What’s Your Flavour Mini Boules

So I’ve been absent the last few weeks. I tend to do the bulk of my ‘baking’ on a Saturday, of course with sourdough this usually means I am preparing on Saturday and actually baking on Sunday. Recently I have been trying out a few new recipes, I even *gasp* bought a sourdough recipe book. It’s been great to try different methods and use it to improve my own baking.

I have tried brioche, I’ve found it very hit and miss for me but I think that’s because I’m mixing by hand. This is not any easy task because without a stand mixer I am mixing the butter in for about 30 minutes. In an effort to not turn into Popeye, I think this is one I’m going to leave until I can plump for a nice shiny stand mixer.

My standard sourdough is coming along nicely, though my shaping still needs a little work – mostly because I get bored of standard bread so I tend not to bake it too often.

One thing I have been working on a lot is flavored breads, its a bit lazy but if the bread already has cheese or other fillings then I can just slice it and eat without the effort of making a sandwich.

I have found a few recipes for a sourdough loaf with fillings. Again though, I have the problem of being a two person household. I find that large loaves only really last 1-2 days after baking before they aren’t as nice to eat. Therefore, a lot of the time I tend to bake and distribute to friends or neighbours – it also stops me from consuming my body weight in bakery every week!

I found a solution – filled bread shaped into smaller boules. They are enough for one and work great for a picnic as you can slice at home and take with you. The tomato one also goes great with soup!

The recipe for these with a few filling options is below, I hope you enjoy!

Savoury Mini Boules

Makes approx. 6 mini boules

A batch of cheddar and bacon and tomato and parmesan breads

Ingredients

I have given the basic recipe plus 3 options for fillings, I tend to do 3 with 1 type of filling and 3 with another. If you do this, split the dough just before you fill into 2 equal portions then add the fillings.

Preparation time: 19-20 hours (7 hours plus an overnight proof)

Baking time: 25 minutes

• 50g Sourdough Starter (Active and fed around 10-12 hours previously)
• 375g Water
• 300g Bread Flour
• 200g Plain Flour
• 9g Salt
• Fillings – 3 options as follows:

• 140g Mature Cheddar OR 100g Parmesan in 2cm cubes
• 50g diced Sundried tomatoes

• 140g Mature Cheddar
• 50g diced Jalepenos
• 12g Finely Chopped Chives

• 140g Mature Cheddar
• 70g cooked bacon, chopped
• 12g Finely Chopped Chives

Method

1. Add the starter and water to a large bowl and mix together well. Then add the bread flour and plain flour and mix to form a shaggy dough
2. Cover loosely with a tea towel and leave to rest for 30-60 minutes.
3. Add the salt to the dough and drive into the dough with your fingertips, re-cover
4. Leaving the dough in the bowl, stretch and fold the dough and re-cover. If you find the dough is very wet to work with, try wetting your hands slightly.
5. Repeat the stretch and folds twice more, 30 minutes apart
6. Leave for 1 hour and stretch and fold again, repeat this once more
7. Buy now the bread has been folded 5 times and should be feeling firm but elastic. Leave the dough, covered, to rest at room temperature for 2-3 hours
8. You are now ready to fill the bread, if you are doing two different fillings, divide the dough in half by weight at this point.
9. Add your fillings to the dough and gently mix by hand well to incorporate the fillings into the dough. Prepare two baking trays with baking or parchment paper and lightly dusted with flour.
10. Lightly dust your work surface with flour. Divide the dough into 6 equal portions and form loosely into balls.
11. Shape the dough by pressing the dough into a circle, then pull the right side into the centre, you are trying to create some tension in the dough. Pull the bottom into the centre, then the left and finally the top. Flip the dough so the seam is facing down. Cup the dough at the furthest edge underneath with your hands and pull towards you, building tension on the outside of the boule.
12. Once shaped place the boules on the baking trays, making sure to spread them out so they don’t touch.
13. Place a slightly damp tea towel over each tray and refrigerate overnight
14. The next day remove the boules from the fridge and pre-heat the oven to 235c (215c fan oven). Place a metal baking tray in the bottom of the oven filled with a cup of water while the oven pre-heats (the steam helps to create a good crust)
15. Using a sharp knife, score the boules. When the oven is up to temperature put the bread in the oven, pour another half a cup of hot water into the oven and bake the bread for 25 minutes.
16. Check the bread after 15 or so minutes as you may wish to rotate the trays. After the initial 20 minutes, slightly open the oven door and bake the bread for a further 5 minutes.
17. Remove the bread and move carefully to a cooling rack and allow to cool fully.
18. Enjoy plain, buttered or as a sandwich!

