Sourdough Starter Recipe

This whole thing started out as a whim and then became a mission. It's much the same as when I decide to try out a 'look' with makeup. I'm not very good at applying complex makeup so I sometimes think I'll amuse myself for a few minutes trying out an eye shadow, only to rediscover how crap I am and then become determined to master it. Generally it doesn't turn out well and I abandon all hope. 

However, this is baking and not makeup. When I discovered that sourdough bread (possibly my favourite type) contains no added yeast I was fascinated. I forgot about it for a while but saw a recipe for a starter on a packet of white bread powder. As there is no added yeast you need to create a flour and water batter that captures and cultivates natural yeast from the air. By doing this you create a starter that can be added to more flour and water to make bread. Almost like magic. It's the way bread was made for years before people had easy access to yeast as a culture in its own right. You can keep your starter going for years simply by feeding it. 

Now there seems to be a ton of ways to make a starter. I'm going to put down the method that worked for me as I tried about five different ways. I shan't bore you when them all but my first one failed and I think that was because I used white flour instead of a whole grain flour which contains more natural sugar for the yeast to feed on. 

Ingredients

Stoneground rye flour (this also then gives a great colour to the final bread)

Warm water 

Equipment

1 ltr Kilner jar

Paper towel

Rubber band 

1.    Put about 50g to 70g of rye flour into the jar and add enough warm water to make a thick batter. Probably about 30-40ml.

2.    Cover the top with a kitchen towel and secure with a rubber band. Put out of the way in a room that isn't the kitchen.  Leave until bubbles appear in the batter. This could take 3 or so days. It can take up to a week but I don't think it should. If you don't see movement after 5 days chuck and start again.

3.    Once you have bubbles add some more flour and warm water, stirring well (this is called feeding). Then discard the paper towel and secure the top of the jar. Basically you have successfully got yeast into the batter and its busy eating the sugars in the flour, creating the bubbles.

4.    Feed the batter again after another 3 days. By this stage I stopped weighing out and just chucked more flour in and a bit of water to get a thick consistency. Now it's ready for the fridge. To maintain the starter you need to slow it down and regulate it. Putting it in the fridge does this and you can learn how it behaves. Once the bubbles slow down feed again – maybe once a week. It’s as simple as that. You want to have a couple of fridge rounds of feeding before you use it as this builds up the strength of the yeast. If you have too much starter for the jar just throw some away or use it to make bread.

5.    When you want to use it take out of the fridge the night before and feed to perk it up (I took mine out in the morning and used it around lunch time so it doesn’t need long). 

Recipe for bread to follow.

Millionaire’s Shortbread

There was very little drama this week in the picking of a recipe. I just did what I’d planned to do last week as I remembered to buy the ingredients I needed. This does not help me with a blog post at all. Therefore I’m not going to waffle on and get straight to the recipe. However I’ll use this space to recommend a couple of plays to read that I've read lately. I get that they won’t be everybody’s cup of tea but then what is?

• August: Osage County by Tracy Letts – excellent play about a family coming together after a death. Lots of different relationships at play, interlinking and exploring what family is. It’s being made into a film so quite excited to see it. 
• A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen (free on Kindle) – I randomly came across this on a link to a reading list F. Scott Fitzgerald had given to someone. It explores a woman’s role in marriage and her identity within it. I didn’t realise until I had read it that it was highly controversial at the time of publishing in 1879. The writer had the belief that "a woman cannot be herself in modern society," since it is "an exclusively male society, with laws made by men and with prosecutors and judges who assess feminine conduct from a masculine standpoint." The thought is still sadly relevant over 100 years after first being published so worth a free download and read.  

Ingredients

55g butter, melted

250g shortbread, smashed (either whizz in a food processor or put in a sturdy sandwich bag and whack it with a rolling pin)

150g soft dark brown sugar

150g butter

1 x tin condensed milk (397g)

200g dark chocolate (you can use milk if you prefer)

1 x packet white chocolate buttons (if you want pretty patterns on the top)

1.    I highly recommend using a silicon baking tray thing if you have one. Mine is 20cm square and you'll need to rest it on a chopping board, as you need a solid base when using silicon baking things. If not line a 20cm square tin (or of similar size), making sure you have plenty of grease proof paper over the edges so you can lift the finished product out.

