Pain Cocotte



I have come a long way in bread baking :) It was not a smooth journey (with many bricks came out of the oven instead of nice open crumb bread) but it was an experience which filled with fun, excitement and of course heavenly taste bread for the whole family.

For those who have just started this hobby, no machine is not a problem, no big oven? not a problem too, no proper peel? no problem.. all you need is flour, water, salt and yeast. This last one you can even grow your own which we call a starter. The most important thing you need is read blogs like The Fresh Loaf, Wild Yeast,  BYOB and see how Nyonya show off her loaves too ;P

I do have a big oven but prefer to use our counter top oven (to cut down electricity), I don't have a kitchen aid but a lot of enthusiasm. Who needs machine?? back then during the old days bakers baked without any help of machine anyway..I don't have any peel but a chopping board would do.

The fun of bread baking is really to see the magic of turning flour, salt, water and yeast into bread. So lately, I have just discover another great kitchen tool to produce beautiful loaves... The Cocotte!! Yes the good old thick base pot with a cover. To hold the dough in shape and to create steam while baking.. Sitting in front of the computer, reading food blogs does pay off.

There is nothing special about the formula/ recipe (click on my other post for recipes) but the result comes with much open crumbs plus beautiful crust. 

Hopping over to Yeast Spotting, BYOB 

Ciabatta with Poolish

Ciabatta with Poolish

Last night I was asked to prepare something for tonight's "Apero" which is very often for the summer where we serve apperitif drinks with light finger food. Since it was Saturday night which was way too late to buy anything last minute after 8pm in France and it's the month of "Les Vacances" So if you don't have anything in your fridge, the only way to eat is at the restaurant/bar or bistro...or call a pizza.

I took a quick look at my pantry..mmm.. black olives, chips, tuna cans..and in the fridge? some colourful carrots, tomatoes, zucchini and capsicums. Fantastic!! I am set!! what is best with all these?? a good bread to go with, of course!!

I have a bread book call "Le Pain" from the library. There are a lot of recipes with Poolish..so a CIabatta with Poolish is my choice.

To make the poolish:

150 gm      Flour
150 gm      Warm water
15gm         Yeast

Method:

1. Mix together Warm water, Yeast and Flour in a tub. Cover and rest for overnight if the kitchen temperature is about 20C. Mine took only 3 hours to be ripe as the temperature in the kitchen was at 38C!!! I even halfed the amount of yeast. So it is very important to check the dough but not the clock. This is what i have learnt from many bakers. The dough would tell you if it is ready, not the clock cause temperature and amount of yeast plays a big part in bread making. 
2. When the think paste looking dough turn into very bubbly, this means the poolish is ripe and ready to be use.

For the bread:

350gm       AP flour
350gm       T110 bread flour
12gm         Salt
600gm       Iced Water

1. Mix all ingredients and the poolish together to form soft dough. Rest for 20 minutes.
2. On a lightly oiled work surface, hand knead dough for 20 minutes.
3. Then place dough back into oiled tub for the first bulk fermentation with 2 stretch and folds at every 30min interval and another stretch and fold after 45min from the second.
4. Place the covered tub in the refrigerator for 18hours.
5. The next day, take out the tub, pour the dough out on lightly flour work surface, cut into 2.
6. Preheat oven to the maximum say 240C together with your dutch oven.
7. Shape into a boule and use your dough scraper gently lift it on to a floured patchment paper.
8. Cover and let rest until it is almost double in size. Mine didn't take too long about 80mins. Do a "Finger taste" and sift little flour on top of loaves.
9. Bake in the HOT Dutch-oven with cover on for the first 5mins. Pull out and slash then re-cover and back in the oven at 200C for 15mins.
10. Take off cover and continue to bake for another 20-25mins or until to your likeness.
11. Cool on rack.

Ciabatta with Poolish

We served this with homemade black olive tapanade, some grilled zuchini and capsicums with herbs in olive oil and some tomatoes feta basil salad. No meat!! Eating healty with maximum yum factor plus great companies.

