

Toast the walnut at 200C in a toaster for 10 minutes, stirring them regularly. Let them cool down before using.

Toasted walnuts, broken into smaller pieces

Add the salt and levain and mix at low speed for 2 minutes, then increase the speed to medium (Speed 2 in a KitchenAid) and mix for 10 minutes. Add flour and water as needed to adjust the hydration.

Add in the walnut and mix by hand. I tried using the stand mixer but it doesn't seem to be doing a good job at mixing the walnuts into the dough.

Transfer the dough into a oiled bowl and do a stretch and fold, then shaped into a ball to bulk ferment.

After the first stretch and fold

Do a stretch and fold every half hourly for 2 hours to develop the gluten during the bulk fermentation.

After the 2nd stretch and fold

Notice the dough getting tighter and less "relaxed". Compare the photo above and below.

After the 3rd stretch and fold

After the final stretch and fold, pre-shape the dough into a ball and rest for 15 minutes while you prepare the banneton. I floured the banneton with rice flour to prevent the dough from sticking during the proofing stage.

Dough resting

Shape the dough tighter into a boule and put it in a floured banneton. Let it proof. It is difficult to say how long you should proof for because it depends on the activity of your levain and also the surrounding temperature.

You can try using the "finger poke" test to see if the dough has proofed sufficiently. By poking at various places on the dough with your floured index finger to a depth of 1 cm, see how the dough behaves when you remove your finger. If the indentation disappears immediately, it is not proofed. If the indentation stays the same, it is over-proofed. What you are looking for is for the indentation to pop back half-way. This is the point where you can bake the bread. Don't worry about leaving dents on the dough. Once it is in the oven and expanding, the dents will disappear.

Dough proofing in a green plastic banneton

Bake the dough in a preheated oven at 240C for 30 to 40 mins. Use a thermometer to check the internal temperature. You are aiming for around 96C in the middle of the bread.

The final product

Crumb shot

Still trying to master my sourdough starter. Baking bread using sourdough is different from using commercial yeast. How fast the dough rises depends on the "mood" of the sourdough and nature of things.

Next bread might be baked using a kombucha starter instead of a rye sourdough. We shall see...

Sourdough rye and whole wheat crackers

When you are growing your sourdough starter, you need to discard half of it and feed the leftover with more flour and water. So what to do with all the discarded sourdough starter when you are growing your sourdough? Do you throw it away? It's perfectly edible flour that has been fermented. I keep a big bottle of it in the fridge to stop it from fermenting further.


Found this recipe at The Fresh Loaf.

50g whole wheat flour
20ml coconut oil
0.9g salt
100g discarded sourdough starter at 100% hydration (50g flour/50g water)


Mix the whole wheat flour with salt, then mix in the coconut oil. Add in the sourdough starter and mix well. Leave it overnight until risen in a warm place. My house is around 30C all year round.

All ingredients mixed

Fermented overnight and risen. See the bubbles.

The next day, take out the dough and roll it out as thin as possible and evenly with a rolling pin. Then cut up the thin dough into squares using a pizza cutter. I use a "special" rolling pin to control the thickness I want. :)

Rolled as thinly and evenly as possible and cut.

Special rolling pin that can control the thickness of the dough

Bake it in the oven at temperature of 175C convection mode. Rotate your tray at around 7 to 8 minutes if your oven heat is not even. As mine is very thin, it is done in 14 minutes. So, monitor it closely to prevent the crackers from being burnt. Noticed the edges are darker than the middle.

The crackers will shrink once they are done

Keep in airtight container to maintain the freshness and crisp.

Malted Sourdough Bread

I bought some malt extract from a health food store and it has been sitting in the fridge and I don't really use a lot of it, so I decided to look for a bread recipe that uses it.

