Vegan Spelt Oatcakes.

That's a bit of a mouthful (lol) but a good description. I've been trying to make a Vegan biscuit for Oats since the success of my Vegan Teacakes, but without much luck up to now.

I think that I might have cracked it this time though.

Just need to submit them to the taste panel, for what its worth, Yvonne liked them and that's good enough for me.

Sourdough loaf two ways. Part 2.

So at 0500 I resumed the sourdough experiment. You may find the following slightly confusing, spare a thought for me, I had three bowls of dough at different stages of development, each requiring different processes at different times.

Both sets of starter had bubbles, I made the smaller one into dough as instructed here,

http://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/our-version-of-tartine-style-bread/

and followed the instructions. 

After two folds it was looking like a loaf, and there were only four more to go! Quite labour intensive.

The other starter was used to make a loaf from the book "Do Sourdough" by  Andrew Whitley. This one involves a lot of doing nothing and a bit of machine mixing. I hope its the tastier as I'm inherently lazy. Here it is resting.

In the middle of that, I got an order for 30 Onion Seed Panini for tomorrow. I started the pre-ferments straight away, they will be ready for delivery at 0900 tomorrow.


So at 0830 I got back involved with the easy one, making a mixture of flour and water to add to the above at 0900.

I then shaped the first loaf (getting confused which one is which)

That now needs proving till 1130.

Next the two parts of the easy loaf need adding together,

followed by a brisk knead.

Turning it out, I found it very wet but shaped it into a tin anyway.

That will prove till 1400. Time for a coffee.

You may be wondering why I put Sourdough into a tin and not as a freeform boule. Well the answer is simple, my customers ask me for tin shaped loaves to make sandwiches or toast. 

And after all it tastes the same.

While I was doing that, I made crumpets with the left over starter, it's dead easy; just 250 g starter, 1 tsp sugar and 0.5 tsp each of salt and Bicarbonate of Soda, give it a whisk and fry in a dry pan using a ring.

So after baking the complicated loaf is done,

and here is the crumb,

and three hours later the easy loaf, there were a few bubbles on the top of the dough when I put it in the oven,

and after baking and cooling,

Taste wise there is little to tell between them, surprisingly the small loaf took the same time to bake as the large. The small loaf has a closer crumb but is perfect for sandwiches or toast. Both were slightly underproved but not enough to matter, maybe an extra half hour would be right. That's what I wanted to learn.

And the result........ Phew! the easy one is a clear winner, largely because I can leave it to its own devices and do other things.

Next I must practice my Sourdough Baguettes, but first I need to buy more flour.

Sourdough loaf two ways.

I'm conducting an experiment, this morning I refreshed a 100g portion of my Wholemeal starter with White flour and I intend to try two different methods of making a sourdough loaf tomorrow.

As you can see, the starter was bubbling well before I started.

This evening I split the starter into two, the first one was 10g of starter refreshed with 50g of flour and 45g of water.

The second was refreshed with equal water and flour to make 400g total.

 I only need 150g tomorrow, the rest I can keep in the fridge for a few days.

In the morning I will start the first method using the smaller portion, and then the second with the larger. The plan is to finish the first loaf at lunchtime, and the second for around 4pm.

 The method for the first has no kneading, instead you merely stretch and fold the dough every 30 minutes for three hours, while the second has normal kneading and longer gaps for the dough to develop.

It will be interesting to see which method produces the better loaf, stay tuned tomorrow for the results.

And some more

After my success with the Caraway Ciabatta Rolls, I was asked by the customer to come up with some new ideas, to ring the changes.

I had tried the Walnut Sourdough before in a loaf, as well as the carrot and coriander loaf; so it was an easy decision to make them into rolls, although I still did the carrot as a loaf.

The basic recipe is here,

 http://www.myitaliansmorgasbord.com/2013/07/20/bread-for-breakfast-foolproof-sourdough-rolls/

and I just add the extras, such as 15 g Caraway or 50 g chopped Walnuts at the autolyse.
It's slightly more complex with the Carrot and Coriander because the carrots have a high liquid content, initially I added 100 g of grated carrot and reduced the water by 100 g. Then 3 teaspoons of dried Coriander leaves. 

The dough was quite stiff but still took an extra 15 minutes to bake as the liquid was cooked out of the middle. It's here that a thermometer comes in handy, after 45 minutes the base was firm and sounded hollow, done by convention, but the internal temperature was only 70 degrees. (Gluten sets at 95)

Here are the doughs before baking,

Walnut.

you can see the carrot quite clearly.

I cut the Walnut dough into portions and baked for 20 minutes without shaping.

As you can see, they are fine.

Eventually the Carrot was done,

and after an impatient half an hour I could wait no longer.

I'm pleased with that one.

More new Products

After the success of the Doughnuts, I tried a Sourdough Ciabatta from a new recipe for a customer at Oats, some plain and some with Caraway Seeds.

I have heard that the customer was pleased and wants some with Walnuts next time.

I made Easter shortbread for Millie and Me, using my Easter cutters,

and left them a sample of my Chocolate and Orange Brioche to try.

Contains Orange Zest and Extract plus Chocolate Chips. Being a sweet dough (egg and Caster Sugar) its soft and doughy texture is more like cake but who cares?

Sourdough Doughnuts

I have made doughnuts before, but only the basic, non-filled kind. However I was in a pound shop getting essential supplies (ground coffee in 250g bags) and found an icing syringe for filling them with jam.

I just couldn't resist having a go.


And here is the recipe, I found it online ages ago, I follow this lady's blog and have tried a lot of her recipes, she is a genius.

http://www.myitaliansmorgasbord.com/2014/05/31/dairy-free-sourdough-doughnuts/

I followed the recipe up to the cutting part, as I didn't cut centres out and filled with jam instead of decorating.

Jean next door had her daughter and grandchildren in the garden so I passed a few over and they disappeared pretty quickly. I want to see how long they stay fresh now so I know if I can sell them.

New Today

In answer to a query from a customer, I made some Easter Shortbread this morning, samples will be taken down later, if they like them, they may well be appearing on a cafe menu soon.

I also made a Sourdough Chocolate and Vanilla loaf, from a Vanessa Kimbell recipe, which was slightly more bitter than I expected. It would be nice with cheese though, or a good preserve.