Whole Spelt Chive Bread with Flaxseeds
Tuesday, August 20, 2024A fuller, maltier German exprot beer in this deceivingly easy and hearty yeasted bread gives it a wonderfully deep flavour and the walnuts provide texture and substance. Use pilsner or ale if you can't find German export beer. To give your bread an extra bit of flavour, toast the walnuts before adding to the dough.
Chocolate Sourdough Beer Bread
Saturday, March 30, 2024This sourdough bread, adapted from tastecooking, is made with plain wheat flour, freshly milled kamut and Dutch-processed cocoa powder. Like any sourdough bread, this one takes time too. Plan to make it over two days, mixing the dough on day one, letting it ferment overnight, then baking it the following morning. The combo of beer and chocolate might sound a little strange, but the bitterness in the two play well off each other. I used lager beer, but you can use whatever beer you like. If you prefer it bitterer, richer, use stout or other dark beer. It is perfect for grilled cheeses, nut butters, homemade jam and pate. Use rice flour to dust the banneton if you it on hand as it's less sticky and won't burn easily.
Turmeric and Mustard Sourdough Bread
Saturday, February 17, 2024This bread is delicious, unique, and smells amazing while it is baking. It has a soft, chewy crumb and crackly, crispy crust. The beautifully golden colour comes from turmeric and mustard sauce. It's pleasantly mustardy in flavour and great with some aged Cheddar (or smoked Gouda), Bresaola, or liver pate. It go well with a bowl of soup too.
100% Rye Bread (Roggen Brot)
Monday, October 30, 2023Compared to typical wheat bread, rye bread is considered more nutritious, lower in gluten, more in soluble fiber and have less of an impact on blood sugar. This recipe uses coarsely ground rye meal and light rye flour to create a deliciously crispy, healthy and rustic bread with chewy texture and depth of flavour.
Bread Triangles with An Old Bread Soaker
Thursday, August 17, 2023An exceptional bread, made with sourdough, with a fresh, smooth and tender crumb and cracking crispy crust. Using old bread to make new bread is certainly nothing new. The practice of adding an “old bread soaker” to dough has been used in Europe, especially Germany, for hundreds of years.
A soaker is when an ingredient soaks in water for a period of time. The process lasts anywhere between 2 and 20 hours before adding to the dough. It enhances the flavour of the ingredients, prevents dry ingredients from soaking up water in the dough, and allows large grains to be used for making bread. Typical ingredients that are soaked include grains (cracked, whole, flour and flakes), seeds and many more. Here I am using old bread that has been diced and toasted. It’s a great use for leftovers from previous bread and also gives a depth of flavour to the new breads with a moist crumb and helps the water absorption of the dough and thus, improve the shelf-life of the bread.
An autolyse(oh-toe-lease), aka autolyze, autolysis, or dough autolysis, is the gentle mixing of the flour and water in a bread recipe, followed by a 20 to 60 minute rest period before adding other ingredients. This hydrates the flour, which encourages enzymes to begin gluten development. Salt can be added at autolyse, along with your sourdough starter. Autolyse hydrates the flour, which encourages enzymes to begin gluten development, which makes the dough less sticky and more workable. Besides that, the bread using autholyse will look nicer, taste beter and keep longer.
Walnut Boule with Wild Yeast Water
Thursday, June 08, 2023Rich, wholesome with roasted walnuts, combined with medium rye flour gives this rustic, hearty artisan boule a darker colour and more robust rye flavour. It's perfect for any sandwich or toasted and slathered with butter and honey for a deliciosu and fulfilling breakfast. The bread is naturally leavened with wild yeast water - the most organic, natural and fascinating way of leavening bread. The bread has a thin, super crispy crust that crackles in your hand with even a gentle squeeze and a soft open crumb with some nutty bites.
Sourdough Spelt Ring
Sunday, November 27, 2022A delicious, airy sourdough bread with open crumb made from 100% spelt, which makes this bread extra delicious with its nutty, complex flavour and keeps you fuller for longer, and help maintain steady blood sugar levels. This 100% spelt bread recipe is leavened with sourdough starter with NO commercial yeast added. It has a crusty exterior and a soft, tender and moist center. Exactly what you look for in artisan bread. When you shape the bread, do not apply too much pressure as you want to retain the gas pockets (don't punch the dough down like you do with regular bread dough), but still build the adequate tension and structure in the dough.
Recycling Old Bread - Spelt Bread Rolls with Old Bread
Monday, September 12, 2022A downside of home-baked bread is that if you don't eat it or freeze it, then it will go stale through loss of moisture relatively quickly. And who likes stale bread? Not me. Freshly baked bread is a treasure, but a stale one is not a waste. You can easily revive them by misting the crust with some water and bake at 180C/350F for 10 minutes, or turning into one of my favourite kitchen staple - breadcrumbs (usign them to make meatloaf or meatballs), or turn them into a bread pudding or transform them into these fresh and delicious crusty rolls with this easy recipe from one of my favourite bakers Marcel Paa. The beauty is that because the leftovers are different, so every bread is amazingly versatile and has its own slightly different taste.
Blackberry Spelt Muffins with Sourdough Discard
Tuesday, August 23, 2022These blackberry loaded sourdough discard muffins with a combination of white and whole spelt flour are a great way to put excess starter to work. They are excellent for a mid-morning treat or a snack on the go or even as a dessert served with vanilla ice cream. Use fresh or frozen blackberries, or go foraging to find some in the summer months. The use of rye sourdough discard adds a very pleasant tangy flavour and moisture that helps these wholesome muffins stay moist and fresh for longer. I baked these muffins in a jumbo 6-cup muffin pan. If you want to use a standard-sized 12-cup muffin pan, adjust the baking time accordingly.
Mirabelle Coconut Pizza with Wild Yeast Water
Thursday, August 18, 2022Pizzas don't always have to be savoury. Try this simple dessert pizza made with mirabelles and coconut cream. The dough is prepared with white spelt flour flavoured with Dutch-processed cocoa powder and naturally leavend with wild yeast water and sourdough discard. It makes a perfect summer treat, late afternoon pick-me-up or even as a late-night dessert.
Sourdough Bread with Blackberry Rosemary Pomace
Monday, August 15, 2022Baked with Blackberry Rosemary Pomace | Baked with leftover pulp from juicing |
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A pomace is the pulpy remains after fruit (or vegetable) has been crushed in order to extract its juice or oil. It contains skins, pulp, seeds and stems of the fruit. It's a cheap source of dietary fibers, antioxidants, pectin and other nutrients. Pomace can be turned into the distilled products, used to make animal feed, recycled as mulch, processed to make grapeseed oil and flour.
In this recipe I am incoperating blackberry and rosemary residues from making fruit curd into the sourdough bread. The add of pomace adds more freshness, fruitiness, depth and colour to the bread. Last but not least nothing is wasted. You can bake the bread into a batard, boule or a regular sandwich loaf. Although pomace is absolutely compostable and perfectly okay inside a composting bin, it's still better if it ends up on the plate.