Ciabatta top with grilled vegies

Life is good with just some simple treats!!

Sharing this with friends at Yeast Spotting, BYOB and My Meatless Monday host by My Sweet and Savory

Ratatouille, Sunflower seed Sourdough Bread

It's summer and I love the colour I can get from the market. Tomatoes, zucchini, aubergine, capsicum in all red, yellow and green robe. Seeing all these colourful veggies..my though went straight to Ratatouille. Easy. healthy and flavourful vegetable stew. Ratatouille is just a classic french vegetable stew. That's it!! Oh NO! it's a movie too!! Have you seen it? It's about a young garbage boy name Linguini befriended with a rat who make the best Ratatouille. Love this movie.. it brings out the romantic side of Paris and how French are when comes to their "Savoir faire"..

Anyway, I made my Ratatouille the other day and as usual there is a lot of liquid from the vegetables. So, I scope out a cup of the Ratatouille goodness and mix it to my bread :) Call me a crazy baker if you want.. Just love to experiment, always trying out new things.. sometimes good but other time..Yeekkk!! Lucky for this, it's a Yeahhhh.. how could it go wrong with all the colours and vitamins??  Not only it gives great colour but taste really good too.

Ratatouille Ingredients:

1kg                Very Ripe Tomatoes (roughly chopped up)
2 medium       Zucchini (Cut into small cubes)
1 medium       Eggplant (cut into small cubes)
4 medium       Capsicum (cut into pieces)
1 medium       Onion (cut into cubes)
3 cloves         Garlic (minced)
3 springs        Thyme
2 springs        Rosemary
3                   Bay leaves
Salt and pepper to season

1. In a pot heat a bit of olive oil to brown onions and garlic. then mix in the rest of the ingredients and cook slowly until everything turn soft, about an hour or so. Season with salt and pepper. That's it!
2. Usually, Ratatouille gives out a lot of liquid, to make it more concentrate.. I scope out most of the liquid to make soup and this time I use it for bread. Just cook the ratatouille until soft and almost dry. You can either enjoy it as a vegetable dish to go with any roast or as Pasta/pizza sauce.

By the end of summer, I would usually made a lot and freeze the extra for the winter months to come.

Here's what and how for the bread:

500gm           Bread flour
350gm           Ratatouille broth
100gm           Sourdough starter (100% hydration)
50gm +10gm Sunflower seeds (pre-soak, this is important so that you will not have burn seeds, like mine.)
5gm               Salt (I use less salt as the Ratatouille is already with salt)

1. Mix and knead all of the dough ingredients except the 10gm of Sunflower seeds to make a soft, smooth dough.
2. Cover the dough, and let it rise for 2 hours or more depend on your kitchen temperature, or until it's nearly doubled in bulk.
3. Do 2 stretch and fold at 30mins and 60mins.
4. Sprinkle some Sunflower seeds in your Benetton and let rise for about an hour or 2, until noticeably puffy.
5. Do the finger test by pressing lightly into dough: dough that springs back immediately and leaves no indentation indicates under proofing. If the dough springs back somewhat but still leaves a discern indentation then it's proofed properly - with just enough rise left to give you some nice oven spring. But if the indentation just stares back at you you've probably let it ferment too long.
6. Bake in a preheated 200°C oven for 10 minutes, with steam.  Then another 20 - 30mins or until bread turn golden red and sounds hollow when tapped at the bottom.
7. Cool on a rack.

This bread goes very well with some scramble eggs, you can use it for brochetta too. I love it toasted and spread with some creamy goat cheese and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Sending this to Yeast Spotting  and BYOB

 

Easy Burger Bun

This is the first time I made my own burger bun following the recipe from King Arthur, you can find the detail recipe here. I must say it is really easy to follow as there is a section of tips from their baker plus many other notes. It has been declared by many bakers that it is The Best burger bun. Which I must admit that it is really very easy to follow and the result is good. Not only the crust is soft, the crumb is moist and lightly sweet.

