Turnipseed Sisters' Loaf

I'm making a bread that rises with hops starter instead of traditional packaged yeast. 

In a previous post, I explained that I had to make the hops starter with liquid steeped from hops flowers, mashed potatoes, corn meal, etc. 

This concoction sat out on my counter in a warm spot until it got bubbly. 

This took more than 24 hours; It actually took two days! 

Once it was bubbly, I transferred it to a jar with a tight-fitting lid and left it in the fridge until the liquid separated from the solids (as instructed by the recipe). 

Once that happened, I mixed the liquids and solids together again, added a cup of this starter to flour, salt, sugar, etc. and left it out on the counter overnight to create what is called a sponge. 

This is the first bread I've made that required a sponge, so I didn't know what to expect. The recipe said it would be bubbly. 

In the morning, this is what the sponge looked like. 

To this sponge, I mixed in more flour and some lard then kneaded the dough for several minutes by hand. 

Then I left the dough to rise for the first time in a bowl for a little more than two hours. (It takes longer for bread rising without traditional yeast to rise, apparently.) 

Then I split the dough into two lumps and shaped them into loaves and placed them in pans. 

I let the loaves rise another two hours until they were coming over the top of the pans. 

I baked them as directed and... Beautiful! 

They smell amazing! 

I can't wait to taste them! 

Potato Rolls and Hopps Starter

Amazing things are happening in my kitchen today. 

Adele and I both had plans that required baked mashed potatoes. 

So we started our day baking potatoes. 

Then, Adele used the potatoes to make homemade potato rolls... 

to go with the meatloaf and carrots she is making (under benevolent supervision) for dinner tonight. 

Wow! 

(Adele is often so busy in our kitchen now that I am somewhat relegated to sous chef/ dihswasher, but I can't say I mind.)

It's a joy to watch her and advise her when needed. 

And I get to eat what she makes. 

Today, I also made hopps starter with my portion of the morning's baked potatoes. 

This is a mixture of a "hopps tea" made from dry hopps flowers steeped like tea, then strained, then some of the "tea" is boiled with cornmeal, then all of everything is mixed in a big bowl with mashed potatoes, sugar and salt... 

this ferments on my counter in a warm spot for at least twenty four hours...

before mellowing in the fridge for a few days... 

before I stir it and use it to make the next bread in Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Bread. 

Like I said, amazing things are happening here! 

Buttermilk Bread

       I made bread #8 from Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Breads- Buttermilk Bread. 

This was a second try, and this batch of bread came out beautiful.  

The first time I made this bread, I was working after dinner, the dough wasn't rising quickly, and I did not have time to let the loaves rise all the way up out of the pans before I put them in the oven. So I cut the second rise short in order to have time to bake the loaves before bed. And so those first loaves came out of the oven the way they went into the oven- flat.

But they were delicious, so I was motivated to give it a second try and see what I could improve. 

This time, I was up before dawn, so I got started early. Taking notes from the previous loaves, I found some ways to improve rise time in my winter kitchen. I used a dough warmer for the first rise. Then I put the loaves in their pans on the top of the toaster oven set on low for the second rise. With the help of the added warmth from these kitchen devices, the risings went quicker. And I had time to wait for these leaves to rise well over the tops of their pans before baking... 

Beautiful! 

 

Greek Koulari

Almost every day we were in Greece, I had a koulari, a sesame bread round. I ate it for breakfast or for a snack, always with a cup of strong coffee. 

I so enjoyed koulari, in fact, I was sad to come home, because I may never have it again. But then I wondered if I could learn to make these for myself someday. 

I have been doing a lot of bread-making as I bake my way through Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Breads. So I have gained knowledge and skills (and weight) that I didn't have a few months ago when I first dreamed of making koulari for myself. 

I found a recipe online yesterday, and it was actually easy to follow, and I had all the ingredients and equipment, because of all I had learned through bread making. 

And it was fun! 

The girls pitched in, especially Adele, who loves to cook and bake. 

We made traditional koulari with sesame seeds, but then we ran out of sesame seeds, so we also made a few rounds with Everything Seasoning. 

Everything Seasoning has white and black sesame seeds, along with other delicious salts and spices. Avril and Adele actually ended up preferring the koulari bread with Everything Seasoning. 

