summer sourdough bread

It’s TOO HOT TO RUN THE OVEN!

NO KIDDING , but who can go too long without a loaf of fresh bread, during the summer unless you have a very well air conditioned kitchen, adding more heat to the house isn’t a good idea and the temperature may not dip that much during the evening hours.

What have I got to lose by trying baking bread in a …………. crock pot ?

So it goes like this , I’ll skip over the dough part, just prep your favorite sourdough recipe, form up the loaf in a well greased crock of your crock pot. the amount will be proportional to the size of your pot. mine was the average size old 2 temperature crock pot. Now in a warm non air conditioned room the dough set overnight covered till it became a nice bubbly mass.

The  crock pot can be located in an non air conditioned room or even outside when baking to minimize the heat.

Now set the cover ajar, as I’ve learned from experience that fully covered, steam will form and drip back into the loaf making for a much too wet product, set it on high heat. Those with the fancy digital types will have to go by their best guess as to temperature.

Check back in about 50 minutes or so. The bottom should form a nice golden crust as to the sides as well.

Having the crock well greased, using a rack or plate over the crock, flip it.

Now carefully place the loaf back in the crock crispy side up, for another baking session about 45 minutes or so, your time will vary depending on the temperatures of the pot settings. Again the cover is ajar to retain some of the heat and vent the moisture.

Sourdough being a rather moist dough might still be not cooked through as I noticed in past attempts. so after the second baking continued I down shifted to the low heat setting and let her bake another 45 minutes or so.

The result is now golden brown on both the top and bottom, don’t expect the same results that  would have resulted  in a regular oven. It’s kind of a flat, puck style look..

…. but the taste is the same and sourdough texture is there.

By the way you can try this with traditional dough recipes also.

 

 

 

 

Sourdough crackers

Making crackers again, a simple dough recipe from zero waste chef. Sourdough crackers

The skill I am accomplishing here is the uniformity of the thickness of the dough. As it makes a big difference in the finished product, all the crackers bake the same and finish at the same time. Too thin and they brown to very thin crispy wafers. Too thick, a chewy not crispy texture. This will also test the resolve of the evenness heat in your oven. Rotating the racks and baking at various levels can accomplish an even baking. I also would like to convert the recipe to weight measurements for a more precise repeatability. The result though of this recipe is a very favorable cracker either alone or with a pate or fruit spread or dip. So easy once the dough is rolled out, you’ll find yourself wondering why to buy a box of crackers.

I’ve made a couple of substitutions to the basic recipe:

2/3 cup sourdough starter

3 heaping teaspoons of coconut oil (or olive oil)

3/4 cup whole wheat flour (I used all-purpose which may effect the quickness of baking and color)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

extra coarse salt for topping (omitted so far, although I would try sesame seeds)

Combine the wet ingredients in a bowl (starter and oil) add to the dry ingredients.

I let the dough hook do all the work and made slight adjustments adding flour for a smooth dough.

Let it rest for about 6 hours, mine rose slightly

With a serrated wheel cutter used for ravoli, I made rectangular crackers.

The dough with the oil content is extremely durable and stretchable, easy to roll and cut.

Second batch : double recipe, this one the dough was slightly wetter, ended rolling the dough on the cookie sheets and added docking the dough with a fork. Tasty ! I ate most of the overbaked uneven crackers. These were larger rectangles than the first batch with 2 circular samples.

Cruffins

A new method for dough, I had though of this idea but wasn’t sure of what type of dough would work with the pasta machine. Found this recipe. A bit labor intensive, but a different take on the traditional dinner rolls.

ladyandpups.com

Here’s the ingredients, refer to the link for the technique.

Ingredients

• 150 grams (1 cup + 1 tbsp) bread flour
• 150 grams (1 cup + 1 tbsp) all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp (6 grams) instant dry yeast
• 1 1/2 tsp (11 grams) salt
• 130 grams (1/2 cup) luke-warm water + 30 grams (2 tbsp) for adjustment
• 50 grams (3 1/2 tbsp) unsalted butter, soften and cubed
• 165 grams (11 1/2 tbsp) unsalted butter, room-temperature

I doubled the recipe but made each batch separate.

Utilized tipo “00” for the bread flour and all-purpose for the other flour.

There’s a lot of mixing involved, but with the dough hook on the machine it’s just a matter of time.

after the butter has been blended in I let it mix about 15 minutes at medium low-speed.

The fun is just beginning !

As the recipe suggests, loop the dough back through the pasta roller before it runs through resulting in a continuous loop, too long to effectively manage once you decrease the thickness settings with results in a long loop of dough. I did each strip without the looping, possibly with a helper the continuous loop method will work , but I didn’t see it as an advantage.

The dough, I guess with the amount of butter incorporated and the long kneading time , is very forgiving, it went very thin without breakage and very silky and manageable. I hope you like playing with butter, a lot more is spread on the dough strips, I found out by microwaving the sticks of butter several seconds only and somewhat whisking, the butter became soft enough for spreading with an offset spatula. Too thick a butter results in tears in the paper-thin dough. You merely roll the butter frosted strips cigar style. Placing one rolled strip on top of another  unrolled strip and rolling again. Then it cut length wise, exposing the lamination.  Just loop the half cigar with the lamination on the outer circumference pulling the ends together to fit in a muffin pan.