Proofed waiting to go in to the oven

Ingredients:

• 3/4 to 1 cup lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large egg
• 3 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast

Method;

1. Mix and knead all of the dough ingredients to make a soft, smooth dough.
2. Cover the dough, and let it rise for 1 to 2 hours, or until it's nearly doubled in bulk.
3. Punch down the dough to degaz, and divide it into 8 pieces. Shape each piece into a round ball, sprinkle some sesame seeds and let rise for about an hour, until noticeably puffy.
4. Brush the buns with about half of the melted butter.
5. Bake the buns in a preheated 375°F oven for 15 to 18 minutes, until golden. Remove them from the oven, and brush with the remaining melted butter. This will give the buns a satiny, buttery crust. 
6. Cool the buns on a rack.

You can see from the picture below that some of the sesame seeds had fallen out. This is the mistake I did by not putting the sesame seeds first before I brush on the melted butter. Otherwise, they really taste great.

Have a try.. homemade burger is anytime better then those bough from fast food outlets..

Sending this to Yeast Spotting


Just out of oven

Potato Bread



Potato bread

 What to do with extra mashed potatoes?? well, I used it to make gnocchi and potato bread. You can find the recipe for Gnocchi over here. It was a great way to use up extra mashed potatoes other then just potato leek soup. Also, a great way to have an adrenaline rush by making Gnocchi by hand, from scratch and trying to get lunch ready before 12.30pm. Packets of flour, water bottle, spoons, wooden spoons, folk, scale.. you can imagine the kitchen which was more like a crime scene then a place to relax.

I have friends who join gym to exercise and to destress. But for me, kitchen is my gym. for I hand-knead all my breads..unless I bake a "No-knead' bread. Kitchen is where I destress and times to times where I want to have some adrenaline rush.. I run a few projects at the same time.. Just to work out my cardiac muscles :)
OK enough of the blah blah blah.. back to this wonderful potato bread.

This is what you need and how:

1 cup                  Mashed potatoes
4 cups                 Flour (about)
2 cups                 Warm water ( or the water that you boiled your potatoes)
10g                      Salt
11g                      Yeast

1. In a mixing bowl, mix together salt and flour, make a well in the middle.
2. Dissolve the yeast in warm water and stir into the flour. Mix well and then add in the mashed potatoes. 
3. Mix in enough flour to make a dough that can be kneaded by hand. It is normal that the dough is stickier then a normal bread dough.
4. Turn dough out onto floured board and knead it until smooth and elastic. It's sticky but you will be rewarded with beautiful loaf.
5. Place dough in a greased bowl and let rest for about 1 or 2 hours or until it double in size.
6. Turn out dough cut and preshape, rest for 20min. 
7. Then shape into a loaf. I have one loaf in bread pan and the other.. a boule but it quickly lost it's shape. So a bread pan is highly recommended.
8. Bake at 200C with stream for 25 to 30 mins or until bread sounds hollow when the top is tapped on.
9. Remove from loaf pans and let cool.

The kitchen smelled roast potatoes.. and the loaf stay soft.

Sharing this with Yeast Spotting and BYOB

Rocket pesto sourdough bread

Pesto sourdough boule

The other day while doing my shopping in the supermarket. I came across some Rockets at a good price. So I bough a bag, knowing that this is great to go with pizza (with a strong vinaigrette) and I saved a big bunch to make a pesto.

I like to have a pot of pesto in my fridge cause it is great to cook up a last minute pasta dish or a dip for a quick Entrée. We did enjoy some as a dip and the rest I used it in this bread.. Really happy with the result. Not only the green comes out beautifully but the aroma of the garlic, olive oil, parmesan and rocket make this bread so tasty. Throw on a bit of chopped basil and tomatoes, drizzled on more olive oil and we had Brustchetta as Entrée the next day. Very happy!!


