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Posts Tagged ‘sourdough starter’

In My Kitchen, October 2012

Posted in In My Kitchen, tagged , , , , , on October 1, 2012| 111 Comments »

In my kitchen…

…are lobster picks! I found them at Chefs’ Warehouse for $1.50 each…

I loved the embossing, although our lobsters don’t have claws…

Here’s a photo of the Eastern Australian Rock Lobster for Karen…

In my kitchen…

…are the results of our raspberry liqueur experiment.  We combined frozen raspberries with vodka, brandy and sugar and left it to mature for three months.  Although it lacks the complexity of our President plum brandy, it’s a delicious tipple nonetheless…

In my kitchen…

…are tins of chestnut puree, picked up at half price from a deli in the city. I’m hoping to make Sally’s chocolate and chestnut terrine with them…

In my kitchen…

…are funky tea infusers, a gift from the lovely Lorraine…

They’ve been getting up to all sorts of mischief…

In my kitchen…

…is a bowl of ripening sourdough starter.  See all the bubbles breaking the surface? That’s a good thing…

In my kitchen…

…is a very old Royal Worcester Evesham Gold casserole pot – a wedding gift from Auntie Anna. We’ve used it until the gold is chipping off…

In my kitchen…

…are tonka beans! I haven’t tried using them yet – any suggestions?  Pete has requested tonka-bean flavoured shortbread cookies…

In my kitchen…

…is an infrared thermometer. I bought it on a whim last year with my tax return.  At the time I wasn’t sure what we’d do with it, but it’s turned out to be a frequently used tool in our kitchen.

It measures the temperature remotely – you aim the red laser pointer at a hot surface and click the button.  We use it for taking the temperature of hot pans before frying and a variety of other tasks, although it only measures surface temperature, so I can’t use it for chocolate tempering…

In my kitchen…

…is chocolate cake for Luca’s birthday!  It was whipped up in the food processor using our chocolate pound cake recipe…

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Tell me, what’s happening in your kitchen this month?

If you’d like to do an In My Kitchen post on your own blog, please feel free  to do so. We’d love to see what’s happening in your kitchen this month!  Please link back to this blog, and let us know when your post is up, and we’ll add it to our monthly listing.

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Here are this month’s posts…

Christie @ Fig & Cherry

Christine @ Invisible Spice

Christine @ Food Wine Travel

Anna @ Adobo Down Under

Misky @ Misk Cooks

Claire @ Claire K Creations

Siobhan @ Garden Correspondent

Pamela @ Spoon Feast

Shelley @ All Litten Up

Amanda @ Lambs’ Ears & Honey

Tandy @ Lavender and Lime

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella

Mrs Mulberry @ Mulberry and Pomegranate

Heidi @ Steps on the Journey

Johanna @ Green Gourmet Giraffe

Brydie @ CityHippyFarmGirl

Emilie @ The Clever Carrot

My Experiments & Food

Mandy @ The Complete Cookbook

Mel @ The Adventures of Miss Piggy

Pam @ Grow, Bake, Run

Zirkie @ Pink Polka Dot Food

Anne @ Life in Mud Spattered Boots

Lizzy @ Bizzy Lizzy’s Good Things

Tania @ My Kitchen Stories

Jane @ The Shady Baker

Glenda @ Passion Fruit Garden

 

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Baking Bread

Posted in Food & Friends, Frugal Living, tagged , , , , , , on August 13, 2010| 21 Comments »

I’ve been baking bread…

…most recently, five loaves of sourdough spelt. My breadbaking schedule tends to be dictated by my sourdough starter – when it’s frothy and ripe, I’ll  often mix up a batch of dough, even if it wasn’t planned.  I purchased organic Canadian spelt (we didn’t grow any in Australia last year) from Santos Trading, and it was beautifully responsive…

. . . . .

This yeasted multigrain loaf was my contribution to the Mellow Bakers’ August bake-along – it’s based on a recipe from Jeffery Hamelman’s Bread…

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Finally, I just couldn’t resist this peanut-peanut butter-tahini-cumin-chipotle loaf featured in Dan Lepard’s Guardian column. I substituted an eighth of a teaspoon of chipotle powder for the roasted chillis, as I didn’t have any of the latter on hand.  It was delicious with nasturtium pesto and cheese!