(I don’t know why you could not just place one buttered strip, on top of another and roll them at once. Possibly once buttered would be too fragile to lift.)

The recipe suggest letting the cruffins rise till double, mine did nit really as I noticed a fast rise only after a short rest of the initial mix of the dough.

No problem with the baking , with the high butter content and the buttered muffin tins, the butter will be bubbling within the tins at the completion of baking. I feared that the cruffins would be soggy ! NO they finished extremely light and crispy on the outer edges and pull apart flaky interiors. Of course with buttery flavor. No reason to have to butter these rolls ! Broken apart on the plate, pour over some gravy !

Now the real test as they are presented at the Holiday dinner table.

Hurry up before they are all gone !

Many comments and accolades from the family food critics ! Since I bake many variations of dough products, some not repeated, they asked if this would be another one time bake !  Now, I’m going to repeat this recipe, more free form croissant style less the muffin pan, and perhaps a savory version.  Even though the recipe calls for the powered sugar atop , of course for dinner rolls I omitted that.

The labor of this recipe goes into the rolling of the dough through the pasta machine and  time wise  kneading 15 minutes with the mixer. Have plenty of butter on hand for this recipe. (I made one recipe without salt and salted butter and one recipe with salt and  salted butter with, I could not tell the difference. ) Also I weighed the ingredients, highly recommended, so there was no problem with the consistency of the dough in both recipes. After the 15 minutes of dough hook time, the dough came together beautifully.

recent photos

Some out takes from the previous months, mostly re”pete” of recipes, some did not warrant a posting by themselves.

Hamburger Buns

Dough Wrapped Hotdogs

Dumpling Soup

Thai styled Grilled Chicken

Roasting Coffee Beans

Broth

Pesto

Eggplant, Smoke Roasted Tomato

Eggplant, Smoke Roasted Tomato, Flatbread

Fried Dumplings

Chicken Breast, Tomato Curry

Chicken Broth

Noodle Soup

Cold Noodle Soup

Grilled Cauliflower and Veggies

Cookie bars (chocolate)

The actual title is Black Bottom Cookie Bars denoting that the cookie is half chocolate and half plain. Not a big cookie and brownie fan, but other household members are.

Cocoa, vanilla, sugars, coconut oil,eggs, chopped chocolate, flour/salt mixture. 8 inch by 8 inch pan is prepped with baking paper.

A substitute for the butter is coconut oil, which due the current weather had to measured and refrigerated to a solid consistency. (lower left)

 

I also did not have bits, so I had to go to the reserves

 

Blend coconut oil and sugars. Whisk attachment.

Once mixed, add flour gradually.

Finish adding the flour, mix till just moistened.

 

Divide the dough in half, weighed it out but note: the chocolate 1/2 should be a bit less than half because the chocolate bits will take up some volume. (just being picky)

Mix in the cocoa and bits to 1/2 of the plain dough mixture

Spread the chocolate dough, then the plain dough in the pan. Happily

Off to the oven

In the convection oven , still warm weather so no running the gas oven for now.

Chillin out till cool !

cooled finished bars, some of the chips still oozy.

I could have probably left out the chocolate chips, deep chocolate flavor. No comment from the the brownie expert so all is good. I just have about 1/2 of one of the squares, enough for me. Would be good tempered with vanilla ice cream.

Bread and Jam

While at the market, some fresh cherries were purchased  so after eating several and using some to augment the bottle of rumtopf in the  fridge, the remainder was processed for some fresh cherry jam . With minimal additives, only an apple to lend some pectin and sugar to taste, the mixture was steamed then  processed and  boiled till the proper consistency was achieved. Since toast is made often a great accompaniment.

STEAMING THE FRUIT

AFTER THE STEAMING THE FRUIT WAS PROCESSED BY THE FOOD MILL

(the waste is in the dish) 

BOILING AND REDUCTION OF THE PROCESSED FRUIT

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

SOURDOUGH BREAD

The bread making continues, this time a yeast less loaf, high hydration dough mixture literately poured into a heated crock with a bit of an assist from a spatula. About one cup of sourdough starter, and in a separate container, a cup of flour and water, both set out in the morning. I think  there is enough wild yeast floating around the kitchen area as the mixture of the  flour and water  practically started ferment by itself in short order. Both containers left loosely covered during the day. When the temps recede at later evening it’s time to bake when the mixes have been combined, more flour added, and given another proofing to a very wet bubbling mass of sour dough. Baked by the covered/uncovered crock method.

 

The bottom of the bread.

Now the best method I have found is to heat the crock as usual and then just before adding the dough use an oil from a spray can to coat the crock.

TOAST TEST

Broiled, crunchy with soft crumb, very moist bread. Won’t last long enough to spoil !

 

 

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