I hope to try out a few different fillings in the future, I may even give a sweet version a try as well.

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Scones? Scones!

I hope you’re all doing well. The world is even crazier at the moment and I hope everyone is keeping safe.

I told you all last time that to go with the Apple and Blackberry crumble I made a fresh egg custard. But we could only manage half the crumble that day. The next day I was not going to go to the effort of making custard again so I picked up some proper clotted cream and we had the rest of the crumble with some of the cream.

I’ve said before that I don’t like waste, and what crazy person would waste clotted cream?! So I struck upon the idea of making fruit scones and I managed to find a recipe that used sourdough starter as well, just to fuel my new hobby obsession. Obviously, scones are very British so there were way more recipes for American ‘Biscuits’. From what I can tell, scones are pretty similar to ‘Biscuits’ but usually have eggs in the recipe. In the sourdough recipe, the starter replaces the eggs but the scones are still crumbly and solid but not stodgy.

It goes without saying that they are great with cream and jam (Cornish or Devon method, I won’t judge) and a large cup of tea.

I’ve made the fruit scones recipe twice now, it’s so good. The recipe (here) makes a lot so I had enough to give to our neighbours as well. They do freeze well so you can always freeze them for later too.

I have quite a bit – okay, a lot – of a sweet tooth so I’ll happily eat my way through a batch of fruit scones. However, my partner is definitely a savoury person and I know he has a fondness for cheese scones. My dad also loves them so I thought when lockdown is over and I can visit him again (he lives around 250 miles away) I would love to supply him with some cheese scones to have with a chunk of Wensleydale cheese. But, I could not see a cheese scone recipe using sourdough so I thought I’d make my own!

I have tried it twice, changed it slightly, and I think I’ve cracked it. Enjoy the recipe and let me know how it went for you.

Cheese Scones

Makes around 10-12 scones

Ingredients

• 200g self-raising flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Pinch mustard powder (optional)
• 50g unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
• 125g sourdough starter
• 35ml room temperature milk
• 100g cheddar, plus 20g to top the scones

Tip: for cheese and marmite scones, add 1 1/2 Tbsp marmite

Method

1. Rub together the cubed butter, the flour, the salt and the mustard powder until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Pre-heat your oven to 220c (200c fan oven)
2. Stir in the grated cheese until well-mixed
3. In another bowl mix together the milk and sourdough starter (if you’re adding marmite, mix it into this too)
4. Add 2/3rds of the milk mixture into the flour mix and gently mix together with a metal knife or spoon. Be careful not to mix too much as this can stiffen the dough.
5. Add in the rest of the liquid and mix further, I usually finish the mixing gently with my hands. The mixture should not be wet but should stay together.
6. Flour a surface and prepare a baking tray with parchment or baking paper
7. Tip the mixture on to the floured surface and gently roll out to about 3cm thick
8. Dust a cutter in flour and cut out the scones, try to lift straight up and don’t twist
9. Re-roll the remainder and repeat
10. Move the scones to the baking tray and distribute the topping cheese across the batch (optional – brush the scones with milk)
11. Bake in the oven for around 13-15 minutes*
12. Serve warm with butter!

*Note: If you do add marmite, the scones tend to darken faster and I found they need a couple more minutes or they’re a bit wet.

In the next few days I’m going to try a few different filling ideas, probably chocolate chip to start! I will post up a recipe if they’ve been a success.

