Many Seed Bread
This is a special day. It's World
Bread Day again and this marks 1 year in bread baking
experiments for me and it has been a wonderful year of learning the
virtue of patience. I've blogged on 19 different breads and have
baked some more that I didn't blog about. I am truly grateful to
Zorra of 1 x
umrühren bitte for this event and for helping me discover the
joy of bread baking!
It's a brand new recipe this week from Peter Reinhart's new book
Whole Grain Breads. This is my first real time
baking with steam and even if it wasn't as steamy as I would like,
the crust made music as my teeth sunk into it. What a feeling! I
used to have all these phobias about creating steam but I thought
this is the day to do it. It really isn't as frightful as
it sounds - ok maybe it is, after all it took me a year to attempt
steam. It's worth it and now there are new bread experiments to try
with steam!
This is a healthy hearty loaf. Full of seeds, made with whole wheat, rye and bread flour this loaf has substance. Just on it's own, the fusion of flavours still lingers after the first tasting, the photo taking and now the blogging. Very yummy! I am so pleased with how this turned out and may I say a little proud of myself with this loaf marking a great year in bread baking!
Read More...Cinnamon Crumb Surprise for special favours
A few reasons motivated me to bake today. I promised muffins in
return for favours, Zorra's Apple Day food blog event, Muffin Monday (MM06) hosted by Pernille and of
course this great recipe I found in Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible. This was
meant to be baked in a loaf but decided to make muffin versions.
This is not like any apple muffin I've had before. This is
wonderfully light and fine in texture. The slice of apple in the
center is a sweet surprise and the cinnamon crumble is a
winner!
I think what makes this more special and unlike any other cake or
muffin recipe I've come across is sour cream. I also used Top Flour
instead of All-purpose and this does give it a softer texture. It
is also important to have the oven hot enough to set the structure
quickly to support the crumb topping and prevent it from
sinking.
This is a great accompaniment with a lazy afternoon beverage.
Basic Sourdough Bread
Thought I should give sourdough another
go - a simpler version. I wanted to try introducing steam today but
failed. I was going to use the ice cube method but realised at the
last minute that my fridge no longer produced ice (or iced water)!
So silly that I didn't check it before. So thought I'd quickly try
to boil water - then that was taking too long so ... no steam for
bread today.
This was different compared to my previous attempt with
sourdough rye. I did encounter some problems with my firm starter -
it didn't rise for many many hours. I am suspecting that my culture
is actually dormant and I will probably need to wash and reactivate
it. So in view of the culture not working too well (although the
flavours came through), I added 1½ Tspn of Instant yeast to give it
the extra lift it needed. This was otherwise a much firmer and
manageable dough, better for newbies. I've also introduced 10% of
rye into the flour mixture. I will probably give this recipe
another attempt using refreshed culture.
Everything was less than ideal but it was quite a relief that at
least the flavours came through. It had balanced flavours with a
nutty hint of rye. It was quite a wholesome feeling. I went on and
made bruschetta with it. It was wonderful, flavourful and much
relished!
The Donut Factory - Friend's review
So one of my friends finally got in line at the express queue at Suntec City (while waiting for her window-shopping Mom) here's her review (posted with her permission) that she smsed me :
10 minutes of waiting netted me and Mom 2 donuts out of 8 sitting in a tray. Kaya and Strawberry heart. Too sweet too sweet. And if I had waited an hour, I would have said too sweet and thoroughly not worth it. It's all time, place and perception. Either I wait for my mom watching her window shop or I read my book in a queue for same amount of time for these mythic donuts. It's okay, above bad! Will not comment on texture or consistency though.
This is because I had told her that I liked it but at this point I made her tell me about her thoughts. Her reply follows...
Because it was average. I think it's the long queues and the anticipation that flavours the tastebuds.
Previous related posts here and here.
Sourdough Rye with Flaxseeds
I've finally gotten round to it, making
Sourdough Rye bread. I haven't really been spending a lot of time
baking in the last months and forgotten how long you need in
preparation for bread baking. This is my first time making
Sourdough Rye and I think I might have added just a teeny tiny bit
too much culture because the final result was a little too tart to
my liking. Then again, it might be the case that I left the
sourdough to ferment more hours than usual. I'm not too sure.
This recipe also created a very hydrated dough. I'm not very
experienced in handling wet dough so I added more flour to have it
hold up a little more and made it easier to shape. This time round
I also decided to use a thermometer to measure internal
temperatures to be certain the insides were done. I was so idiotic
too with this part too because the recipe reads in Fahrenheit and
my thermometer was in Celsius but somehow thought it was reading in
Fahrenheit and of course I thought "No no! The insides still not
done!!" The thermometer came out with tiny bits of wet dough on it
so I decided to bake it some more. I then proceeded to check the
conversions of what it should be and realised 10-15 minutes later
that my bread was already done and I'm just getting the tops of my
bread burnt!
Also what is quite lacking from this
experiment is steam - I've yet to be courageous enough to spray or
introduce water in an extremely hot oven. The last thing I need is
shattered bits of oven glass all over my kitchen and the stress
that comes with it! This was nonetheless an interesting experiment!
I need more practice! This recipe is taken from Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread: A Baker's Book of
Techniques and Recipes. Apart from the slightly over-tartness
of the bread, I quite enjoyed the flavour of rye and flax in this.
It has a lovely texture to it, not to chewy or dry - nice strong
crumb.