To make the Rocket Pesto;

• 75g  rocket (about one big bunch)
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 100g parmesan cheese (grated)
• 100g pine nuts (I didn't have pine nuts on that day, so I used roasted almond)
• 4 cloves garlic (peeled and chopped)

1. In a blender, blend all the above ingredients till thick and smooth.
2. Place in a glass jar and pour over more extra virgin olive oil to cover and store in the fridge.



Pesto sourdough bread



For the sourdough bread:



500gm        Country bread flour
350gm        Cold water

10gm          Sea salt

5gm            Fresh yeast cake

100gm        Whole wheat sourdough starter

Day 1:

1. Mix Flour, starter and cold water to form a thick mass. Allow dough to autolyse for an hour meaning just walk away or get yourself a cup of tea. This is to allow the dough to absorb the water.
2. Now dissolve your yeast cake in 1 or 2 table spoons of warm water and knead in the dough. Let rest for another 30 minutes then mix in the salt.
3. Let rest for 3 hours or more depend of the weather til you see the dough has doubled, then start to do the stretch and fold. I do all my stretch and fold in my round plastic tub. I use a spoon/rubber spatula to scoop up dough from the side of the tub fold it towards the center ( at this point of time, the gluten has developed and it should not break easily) while turning the tub to the left. This is 1. Do a  20 count of these stretch and fold, let rest for 30minutes then come back a to do another of this stretch and fold with an interval of 30 minutes.
4. After 3 sets of stretch and fold, put the tub in the fridge for a good 24 hours or even 36 hours. This is important if you want a very airy and light crumbs. There is not much of kneading to do but a lot of stretch, fold and wait. The long cold retardation does give the bread more flavour and character too.

Day 2:

1. Take the tub out of the fridge, let it warm up 30 mins.  Turn out dough on to lightly dusted work surface.
2. Lightly pat into a round disc, and spread on the rocket pesto but leave a border of an inch for sealing. Gently bring up one side to meet the other side and seal.
3. Shape it into a boule.
4. Cover and proof for an hour. Do the finger test by pressing lightly into dough: dough that springs back immediately and leaves no indentation indicates underproofing.  If the dough springs back somewhat but still leaves a discern indentation then it's proofed properly - with just enough rise left to give you some nice oven spring.  But if the indentation just stares back at you you've probably let it ferment too long.
5. Preheat the oven at 220C with baking stone. You will need steam for a nice crust. For the steam, you can either spay the oven door every 2 minutes for the first 10 minutes of baking or you can pour some boiling water in to the lower tray of the oven. Since I am baking with a mini oven, I spray the oven walls.
6. Just before baking, turn the boule out from the linen lined basket onto a baking paper dust with semolina, slash two or three times. I use a non-stick cake pan, so I just slide the pan on to the baking stone and bake.
7. Bake for 10 minutes with steam, and another 20 – 25 minutes at 200C without steam, or until the crust is golden brown or to your likeness. Take the boule out and tap at the back, if sounds hollow means it's cooked. Put them back into the oven without the baking pan with oven door ajar for another 10mins.
8. Cool on a wire rack until completely cool then slice and enjoy!

Sending this to  Yeast spotting

Homemade Pepperoni and Chorizo Pizza

Homemade pepperoni chorizo pizza

Pizza dough was the first kind of bread I learnt and I would recommend any new baker to try to make their own pizza, as homemade pizza is way better then store bough ready-to-pop-in-the-oven pizza. I don't even want to talk about frozen pizza.. it's just yeak!!



Ready to go into oven



Making our own pizza doesn't takes too much of time actually. For those who works, it's just a matter of time management. Before going to work get your dough ready and pop it into the fridge, when you come home dough is ready to roll out. While the dough rest, prepare your tomato sauce which takes only a maximum of 20mins from chopping onion, garlics and tomatoes together to simmering into a thick sauce.



Slidely burn chorizo, crispy garlic and bubbling mozzarella on a sourdough pizza



Personally, I think the two most important key for a good pizza is the dough and the tomato sauce.  Sauce has to be well season and thick enough cause this is what gives the dough flavour. As for the dough's texture, it has to have a good crispy crust and a cottony interior.