Everyday Malted Brown Bread Recipe (from here)

700g brown or wholemeal bread flour
200g white bread flour
80g malt extract
80ml sunflower or vegetable oil
4 tsp dried active yeast
30g demerara or light brown sugar
3tsp maldon sea salt, crushed (if you use regular table salt you will need to add more - try 4tsp)
540ml water

I did a few changes to the original recipe. The above recipe uses yeast but I am more keen to use my rye sourdough starter. I also halved the recipe to make a smaller loaf. As I don't have brown or wholemeal bread flour, I used normal bread flour and whole wheat flour instead.

Malted Sourdough Bread Recipe

340g bread flour
100g whole wheat flour (to be used in the levain)
260ml water (divided 100ml + 160ml)
20g sourdough starter (100% hydration = 10g rye + 10ml water)
40g malt extract
40ml vegetable oil
15g light brown sugar
9g salt (Baker's percent: 2%)

Total flour = 450g (including the flour in the starter)
Total water = 270ml (including the water in the starter)
Hydration = 60% (270/450*100)

Levain
Add 100g whole wheat flour and 100ml water to 20g rye sourdough starter. Mix well and ferment for 12 to 16 hours.

My sourdough starter is normally in the fridge hibernating if I am not baking. A few days before using it, I will take it out of the fridge and feed it daily to wake it up and strengthen it. Sourdough starters are different from commercial yeast. Because it is natural, it tends to take a longer time for the bread to ferment and proof unlike using those hyperactive commercial yeast. There are some advantages of eating sourdough bread which you can spend some time reading if you are interested.

Levain created with sourdough starter

I left mine for 21 hours due to work commitments. As seen below, the levain is now very bubbly and has raised in height. If you give the sourdough a sniff, you can detect traces of fruity smell with some sourish tang as well.

Doubled in height and bubbly

Lots of bubbles

Main Dough
Using a mixing bowl, mix the levain with the rest of the water (160ml) to dissolve it. Add in all the other ingredients except the salt and mix well. Leave it covered to autolyse for 30 to 60 mins.

After that, add in the salt and mix well and knead the dough.

Shaggy mass after adding all the ingredients

You can knead the dough using a stand mixer or by hand until gluten is developed. Let it rest in a covered bowl for 2 hours to bulk ferment at room temperature.

Dough that has been knead and left to rest

After 2 hours, shape the dough into a boule and placed it in a oiled and floured bowl. I floured the bowl with semolina which is why it looked so grainy. You can use corn meal or rice flour as well to prevent sticking. Cover it with cling film and put it in the fridge overnight. That will allow slower fermentation and proofing which will result in nicer flavours in the bread.

Dough is shaped and placed seam-side up in a oiled and floured bowl

The next day, take it out and leave it at room temperature until the dough has proofed enough for baking. If your bread proofed overnight in the fridge and is ready to bake, you can bake it straight from the oven, there is no need to wait for the dough to come to room temperature. You can score the dough to help get a better/more even rise in the oven.

Preheat the oven to 210C, transfer the dough to a baking sheet/stone and bake for 30 mins. You can use steam for the initial 15 minutes.

The end result - Malted Sourdough Bread

I could have baked the bread at 230C instead of 210C, that might result in a better rise. Also, maybe increase the hydration of the dough to 65% instead of just 60%.

If I were to use this recipe again, I would replace the water with Guinness and make a Malted Sourdough Guinness Bread. :)

Whole Spelt Bread with Herbs-infused Olive Oil using Tang Zhong starter

This loaf of bread is made with whole spelt flour, using tang zhong starter. Tang zhong is a method from Asia which involves heating up a portion of the flour with water until 65C and turning that into a glue-like paste consistency. By doing so, the final product ends up softer and fluffier.

Ingredients
Tang zhong starter
20g whole spelt flour (around 5% of total spelt flour used)
100ml water

Main dough
360g whole spelt flour, divided (180g + 180g)
140ml water
40ml herbs-infused olive oil
40ml honey
120g tang zhong starter (see above)

Method
Start by making a tang zhong starter. The ratio of water to flour is 5:1. For my case, I used 100ml water with 20g spelt flour and mixed them in a pot while heating the mixture up to 65C, stirring continuously. Once the temperature is reached, turned off the heat and let the mixture cool down. You can cover it with clingfilm and put it in the fridge for a few days before using.