2.    Mix the biscuit crumb into the melted butter. Once mixed press into the bottom of the tray, even out and let set for an hour.

3.    The caramel takes about 10 minutes to get ready. Put the butter and sugar in a saucepan. Melt and mix together on a low heat. Then add the condensed milk, turn up the heat and stir sluggishly while it comes to a rapid boil. This will take about 3-4 minutes. Once boiling keep stirring vigorously for about 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir until it stops bubbling when you stop stirring. I know that doesn't quite make sense but stir a bit, see if it bubbles, stir etc etc. You want to cool it a bit.

4.    Pour the caramel over the set base and then let set for another hour or so. I know this seems like a long time to make something that is a pimped up Twix but most of it is leaving it to set and you can make it over a whole day if you have places to be.

5.    Once the caramel is set melt the chocolate in separate bowls. Pour the dark chocolate on first and spread evenly. If using the white chocolate put dollops of it on top and swirl it using the tip of a sharp knife to make pretty patterns. Let set in the fridge.

6.    Now to cut. If using silicon turn it out on a board and if not lift it out using the paper. Then take a long sharp knife and a kettle of boiled water. Pour hot water over the blade of your knife. Wipe off excess water and then rest the blade where you want to cut. The chocolate will melt allowing you to cut through so it doesn't splinter. Repeat after each slice, cleaning the blade. A bit long winded but it works! Makes about 20-25 depending on how many slices you can be bothered to cut up.

Sundried Tomato Scones

So Monday’s baking was a disaster and in my post I wished that my mum could come to my rescue as she did when my baking went wrong at school. Well, ask and you will receive! 

I stayed at my parents last night and was greeted by a pile of scones my mum had made. She had too many and insisted that I bring them to work. Oh, ok then. Needless to say they were very well received; everyone thought that they rocked and that they were generally amazing. Someone broke out the saucisson and an impromptu picnic was underway. 

Ingredients

350g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

75g olive oil spread (I’m guessing you could use butter)

6 whole sundried tomatoes roughly chopped

2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary (or chuck in 1 tsp of dried)

150g fat free yogurt (full fat probably would be fine)

6 tbsp milk

2 tsp grated parmesan 

1.      Preheat the oven to 220°C/GM 7.

2.      Put flour, baking powder and olive spread in a food processer. Whizz until completed blended, then add the tomatoes and rosemary and whizz again.

3.      Put the mixture in a bowl and add the yogurt and 4 tbsp of the milk. Use a palette knife to bring it together into a soft dough (a spoon will work but make sure you don’t over mix – it’s a bringing together of ingredients and not a stir).

4.      Turn out the dough on to a floured surface and squish it out to a thickness of about 2cm. You could roll it out but if it squishes why create more washing up? Then use a 6cm cutter to make around 10 scones (re-using trimmings).

5.      Put on a baking tray, either non-stick or with greaseproof paper on, wash the tops with the remaining milk and bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool before serving.

Rye Soda Bread or Why it’s clear I’m not a Kenny Rogers fan

 

So baking didn’t go well last night. I was meant to make Millionaire Shortbread, as I had found a can of condensed milk ion my cupboard, but then forgot to buy the extra ingredients I needed. This happened because I was so hungry after work that all I could think about was what to have for dinner. Therefore any thoughts involving baking just disappeared. First mistake. The second one was not just popping back out and buying the ingredients. No, I had to work out what I else I could make with no planning.

Now I’ve been trying to get a sourdough starter going (a whole other story) so I have quite a bit of organic rye flour in the house. The packet has a recipe on the back for making Rye Soda Bread that needs no yeast so I thought it was worth a shot. Quick, easy and the oven was already on. Happily I go about making it, adding a few fennel and caraway seeds to make it aromatic, and this is there the third mistake came in. I knew the dough was too dry. I’m there mixing and thinking it needs more milk but do I do anything about it? Of course not. I’m sure it will be fine and this is where instinct in baking needs to come in. 