So this is what I do usually, I use 400 g of the dough for our pizza and the rest I use it as a fermented dough to make our daily bread the next day.

Pizza dough
200g            starter (100% hydration)
250g            Flour
125g            Warm Water
1/4 tsp          instant yeast
10g               salt

Tomato sauce
1cup      chopped tomato
1cup      Leek (sliced)
2 gloves Garlic (minced)
2Tbsp    Olive oil
Salt to taste
1 tsp      sugar

1. In a mixing bowl, stir the warm water into the sourdough starter.
2. Then add flour, salt and yeast. Mix to combine, then knead till smooth and slightly sticky.
3. Place the kneaded dough in a lightly greased container, and allow it to rise till it's just about doubled in bulk. This might take 2 to 4 hours. A lot depends on how vigorous your starter is and also the temperature in the kitchen. For a faster rise, place the dough somewhere warm (or increase the yeast). But for those who has to go to work, Just replace the warm water to cold water and let it rise slowly in the fridge. When you are ready to use the dough say 10 hours later, just take it out of the fridge and press it into a baking pan. 
4. Using your palm gently press the dough to the edge of the baking pan(to your desire thickness)  which is dusted with corn meal, let rest for 15 min.
5. Coat the dough with some olive oil (to prevent it from soggy from the toppings) and use a fork poke the surface with holes to prevent bubbling. Pre-bake it in a preheated oven at 200C for about 8 mins.
6. To prepare the sauce, In a pan, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil, brown the garlic, then in sliced leek fried til fragrance and slidly brown. Pour in the chopped tomatoes, season and simmer til thick.
7. Remove pan from the oven and spoon on the tomato sauce, sprinkle with cheese, and place your desired toppings on the pizza. then sprinkle a little more sliced garlic if desire.
8. Back into the oven again for another 8 to 10 min or until cheese melt and topping done to your likeness.
9. Remove from the oven, loosen it onto a cutting board and serve hot with a green salad.

* Beware not to over load your pizza with sauce and toppings, as this is usually the key to soggy pizza.

Sending this to Yeast Spotting and Sourdough Surprises



Sinfully good...

Sesame,Spelt, Semolina and Sourdough Bread

Sesame,  spelt, semolina and sourdough bread

I just bough a packet of Spelt flour from the market from a local farmer. This is the great thing about living in France. A trip to the market can never be the same as back home. Over here, a trip to the local farmers market means you can really meet people who put their love and sweat to grow the your favorite fruits and vegetable. Also, eggs, cheese, milk, ducks and guinea-fowls too. Oh! the list goes on.. . and there I came upon this cheese stand with not only wonderful goat cheese, fresh goat milk but also Wheat flour. Yoohooo!! for a home baker..this is a great find as he has Rye, Spelt and Buckwheat. Rye and spelt are not common in supermarkets but one can get them from special healtstore. So I bought it without knowing how to use it..

This sesame, spelt, semolina and sourdough bread gives not only great colour but very nutty in flavour too.

So, I came home with this packet of Spelt and didn't know how to use it. Googled and came this 4S bread from Wildyeast . Another great find.. So this is my take of the 4S bread from wild yeast.

This recipe is from Wildyeast with some modifications;

Semolina-Spelt-Sesame Sourdough
Yield: 1 kg (two loaves)
Time:
Mix plus SF: 1 hour
First fermentation: 2 hours or more
Divide, bench rest, and shape: 30 minutes
Proof: 2 hours or more
Bake: 35 minutes
Desired dough temperature: 76F
Ingredients:
100 g white flour
136 g whole spelt flour
236 g semolina flour (coarse)
288 g water
1 g (1/3 t.) instant yeast (optional)
12 g (2 t. table) salt
141 g ripe 100% hydration sourdough starter
28 g (2 T.) olive oil
10 drops of sesame oil
80 g toasted black sesame seeds

Method:

1.In the bowl, mix the flours, most of the water, starter, yeast, and salt until well combined. Adjust the water to give the dough a moderately soft consistency. Autolyse 20minutes.

