Sourdough Cranberry Cookies

I made these based on a recipe that I found online, I wanted to find a snack that I could sell at the Lovelife event and modified the recipe to use what I had. Anyway the cookies were pretty good, if a little large, the recipe says 2-3 dozen but I ended up with 14.

I plan to do a few snack type things for sale, including Brownies and Digestive biscuits.

I also made some new rolls for a customer of Oats to try, these were sourdough with Sundried Tomato and Oregano, and made an interesting combination.

It's the roll on the right in this picture.

My new oven arrives tomorrow so I need to make some room in the Kitchen in the morning. I also need to refresh my starters so I will probably make crumpets with the discard.

My whole system needs reorganizing to cope with the doubled capacity, and I need more trays and tins as well. There's always something.

Here's the recipe :-

Basic Sourdough Cookies

Ingredients

§  120 g sourdough starter

§  112 g butter, softened

§  170 g  whole wheat flour (more or less)

§  130 g  organic cane sugar

§  1 egg

§  1 teaspoon vanilla

§  1/2 teaspoon sea salt

§  1 teaspoon baking soda

§  1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

In a medium sized bowl, mix together sourdough starter and butter. You can use sourdough starter that is more or less active because of the additional leavening agents.

Add one cup of flour.  Mix well.  Continue adding flour a little at a time, mixing well after each addition, until you get very stiff dough.    Cover and rest at room temperature for 8 or more hours.  Remember, the longer it sits, the more sour it will get.

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees C and get your pans ready.  These will be a little sticky, so you should either grease or use parchment paper.

Mix the egg, sugar, vanilla, sea salt and baking powder in a small bowl.  (Hold the baking soda for a bit.)  Pour this mixture over the top of your soured dough.  Blend well.  When it is well mixed, add chocolate or fruit to taste and blend thoroughly.  Lastly, sprinkle the baking soda over the top and mix well.

Drop by spoonful’s onto a cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until bottoms are lightly brown and tops are soft set.  Cool on a wire rack.  

I've done it!

Faced with the prospect of increasing orders, I've invested in a second oven to double my baking capacity. I was going to leave it until after the kitchen refit, but circumstances have changed.

 

Now I have to sell loads of loaves to pay for it. I'm hoping that the Lovelife event in Brixham will be the start of it all, 
http://lovelifebrixham.blogspot.co.uk/ 

I hope to see you there ready to try a few samples and place your orders.

Sourdough Pasta and Potato Rosti.

I had another go at the sourdough Pasta, this time it came out a lot better.

I also found a recipe that used Sourdough Starter as a binder in Potato Rosti, so I just had to have a go.

I blitzed 400 g of peeled potato and added about 80 g of starter,

and mixed with a drop of Oil and seasonings.

I split it into cakes and baked for 50 minutes at 160 degrees.

There should have been six but I tried one, and it was very nice!

Here is the recipe for the Pasta,

80 g Starter at 100%
60 g Flour

Mix well until you have a smooth ball, s&f a few times and leave overnight.

Roll and cut in the morning.
It's that simple.

And for the Rosti,

400g potatoes

80g unrefreshed 100% sourdough starter, I used Wholemeal

2 tbs olive oil

Salt and pepper to season.

Roughly grate the potatoes into a bowl, or blitz in a processor. Add the starter, olive oil, rosemary and salt and pepper and stir till combined.

Divide into six equal size balls and arrange on a baking sheet lined with grease proof paper and drizzle with a few more drops of olive oil.

Pop into the oven 160C oven for about 50 minutes until golden brown.

Serve hot, can be reheated from frozen.

LoveLife update.

I think I have just about finalised the list of things I'm taking. I reckon that 10 products will be the maximum that I can organise that week, considering that my new oven is still a month away. Of course I have loads of other orders and things to do that week, I wouldn't expect otherwise. I want to have enough samples so that I don't run out but not so much that I bring half of it home. The same goes for information sheets and stuff as well.

Apart from the spelt, which will have commercial yeast in it, I'm intending to make everything Sourdough, just to show off its versatility.

Breads.

Rye, Wholemeal and White,
Pita
Focaccia
Chocolate and Sultana
Spelt.
Croissants?

Other products.

Date Muffins
Digestive Biscuits and Cranberry Cookies
Crackers for cheese
Potato Rosti (Still to be decided)
Chocolate Brownies

Also I will have samples of my starters and lots of literature about Sourdough. I think some of the above may be on sale at the cafe, that's still to be decided. Of course I will take Oil and Vinegar for dipping, and sample pots as well. Also some of the flour bags, to prove my Organic credentials.

I'm going to be the only stall dedicated to eating, everyone else appears to be a therapist of some sort, hopefully they will all get hungry.

More News and a new customer.

I am just moving to a twice weekly delivery of Spelt loaves for Oats in Brixham, which is very good news indeed.

They use the bread in their Cafe, this has a knock on effect in the shop, so now I'm hoping that the orders will increase to make order each as big as the other. 

Also I am getting major upgrading work organised for my Kitchen, new worktops and a new oven, I just need to arrange dates for it all to start, we will be closed for a couple of days but I'm trying to organise it to cause as little disruption as possible. I've got a few big orders coming up so it needs a bit of planning.

Hopefully we can then cope with increased demand as there will be much more space available for preparation and baking.

And I have a new customer, I have been asked for a batch of my Black Pudding and Bacon Rolls, I'm hoping that will be the start of something.

So firstly, I fried 200 g of bacon and 200 g of Black Pudding,

I will cut it into smaller pieces tomorrow, if you start off frying it in small pieces it dries out and then is too cooked to bake properly.

Next up I make a dough, 750 g Flour, 30 g coarse Semolina, 15 g each of salt and yeast, 480 g water and 75 g Olive Oil. Knead and prove for 1 hour. While it's rising, cut the bacon into smaller pieces.

