Disaster strikes in Charlie's sourdough adventure

Almost every loaf I bake is unique.  Lately I have been baking every couple of days and I am constantly tweaking my recipe.  I have experimented with various different flours (Wheat, Wholegrain Wheat, Rye, Wholegrain Rye, Spelt, Wholegrain spelt), I have also tried adding various ingredients like roasted capsicum, olives, and grains.  In addition I have been adjusting my hydration level, and also experimenting with doing an overnight second stage proof in the fridge.

All this experimenting has resulted in a delightful variety of flavours, textures, shapes and sizes. One of the pitfalls, however, is days like this...

Da da da duuummmmm.........

We had invited our friends Sandra and Chris around for dinner last week.  I decided that I would make some Pate and some delicious Spelt baguettes to go with it for appetizers along with a spelt loaf for us to eat for the next couple of days.  The Pate was a great success.  It was my first attempt at Pate and I was really happy with the result; it was rich, smooth and everything a Pate should be - see recipe below. The bread, however, was the exact opposite.

I had read that when working with Spelt flour that a lower hydration dough is needed.  I adjusted my recipe accordingly and off I went on the 6 odd hour long odyssey that is sourdough bread making...

Mixing, kneading, resting, stretching and folding, pre-shaping, shaping, proofing, carefully taking out of the banneton or couche, slashing, transferring to the oven, baking and cooling.

Everything went well up until the "taking out of the Banneton/couche" stage.  The dough felt quite nice when I was working with it but strangely after it had proofed for the necessary couple of hours it turned quite fluid.

The baguettes I had proofing in the Couche (a linen cloth dusted liberally with flour), all stuck to the bottom and got really mangled going into the oven and the loaf clung to the walls of the banneton as though it was trying to avoid its fate of landing in a 250 degree oven.  Knowing it wouldn't be pretty,  I attempted nevertheless to pop the loaf in the oven.  Adding insult to injury, it then stuck to the improvised peel I use (a piece of cardboard) and flopped unceremoniously out onto the baking stone in the oven, at which point, half of the dough slipped down off the side of the stone and landed on the floor of the oven.  What happened next cannot be described while still retaining at least a little dignity.  Lets just say that there was much swearing, fuming and dramatic hurling of dough into the bin.

Charmaine went for a walk to leave me to calm down and afterwards we had a little of a laugh about it, chopped up the ugly baguettes (which luckily had a beautifully light texture and tasted fantastic) and went on to prepare the rest of the meal...Quiche Lorraine, with a rocket, fennel and walnut salad.

Today in an effort to redeem myself I made some adjustments to the recipe (heaps less water).  The resulting Baguettes and loaves were some of the best I have ever made.  

In the background is one of the Bannetons I use for shaping my loaves, with my improvised Lame (a disposable razer threaded with a skewer inside a thin straw!)  and my container of semolina flour for dusting.

RECIPE

Chicken Liver Pate

Ingredients

600 mls Chicken livers, chopped (with any fat and gristle removed)

100g Butter (chopped)

2 Tbs Port or Brandy

1 Finely chopped onion

2 Crushed cloves of garlic

1 Tbs finely chopped fresh thyme

2 Bay leaves

Method

1. Melt the butter over medium heat in a heavy based frypan
2. add the onions and garlic and cook over medium heat until softened
3. add the rest of the ingredients and cook, stirring occasionally, until the livers are cooked
4. Leave to cool for 20 minutes.
5. take out the bay leaves and blitz the rest in a food processor until a smooth paste.
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste
7. Pack into bowls and cover with clingfilm (or melted clarified butter) and put into the fridge for at least 2 hrs to set

 

Making Chocolates

I have still been making my sourdough bread every couple of days, along with various other savory delights as inspired by the latest season of Masterchef Australia.  It is nice to hear some Aussie accents (apart from our own of course) although at times some of the language makes us cringe.  My favorite, and one which pops up nearly every episode by a wide variety of the competitors is the hard 'k' sound at the end of words like 'somethink' and 'anythink'.

Yesterday we were invited to 'Sommerfest', a party that my boss was throwing for the first weekend of Summer.  In typical Köln fashion it rained nearly the entire day and the temperature required a jacket.  Hopefully the party functioned like a reverse rain dance and we will get nothing but sunshine and clear skies for the next couple of months.

My contribution to the mounds of beautiful food at the party was a selection of homemade chocolates...