2.Since I don't have a mixer, I did a 20-count Stretch and Fold in the bowl. Took a tea break of another 15 minutes.

3.Add the olive oil and another 20-count Stretch and Fold in the bowl. Let rest for another 10 minutes while preparing the sesame seeds (toast and blend into coarse powder form)


Black sesame toasted and blended into powder form added into the wet dough



4.Add the sesame powder plus 10 drops of sesame oils and mix just until they are evenly distributed through the dough.

5.Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container (preferably a low, wide one so the dough can be folded without removing it from the container).

6.Ferment at room temperature (72F – 76F) for 2 hours (or about 2.5 hours if you have omitted the instant yeast), with a fold after one hour.

7.Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Divide it into two equal pieces and preshape them into light balls. As you can see, I didn't divide it into 2 but a big round boule.

8.Cover the balls loosely with plastic and let them rest for 25 minutes.



9.Shape into batards and place seam-side-down on a semolina-dusted board, or directly on your peel.

10.Slip the board into a large plastic bag or cover the loaves loosely with plastic wrap. Ferment at room temperature for 2 hours (or about 2.5 hours if no yeast was used).

11.Meanwhile, preheat the oven, with baking stone, to 475F. You will also need steam during the initial phase of baking, so prepare for this now.

12.Slash each batard with a slightly S-shaped cut that is parallel to the long axis of the loaf. (I didn't slash mine..)

13.Once the loaves are in the oven, turn the heat down to 450F. Bake for 10 minutes with steam (I used a spray to spray water onto the oven wall, every 2 minute for 10 minutes), and another 20 minutes or so without steam. The crust should be a deep brown. Then turn off the oven and leave the loaves in for 5 minutes longer, with the door ajar, to help them dry.





Just out of the oven




14.Cool on a wire rack.



Great looking slices, fantastic when toasted for breakfast and goes very well with cheese too



Sending this to YeastSpotting giving back to where it was created.

Happy Baking everybody..  





Homemade sourdough bread

Sourdough tartines ready to be toasted for breakfast

Baking bread is my new passion. Started off with simple pizza dough to sandwitch loaf, to sourdough boule. The learning process is full of highs and many lowsssss. There are days where my loaves rise nicely and days where out came a rock, a supposed baguette turn flat just like flip-flops or days where I have nice crunchy crust but no oven spring. Then slowly, it improves.. slowly the crumbs starts from pieces of cooked dough to airy crumbs, holes are starting to appear then Tunnels!! The process is long and there are many failures but I am lucky to have a loving family who always encourage by consuming whatever bread or dough I put on the table (or they have no other choice?? Lol)



This is a country boule but my slash is still not there yet..

I am loving every minute of this learning process. I'll never see bread the same way as before..I don't buy baguettes from supermarkets anymore, only buying from those artisan boulanger..and of cause some very special bread which is not hard to fine but very difficult to choose as always there is so many to choose from.

Ever since this bread making journey started, I have a new set of routine now. I mix my dough in the evening and the first thing I do in the morning is to check on the dough. To see how it has rose and to feed my sourdough starter. Oh yes.. this starter is just like a pet. It's alive and need to be feed on water and flour :)



Nicely proofed waiting to go in the oven



So here's my daily bread:

500gm        Country bread flour
350gm        Cold water

10gm          Sea salt

5gm            Fresh yeast cake

100gm        Whole wheat sourdough starter

Day 1:

1. Mix Flour, starter and cold water to form a thick mass. Allow dough to autolyse for an hour meaning just walk away or get yourself a cup of tea. This is to allow the dough to absorb the water.
2. Now dissolve your yeast cake in 1 or 2 table spoons of warm water and knead in the dough. Let rest for another 30 minutes then mix in the salt.
3. Let rest for 3 hours or more depend of the weather til you see the dough has doubled, then start to do the stretch and fold. I do all my stretch and fold in my round plastic tub. I use a spoon/rubber spatula to scoop up dough from the side of the tub fold it towards the center ( at this point of time, the gluten has developed and it should not break easily) while turning the tub to the left. This is 1. Do a  20 count of these stretch and fold, let rest for 30minutes then come back a to do another of this stretch and fold with an interval of 30 minutes.
4. After 3 sets of stretch and fold, put the tub in the fridge for a good 24 hours or even 36 hours.  This is important if you want a very airy and light crumbs. There is not much of kneading to do but a lot of stretch, fold and wait. The long cold retardation does give the bread more flavour and character too.