Oil two large baking sheets and turn the dough out onto one of them.

Stretch it to cover and let it rest for a couple of minutes.

Top with the meat mixture.

Roll up like a swiss roll, putting a bit of tension in, finally pull the edge over.

Cut into slices and arrange on the trays. 

Cover and leave to rise for 45 minutes while the oven heats up to 220 C.

Spray with Oil and bake for 20 minutes or until browned on top and 95 C inside

I make other flavours as well, Cheese and Onion, Cheese and Sun-Dried Tomato, Chorizo and Cheese and Curry Spices with Chutney. Any other ideas are always welcomed.

.

Oats Order.

Since I have been delivering to Oats in Brixham, I have seen the order increase regularly and it now seems like I may have to bake for them twice a week.

This week I've produced Sourdough, Wholemeal and Rye for them, White for me,

Spelt,

Soda Bread and Teacakes.

And I've done a sample of the Pita as well.

On alternate weeks I also bake a selection of rolls and whatever else is ordered. Last week it was Carrot and Beetroot, you already had the pictures. Next week I have new flavours to try including Sun-Dried Tomato and Green Pesto.

More uses for Sourdough, Pita and Pasta.

Of course back in the old days, before commercial yeast, all leavening was done with sourdough cultures. So it's only natural that anything you can make with yeast from a packet you can make with sourdough.

Here are two more things, Pasta and Pita. The dough's have been made and are resting overnight, along with Rye and Wholemeal for Oats and some White for me.

Pita Dough

Pasta Dough (No egg)

Bubbles in the Wholemeal Dough

And in the White

So at 5 am I can get going, first job is to shape the loaves, before the fun can begin.

But first I put the oven to max, after placing my baking stones on the shelves. I need to get the stones hot. And I've cleaned the washing rack to dry my pasta on. I hope Yvonne's not got washing planned.

Unfortunately the pasta didn't work out, I must have done something wrong with the quantities as it was too loose to roll properly. Back to the drawing board there then.

On the other hand the Pita were perfect, rolled and baked on a stone in a hot oven they puffed up in 4 minutes and were done in 7.

And the recipe for the Pita,

500	g	Wholemeal flour
280	g	Water
9	g	Salt
20	g	Sourdough culture (100% hydration)
15	g	Olive Oil

Method

Heat the oven and stones to maximum, make sure they are really hot.

Mix all the ingredients and knead for 4-5 minutes in a mixer or by hand for 8 to 10 minutes. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rest for up to 24 hours in the kitchen.

Split into 100 g portions and roll out to about 4mm thick. Rest for 10 minutes

Place on the hot baking stones for about 4 minutes then turn and leave for 3 minutes.

Remove from the oven, BE CAREFUL, THEY WILL BE FILLED WITH STEAM.

Eat immediately or store in the fridge, reheat in the microwave if required.

Google Maps

Well Bread! is now on Google Maps, fame at last. I hope.

I did a batch of rolls for a fundraiser this morning, actually not Sourdough which I seem to have been doing a lot of lately.

Particularly the flavoured sourdough rolls, this week I did Caraway, Carrot and Coriander and Beetroot.

Soda Bread Lurking to the Left.

Carrot

Beetroot

Caraway

I had a message to say that the Carrot and Coriander and Beetroot were well received, certainly the ones I tried tasted pretty good. The customer already liked the Caraway and wants more new flavours when I can think them up.

 I also tried Wholemeal and White Sourdough loaves, no reports on them at the moment. I put them in tins as that was what the customer wanted.

Small Wholemeal at the back, Large White in front

My next plan is to try and make some Sourdough Pasta, it might be a good way of using up the starter. Stay tuned for that.

Sourdough Croissants

I have got my White Sourdough starter to behave, just look at it this morning,

Looks pretty active to me, so I've refreshed it and put it in the fridge. Yesterday I started croissants with it, and left them overnight to rise.

I folded the butter into the dough and got about 30 layers into it before shaping, 

The little nicks are to help in shaping.

As you will see they rose alright overnight and after an egg wash baked in 20 minutes.

They tasted pretty good as well.

And the recipe :

For the dough

70g leaven

143g milk

57g melted butter

238g plain flour

Pinch of salt

7g sugar

100g cold butter

For the egg wash

1 egg

1tbsp milk

1 tsp sugar

Feed your 100% hydration starter the day before you want to make the croissants.

Next day, mix 70g starter with the milk – warm but not hot. Add the melted butter then the flour, salt and sugar and mix. Knead for a few minutes to make a dough. Place in a rectangular container, cover with clingfilm and leave in the fridge (mine was there for a couple of hours).

Leave the 100g butter on the counter to soften up a bit.  Then place it between two pieces of greaseproof paper and using a rolling pin flatten it to form a square that is about 12cm x 12cm  and 0.5 cm thick.  Put this into the fridge and let it harden.

To make Croissants you need to get layers and layers of butter between layers and layers of dough.  Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out to a rectangle that is a little more than twice as big as your piece of butter.  Place the butter on one half of the dough then fold the other half of the dough over the butter so that it is completely covered by the dough.  Press the edges of the dough together to seal.

Roll out into a thin rectangle and fold it up like a letter and roll it out again and fold it up like a letter.  Place back into the container and back into the fridge. Repeat this process four times, with an hour in between each time.

The final time, roll out the dough to make a strip about 15cm wide and 45 cm long. Cut this into 5 pieces, and then cut each piece across diagonally to form 10 elongated triangles. Make the croissants by rolling the dough up from the wide end towards the tip.

These need to be left to rise – I left mine covered in the unheated kitchen overnight.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Make the egg wash and brush the croissants with it. Bake for 20 minutes or until the croissants turn a nice golden colour.