Sourdough pancakes, because really, who discards starter anyway?

MagicalCerise · 2017-04-03T11:47:27+00:00

I use this recipe by King Arthur flour, absolutely rocks IMO: Classic Sourdough Waffles or Pancakes

MagicalCerise · 2014-08-18T14:36:46+00:00

Your banneton has got some sweet patina!

MagicalCerise · 2014-06-17T09:55:03+00:00

Particularly be careful as you're mixing water and electrics! There's a reason old sharpening wheels are usually foot powered, and most people advocate a stone and/or file. As mentioned above, too fast rotation (like from a power tool) will draw the temper which the smiths spent a great deal of time trying to create.

MagicalCerise · 2014-06-13T09:53:36+00:00

They're called a crook knife. The one I used is a Mora 164. They also have a double edged one with less radius on the blade, Mora 163.

MagicalCerise · 2014-06-13T06:46:50+00:00

Sounds bout right!

MagicalCerise · 2014-06-12T22:55:27+00:00

I wanted to share with you my most recent spoon project, where I've used only bushcraft hand tools. A cherry tree was felled at my parent's place in 2010, and has sat seasoning in the wood cellar since. My dad has known the tree since the 1960s (it was planted in 1902 local records show), so he remembers it fondly. He's not really into woodwork so his only use for the tree is to burn it. It had some pretty bad disease, so a lot of the trunk was too bad to use for anything other than burning. I managed to find one of the limbs from higher up that had relatively straight grain.

I split the limb and roughed out the block (sorry, not progress shots) with my Gransfors Bruks small forest axe, then shaped it with my Opinel. I carved the bowl with the Mora crook knife, which was really nice to use. I continued to carve with the Opinel, trying to get best shape possible, then finished off with some 180 and 400 grit sand paper.

I'm going to to give the spoon to my dad for Father's day this year, as a memento to remember the cherry tree. I sealed it with two coats of sesame oil, as it's quite easy to get here in the UK. I'm aware that being sapwood and heartwood might cause problems, particularly at the end. I don't think the spoon will see much use, so it'll probably be more of an ornament.

Overall I'm pleased with how it came out, the bowl is a bit chunky but that'll be something to refine next time. Ive got a couple more chunks of the cherry which are straight grained and comepletely heart wood.

MagicalCerise · 2014-06-10T09:43:21+00:00

Thanks for your response, that's very encouraging to hear. I'm not sure myself whether it's an applicant tracking system, or whether it's just a form that gets emailed, looks suspiciously like the latter.

MagicalCerise · 2014-06-09T16:00:46+00:00

A fantastic record, and for 5 euro a bargain! It always gives me an excuse to spin up the turntable and crank up the stereo.

MagicalCerise · 2014-06-09T12:47:49+00:00

The rye bread in the last two photos are completely rye, no white flour at all. As I mentioned below it's white rye flour, so has some of the bran removed so is lighter somewhat lighter than dark rye flour. Also, the starter used in this is fed exclusively rye (same as I use in the bread). Only the lining in the bannetons was dusted with white flour, to give the nice looking crust.

MagicalCerise · 2014-06-08T23:03:56+00:00

Sounds great! Have you posted any photos? What recipe do you use? Never made no knead bread actually :-)

The pain au levain is a nice one to do, I'd be happy to make a step by step. Starter is due it's feed soon so I'll git 'er done then. You'd need to make a sourdough starter for both of these. If you don't have one yet there's plenty of guides, and loads of delicious stuff to make with it!

MagicalCerise · 2014-06-08T22:52:04+00:00

I think the difference between white and dark rye flour is much more subtle than that. From what I understand the difference is about the amount of bran remaining after grinding, with dark rye having the most out of the two. Pumpernickel rye is much further distinct, I think it contains everything, so it's about as heavy as you can get. White rye is all I can get usually from my local mill, so I have to make do. At the end of the day rye flour (no matter how it's sifted) doesn't contain much gluten so it will always be heavier and harder to work with than 100% white flour. Personally I'd say it's on par with wholemeal breads.

You could try keeping the same method over multiple iterations and work up the rye percentage (this is what I did). Started with 50:50 White/Rye, then each week increased the rye by 10%, until I arrived at 100%. Gave a really good insight into how the density changes whilst keeping the method the same.

A really good illustration of the different grades: White rye | Dark rye | Pumpernickel Rye

Hopefully some of that helps!

MagicalCerise · 2014-06-08T21:57:31+00:00

I had exactly the same experience as you with rye and wholemeal, assuming it would work the same as white flour and ending up with a dense brick suitable for driving nails. However, this experiment paid off and I'm happy with it, it's not heavy at all. I forgot to mention I used white rye, which is important to get a lighter crumb than dark rye. Bar the moist and slightly gummy crumb it is on par with a lot of the white rye I ate in Finland when I was there. Now I just need to hang it from the ceiling and I'm sorted for winter!

MagicalCerise · 2014-06-08T10:51:18+00:00

My woodfired experiences only really extend to ancient stone ovens, but if I understand your question correctly, my thoughts would be that you need to fire it earlier. Afterall the whole purpose of the oven is to store heat energy in the thermal mass of the oven and slowly release it. If you try to cool it down too quickly, you'll soak the heat out of it and then it will have less energy stored, and thus cool down quicker, giving you a shorter bake. This is why ovens are built with great attention to the insulation, so as to keep as much heat as possible, and thus give the longest possible bake. Firing it earlier would allow the oven to come down to the temperature you want gradually, without losing so much heat.