Yes baking is chemistry and you can’t mess around as much as cooking but if you think something isn’t right, and needs a little something extra, it’s best to do it if you’re a semi-experienced baker. I remember bringing home some dough we had made at school for the harvest festival. We were due to get it to rise at home and then our parents would bake it so we could bring it in the next day. Now mine wasn’t rising for some reason. Looking back I think I unfairly blamed my mum (she can have this as an official apology) but she knew, as a baker, that it just wasn’t going to rise and something needed to be done. Instinct! So she stayed up late and made me a whole new mixture, waited for it to rise and baked it so I would have it for the next day. If only she were around last night as my bread came out a solid mass of hard dough. Oh well. I had to settle for my friends having fun at my expense so at least someone had fun.

Canelé

I go through phases of experimenting with food. A couple of weekends ago I ate two olives. Those who know me well will realise what a big deal that is as I'm randomly fussy about some food. Now I didn't enjoy the olives but I do now know that if I were forced to eat them again then I prefer fresh ones to those that have been in brine. So I’ve gained something there. Plus I might see if I could cope with them in some form of bread so a new recipe is in the making. 

This all sparks off a more expressive time in the kitchen. I tend to need to gear up to it and I’m now in full swing. I’ve got bored of making the same old things and am in the mood for something new. I've now made chicken liver parfait (of which I now have far too much) and have made a variety of quinoa dishes, aided by a most fabulous book I got for my birthday. I’ve also been messing around with a variety of kebabs after buying some ras el hanout – a delicious blend of spices from North Africa. It makes everything taste of holidays.  

Being in this experimenting mood I decided to bake something a bit different this week. It is something I’ve been gearing up to after someone at work requested them. So I give you Canelé. It was requested by someone at work and I thought why not? The nearest I can come to them is a French take on Portuguese Custard Tarts but without the pastry. You basically make a thin custard batter, leave for a day or so and then bake the crap out of them. Really easy. You need to ensure that the sides get sort of burnt to ensure you get structure to hold them upright. This also gives a wonderful chewy texture. You will need a special mould and I bought a silicon one that holds eight as the copper ones were expensive and you need to butter them well. No such work needed with silicon. I made a few batches so I think I’m almost there with perfecting them. I do have a few pale and squished ones but they taste fine so don’t be afraid if that happens! 

Ingredients

500ml of milk

30g butter

1 vanilla pod (you can use 1 tsp of extract but the seeds look fab in the batter)

100g plain flour

1 tsp salt

180g caster sugar

3 larger eggs

80ml of rum (good quality is best and I used white rum as I had it in the freezer from years ago) 

1.    Put the milk, butter and vanilla in a saucepan and simmer. Once simmering take off the heat and remove the vanilla pod. Cut the pod in half, scrap the seeds out of it and leave the seeds  and pod halves to one side.

2.    Beat the eggs without getting air into them. Use a fork and mix slowly. It will take a big longer but air is deadly to Canelé.

3.    In a large bowl mix the flour, salt and sugar. Pour in the eggs, follow with the milk mixture and stir until combined. Once again don’t beat air into it.

4.    Add the vanilla seeds, pod halves and rum and give it a gentle stir. Then put the batter in the fridge and forget about it for at least a day. You can leave it 3 days if you want. Basically it gives you taller Canelé at the end of it.

5.    When you are ready to bake them preheat the oven to 250°C/GM 8. Put your silicon mould on a baking tray (I’m not about the start talking about copper moulds as they sound a nightmare but butter then if you have them).

6.    Take the batter out of the fridge and mix gently. Then fill eat mould to about 1cm away from the top. I used a ladle but you could put the batter into a measuring jug to pour out.

7.    Bake for 20 minutes and then turn the oven down the 230°C/GM 6. Do not open the oven but set the timer for 20 minutes. Once the second 20 minutes is up open the oven and over the moulds with a sheet of baking paper. This will stop them burning too much. Then bake for another 20 minutes. So an hour in total. This might seem a lot but trust me they need it.

8.    Take out of the oven and let cool for a few minutes before turning out. Then you’re meant to let them cool completely before eating but I say eat at least one of them warm. Cooks rights and all that. 

This made 14 for me.

Sifting Flour

Sifting flour is one of those things you should do but who really has the time? I'm always sceptical of how much it helps  so generally ditch it as a step. However a friend gave me this wonderful hand held flour sifter that means it's always a step I now include. Sifting aerates the flour and, in theory, leads to lighter sponges and cakes. This handy kitchen helper allows you to dump the flour in the top and through a few squeezes if the handle sift it all. Recommended, as its much more fun than using a sieve and much less messy.