Day 2:

1. Take the tub out of the fridge, let it warm up 30 mins.  Turn out dough on to lightly dusted work surface.
2. Cut into 2.  Preshape the pieces into balls and let them rest, covered, for 20 minutes.
3. Shape the dough into balls and place them, seam-side-up, into floured cake pan or linen-lined baskets.
4. Cover and proof for an hour. Do the finger test by pressing lightly into dough: dough that springs back immediately and leaves no indentation indicates underproofing.  If the dough springs back somewhat but still leaves a discern indentation then it's proofed properly - with just enough rise left to give you some nice oven spring.  But if the indentation just stares back at you you've probably let it ferment too long.
5. Preheat the oven at 220C with baking stone. You will need steam for a nice crust. For the steam, you can either spay the oven door every 2 minutes for the first 10 minutes of baking or you can poor some boiling water in to the lower tray of the oven. Since I am baking with a mini oven, I spray the walls of the oven.
6. Just before baking, turn loves out from the linen lined basket onto a patchment paper dust with semolina, slash the loaves two or three times. I use a non-stick cake pan, so I just slide the pan on to the baking stone and bake.
7. Bake for 10 minutes with steam, and another 15 – 20 minutes at 200C without steam, until the crust is golden brown. At 25 mins, take the loaves out and tap at the back of the loaf, if sounds hollow means it's cooked. Put them back into the oven without the baking pan with oven door ajar for another 10mins.
8. Cool on a wire rack until completely cool then slice and enjoy!

Still a little hot but can't wait to slice open to see the crumbs..

Pain aux raisin / Cinnamon rolls for breakfast

Homemade cinnamon rolls

What do you usually eat for breakfast? In Malaysia, we have such a diversity of culture hence the variety of breakfast choice is big. From toast, rice porridge, noodle, nasi lemak to roti.. the list goes on. I think it would be easier to group them in sweet or savoury. Then we have to think of which cuisine we want..Chinese, Malay, Indian or Continental.

Cinnamon rolls with soft and creamy crumbs

Over here in France, things are much more simpler. MIL eats two biscotes (French breakfast rusk) with some butter and jam, a yogurt with a table spoon of dried fruit cereal, a bowl of coffee. Everyday for as long as I know. FH eats biscottes/baguette with jam and a bowl of coffee too. The Nyonya eats brioche/baguette with jam :) and a cup of tea. LM eats jam with biscottes(Yes. Jam with biscottes not biscottes with jam) brioche, fruit yogurt and a glass of milk.

Brioche for breakfast

I don't know if you noticed I mentioned a bowl of coffee! Yes, breakfast coffee at home is in a bowl. But why biscotte?? answer given was easier to eat, lighter and easier to digest. Why coffee in a bowl? it has always been like that was the answer from FH.. I guess it is to make dipping baguette/croissant/brioche/biscottes easier before being sent to the mouth. I think it is the same for Malaysian dipping Yau Cha kwai into hot soya bean milk.

So I have been busy trying out bread recipes. Here's the result. It is not difficult at all with all the recipes and tips given by fellow bloggers but the kneading part can be tiring if knead by hand but there is nothing to stop me :)


Here's the recipe;

# 500 g AP flour 
# 100 g full cream milk
# 200 g butter (cube and soft)
# 50 g  sugar
# 20 g  instant yeast 
# 3 large eggs
# 1 egg yolk
# 10 cl warm water 
#  1 tsp salt

Fillings:

1 cup  brown sugar

1/2 cup of raisins

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Pinch of salt

2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

The night before; prepare your flour for the brioche,

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside. In a big bowl, put in the flour and make a well in the center and pour in your yeast mixture which should be mouse like. Stir lightly.

