Measurements

 Made some bagels the other day (stay tuned recipe to follow) but before I started I did a little bit of research and it got me thinking.

A recipe I looked at called for 19gms of sugar and 6 gms of yeast. I thought to myself that if I put in a couple of gms more or less would the recipe be totally f@#@#ed. The answer is no, provided you don't go overboard it doesn't affect it.

Also one recipe said to add yeast and sugar to a small portion of the water and let stand for 5 mins and do not stir. Why? I thought as after 5 mins it said to stir the mix and add to the dry ingredients along with the rest of the water. Does not stirring the yeast mixture at the start really have an effect on the finished product. Would you bite into your bagel and exclaim "Oh no!!! the yeast mixture was not left to stand for 5 mins" Short answer NO.

Conclusion; Some of these instructions are a bit of a wank!!

Sweet Short Pastry (reduced sugar)

 This recipe for sweet short pastry uses CSR Smart Sugar which is readily available in supermakets and enables you to halve the amount of sugar you would normally use. It is a blend of cane sugar and a small amount of stevia.

I reduced the sugar in this recipe from 170gms to 80gms just over 50%. The sweetness of the pastry is not compromised at all and the baked pastry was light and biscuity with a lovely tender bite,

Recipe

 80 gms Smart Sugar                                                                                                                                      265 gms salted butter                                                                                                                                          

 Lightly cream  

 1 egg

 Add to the butter sugar cream and mix until cleared

 400 gms flour                                                                                                                                                5 gms Baking Powder

 Sift together and mix in with 1 Tablespoon of chilled water to form a dough                                             Knead lightly to a smooth ball and rest in a cool place for 30 minutes before using.

  BG                                         

Cheats Sourdough Starter

 Good Afternoon Readers,

As we are now in the midst of covid-19 and subsequent lockdowns I have decided to ressurect this blog.

It will in no way be a pretty glamorous blog full of pretty stylised pictures but more a practical blog with a few photos as we go.

This is how to make a cheats sourdough starter.

To start make what we call a biga (method to follow)

When the biga is ready make a loaf of bread using it.

Leave a little of the biga behind and add some flour and water to it (330 gms/260gms)

and leave for 24 hours.

From here you can feed it again or make another loaf of bread

As you keep doing this the starter will gain strength and approach the quality of a good sourdough starter.

For your first few loaves of bread use your favourite yeasted bread recipe ,with the biga added to it, my suggestion would be to a bread recipe using 500gms of flour add 400 gms of the biga and simply follow your recipe.

BIGA RECIPE

0.75 gms of yeast (1/4 tsp)

60 gms warm water

330 gms flour

200 gms water

Sponge the yeast with the 60gms of warm water and 1/4 cup flour

Add to the remaining flour and water and mix well

Cover bowl and leave overnight (the longer you leave it the better the flavour)

Stay tuned and happy baking.

BG

White Sourdough Bread

My sourdough starters are alive and well and are maturing with every use and replenishment.
They sit happily in the refrigerator and each time I make a loaf I replenish them at a 100% hydration rate, i.e. equal parts water and flour, so if I take out 300 gms of starter, I replenish with 150 gms water : 150 gms flour, leave it for a few hours to reactivate and put it away in the refrigerator.

Since I made the starters, I have been baking various loaves, with varying degrees of success. All of the loaves have been good, but some better than others. The wholemeal loaves have been the most successful, and I recently baked a 7 grain & honey wholemeal loaf which was dubbed as excellent by those who tasted it.

White sourdough is the one giving the most grief, so after a little more research I tried the following:--

1) Thoroughly mix flour, oil, sugar and sourdough starter and water together.
2) Autolyse for 20 minutes
3) Add salt and knead for 10 to 15 minutes to form a smooth, well structured dough
4) Cover and leave to rise 4 --6 hours until the dough feels spongy and is well developed.
5) Every hour or so fold the dough over on itself by taking the edges and folding them over working around the bowl.
6) When the ferment is finished and the dough has risen and feels nice and spongy, shape into a loaf or 
loaves. Don't be too vigorous here as you do not to knock the dough down, but rather you want to maintain the structure.
7) Place the loaf into a bread tin or alternatively upside down in a lined banneton and retard by placing in the fridge overnight.
8) Next morning remove from fridge and allow to warm up and  finish it's proof. This will take approx1--3 hours depending on ambient temperatures.
9) When it appears that the final proof is well underway, preheat your oven and bake.
10) For a 1 kg dough, I baked for 45 mins at 230C.

I set up a makeshift bakers oven in my hooded barbecue using clay pavers and a tray of water for steam injection. I actually baked two loaves at differing times, the first loaf (pictured) came out beautifully, however, the underside of the second loaf was overcooked, so next time, I will cook both at the same time.