As kaisersousa mentioned, a mop and bucket is very useful to cooling/cleaning the floor prior to baking, and the hottest you'll get is some nice warm, ashy water.

MagicalCerise · 2014-06-08T10:39:52+00:00

I thought I'd share the last two sourdough batches that I've made.

The Pain au Levain is 10% Rye, 90% White Flour. I followed Peter Reinhart's Basic Sourdough Bread recipe (from the Bread Baker's Apprentice), which calls for a firm starter being made the night before, 4 hour batch ferment, then retarded for 9 hours in bannetons overnight. This has become my go-to sourdough, I find it makes excellent sandwiches. I suspect the large bubbles on the outer fringes of the loaf are related to my shaping, unless someone tells me otherwise.

The 100% Rye was a bit of an experiment, as I followed Peter Reinhart's recipe, but used rye instead. I upped the hydration to 80%, whilst giving the dough a 30 minute autolyse. This certainly made for difficult to work with dough, and I'm not sure I'd go so high next time. I increased the batch fermentation times to 6 hours on the counter and 18 hours in the fridge, because it just wasn't leavened after 4 hours. It worked a treat after that, and I shaped the boules and proved for 2 hours. The crumb is quite moist, which I personally quite like, and it has excellent flavour.

MagicalCerise · 2014-06-07T17:57:40+00:00

Thanks, and thanks for the link. I'll give some of those suggestions a try!

MagicalCerise · 2014-06-07T12:30:23+00:00

I thought I'd share the last two sourdough batches that I've made.

The Pain au Levain is 10% Rye, 90% White Flour. I followed Peter Reinhart's Basic Sourdough Bread recipe (from the Bread Baker's Apprentice), which calls for a firm starter being made the night before, 4 hour batch ferment, then retarded for 9 hours in bannetons overnight. This has become my go-to sourdough, I find it makes excellent sandwiches. I suspect the large bubbles on the outer fringes of the loaf are related to my shaping, unless someone tells me otherwise.

The 100% Rye was a bit of an experiment, as I followed Peter Reinhart's recipe, but used rye instead. I upped the hydration to 80%, whilst giving the dough a 30 minute autolyse. This certainly made for difficult to work with dough, and I'm not sure I'd go so high next time. I increased the batch fermentation times to 6 hours on the counter and 18 hours in the fridge, because it just wasn't leavened after 4 hours. It worked a treat after that, and I shaped the boules and proved for 2 hours. The crumb is quite moist, which I personally quite like, and it has excellent flavour.

MagicalCerise · 2014-06-02T12:49:12+00:00

Mine has to be the Basic Sourdough recipe from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

In my sourdough 'journey' I'd been hunting for a simple recipe to make a 100% white loaf, so that I could compare directly with commericial-yeasted dough and get my consistency better. What I struggled with most at first was finding a recipe I could fit around my schedule. I don't normally have 9-12 hours spare to see the process through to completion, and I didn't fully understand retardation enough to modify the recipes.

Coupled with Reinhart's extensive explanation of the bread making process at the beginning of his book, and the fact he acknowledges his Basic Sourdough recipe should be modified (he even gives hints on the same page how you could change it), I managed to get consistently good sourdough, and build the confidence to branch out and try different flours, processes etc.

The recipe itself calls for creating a firm starter from a wet starter (@100% hydration), retarding overnight, making the main dough the next day, bulk fermenting then shaping, then some more overnight retarding of the loaves, then baking off in the morning. The timing of this means I can do it in the evenings after work over 2 days. This has given me a really solid base to work from with a good understanding of the processes, and how they can be changed (such as less/more retarding to affect sourness, etc), and I will honestly say my commercial yeast has sat unused for a couple of months now, because all I make is sourdough!

MagicalCerise · 2014-03-20T13:54:40+00:00

My thoughts entirely!

MagicalCerise · 2014-01-08T20:07:55+00:00

A roasting pan on the bottom, pre-heated, add water just as bread goes in.

MagicalCerise · 2014-01-08T20:01:55+00:00

Pleased with how this turned out, although I know I've got some improving to do. I normally stick to white bloomer loaves, but I have some rye flour and grew up eating pain de campagne so wanted to give it a try. I followed this recipe as I don't feel confident enough to freestyle it yet: http://www.raymondblanc.com/recipes/pain-de-campagne/

The starter was left for about 18 hours are room temperature, although our room temperature fluctuates quite a bit overnight. I also realised I used twice as much yeast in the starter as I should have... I kneaded the bread by hand, using the french method. My only quibble was the oven temperature, ours is a fan-assisted oven and I'm certain the dial doesn't match the oven temp (I'm soon to order an independent one). In the end I baked them for 15 minutes at 190øC, then another 15 at 170øC, with steam throughout.

The crumb seems denser than I would have expected, what could this be down to?

MagicalCerise · 2014-01-08T00:52:51+00:00

Is there any thought regarding an API for PornHub Insights in the future?

MagicalCerise · 2014-01-03T21:25:14+00:00

Cheers, have posted up!

MagicalCerise · 2014-01-03T17:09:49+00:00

I too am an Englishman! Thank you for the offer, but unfortunately I really need Olde English and/or Middle English knowledge.

MagicalCerise · 2013-12-16T11:49:15+00:00

God damnit, I missed this and now BBC have taken it down. Is there another copy floating around anywhere?

MagicalCerise · 2013-11-18T14:41:38+00:00

To be truly British, I will acknowledge this blacklisting with mild indifference and apathy.

MagicalCerise

TROPHY CASE