#zerotohero #baking #sourdoughbaking #lockdownblog #lockdown2020 #cooking #cookingblog #sourdoughstarter #sourdoughscones #scones #cheesescones #firstrecipe #recipeblog

English muffins & Apple and Blackberry Crumble, a birthday project

Lockdown in the UK isn’t tons of fun, I’m sure this is universal worldwide. It’s even less fun for anyone who’s birthday happens to fall in lockdown. But it is of course a neccessity.

Myself and my partner are pretty indoorsy people (him more than me) but he does really enjoy seeing friends. For the past 9 years, he’s organised a pub crawl on his birthday and it’s an opportunity he takes to invite all his friends to catch up and get merry.

Not this year, however. No pubs open so no pub crawl.

So I decided, with my new baking skills in mind, that I would make him a couple of birthday treats. At least if we stayed in and had good food it would go some way to making the day special.

I knew that my partner was a fan of Eggs Royale (that’s Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon instead of bacon) and on my extensive Pinterest surfing I had seen a few recipes for sourdough English muffins (the one I used is on my Pinterest). I had another scout around and found a simple recipe for Hollandaise sauce, my sister also helped with a few tips, so I had recipes for the two main components ready.

Because I like a bit of a challenge, and I have a lot of time on my hands at the moment, I also decided to make another favourite for pudding: apple and blackberry crumble with fresh egg custard. I know, making 4 things I have never made before over 2 days as a special birthday treat is pretty crazy. Well, I still gave it a go!

I had learnt from my previous mistake and left plenty of time to let the muffins prove the day before. Unfortunately, my kitchen is pretty cold and my muffin dough didn’t rise enough. So I tried again, a new dough and my oven on low underneath to help the prove. It worked! Luckily I’m a night owl so although the dough was ready at about 9, I could still roll it out, cut and have time for the second prove before cooking that night.

I had never ‘baked’ something on the hob before – though I had seen it done on Bake Off. I was a bit nervous but happily they worked. I had been trying to keep the treats as a secret, but my ‘stealthy’ questions a few days previously had not gone unnoticed. I decided to reveal some of the surprise that evening and we tucked into freshly cooked English Muffins with lashings of butter – so very tasty!

The next morning was an early start because I had the crumble to prepare and a Hollandaise to make. I found a recipe where you bake the topping separately first then assemble the cooked fruit and topping later. Perfect for preparing earlier in the day and cooking in the evening.

Cooking is a lot about trial and error – thank goodness – because my caramel absolutely did not work first time. But the second attempt was a definite improvement and the fruit and topping were ‘hidden’ in the oven for later.

Cautiously I started on the Hollandaise and thankfully this turned out fine first time! I served up the surprise breakfast to my partner. Turns out I still don’t like smoked salmon or Hollandaise sauce but the muffins were still great with bacon.

The custard later went off without a hitch and was absolutely delicious. We could only eat half the crumble between us but it was still great the day after.

Eggs Royale and Apple & Blackberry Crumble with egg custard!

I love how cooking can bring people together and a good meal can brighten a day up. I have since made another batch of the muffins which are great to slice and freeze ready to pop in the toaster. I’m sure I can find other toppings to put on there in the future!

#zerotohero #baking #sourdoughbaking #lockdownblog #lockdown2020 #cooking #cookingblog #sourdoughstarter #englishmuffins #sourdoughmuffins #crumble #classicpudding

My first (sourdough) bake

I hope everyone is having a great week, and the weather has been as nice for you as we have had. I’ve been pottering about today doing some gardening and a bit of baking too!

First off I’d like to say that I was taught the basics of cooking and baking from a young age. Most days I cook at least our evening meal from scratch. So while this was my first time baking with sourdough I have made plenty of cakes and some dough in the past.

While Nigel (my starter) was brewing I spent quite a bit of time on Pinterest looking up recipes that I could try and bake. I love Pinterest, such a great way to find new ideas for all kinds of crafts. It’s also brilliant in that you can organise your virtual pins onto different boards. My new sourdough board has been filled with loads of recipes to try.

I thought for my first recipe I should make something simple that didn’t use a lot of ingredients. That way there’s less chance of something going wrong and less ingredients wasted if it did. Given that flour was in short supply this was even more important than usual.