WHOOPIE PIES

Earlier this year, I made a batch of whoopies, having read a snippet about them. I made a chocolate whoopie and filled them with some ganache I had left over after making macarons.
They were OK, but didn't set the world on fire and I was left wondering what all the fuss was about, so
I didn't go any further with them.
That was until I recently made a batch for a cake stall at my daughter's school carnival. I made a fairly basic recipe of chocolate whoopies and this time I made a more traditional marshmallow filling. I had one spare cookie left, so I put a dollop of filling on it and down it went!!. It was then that I began to realise what the fuss is all about. These little soft cookies/cake type morsels are quite moorish.

And now to a recipe. This one is adapted from one used at a shop called "Baked" in New York.
It is relatively easy, with no creaming of butter and sugar involved, more stirring and folding, and what could be easier.

CHOCOLATE MARSHMALLOW WHOOPIES.

475 gms plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons Bi carb soda
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

Sift these ingredients into a bowl and gently stir to combine.

90 gms dark cocoa powder
2 teaspoons instant coffee
220 mls hot water

Pour hot water onto cocoa/coffee powders and whisk thoroughly to dissolve fully.

350 Gms brown sugar
170 mls canola or vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
110 mls milk soured with the juice of half a lemon

Stir all together until well combined and no lumps of sugar and then add to cocoa mixture and
whisk until smooth.
Fold sifted dry ingredients into the mix until fully combined.

This will give a batter which is pipeable, but will hold it's shape.

Line baking trays with non stick baking paper and pipe rounds about the size of a 50c coin
and a similar height leaving approx 4 cm space between them as the mix will flatten a bit in the oven.
Bake at 180 C for approx 13 minutes. If baking two trays at a time, rotate them half way through and add another 30 secs to baking time. Let cool completely on the trays before removing and filling them.

MARSHMALLOW FILLING.

3 egg whites
270 gms caster sugar
2 tablespoons glucose
pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste.

Place all ingredients in a heatproof bowl and whisk over a pot of simmering water until it is white, glossy and leaves a distinct ribbon trail when you lift the whisk. (5--10 mins)
Transfer to to an electric mixer and whisk for a further 5 minutes until cool.
Transfer to a piping bag and pipe onto whoopies.

SOURDOUGH (part 2)

Having stumbled upon a starter, more by fluke than purpose, I decided to make one from scratch following strict guidelines. I used organic flour and spring water only. You can use whatever quantities you please, but in this ratio:--

Day 1. 1:1 Mix to a paste, loosely cover and set aside.
Day 2. 1:1 Repeat.
Day 3. 2:2 Repeat
Day 4. 4:4 Repeat
Day 5.  Rest
At the end of day 5 the starter was starting to work, bubbles were appearing, it smelt right, but was nowhere near ready for use. There are numerous factors which can affect the rate of growth. Anyway----

Day 6. Fed it again at the ratio 4:4.

Day 7. Better, but still not very active, so I decided to try and flick it over to a wholemeal starter.

           I took off a quantity at the ratio 4: 4 and then refreshed it at the ratio 4:4, but this time I grated a potato, squeezed the liquid out and topped it up to the required amount with spring water and used wholemeal flour.

Day 8. What a difference a day makes!! Bubbly and definitely active. Fed it with water and wholemeal

           flour at the ratio 4:4

Day 9. Repeat @ 4:4

Day 10. We have lift off. A wholemeal starter ready to use.

My booty!!  All 100% Sourdough Bread. Not a grain of added

yeast to be found.

SOURDOUGH (The Bitch Lives!!)

A few days ago, at work, I made a potato rosti mix. When I make rosti, I grate raw potato into a colander resting over a stainless steel bowl to drain off any excess liquid and proceed from that point.
Anyway, after I had finished I had quite a bit of starchy potato liquid in the bowl, so I added some plain flour to make a paste and set it aside. By the end of the day it was a bubbling seething mass, so I fed it some more flour and left it overnight

Day 2.  The mass as still alive, so that evening I fed her again. At home I started to research sourdough starters and found out that stainless steel is their enemy and to get them started you should probably use spring or filtered water, as distinct from town water, and organic flour. Alarm bells!!!!! Mine was in a stainless steel bowl, mixed with some town water and fed with ordinary, everyday plain flour.

Day 3.  Off to the supermarket and back with natural spring water and certified organic flour, armed with my wife's plastic mixing bowl, I arrived at work. The bitch was still alive, so immediately transferred her to the plastic bowl and that evening fed her with spring water and organic flour.

Day 4. She lives!!! Smelling slightly yeasty with a hint of banana and bubbling away nicely, fed her again
spoke to her lovingly and left her overnight.

Day 5.  Today she rests. No feeding required.

Day 6.  She is, what appears to be , an active, fermenting liquid sourdough starter. So I now have a semi leaven, plus pure sourdough bread doughs on the go. Will post the results.