Sourdough Brownies

Here is the recipe for all you who have requested it. While you're here, please have a look around the site(s), I hope you find something of interest. Please feel free to comment or ask about anything.

Sourdough Brownies

Yield: 24 brownies (9 x 13-inch pan)

Time:

Mix: 10 minutes

Bake: 40 minutes

Final Dough Ingredients:

300 g 72% cocoa solids chocolate, chopped into chunks

226 g unsalted butter, cut into pieces

200 g  dark brown sugar

6 g  salt

8 g  vanilla extract

3 whole medium eggs, at room temperature

40 g cocoa powder

220 g mature 100%-hydration sourdough starter

Method:

 Preheat the oven to 325F.

 Butter a 9 x 13-inch metal baking pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment, and butter the parchment.

In the microwave, melt together the chocolate and the butter. Max power for 25 seconds at a time, stirring between each 25 seconds. It should take 3 sets of 25 secs to melt.  

Whisk in the sugar, salt, and vanilla.

Add the eggs one at a time, whisking to combine after each addition.

Sift the cocoa powder over the chocolate mixture and stir to combine.

Add the starter and stir gently until it is completely incorporated.

Turn the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes, until a bamboo skewer inserted in the centre come out clean.

Cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then loosen the edges with a knife, invert onto parchment paper, and re-invert onto a cooling rack.

When completely cool, cut into squares.

And here are a few more pictures.

Wholemeal Focaccia

 I was going to make a few things with my Wholemeal starter but in the end I just made a Focaccia. Well I made two and stuck one in the Freezer. This was another practise for LoveLife and it went reasonably well, maybe a bit more rise would have been nice but the flavour was enhanced by some fresh Rosemary from the garden, chopped into the dough.

You can just see a few bits poking out as its rising , I used a lot of Olive Oil as well and that gave the crust a crunchy texture.

I took it out of the oven as it started to brown, 

and couldn't wait to try a bit. As you can see the inside is dense and it soaked up Vinegar perfectly, in my opinion that's just what a Focaccia should do.

The only disappointment was that I hadn't used enough Rosemary, I didn't want to over flavour it and was a little bit cautious. Still that's what these practise sessions are all about.

Here's the recipe,

Sourdough Focaccia
makes one large loaf

In a bowl, combine the following ingredients to form a sponge:

390g sourdough starter (always feed your starter the day before you are going to bake and stir before measuring)  

236ml warm water
60ml olive oil
1 Tablespoon honey
127g flour

Allow sponge to ferment and bubble for about an hour until bubbles of differing size are on top. Add to sponge:

120ml olive oil
508g flour
2 teaspoons fine sea salt

Mix ingredients together and turn out onto a floured board, kneading for 5-7 minutes. Depending on the hydration of your starter, you may end up adding 1/4 – 1 cup of flour while kneading. The dough will be soft and slightly moist from the oil and the kneading. Form into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Using a large, rimmed baking sheet, add 1/4 cup olive oil to the bottom of the pan, swirling to cover the bottom and sides. Once dough is risen, gently press dough down and then place your dough in the prepared pan. With your fingers, press dough into the bottom of the pan until it fills the pan. If your dough is very elastic and pulling away, allow it to rest for about five minutes and then continue.

Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rise until roughly doubled in size, about an hour. Preheat oven to 230 degrees. Once dough is ready, lightly dock dough with your fingers all over, leaving little impressions. If the dough is a little dry on top, brush on a bit more extra virgin olive oil and then sprinkle with coarse sea salt (mine was not dry; extra olive oil had spilled over onto the dough when I pressed the dough into the pan so all I did was sprinkle with salt. You be the judge of your dough.)

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from heat and allow to cool in it’s pan on a rack. Allow to cool at least twenty minutes before eating it.



Enjoy.

My new Starter.

My new starter is gradually gaining in power, I hope to be able to use it by the end of the week, meanwhile the loaf I baked yesterday has been re-purposed.

Here it was, in all its non-risen glory, the crust was really nice but the yeast wasn't yet strong enough to get a good rise inside.

So I sliced it thinly,

 and baked it at 140 degrees for 45 minutes, till it was all dried out.

Now I've got it stored in an airtight container, I can either use it as bruschetta or reduce it to crumbs. It should keep for several weeks like that, if I don't use it first.

Meanwhile the starter keeps growing,

 it rose by 33% overnight so is on the way. I will keep feeding it till we get 100% growth, then it will be ready for action.

Walnut Spelt.

My Spelt loaves are pretty good sellers at Oats and the quantity I make goes up quite regularly. 
This week when I got the order I was asked for a Walnut Spelt loaf, I already make a Walnut Sourdough Roll so I thought that I would just add Walnuts to the Spelt loaf in the same way.

But of course that doesn't really give a Walnut taste all through, to do that I added some Walnut Butter,

to the dough and then made the loaf as usual. This is my favourite bit, tinkering around and creating flavour but no matter what i think, in the end the real test comes in the mouth of the customer.

The loaf was made with the same timings and quantities as I use in a normal Spelt, I only reduced the water to allow for the butter and dissolved it first before kneading.

After a cool it cut  like this,

which was pretty much how I wanted it.

And the taste was excellent, small pieces of nut and the butter gave it a background hint.

In other news, I have been working on a new White Sourdough Starter, it was made from my Rye, which is very vigourous but after a week is still slow. Its producing lots of bubbles but not a lot of rise, I'm feeding it every day and last night used some discard to make a no knead loaf. This type of loaf usually rises reasonably well but not this one.

As you can see, there are bubbles but not spring. I think that its probably lactobacillus and the yeast has not got going yet. Oh well; nothings wasted here so it will make croutons. It does taste OK, just a little doughy. (It actually reminds me of supermarket bread in texture!) The crust is sensational.

Sourdough Baguettes and a new supplier.

I'm still practicing my Sourdough recipes for the LoveLife show, here are some baguettes, the taste was there but the texture was a bit heavy, I think my starter needs boosting a bit.

I also found a new deal on my Spelt Flour, the price has gone up a bit but I should be able to get regular supplies now.

I'll have to have a go with this tomorrow and see what its like. It arrived in 2 days from ordering and there was free delivery, maybe I'll use them for everything, trouble is I need more storage space.

Beetroot Ciabatta

Following the success of the Walnut and Caraway Sourdough Ciabatta I've been experimenting with other flavours. 

Here's the latest, Beetroot, chopped and added into the dough at first mix.

After a few folds and an overnight rise, I cut and shaped them this morning.

Maybe shaping is a bit optimistic, I formed them into pleasing Artisan shapes.

After an hour for a second rise and 15 minutes in the oven they were cooked.

I think I'll add them to my list.

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.