Sourdough Yoghurt Bread

With this big Sourdough Yogurt Bread I wish you all a Happy Healthy New Year.

I have a list of breads I would like to bake. This is one of the list. A while back I found bread baked by Tim "breadbakinbassplayer". He bakes good looking bread. 

In stead of the two loaves I decided to bake a 2 kg big loaf. A Big Bang Bread to end 2014. 

Sourdough Bagels

I’m baking Bagels, the first ones I bake and eat. Peter ate store bought bagels a long time ago and didn’t like them. I promised him he would love the ones I bake for him.

I’m baking Bagels for Peter and they better be good!

I’m sure I can bake the best bagels he ever ate because I use a recipe from Susan of Wild Yeast. I baked the bagels the next morning for breakfast with friends and we all loved them!

Sourdough Roasted Garlic Buns

It’s been a while since I posted my baked breads. I do bake even though I don’t post about it.

We just came back from a visit to the Netherlands. This time we had a very nice reason to go. Our second granddaughter was born. It was great seeing her with her 4 year old sister. We had a good time with family and friends. We love our Thai life, but it’s also nice to be back. Giving all those we love a real hug. Visiting all those great museums, bare feet walking along the beach, enjoying the forests and eating food we normally don’t eat anymore.

The Netherlands is a land of bread and cheese. I dare say it has the best cheese in the world (and France has the best mold cheese). If you ever visit the Netherlands don’t forget to sample the cheeses. There are many delicious old, mature and young cheeses, but for this bun it has to be mature Weydeland cheese. It’s creamy and mature. The best taste experience is when you eat just cheese and forget the rest. But, that’s my opinion. I’m NOT paid by anyone to talk about our love for Dutch cheese!

Zorra organize WorldBread Day for many years, what a great job!! This 9th year year! 

Have a look at the huge number of breads baked by home bakers from all over the world.

I looked forward to World Bread Day and came up with bread we love in our house. It has both of our worlds: Thai garlic and Dutch cheese. I found this amazingly delicious bread baked by Susan of Wild Yeast; sourdough roasted garlic bread. I was in the mood for buns and I changed the recipe a bit. I added whole wheat bran, spelt and wheat germ.

For me the smell of roasted garlic is one of the best smells coming from the kitchen. I added 2 onions and mixed it with the garlic paste. Who knows when we can send the smell of roasted garlic with melted Weydeland cheese digitally? Till that time we have to bake these buns ourselves.

Soft rolls (inspired by the Portugese Papo Secos)

I like to look at bread and visit bread blogs. Luckily there are a lot of good blogs on bread. Luckily most of them have good recipes. Some of them have non-fail recipes. You know the recipes you don’t have even have to check.

Yesterday I found an interesting recipe of local bread I wanted to bake for the Bread Baking Day #69. When I added the flour to the water and sourdough it hit me. It was wrong! The description said “very wet dough” and mine was almost dry?? I immediately checked the amounts and 57% is no hydration for wet dough! I did my best to correct it, but it was a failure.

Wisdom for today: next time I check the recipe before I run into my kitchen! J

Yesterday evening I didn’t feed the sourdough and I decided to use dried yeast. I found a nice recipe I used before with 69% hydration. I changed the shape a little bit and here they are: beautiful soft rolls.

Sourdough loaf with Wild Rice

Stefanie of Hefe und Mehr is the lovely host for this month’s Bread Baking Day #68. She likes us to bake with ancient recipes of ancient grains and with sourdough. When I read this I had 3 days until submission day. So, it’s time to bake!

I couldn’t find an ancient recipe which appealed to me. I found Wild Rice on the local market. It’s a weekly market where local Thai people and people from nearby hill tribes bring their products. Thailand is one of the largest rice producers and exporters. But, I’m not looking for “rice” even though I’m looking for “Wild Rice”. Wild Rice is categorist as a cool season cereal.

Wild rice (also called Canada rice, Indian rice, and water oats) are four species of grasses forming the genus Zizania, and the grain which can be harvested from them. The grain was historically gathered and eaten in both North America and China. While it is now a delicacy in North America, the grain is eaten less in China, where the plant's stem is used as a vegetable.

Wild rice is not directly related to Asian rice (Oryza sativa), whose wild progenitors are O. rufipogon and O. nivara, although they are close cousins, sharing the tribe Oryzeae. Wild rice grains have a chewy outer sheath with a tender inner grain that has a slightly vegetal taste.

The plants grow in shallow water in small lakes and slow-flowing streams; often, only the flowering head of wild rice rises above the water. The grain is eaten by dabbling ducks and other aquatic wildlife, as well as humans.