This homemade koulari is delicious! Especially since it came to me fresh and from my own oven! 

I'm so grateful to be able to enjoy koulari at home in Connecticut of the USA.

Even though it's the middle of winter here, I can close my eyes, bite into this bread, and it takes me right back to Greece and its constant warm breezes. 

 

Sourdough Cont.

With temps in the single digits here, my sourdough wasn't quick to rise. So I gave it more time. +

I also turned on the oven and put the dough on the stovetop, so it had a warmer environment. +

The colder environment created a tighter boule with more tension. +

I also used a banneton for my second rise this time, 

so it had the beautiful, concentric circles on the bread. +

And when I scoured, I kept the razor almost horizontal this time. +

= 

one beautiful loaf! 

And many things learned in one day! 

English Muffin and Sally Lunn Breads

I am still baking my way through the breads in Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads.

I made two batches of English Muffin bread; That's four loaves. 

We enjoyed a loaf and a half at home ourselves. 

I shared half a loaf my our hairdresser, one whole loaf with my homeschool co-op, and another whole loaf with one of my besties. 

I did buy some pretty, paper bags to make it easier to share extra bread with others. 

Now that I've given a few loaves away, I have to say, sharing fresh bread is almost as great as eating it! 

Later in the week, I made a loaf of Sally Lunn bread. 

This is a sweet, fluffy loaf of bread traditionally eaten as a roll at tea time, so I made it in the evening, sliced it, and served it with hot tea for dessert. 

It tasted almost exactly like a sweet, soft, traditional dinner roll!

I've always wanted to be able to make delicious dinner rolls rather than buying them at the store. 

I want to adapt and find a pan so that I can create the smaller, more traditional Sally Lunn dinner rolls, rather than I large loaf like the one above. 

 

Sourdough Cont.

I made two loaves of sourdough last week. 

I baked one loaf inside a new, enameled, cast iron loaf pan with a lid. 

It made the same dough into a traditional, rectangular loaf that shaped like the sandwich bread you can buy at the supermarket. 

I baked the other loaf in my enameled, cast iron cloche-shaped pan. 

I really enjoy making sourdough this way. 

However, in this pan, the bottom of my round loaves becomes very thick and hard when I complete the baking time on the recipe (45 minutes covered, 15 uncovered). 

Perhaps I'll adjust the baking time to see what can be done to get a thinner bottom crust.  

One of the things I am starting to really enjoy about cooking and baking is the opportunity to improve and adjust recipes to suit my own tastes. 

Sourdough Cont.

Norah's home for Christmas. 

So I made two loaves this time. 

She's been gone to college for the length of sourdough exploits. 

When she bit into a slice, she mumbled through a mouth full of bread, "This is mag-nif-fi-cent." 

Sourdough

I made sourdough again. 

This time the loaf was huge! 

The recipe I use is from "Sourdough for Lazy People" on You Tube. 

It says to let the dough rise overnight, briefly shape the loaf on a floured surface, put it in the pan, then let it rise for 90 minutes before baking, etc. 

But this time, when I checked it after 90 minutes, the shaped loaf hadn't risen that much. 

So I let it rise longer before baking, for 2-3 hours actually. 

The loaf had filled up the bottom of its pan when I put it in the oven, and of course, it ended up rising even more while baking. 

So the loaf came out larger than ever. 

So from now on, after shaping my loaf, I may adjust my rise time from 90 minutes to anywhere from 2-3 hours before baking. 

Sourdough loaves cost around $8, so this is a wonderful thing to be able to make for myself with just a few cups of flour, some salt, and water.

Amazing! 

Frisian Sugar Loaf

I am working my way through Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Breads.

So I made the Frisian Sugar Loaf. 

This bread is pretty special. 

You take a cup of sugar cubes, cover them in cinnamon, and knead them into the bread dough. 

You can still see the sugar cubes in the photo above, popping out of the top of the hot bread. 

A day later, those sugar cubes "melted" and became sticky, sugary spots of deliciousness throughout the bread that taste exactly like the inside of a cinnamon roll. 

We ate one loaf in one day, so we gave the second loaf to friends.