For my first sourdough recipe I gave sourdough dinner rolls a go (for the recipe I used see my Pinterest board). I only used half the recipe as again, I didn’t want to risk wasting any ingredients. I did the drop test and the starter floated, good old Nigel! I was ready to bake.

The recipe was nice and simple, just mix the ingredients, cover and leave overnight. Unfortunately I read the ‘leave overnight’ bit until I looked at the recipe the morning I wanted to use the rolls – oops! As it was still early in the day I did the maths and I had just enough time to make them.

I mixed the ingredients together and left the dough out to prove. I was nervous but excited for the outcome. I left the dough for 6 hours and, to my delight, it had worked. Rolled out, shaped, proved again for 2 hours, scored and into the oven!

Success! My first bake had worked and I had some great rolls to go with our pulled pork that day. Such an easy thing to make but it felt great to make bread completely from scratch.

From dough to the final rolls!

I’ll grant you that my baking lacks a bit of finesse but I’m definitely working on getting more bakes under my belt – pun definitely intended. Until next time!

#zerotohero #baking #sourdoughbaking #lockdownblog #lockdown2020 #cooking #cookingblog #sourdoughstarter #sourdough rolls

Nigel, or The Tale of a New Starter

Hello to anyone who might be reading this!

For my first true post I’d like to talk about Nigel and why I started into sourdough baking. Nigel is my sourdough starter. All bakers know that naming your starter is a sure fire way to get your baking to work better. Talking to your starter, however, does verge on the edge of insanity.

I’d been curious about sourdough baking for a little while, one of my friends swears by his sourdough bread, and this put the idea into my mind a couple of years ago. But it’s taken the current lockdown to actually make me try a sourdough starter. When the bread started to run out everyone seemed to have the same idea and bought up all the ready yeast in the shops. Even though, as a house of two, we hardly ever eat bread I found myself looking for a back-up.

I should also probably clarify here that I’m gluten intolerant; I’m not celiac, but intolerant enough that eating ‘normal’ bread will make for an unhappy day ahead. While reading up on my intolerance I had seen that sourdough bread can be better for sufferers, and since everyone in the supermarkets and decided to raid the free from section too, I was left with nothing available to buy.

So I did my research and was amazed to find that you can start a sourdough easily and have a yeast ready to bake with in 5 days. I managed to get some flour locally from a small business and started my yeast.

After starting it off I proudly showed it off to my friends via video call (silly ‘yeast’ jokes ensued, of course). I found, like gardening, that it felt good to be creating something. Not to be soppy but, while on furlough, creating anything is a great way for me to keep positive and fill my time.

After 5 days I dubbed my new starter ‘Nigel’, bought a fancy new home for him (a far too large Kilner jar) and rearranged my fridge to accommodate him and his massive home. 

I fell into a few beginner pitfalls and though I kept feeding Nigel – scenes a la ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ come to mind – he turned a bit boozy. More research showed that it was time for me to discard to a more manageable level to keep a good ratio of starter to flour. Nigel, the booze hound, had gone slightly out of control and I ended up with 650g of discard to use up. I’ll go into the mad amount of baking I did with the discard in another post.

Nigel is now happy, healthy and in rehab for his former alcoholism with weekly visits to the kitchen side for a discard and top up. He has been rehomed to a more smaller jar too so he isn’t taking up a quarter of the fridge anymore. Long live Nigel for he makes an excellent loaf.

#zerotohero #baking #sourdoughbaking #lockdownblog #lockdown2020 #cooking #cookingblog #sourdoughstarter

A bit about me

Hi, and welcome to my blog!

Just a bit about me, I live in Surrey, England with my partner, 2 cats and 2 rats!

I’ve started this blog as I’ve recently started baking more. I’ve always enjoyed cooking but since the lockdown I’ve made my own sourdough starter and been baking a lot in my extra free time.

I figure as I try some new recipes out I can post them up for others to try. Some recipes may be healthy and nutritious, some most definitely will not be.

Let’s just see how this goes!

#zerotohero #baking #sourdough #recipes #sourdoughrecipes #sourdoughbaking #lockdownblog #lockdown2020 #cooking #bakingblog