Today I’m baking a loaf with sourdough, ancient flour: spelt and ancient grains: wild rice.

Wild Rice

Sourdough Crispbreads

very thin and crispy

As I mentioned 2 breads ago we visited the Netherlands again recently. Even though the reason was a very sad one because my mother died, during the visit we also enjoyed the special time with family and friends. And we also enjoyed the food we can’t buy here in Thailand.

In the Netherlands you can buy “Scandinavian knackerbrod”. We love to eat it with cheese and jam. I was looking for a good recipe for a long time and I was happy to see crispbreads in the latest book of Chad Robertson. They don’t look the same as the (thicker) knackerbrod, but these crispbreads are definitely worth a try.

I was happy I tried this recipe. Chad’s crispbreads are delicious. I added black and white sesame seeds, nigella seeds, flax seeds and left some plain with just some flaked salt.

I think they are dangerously delicious ;-) Sometimes you have food you can’t stop eating and this is one of them. Luckily the crispbreads are filled with good flours.

 

left: plain, nigella seeds, flax seeds, black and white sesame seeds

enough?

Sourdough with soybeans

In his latest book "Tartine No. 3, Modern, Ancient, Classic, Whole" by Chad Robertson I found a recipe with 10% wheat-rye that appealed to me. In fact most recipes appeal to me, but they are for next time. Chad uses High-extraction wheat flour and medium strong bread flour. I used flour 550 and found dried soybeans in my pantry.

In Thailand you find a lot of soybeans. Our neighbors grow them and we all eat, drink or use soybean products. At most markets you find fresh soymilk with Patongo (a Thai version of doughnut). You find non-fermented and fermented products of soybeans, oil, meal, flour and so on. There is a long list of health benefits of soybeans. And they taste good. So it’s time to soak them.

soybeans incorporated in the dough

Normally I use my electric mixer for kneading dough. But, not today. Chad uses his hands instead. He uses “the master method” for most of his breads. I followed Chad’s instructions, I used my hands and let time do the rest. The result is a good looking, good smelling, good tasting and healthy bread.

Sourdough loaf with Spelt Natur

My sourdough starter is bubbling and smelling freshly sour. It’s time to bake. Schmidt gave me Spelt Natur to try and I decided to bake a loaf by Chad Robertson. The original recipe is for Fougasse with Baguette Dough. But, I wanted to use my Dutch oven and I was happy I did. Because there was a beautiful oven spring, just have a look at the size of this loaf. Isn’t it beautiful! And it smelled and tasted great.

Choco Smidt is located in Thailand. They import good quality European flour. Schmidt gave me 13 bags of pre-mixed flours to use and write my own experience about it on my blog. This time I used Spelt Natur. Since it was difficult to buy Spelt I brought some on our trips to the Netherlands. I love it. The smell is wonderful and it gives a kind of softness to the dough. Since Spelt Natur is a mix of flours and seeds I had no idea what to expect. And I’m happy to say I love it too. I added a percentage to my regular unbleached flour (550). As you can see I added a small amount and it made a difference already.

Next time when I buy my regular flour I will definitely buy Spelt Natur as well.

"Scoop" bread

French countryside with poolish

This is my first post since a long time. In the last few months we went 3 times to the Netherlands. And every time we went because of dying family members. This last time we went to be with my mother. She died on March 3th. She was 81 years old and died surrounded by the ones who loved her. 

For me that’s a comforting thought. What is left are many good memories and my brother and I. That’s good!
When we came back the freezer was empty and my sourdough was in a deep sleep in the refrigerator. It will take time to wake it up or I start a new one.

Even though you can buy great bread in the Netherlands I still prefer my own bread. I choose a mixture of recipes and this is the result; delicious and easy French countryside with poolish.

The evening before I mixed the flour, water and yeast in a plastic bowl, covered it and left it to ferment until the next morning. It was full of bubbles and smelled freshly sour. Not a nice a good sourdough, but still very nice.  

I scooped the dough out of the mixing bowl into the plastic bowl to ferment. I decided to forget the shaping and scooped the dough onto a thick floured tea towel and left it to proof. It was a while since I baked with my cast iron pan (Dutch oven). Again I, kind of, scooped the dough into the very hot cast iron pan.

The taste and smell of this easy bread is delicious.

Millers loaves by Bourke Street Bakery

This bread tastes as good as it looks! With a 60% hydration it’s easy dough. I’m happy I baked 3 loaves instead of one.