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Archive for May, 2011

Baking Bread

Posted in Frugal Living, Recipes, tagged , , , , , on May 31, 2011| 43 Comments »

I tried baking my high hydration ciabatta dough in my new bannetons.

It was a fiddly process – the ciabatta dough was almost too wet to shape – but the end result was quite pleasing nonetheless.  I rose both loaves in my oval bannetons, and slashed one with three long vertical cuts, and the other with diagonal horizontal slashes.

The dough stuck a little to the cane baskets – I suspect I’ve reached the maximum hydration that I can prove in the bannetons – but the excess brushed off quite easily.

I managed to get a crumb shot this time before the wolves descended!

. . . . .

My lovely friend Joanna recently posted her recipe for 100% Russian rye sourdough loaves.

Both the recipe and the process were intriguing – the dough is mixed in two stages without kneading, and then left to rise for an extended time.

I didn’t bother bulk proving the dough, and instead scraped the batter into two long loaf tins as soon as it was mixed.   These were covered and then left to rise on top of the fish tank for about seven hours, until the dough appeared over-inflated and on the verge of collapse.

After baking, we wrapped the loaves in paper and left them overnight (as instructed).  They were quite nice the following day, and delicious the day after that – the crumb softened and the flavour developed as the loaves matured.

It’s a tasty and very interesting bread to bake, especially if you’re partial to rye loaves.  Joanna’s original post is here!

Edit: here’s a photo of the risen, unbaked rye loaf – as you can see, it really didn’t rise at all after it went in the oven.  Having said that, several hours before this photo, it was only an inch high in the pan.

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The Humble Egg

Posted in Food & Friends, Frugal Living, tagged , , , on May 29, 2011| 65 Comments »

Before we had chickens, an egg wasn’t anything special to me.

I’d certainly bought and used a lot of them, and in more recent years, influenced by terrible accounts of battery hen farming, we’d made a concerted effort to only buy free range eggs.

But I’d never really given much thought to eggs, other than wondering whether or not there were enough in the fridge for my latest baking project. They’re relatively cheap and readily available, and as a result, I’d always taken them for granted.

It wasn’t until we finally had our own chickens that I came to appreciate how special and precious eggs really are. And whenever possible, and because we now can, I want to eat eggs from chooks I know.

Our hens do much more than just lay eggs – their primary function is actually to garden.  They dig up the spent beds, eat all the grubs and weeds, fertilise the soil, and then move onto the next patch.  The eggs are an added bonus!

Some of our chickens lay quite distinct eggs, and it always makes me happy to be able to match an egg to the chook who laid it!

Francesca’s eggs, for example, are always different from the rest, just as she is different from the rest of the flock.  They’re smaller, darker and always a little speckled.  I save these for my mum, because she loves the more petite size…

Bertha, on the other hand, lays the lightest coloured eggs, and occasionally the shell will be rough and quite pale.  We think she has a dodgy shell-gland, so her eggs aren’t usually as picture perfect as the others.   She has, on occasion, laid a shell-less egg, although she’s been in good form for months now…

Finally, it’s always easy to pick Queenie’s egg.  Our dominant hen rules the roost like a dictator, and will always insist on first pass at any protein that comes into the coop.  Her eggs are always the largest of the clutch, dwarfing Frannie’s little dark ones…

Every time I crack open one of our homegrown eggs, I feel a little wave of gratitude.  It’s like a tiny bubble of joy – I ponder whose egg it might be, admire the colour of the yolk, and think about how blessed I am to have something so fresh and magnificent to feed to my loved ones.

I know this all sounds like the ramblings of a chicken-obsessed madwoman.

I also know that it’s not possible for most people to have chickens, and I realise how incredibly fortunate we really are.

I hope though, that the next time you’re baking, you’ll spend a moment admiring the wondrousness of the humble egg, spare a thought for the chook who laid it, and thoroughly enjoy eating whatever you create with it!

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A Trip to Orange

Posted in Food & Friends, tagged , , , , on May 28, 2011| 58 Comments »

Pete is the oldest of five siblings.  His brothers and sisters don’t all live in Sydney, so it was a rare treat to have brunch with them last weekend.

We were visiting Orange, one of the largest rural cities in our state, and dined at The Old Convent in Borenore, about 20 minutes from the centre of town.  We were seated in a huge private room, complete with lounge area and fireplace, which provided plenty of skipping room for our young niece.

The fixed menu breakfast included sublime poached pears, homemade muesli and yoghurt…

…followed by poached eggs and bacon on toast…

…and corn fritters served with smoked salmon and yoghurt.

For the children, there was French toast and maple syrup, as well as toast with Vegemite.  And yes, I did take a crossword to Sunday morning breakfast!

The venue was charming and quaint, and I was sorely tempted by the local pottery on display…

. . . . .

On the four hour drive back to Sydney, we stopped at Bilpin Springs, nestled at the foot of the Blue Mountains.  This family run orchard allows you to pick your own fruit, and we spent the better part of an hour exploring amongst the fruit trees.

Available for picking were Granny Smith apples…

…the last of the Pink Lady apples…

…and an assortment of citrus fruit.  Sundowner apples were due to start picking the following week.

We picked a few kilos of Pink Ladies and some Granny Smiths, as well as a kilo of juicy limes.

That night for dinner, I made Small Man’s favourite apple pie, using our just picked Granny Smiths.  The perfect ending to a great weekend!

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First Banneton Loaves

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on May 26, 2011| 35 Comments »

Tah-dah! Here are the first two loaves made with my new bannetons!

I still need to work on my slashes – I’m yet to master controlling the oven spring with my razor cuts.  But overall, I’m pretty happy with how these turned out!

I dusted the proofing baskets like a mad woman – there was about half a cup of excess rye flour after the loaves were turned out…

I tried slashing a cross on the top of one loaf…

…and a fancy star shape on the other.

The cross-slashed loaf rose tall and round, bursting a little in the middle…

…whereas the star-slashed loaf expanded in a more controlled, but less vigorous fashion.

I tweaked my usual sourdough recipe to lower the hydration slightly, and added in a little semolina flour.  The dough was bulk proved overnight on the kitchen bench (it’s late autumn here, and quite cool at night), before being shaped first thing this morning.  Each loaf had a starting dough weight of just under 1kg.

  • 300g sourdough starter (fed at a ratio of 1 cup water to 1 cup flour)
  • 550g water
  • 50g olive oil
  • 200g semolina flour
  • 600g bakers/bread flour
  • 250g white spelt flour
  • 16g fine sea salt

More loaves to come!

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How I De-Stress…

Posted in Musings on May 24, 2011| 51 Comments »

When life gets a little overwhelming, I go into the garden.

If it’s a sunny day, I’ll lie on the pond bridge…

…and listen to the water running over the rocks…

…and take pictures of the water plants…

…and the blue sky through our jacaranda tree…

…and then I’ll watch our lovely fat hens tucking into their favourite weeds.  Their contented clucking can be very soothing!

PS. If you listen carefully around the 0.08 second mark you’ll hear the chok-chok call of our resident Red Wattlebird. And watch the shadows at the 0.22 second mark, and you’ll see Queenie jump on Maggie’s back to show her who’s boss – Maggie picks herself up and fluffs her feathers afterwards!

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