Baking bread is amazing, but sharing bread is the only way to make sure we don't overdo it.   

Sourdough Success

My sourdough adventures continue. 

My loaves have been delicious, but they have not been rising well, so something had to be done. 

I troubleshooted with the help of a friend. We guessed that my starter was too wet making my dough too sticky and my loaf incapable of rising well. 

So I had to rehab my starter to adjust its hydration and get it to 100%. (That's a sentence I never thought I'd say.)

I saved 2 ounces of my too-wet starter, discarded the rest, added 4 ounces or flour and 4 ounces of water, let it sit on the counter for one hour, then refrigerated it. 

Then I repeated these same steps again the next day. Discarding the extra starter and adding new flour and water, etc. 

This "reset" my starter and got it back to the right hydration for the recipe and method I'm using. I follow "Sour Dough for Lazy People" on You Tube (if you want more details than I provide here.)

I finally tried out my rehabilitated starter and the results are in. 

The loaf was amazing! It rose beautifully and tasted delicious! 

 

Sourdough- Take Two!

I made a second loaf of sour dough, this time in an oblong pan. 

I'm a novice to all the sourdough methods, but as far as I understand the madness I'm using a recipe for a cold, unfed starter straight from the fridge with 100% hydration with an overnight rise with zero stretch and folds. 

I got this recipe from "Sour Dough for Lazy People," because it was recommended to me by a friend who uses it, and I love her bread, and I have no interest in the other seemingly absurd methods that require a full-day process- at least not yet. 

My dough was so wet and sticky as it poured from the bowl, it was nearly impossible to work with. I added enough flour to it to shape it into a loaf and salvage it. 

This is the second loaf that came out of the bowl too sticky to work with. 

So now, I know that I definitely need to adjust the hydration of my starter, something I suspected after my first loaf, but wanted to confirm with another test. 

There's a method to adjusting the hydration of your starter that I won't explain here, but I am hopeful after that process is complete, my loaves will begin coming out of the bowl better formed, easier to shape, and hopefully, then, I'll also get a better rise. 

So this second loaf isn't the prettiest. 

Neither was the first loaf. 

But I bet it's going to be delicious nevertheless, because the first loaf was. 

I'm making homemade beef stew tonight. 

We'll have it with some freshly baked sour dough! 

Scottish Buttermilk Bread

I made Scottish Buttermilk Bread from Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Breads. It was similar to Irish Soda Bread; It was also similar to homemade buttermilk biscuits, so we ate it like biscuits with eggs or butter and jam, etc.  This was my least favorite bread so far, honestly. 

Egg Harbor Bread

 

I made the Egg Harbor bread from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Bread. 

This particular bread has five rises, so it was the most complicated bread I've made so far, and it took the longest by far. 

I am working my way bread by bread through Clayton's book in the order that the recipes come, and I'm growing in competence and confidence. 

One important thing I have learned from my mistakes: Check the temperature of your water before adding yeast to it. This way, you don't end up killing the yeast and preventing your dough from rising. 

Cuban Bread

I made Cuban Bread, the third recipe in Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. 

I pulled a chunk off while it was still warm, buttered it, and...  delicious! 

I also bought the entire box of active dry yeast at the grocery store, because I grew tired of running out- so I have 36 (minus the two I used today) packages total. 

So count on more breads to come!

 

My First Sourdough

I made my first loaf of sourdough with starter given me by my friend Rachel. There's room for improvement as far as rise, crumb, and crust goes, but the flavor was unparalleled; My whole family agreed. I'm using the You Tube Channel: Sourdough for Lazy People for my recipe, recommended by my friend Rachel also. 

Thirty-Minute White Bread

I made the next recipe in Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads, the "Thirty-Minute White Bread." 

I think I've officially entered my bread-making era. 

I find bread-making delightful and satisfying. 

And, though it took me longer than thirty minutes to make this recipe... I'm just saying... it was still quite easy, and the time and effort is totally worth it. 

Deliciousness for days! 

First Loaf

I made regular bread for the first time ever without the help of a bread machine. 

It was incredible fun! 

My family rose and a blessed me with their mouths full of soft, warm bread and homemade beef stew.

I used Bernard Clayton's "first loaf" recipe.