The top row are white and dark chocolates with a tangy raspberry jelly center and the bottom row are milk chocolate truffles with a dark chocolate chili ganache, and the same but rolled in coconut.

Here is a shot of what they looked like in the center.

It was my first real attempt at making chocolates since doing so as a kid in mums kitchen.  It also brought back memories of "helping out"(read:getting in the way and annoying everyone) in the kitchen at my father's restaurant, Doms.  I was often given the job of peeling things, but when I was very well behaved I was allowed to make the Chocolate baskets, which would then be filled with fruit and topped with cream.  There is something quite magical about chocolate, and I used to love to paint the melted chocolate onto the mold and then watch it transform into a solid, and yummy, dessert.

These chocolates take a little bit of effort to make, but the satisfaction of creating such a yummy treat from scratch make it well worth it.

To make these yourself you need a couple of bits a equipment that you may not have but which are indispensable,  a cooking thermometer, and a chocolate mold tray (I have a silicone one which makes it very easy to turn out the chocolates when they are set.

Chocolates with Raspberry center (makes around 20)

Equipment

• Food thermometer
• Fine Sieve
• Chocolate molds
• Double boiler, or a stainless steel bowl that fits into a saucepan.

Ingredients

• 300g Chocolate (The best quality you can afford)
• 125g Rasberries
• 3 Gelatin sheets, Gold. 
• 1/4 cup Apple Juice
• 2 Tsb Suger 

1. In a small saucepan, add the Raspberries, Apple juice and Sugar.  Bring to a simmer and cook until the raspberries break down into a mush.
2. Strain the mixture through a sieve and use the back of a spoon to push the pulp through, leaving behind the seeds and set aside.
3. Now for the slightly tricky part.  To temper the chocolate so that you get a beautiful shine when it sets, and a lovely crack as you bite into it you need to follow the following directions.
4. Finely chop your chocolate and put 3/4 of it in the double boiler (making sure the pot on top is not touching the water below)  stirring gently but constantly, bring the temperature of the chocolate up to 46 degrees Celsius for dark chocolate (43 for milk or white)
5. Remove the bowl from the heat and add the remaining chocolate and continue to stir gently until it drops to under 29 degrees C
6. Place back on the heat 10 seconds at a time until the temperature of the chocolate reaches 31.5 degrees(30.5 for white and milk choclate) - It is now perfectly tempered and ready to use.  It is important that you don't leave the chocolate over the water or allow it to exceed 32.5 degrees at this point.  Also - Make sure that water NEVER comes into contact with your chocolate.  It will make it seize up and will be unusable. 
7. Fill your molds with the melted chocolate, wait a couple of minutes and then tip the molds upside down over your bowl of chocolate or a piece of baking paper.
8. Scrape the remaining chocolate of the top of the mold and tap vigourously to remove any airbubbles (if you don't, your chocolates will like like they were nibbled by mice)
9. While your chocolate sets, soak your gelatin sheets in cold water for 5 mins and put the raspberry mixture on the heat.  Shortly before it reaches a simmer, take the saucepan off the heat and whisk in the softened gelatin sheets until dissolved.
10. Cool the mixture down over an ice bath (or cold water in the sink) and fill the cavities in the chocolate molds, leaving a space at the top to seal it in with more chocolate.
11. Place the molds in the fridge for 10-15 mins to let the jelly start to set.
12. Try to keep the chocolate as close the 30 degree mark as you can.  This requires putting it on the heat for 5-10 secs every couple of mins.
13. Test the jelly with your finger and it it feels slightly firm it is time to add the last bit of chocolate.
14. Fill each mold up and then scrape away the excess chocolate so they are level.  Again, give them a tap to get out the air bubbles.
15. Put the in the fridge for 30 mins and then take them out and de-mold them, trimming the bottoms of the rough bits of chocolate the will be jutting out.

Sourdough Croissants and a new visa

After being told by 3 different people at various immigration offices that I wasn't eligible for an unrestricted work visa until I had been here 5 years, I finally found someone who referred me to the right person who knew what she was doing.  So now, after 4 trips in one week to various different offices I have been granted an unrestricted work visa - for the last three years I have had to go to immigration every time I was offered a contract, and then wait 6-8 weeks for the permission to work. I am now allowed to do any job I want, or, I will when I actually get the stamp in my passport (which may take another couple of weeks).

In celebration I decided to make some Croissants (and a few Petit pain au Chocolat) on the weekend,   Sourdough of course...