Tang zhong starter

Heat up 40ml of olive oil with some of your favourite herbs. Let it cool down and strain it before using.

Olive oil infused with herbs

In a stand mixer, combine 180g of the spelt flour with 1 tsp of yeast and 6g of salt. Add to the mixer, 140ml water, 40ml honey and the 40ml of herbs-infused olive oil. Mix it for one minute.

Cover the bowl with a towel and let it rest for one hour. It will be bubbly like below.

Bubbly bubbly bubbly

Add in the tang zhong starter. If you had placed it in the fridge, take it out for at least a few hours before using.

Start adding in the rest of the flour in small proportions while mixing. You will know you have added enough flour when the dough pulls away from the bowl and forms one big ball. The dough may be slightly sticky. Do not over-add the flour or the dough will be too dry. It is alright to have some flour left. For this bake, I have 20g of flour leftover. Do not over-mix this dough in a stand mixer because the gluten in the spelt flour is very fragile and over-mixing will destroy the gluten strands.

Placed the dough in the loaf tin and let it proof for 1 to 2 hours. When it doubles in size, it is ready for baking.

Proofing

Proofed and ready to be baked

Preheat the oven to 175C. Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes. Take the tin out of the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes, then carefully remove the loaf and finish cooling on a rack.

Freshly out of the oven

Loaf is cooling down

Cross-section of the bread

Do try making this on your own and see how soft the bread can be. You can use normal bread flour instead of spelt flour. If you are using normal bread flour, you might want to knead the dough to develop the gluten.

Kek Lapis/Kueh Lapis Legit

This is a cake with a thousand names with a thousand layers. Ok, I'm just kidding. It does have a few names and close to 20 layers. The layers are added one by one. After the top layer is grilled, another layer of batter is added. It is very time-consuming and tedious because you can't leave the cake to bake by itself. The moment you leave it in the oven for too long, the top layer will be burnt. Each layer takes between 3 to 5 mins to be done. How fast it takes depends on individual oven. You need the grill function or top heat only.

Recipe
400g butter
6 tbsp condensed milk
1 tbsp rempah kueh powder
6 to 7 tbsp brandy/rum (optional)
30 egg yolks
4 egg whites
300g sugar
100g plain flour
7" by 10" tin

Ingredients for Kek Lapis

Cream butter in a mixer and add in condensed milk and mix. Add in rempah kueh powder and mix. Add in brandy or rum, depending on your preference.

Creamed butter with condensed milk and rempah kueh powder

Preparing the egg yolks.

Egg yolks!

In another mixer, beat egg yolks and whites with sugar until light and fluffy or double in volume.

Beating egg yolks/whites with sugar

Fold flour into the egg mixture.

Fold flour into egg mixture

Fold the egg mixture into the butter mixture.

Batter ready

Oil the bottom of the tin and place a piece of parchment paper at the bottom.
Weigh out 100g of batter for the first layer, place it into the tin and level it.

1st layer

Grill the layer until brown. Rotate the tin if your oven heat is not even.

Top layer grilled to brown

Take out the tin, press down the layer and poke with a toothpick if there are any bubbles.

Press down every layer

Place another 100g of batter into the top layer. Grill until brown.

For subsequent layers, use 80g of batter.

Repeat the above steps until you finish the batter or you go crazy, whichever comes first. Hehe. This cake is expensive because it is very labour intensive.

For the last two, use 100g of batter instead of 80g.

Once the lapis is done, separate the sides from the tin and invert it over a rack so that it has the characteristic criss-cross pattern on the top and let it cool down. You can removed the tin while it is cooling.

Separate the kek lapis from the edge of the tin

Cut the lapis up only when it has totally cooled down. The kek lapis will taste better after 2 to 3 days.