Potato Rosti

It's very often the little things that turn into the big things. The experiments that succeed or the trials that everyone loves.

I found a recipe for Potato Rosti that used Sourdough as a binding agent and made some with my discard starter. I thought that they tasted pretty good and as they took little time I decided to make a few for the Lovelife show. I didn't really think they would be popular, but I liked them and could always eat them myself.

Well they sold out almost immediately and I could have sold a load more as well. If you can believe the things people say, I can expect orders.

They are very easy to make, you need

400 g Potato, washed and unpeeled

60 g sourdough starter (unrefreshed discard is fine)

30 g Olive Oil.

First cut the potato into chunks and put into a processor. (If you don't have one use a hand grater) You need small pieces.

Drain any liquid and mix the potato in a bowl with everything else. Now is the time to add Salt, Pepper or Herbs if you wish.

Mix till you get a paste.

Line a tray with parchment and make the mixture into balls, placing them on the tray, or you can use cooking rings.

Bake at 160 Degrees C for around an hour or until browned and crisp. Eat warm or allow to cool for storage.

They can be frozen.

Sourdough Digestives.

In response to the interest on Facebook, here is my recipe for the Digestive biscuits.

80g Fine Oatmeal

100g Wholemeal flour

50g Dark Brown sugar

Pinch of salt

110g unsalted Butter at room temperature

100g recently refreshed starter at 100% hydration

Put the oatmeal in a food processor and add the flour, sugar and salt, pulse a few times to combine.

Add the butter in the processor and mix until it looks damp and comes together in a rough dough. If you don’t have a processor combine the other dry ingredients in a bowl before rubbing in the butter with your fingertips.

Remove mix from food processor to a bowl and stir in the starter until well combined. 

Cover and refrigerate until firm, about an hour.

Roll the dough out evenly on a lightly floured surface until it is approx. 3-4mm thick. Cut circles of dough with a cutter and place on parchment/silicone paper lined trays. They don’t spread much but leave a little room between them. I make around 22 from this recipe. 

Prick all over with a fork and put them back in the fridge for 15 – 20 minutes.

Bake them at 180ºC for 15-20 minutes turning the tray once during baking, check them at the 10 minute mark, you are looking for them to seem dry and firm and browned slightly at the edges and underneath.

They are slightly soft when they first come out of the oven and firm up when cooled. 

Transfer to racks to cool down and then keep in an airtight jar or container. 

The week of Madness starts here!

Monday morning at 5 am and I'm starting what will be a very busy week. I've got an easy run in to get me going, just two Spelt loaves for Oats cafe to keep them going till the main order on Wednesday.

By 0730 the house was filled with the smell of baking and the results were just about 
perfect. My new oven has a double fan system and I don't have to rotate the loaves or rolls half way through baking any more, they colour evenly on their own.

In fact they looked so good that I wish I had made an extra one for us, I do like to add one on every now and then, apart form the fact that it saves me baking extra for us it acts as a quality control as well.

My new scales have also arrived and I used them for the first time today,



they are a bit better than the old ones, which I have suspected of being slightly out for a while. They also have a bakers percentage function that will come in handy for sourdough bakes of more than 1 loaf.

In other news, the order I baked for Millie last week was for a birthday party, I copied a couple of pictures form Facebook of the bread in situ and the presentation made it look very appetising.

Sophie from Millie and Me was kind enough to say on Facebook, "Looked and tasted amazing," and on Millie and Me's page she wrote "Thanks Richard from Well Bread outstanding bread yet again."

Now I'm off to tend to my Rye starter for Wednesday's order, which also includes Walnut and plain Spelt, Soda Bread and Vegan Teacakes. Then on Wednesday afternoon I start preparing for LoveLife. I'll keep you posted.

Finished early

I had a big(ish) order for Millie and Me today, 30 Panini Rolls, A Ciabatta, A Pesto Twist and two Focaccia. (One Sundried Tomato and One Olive)

In the old days, that meant a five o'clock start and finish around nine.

Enter the new oven, doubling my capacity and meaning I can keep up with the flow of proved dough.

I was finished at eight!

Maybe I'm entering the big time, the thought of larger orders no longer fills me with dread and I can start canvassing for business secure in the knowledge that I can keep up.

Incidentally, here are the finished articles.