I always knew that Croissants weren't particularly healthy but it wasn't until making them that I realised just how unhealthy they are!


This is a photo of the dough after I had it had rested in the fridge overnight.  It is layers of butter and dough (which also has butter in it)

After rolling the above dough out I then cut it into triangles

and then left them to proof for a while












They went beautifully with an espresso and some home made Rasberry Jam given to us by our good friend Maike.  The perfect sunday brekky!

YUM!

Check out the recipe here

Sourdough English Muffins and Eggs Florentine

After perusing the various websites dedicated to the delights of Sourdough baking I stumbled across a recipe for English muffins.  Taken with how easy it seemed I decided to give them a try.  And, I am pleased to announce, they are very easy - And YUMMY.  I made them on saturday and then for sunday breakfast we had organic eggs florentine on organic sourdough muffins (minus the Hollandaise sauce due to Charmaine's state).  They were great, although would have scored higher with the addition of some freshly made Hollandaise!

After breakfast we lazed around the house for a bit before heading to Nippes, our old stomping ground, for the dual treats of flea market and Street Festival.  'Twas a great day,  capped of by a 30 min set by a very 'eurovision' singer with his two back up dancers, made all the better by the dancer who was every so slightly un-co and not all that sure of all the moves!  GOLD!

Anyway... as always, the RECIPE

courtesy of Susan at her great sourdough blog Wild Yeast.

It requires you to make a "sponge" which is a pre-ferment which gets everything going.

Ingredients for the sponge:

110g Ripe 100% hydration starter
160g Strong Flour
100g Wholemeal flour
276g Milk

Ingredients for the rest of the dough
75g Strong Flour
8g Salt
1 tsp Baking soda
1.5 tsp Honey
All of the sponge.

Method:

• Mix together all of the sponge ingredients until combined.
• Leave for 8 hours or overnight.
• Add remaining dough mixture and mix roughly to combine.
• Turn out onto bench and knead the dough for 7-10 minutes or until the gluten is well developed. The dough will be very sticky at first and will get slightly less so with kneading.  Please resist the urge to add more flour though.

• Flour your bench surface and hands really well and pat the dough out to a thickness of 1.5cm
• using a round cookie cutter with a diameter of 8cm cut out the muffins and transfer to baking paper sprinkled liberally with semolina flour.  Alternatively you could just use a knife or dough cutter and have them square.
• Cover with cling-wrap and leave to proof for an hour.

• With a pastry brush, lightly oil a heavy based fry-pan.  In batches, cook the muffins over medium heat for around 15 minutes, turning several times, until golden brown and the sides are firm.
• Cool on a wire rack.
• When splitting them for toasting, it is best to use a fork rather than a knife.  This creates lots of great nooks and crannys which will crisp up beautifully.

These muffins are great as they are, toasted with a bit of butter, or your favorite spread.  But are also fantastic as part of your favorite english muffin based breakfast!

Anniversary dinner - slow roasted lamb shoulder

On Sunday night Charmaine and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary!  We decided to cook dinner at home before heading out for a stroll and perhaps a drink.  Remembering with fondness some slow roasted lamb shoulder that our friend James Payne cooked for us in Melbourne, I decided that if I could find Lamb shoulder in Cologne, I would give it a crack.  I happened to find some New Zealand lamb shoulder in the gourmet food section of the department store nearby,  unfortunately it was frozen but beggars can't be choosers!  It ended up roasting at 130 degrees for about 8 hrs and it was beautiful!  The meat fell off the bone with just a little help from a fork.  The skin and meat on the outside was really dark and crispy and inside was beautiful and moist with a really rich flavour.  I served it with roasted potatoes(Of course) along with roasted carrots, onions, and garlic.  Unfortunately I didn't take any photos so you'll have to take my word for it.  See below for Recipe...

After dinner we went for a stroll into the the center and hung a Liebesschloss (Love padlock) on the Hohenzollernbrücke (Hohenzollern Bridge).  We had a padlock engraved with our initials and the date we were married and locked it onto the bridge, along with the estimated 2 tonnes of other locks.  

After affixing the lock, we threw the keys into the river below....and then went and ate some ice-cream before wandering home full and happy.

RECIPE - SLOW ROASTED LAMB SHOULDER

For two People to be eating at 8pm.

