First Sourdough loaf

Yesterday evening I took the starter out of the fridge and after about two hours I fed it, without discarding any because I knew I needed 2C for my recipe. So I fed it 3oz of water, 1oz rye, and 2oz flour and left it sit overnight. Here is what it looked like about noon when I started measuring out my 2C.

Recipe:
2C starter
4t sugar
2t salt
3C more or less of flour

I only got about two cups of flour in before it started to get angry at me, so I stopped there, rounded it out, through it in a bowl and started to play the waiting game. Around 4pm I decided it had doubled in size and shaped it. Threw it in a slightly warm oven with a bowl of hot water and waited another hour and half. Removed the bowl of water and plastic wrap. Gave it a very light coat of olive oil and turned the oven on 350. Kept an eye on it, turned it at about 15 minutes or so. Let the other side brown up and foiled the top and turned the oven down to 325 and cooked it another 15-20 or so. Overall the bread is rather dense, and I should have used less flour and/or had more moisture. Flavor wise it is good, tons of flavor.

Sourdough Starter!

Day 4

Or bread monster as I like to call it. In culinary school we created a SD starter, but being too busy and foolish I discarded it in the garbage and went about my merry way. So I decided to try my hand at it again. Started on January 15th with 3oz of water, and 3oz of organic flour, and left it sit for 24 hours. After 24 hours I would discard 3oz, and add 3 more ounces of water and flour. I did this for several days, and on day four I noticed it starting to work. Bubbles!

Day 6

On day four I stopped measuring    how much I was discarding and discarded all but about 2T to 1/4cup and started adding 6oz of water and 6oz flour. On day five I was reading about starters and most people had used organic flour and rye flour. I had rye flour lying around so I started putting it in the mix. Here is what day 6 looked like. I discarded most, and added 6oz of water, 5oz of flour and 1oz of rye flour.











Continuing with the 6, 5, and 1oz, on the 8th day I fed it one last time and put it in the fridge.

Flax Seed Wheat Bread

Tried another recipe from The Fresh Loaf, a wheat bread with flax seeds. I only had flax meal, not whole seeds so I cut down the amount from 100g to about 25g. I also used 2t of honey instead of malt powder. Mixed for about 3 minutes on speed 1 and about 5 minutes on speed 2. Did not bake nearly as long as the recipe indicated. Baked about 25 minutes total. It made one small boule. My crumb does not look like theirs, but I'm guessing its because I used the flax meal, and honey. They did not indicate mixing times, so I was just winging it off of previous bread I have made and checking for window pane. I love the crust ring in the second photo. Pretty flavorful bread, would go well with a soup or stew, it is just begging to be dunked in something yummy.

Ciabatta Bread

I got this recipe from the fresh loaf, I frequent this website a ton, lots of recipes, tutorials, and help. The community is really helpful there, and seems to always be able to answer any bread questions anyone has. My dough never tried to climb out of the mixer and the directions indicated, even after 30 minutes of mixing, and I am not sure if that was because I was using such a jumbo bowl for a not so jumbo batch,  or if I made an error in scaling. My crumb came out with a lot of tiny air bubbles, not the huge ones associated with ciabatta but over all it tasted great. My next ciabatta will be a sour dough variety, once my starter matures and is ready for me to play with it.

Whole-Wheat Cinnamon Bread

I saw this recipe in the Food Network magazine (January/February 2011) and had to try it. Very easy, and very tasty. The original recipe has raisins, but I left them out because I don't like raisins in my bread. I also turned this bread into french toast a few days later, amazing.

2 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
1 large egg
2 T canola oil, plus more for brushing
3 T honey
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
cooking spray
1 T plus 1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 c packed brown sugar

1. Check your yeast's directions on water temp, the recipe says 120-130 degrees but my yeast said 100-110, so I followed the yeast packet and heated 1 1/4 cups water to about 110 and added my yeast. While I let that sit, I sifted my two flours and dry milk and set aside. In a separate bowl I combined the honey, egg, oil, and salt, and lightly mixed.
2. After 5-10 minutes the yeast should start floating to the top and look foamy. Once this happens put your sifted flours into your mixing bowl, add all the wet ingredients and the water yeast mixture. With dough hook mix on slowest speed for 3 minutes. Turn up to second speed for 5 minutes.
3. Transfer dough to large bowl sprayed with cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature for about one and half to two hours. If your house is on the colder or warmer side your bread will take longer/faster. Mine is on the colder side so I turn on the oven for about 15 seconds just to get a little heat in there, and put my bread in there to rise.
4. Transfer the dough to a floured surface, pat gently to a loose square shape. Lift up one side of the dough and fold about one-third of it across toward the center; press down on the dough to remove air bubbles. Repeat with the remaining three sides. Divide the dough in half.
5. Lightly spray two 9x5 loaf pans. Roll out each half into an 8 inch square. Brush with canola oil, then sprinkle with cinnamon, then brown sugar. Roll up each square into a tight cylinder and place seam side down in loaf pans. Cover again with plastic wrap and let rise another hour and half or so, when touched the dough should spring back.
6. Heat oven to 375, brush loaves with canola oil and bake until golden brown, about 20-25minutes. Let sit a few minutes then remove from pans to cooling rack to cool completely.