I'm not sure if it's fate or coincidence but I'm so glad I can now
participate in the new food blog event Bread Baking Day #03 originally created by Zorra (Goddess of
wonderful food blog events)! This time round it's hosted by
Ulrike
of Küchenlatein who is a wonderful cook and regular of
food blog events, so I am quite certain it will be a success!! I've
been meaning to take part but been too busy and only just minutes
before realising the theme for this month's Bread Baking Day is
Sourdough Rye!
Childhood Muffins
I got really excited when I first read about the theme for the
latest Muffin Monday (MM05) that Wonder Sophie
had planned. Childhood Muffins! It sounded really fun but at the
same time challenging because a lot of what I had during my
childhood is not quite the same now. But the first thought that
popped up in my mind where these wonderful bite-sized biscuits with
colourful piped dollops of icing sugar on top.
I honestly don't know if there is a formal name for these
confections. These are sold at your neighbourhood provision shops
by weight. I bought mine pre-packed for $1 for (150gm pack) - with
no formal label on the package, so it appears there still is no
formal name for these gems.
My contribution to MM05 are regular muffins filled with these bite-sized sugar surprises. I had placed a bite-sized biscuit on the top but the heat caramelised the colourful tops to something brown and not so pretty. The icing sugar made the insides of the muffin really colourful (and a bit strange), it was fun all the same to make them and everyone enjoyed it!
Read More...I know...
I will bake soon - been busy at work. It's true.
I'm taking a week off next week so there will be plenty of time to catch up with new experiments!
It's been 1 whole year since I've quit smoking!!
I've also noticed a sudden rise in people reading about the donut factory post I made some months back. The queue is still quite long even though school holidays are over. They've recently just opened another outlet at Suntec City. Location addresses for their outlets and a visual sample of their delicious range of donuts can be found on their website donutfactory.com.sg.
Invisible City
There are few who lyrically romanticise
about Singapore and there are even fewer who associate and relate
to such notions. Most of the time we just don't get it - us
spoon-fed Gen-Xes.
Unlike our parents, we grew up in a sanitised and über efficient
society that doesn't accept anything less, only looking to better
and the best, leaving the failed and less popular behind and
forgotten. New was always better than the old. We were always told
how great our progress was, how we're Number One in this and that.
Our failures were almost never spoken of.
We are a generation who so busy downloading our upgrades, have very
quickly and easily forgotten what is supposed to be our history.
We're a bunch who posses the audacity to whine about our history
failing us because we don't know who we are. I used to romanticise
and gush about the old world European cities that I've visited and
lived in. I've never gushed about Singapore in any way close (there
is the exception of our delicious local cuisine), because I thought
there wasn't much of our culture to gush about - there was only so
much I can say about our air-conditioned shopping centers that sell
almost the same things as the next or how Singapore Airlines really
is a great way to fly. What's new?
Tan Pin Pin has
made an incredibly important film with Invisible City. She's
retold a forgotten collective memory in a way each generation will
appreciate, one that is so essential to us as a young culture. She
has helped us to remember and bring to light several important
moments that existed in Singapore and has helped us to appreciate
what a lot of us didn't. Our history.
As a Singaporean I'm grateful to Pin Pin and the gracious
participants of her documentary for recording and sharing a history
that rarely spoken of, for making this very significant film,
because they have filled a void that's been in me that I've never
realised was there.
Truly perfect timing to have this released before National Day.
Please support this film and get all your family and friends to
watch it!!
Invisible City opens at the Arts House on 22 July 2007.
For more information, visit Invisiblecity.sg
Potato Rosemary Breadrolls
This was meant to be my contribution to
Zorra's
new event Baking Bread Day a follow up to World Bread Day
- where bread bakers bake a themed bread for the first weekend on
each month. This month's theme was Baking with Herbs. I am a week
late for the deadline, but this was what I had planned for the
event if I got around to it.
Potato Rosemary Breadrolls. These are wonderfully flavourful and
aromatic! The aroma of rosemary infused with the flavours of tiny
roasted garlic bits all folded together into mashed potato softened
dough finished with a nice crust! I'm really pleased with it's
success - finally I've baked something that is good again! (I
became quite uninspired after my beloved dog died and it showed in
my various failed baking attempts. But I think I'm getting
better... ) These bread rolls are great to have on its own or with
your favourite bowl of soup! This recipe is from The Bread Baker's Apprentice : Mastering the Art of
Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart.
I also wanted to improve on my bread scoring skills and the only
thing that came to mind when I thought last minute alternative
lamé was to use an eyebrow razor. I recently
bought a new pack so I grabbed a new (un-used) one and scored away.
The results were better than my previous attempts - the razor isn't
perfect but I guess it's a better start.
Also here's a quick and easy way to peel potato skins off boiled
potatoes - it is a breeze! The clip is in Japanese but it's pretty
self-explanatory.
e-xperiments.com
Please update your bookmarks to http://e-xperiments.com
Big thanks to my friend Grace for suggesting the name! I was trying to incorporate the "Elena" & "Experiments" together and was thinking quite literally, really long addresses like elena-experiments.com or elenaexperiments.com. What will I do without friends like her?! A few other friends thought it is a much better (and shorter) address to remember too.
I still have sqpixels.net as a forwarder to this new domain so it'll still work.
Huge Thanks to everyone for visiting my food blog!