1kg Lamb shoulder

3 Bulbs garlic

2 Carrots (Peeled and quartered)

as many potatoes as you want to eat

2 small onions

Red wine

4 sprigs rosemary

Salt & Pepper

Olive oil

11.30 Preheat oven to 130 degrees

rub the Lamb with salt, pepper, one of the rosemary sprigs, and olive oil and set aside

prepare a bed of 1 bulb of garlic cloves (unpeeled) and the remaining rosemary.

lie the lamb on its little bed of tastiness and pour a cup of red wine into the pan.

12.00 put the Lamb in the oven

17.45 cut the very top off the remaining garlic bulbs and pour some olive oil in the little holes.  put in a separate roasting dish along with the unpeeled onions, and the carrots.  Add Olive oil to lightly coat.

Par boil the potatoes in salted water until cooked through, drain and stand until they stop steaming.

19.15 Add to the roasting tin with the other vegetables

19.30 Remove the lamb, cover with foil and leave to rest in a warm place.  If the garlic looks soft and a golden colour, remove it too.  Turn oven up to 220 Degrees and place the Vegetables on the top tray.

19.45 Toss the Vegetables.

20.00.  Remove meat from the bones with fork.  Place on warmed platter.  Add the vegetables to the platter.  Serve.  Enjoy.

Long time no Blog - Getting my Mojo back

Well - It has certainly been a long time between posts!  Last post - 28th Dec........2009!!!!

wow - So, what have i been up to you might be wondering.  Lots of stuff, living, singing, playing board games, auditioning, making a baby, watching movies, visiting Australia, talking on skype, and lately.......baking bread, is the answer!

About a month ago I was inspired to turn my hand to Sourdough bread making after being inspired by my  friend Abe Singer's photos posted on facebook.  

I had tried a few years back to make a Sourdough starter but with zero success but after Abe's effort I thought it would be worth giving it another crack.

Abe gave me instructions for how to go about cultivating a sourdough starter and I also did a lot research on the net, especially at sourdough.com, a great portal for all things sourdough. 

So, on a mild spring morning in Köln, Deutchland I mixed together 50g of Water and 50g of organic whole-meal flour in a glass jar, in the hope of encouraging some wild yeasts to grow.  I patiently fed my starter following these fantastically easy steps, and after a week I had a colony of yeast that I could bake with.

I have decided to use Organic ingredients and as much as possible to use whole-meal flour (the only problem being is that loaves with a high proportion of whole-meal flour have a tendency to be a bit on the dense side)

My very first loaf was a 20% Rye loaf. (see under for Recipe)

mmmm - Avocado and Tomato on fresh sourdough....Nom nom nom

It has been less than a month since I embarked on this Sourdough journey but it has become somewhat of an addiction.  In the past 29 days I have made around 10 Rye/Whole-meal loves, a few Spelt loaves, Baguettes, Pizza bases, and today.....Croissants.  All using my sourdough starter culture.

It is still fascinating to me that something so tasty can be created with so few ingredients.  My bread is only flour, water, salt and my starter (which is flour, water and wild, naturally occurring, yeast!  It stays fresh for a couple of days and when it is stale it makes the most amazing Cheese toasties!!!!!

I'm looking forward to reviving this blog and sharing with you some of the things I am cooking/baking as well as other things that are going on in my life.

Cheers,

Charliek

RECIPE

• 140g Starter - 100% Hydration
• 420g Flour - 84g Rye, 336g of White Flour type 1150 (strong)
• 280g Filtered water
• 10g Sea salt
• 
  

1. Roughly mix together everything except the salt and allow to rest for 20 mins 
2. Add the salt and knead the dough for 10 sec (YES REALLY!) every 10 mins for the next half hour. 
3. From now, give the dough a stretch and fold  every 45 mins for the next 3 hours (4 times)
4. Shape your loaf and putting in a Banneton covered with a teatowel and plastic bag and into the fridge overnight.

The next morning, take out your loaf from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for 1.5 hrs.

Put your stone in the oven (I use a piece of granite from a hardware supplies shop)Preheat Oven to 250 Celsius and put a tray in the bottom of the oven to heat up.

Working quickly but gently, turn your loaf onto a well floured "Peel" (I use a piece of firm cardboard), slash the top with a sharp knife or razor and slide it onto your stone in the oven.  Pour 2 cups of cold water into the tray at bottom of oven, and using a spray bottle, spray some water into the cavity of the oven to create steam.

After 20 minutes, remove the tray and reduce temperature to 220 degrees and bake for a further 20 minutes.  The loaf is cooked when it sounds hollow when tapped on the base.

Allow to cook completely before cutting.