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Sourdough Pancakes

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on September 13, 2009| 4 Comments »

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I’m not sure where this delicious recipe came from, but it was passed to me by the Scary Dragon, Maude’s daughter and chef-in-training.  It’s a great way to use up leftover sourdough starter.  We use ours straight out of the fridge, and it works perfectly well.  The boys love their pancakes with maple syrup, but Pete and I have ours with homemade raspberry jam and cream.

Here’s the batter recipe:

  • 1 cup sourdough starter
  • 1 cup plain (AP) flour
  • 1 egg
  • 1½  cup whole milk
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda, sifted
  • 1 tablespoon white sugar

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar and sifted baking soda.

2. Pour the sourdough starter, milk and egg into a large mixing bowl and mix well with a whisk or electric mixer until combined.

3. Gradually scatter in the dry ingredients, mixing constantly to avoid lumps.  Finally, stir in the melted butter.  Allow the batter to rest for at least half an hour before cooking.

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Sourdough Bagels

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on September 5, 2009| 4 Comments »

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Updated 3rd March 2015

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Sourdough bagels are wickedly good, with a complex, slightly tangy flavour that distinguishes them from the yeasted version.  This recipe makes eighteen generous, chewy bagels. I topped some with poppy seeds, and the rest with just a small scattering of Malden salt, ready for school lunches.

Some notes:

1. We make two sort of bagels – yeasted (for which the detailed tutorial is here) and sourdough. Please refer to our yeasted bagel tutorial for photos, as the methodology is very similar.

2. 166% hydration means that the starter is regularly fed at a ratio of one cup of flour to one cup of water.

3. Malt extract can be found on many supermarket shelves and brewing stores. I decant it into glass jars, as it tends to go mouldy quite quickly if left in its original (non-airtight) container.

Sourdough Bagels

  • 450g active starter (166% hydration)
  • 500 – 550g  water
  • 1100g bakers (bread) flour
  • 18g fine sea salt
  • 6 teaspoons (50g) malt extract (or brown sugar)
  • toppings (I used poppy seeds and sesame seeds)

1. Mix starter, 500g water and malt syrup in large mixing bowl.  Whisk flour and salt together in separate bowl.  Mix flour into liquid ingredients, squelch together with a clean hand until combined. If you’re using brown sugar, or if the dough feels too dry, add a little more water. Once all flour has been fully incorporated, rest the dough for 30 minutes, covered.

2. After resting, uncover the dough and knead briefly until smooth.  Note that this is quite a stiff dough. Return to mixing bowl, cover and set in warm place to rise until doubled in size (this usually takes about five hours, but could take twice as many in cold conditions). The dough could also be left on the bench overnight to rise if desired.

3. Turn the risen dough out onto the bench and knead briefly.  Divide into 120g portions.  Knead and pinch each portion into a round smooth ball. Form each ball into a doughnut shape by punching a hole through the middle and twirling the dough around both index fingers, stretching as you go.  The hole should be quite big.  Shape the dough to look like a tyre with a large hole.

4. Place the tyres on a baking tray lined with Bake and sprinkled with flour, leaving room to rise.  Cover with a tea towel and allow to prove another 1 – 1½ hours in a warm place. Preheat oven to 200 C with fan.

5. Bring to boil a large pot of water with at least 6 – 10cm of water. Add 1 Tbsp malt extract (or brown sugar) and 1 Tbsp salt, and bring to a rolling boil.  Boil (“kettle”) bagels, three or four at a time, for 1½ minutes on each side.  Remove with a slotted spoon, and dry gently with a clean non-linting tea towel.  Place on baking tray lined with bake.

6. Brush tops of bagels with egg wash (1 egg + 1 Tbsp water), then sprinkle with toppings if desired.

7. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes, then rotate the trays and continue baking for a total baking time of about 20 – 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

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