Of course the next test is the prep for Lovelife, where I intend to make around 10-12 different Sourdough products for sampling and hopefully ordering. The fun will start on Weds after I've delivered to Oats.

Sourdough Rye Bread

I posted a picture of my Rye and Honey Bread on Facebook and have had a few people asking for the recipe.

I use 100% Organic Stoneground Rye flour, only adding honey and salt and water. This is the flour I use, from Bacheldre Mill. I recommend it. My Rye starter is now 4 years old but you can make one in a week.

24 and 12 hours before making the bread I feed a portion of my starter, so that when I begin I have the right amount of active starter. 

For example if I need 450 g starter for 3 small loaves I will feed 50 g of stock starter from the fridge with 50 g each of flour and water 24 hours before mixing. Then at 12 hours before mixing I will feed the 150 g that now exists with 150 g each of flour and water which will give me 450 g of starter to work with.

The following table gives quantities in grammes for various combinations of loaves, it depends on my orders which one (or combination) I will make. A large loaf is around 950 g and a small around 700 g before baking

                        1 Lge               1 Sml               2 Lge             2 Sml         1 Lge + 2 Sml         2 + 2

Flour                400                  300                  800                  600                  1000                1400

Salt                    10                      7                    20                    15                      25                    35

Starter             200                  150                   400                  300                    500                  700

Honey               40                    30                     80                    60                    100                  140

Water              300                  225                   600                  450                    750                 1050

Method

Mix everything together except the salt, Leave for 30 minutes. I use my Kenwood stand mixer as the dough is very sticky

Add the salt and knead for 10 minutes in the mixer. I user the "K" beater rather than the dough-hook as its more efficient in the lower gluten dough.

Place in a plastic lidded container. Leave for three hours then refrigerate overnight.

Next morning turn the dough out onto a heavily floured board and cut into portions as above (950/700 g) It is important that the dough is handled very gently as it is shaped into loaves, don't be too rough because it will knock the air out and you'll end up with sludge. 

I put the loaves into tins as that is what my customers want.

Leave to prove for 5-6 hours until risen and cracked on top. About an hour before baking warm the oven to 230 degrees C.

 The following photo's show this more clearly and are taken from an earlier batch which was photographed in different lighting conditions, hence the lighter colour of the dough.

Bake with steam for 15 minutes, then without for another 10 minutes. Turn the tins in the oven to even the browning and reduce the temp to 180 degrees C.

Bake for about 20 minutes more until you get an internal temperature of 96 degrees C. You may need to turn again if the crust starts to darken too much. I use the internal temperature to judge when the loaf is done because Gluten sets at 95 degrees C; any internal temperature above that means that the loaf is "Done." I find that method more accurate than tapping the base. You only need to check one loaf out of a batch.

Turn out to cool. Leave for 30 minutes minimum before cutting.

The perception of Rye bread, at least in England, is that it is very heavy and close-crumbed but as you can see this version is lighter and quite open. 

This bread seems to keep forever, (well at least a couple of weeks and when it dries out you can always toast it)

I hope you enjoy the bread and my posts. Keep checking back for lots more sourdough ideas.

Extra Pair of Hands

My new oven is installed and ready to go, and tomorrow I will flash it up and see how it performs.

I can't wait.

The new, improved (Sourdough) Brixham Crumpet.

After refreshing, I had a lot of sourdough starter left over this morning, so I thought I would make some Crumpets. I posted this recipe idea last year but since then I have tweaked it a bit.

The starter can be old, it doesn't need any power, the Bicarb makes the mixture rise. So it's ideal for using discard before feeding. White or Spelt starter is best. 

These pictures are for a White starter.

You will need a set of rings to shape the raw mixture, I got mine from a hardware shop locally.

First, heat up a non-stick pan and lightly oil the rings, these will heat and the oil will stop the dough sticking. Not too hot though or the bases will burn before they are done.

Take 250 g starter at 100% hydration and add 1 tsp sugar and a good pinch of salt. Add half a teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda and mix well. It will foam up,

Half fill the rings to allow for expansion,

 and cook for about 6 minutes. The crumpets will start to shrink away from the rings and the tops will start to set.

Carefully remove the rings and flip the crumpets over to brown the tops.

And there you are, about 2 minutes cooking on the tops and they are done.