English Muffins

I'm not very good with splitting the muffins using the fork hence you can't see the nooks and crannies real well.

Brazo de Mercedes

9 extra large eggs + one small can condensed milk + 1 teaspoon vanilla extract = smiles

Sourdough French Bread

Thinner crust than last attempt. Nice blistering on the crust and creamy crumb.

French Bread #3

Once again. Only pictures this time.

Portuguese Sweet Bread

This is one sweet bread I'd definitely make again. Unlike other sweet breads (like the Hawaiian rolls), this one is more filling and flavorful.

Deep mahogany color

Nice soft and tight crumb

My First Sourdough Baguettes

Sorry, short post today. I have bread to bake...

Here's a picture of the baguettes I made yesterday.

Christmas Cookies

This is the fifth post for the day so I think a picture would be sufficient. May your every day be a Christmas day...

Brioche

The recipe is from the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten: http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/2292/mini-brioche-rolls

I ran out of tins...

Brushed with butter and topped with sugar and edam cheese.

I still had dough to spare for another experiment. I rolled the dough into a rectangle, sprinkled sugar and edam cheese, rolled the long side (jelly roll), pinched the seams, and sliced into nine pieces.

Whole Wheat Pan De Sal

Yield 24 rolls

Ingredients: (in grams)

510 whole wheat flour

474 warm water

16 Yeast

54 olive oil

6 Salt

37.5 Sugar

I added the fat, sodium, etc. to get the figures for the Nutrition Facts.

Nutrition Facts: (1 roll per serving)

Calories 100

Total Fat 2.7 g

Saturated Fat .375 g

Cholesterol 0 g

Sodium 98 mg

Potassium 100 mg

Carbohydrates 17.2 g

Dietary Fiber 2.7 g

Sugars 1.6 g

Protein 3.1 g

Notes:

The dough is wetter than with APF. I had to increase hydration since WW absorbs more liquid than regular white flour.

The dough rises well and has a nice spring but can definitely benefit from a slow cool rise in the fridge.

I had steam circulate the oven with the use of a pan of water on bottom rack to get the crusty exterior.

Baking time was longer than of white pan de sal.

Has a nice crackling sound when sliced.

I have not acquired a taste for ww products so I can't describe whether I like the bread or not, but the kids said the bread was ok.

This is definitely healthier at 100 calories per roll and carbs can be reduced by cutting down or omitting sugar.

Grow up, Martha!

Martha on Day 4. I wanted Martha to be a learning experience as well. So, for four consecutive days I would get a sample, put it on a slide and have the kids take a look with the microscope. While we cannot really tell what we were looking at, it was fun imagining that there was a healthy coexistence of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria. (It occurred to me on Day 4 to experiment on Martha by adding Yakult for a boost of lactobacilli...ha ha ha...) On Day 5, Martha got lazy and would only have very little bubbles so I thought it was not worth bringing out the microscope.

Sourdough Rolls #2

This is the second sourdough bread from my starter, Martha. I began making my wild yeast starter on January 5th and after nine days of agonizing wait (i had the mind to hold a memorial for the little beasties in the jar), it is ready for use. The very first sourdough bread I tried was ciabatta rolls (recipe courtesy of wild yeast blog.) Unfortunately, I was not able to take pictures as I was rushing the little ones to school. The ciabatta rolls made it to the lunch bags with ham and cheese.

These rolls were made by converting the pan de sal recipe to sourdough. Sour de sal? I cannot post the recipe yet as I still have to experiment a bit more. Plus, I still have to get my scale. While I find the use of volume for measuring ingredients easy, most bread recipes utilize the measurement in weight and I'd rather start listing the recipes that way.

The taste is richer and the crumb is just a tad denser.

It takes considerable time to make sourdough bread, but it is definitely worth the time and effort.