2. Stir in milk, 3 eggs, then sugar and salt. Mix well then knead in butter..a few cubes at a time till well combined.

3. Leave it in the fridge for overnight.

The next morning, as this was my very first brioche and pain aux raisin.. I woke up extra early cause I just couldn't sleep..immagine the smell of cinnamon and caramelized sugar.. wondering what will the dough look like and if it would turn out the way I wanted..yes, I have got the baking bug and there is no cure but am so happy to be infected with this wonderful bug ;p

1. You will notice the dough has tripled in volume. Scrub it out on a well oiled working surface, pat it down lightly with well oiled hands into a rectangle shape, with the longer side near you. If the dough stick too much dust some flour over dough and working surface.

2. Brush butter on dough but remember to leave an inch around the border for easy sealing then sprinkle sugar, salt, raisins and cinnamon on dough.

3. Beginning with the long edge nearest you, roll the dough into a tight cylinder. Firmly pinch the seam to seal and roll the cylinder seam side down. Very gently squeeze the cylinder to create even thickness.

4. Using a serrated knife, slice the cylinder into 1 1/2-inch rolls. Arrange rolls cut side down in the baking dish leaving some space between each roll; cover tightly with plastic wrap/cling film and let rest for an hour or until double.

5. Preheat oven at 200C. Then brush some milk over rolls before put in the oven. Bake for about 30 mins.

As we are only 4 at home, I use half of the dough to make a brioche loaf and half into this cinnamon rolls. Personally, I prefer the brioche loaf as I can spread it with my favourite blueberry jam. My family prefer the cinnamon rolls. What about you??

No Knead Ciabatta

Sticky dough after an hour of rest

Lately, I have an obsession for bread making. After the success of my buckwheat sourdough bread, I went on to Country bread and now Ciabatta. Putting together flour, water, yeast and salt...and time for fermentation, we produce bread. Simple yet bread has so many flavours and technique to master, I am sure this will keep me busy for awhile :)

No knead ciabatta, nice crumbs and crisp crust

Here's my Ciabatta! No knead!! because I don't have a dough mixer. All my breads are hand knead, so I snob around the Internet and Voila! No Knead Ciabatta!! how can I resist?? Easy to make, gives beautiful crumbs but get chewy after. So the next morning,  I toasted it, spread with a good layer of butter and some raspberry jam.. The saltiness of the butter pair with the sweetness of raspberry jam, accompanied with "Crunch Crunch Crunch" for each bite of the toast.. I let you imagine but I can assure you it is a  great way to start a day,

So here's what you need;

300g     White flour (Type55)

200g     Wheat flour(Type110)

375g     Water

1tsp      Instant yeast

10g       Salt (fine)

1. In a big plastic tub (not less then 5L), stir together all the ingredient. You will get a very wet and sticky dough.
2. Walk away for 20min, let the flour assorb all the liquid.
3. Now stretch and  fold the dough with your hand or rubber spatula. You can stretch and fold on a well floured work surface with well oiled hands but I did mine in the tub. How? Visual the container as a clock. Plant your spatula at 3 o'clock stretch it till 12 o'clock and fold it towards you. Continue to do this while turning the container after you do the 3 o'clock to 12 o'clock(anti-clockwise), you will turn the container(clockwise) so that the 12 o'clock is now at the 3 o'clock and you will fold again towards you for 20 times. This is call 1 set of fold.
4. Do 3 sets of stretch and fold with an interval of every 45mins.
5. Let it ferment in the fridge for 12 to 14 hours. You should get a bubbly dough which is 3 times it's original volume. (I mixed my dough after dinner say 9pm and I bake it for lunch the next day.)
6. The next morning, gently scrape dough onto well floured surface. Dust the top of the dough with flour and gently pat the dough into a rectangle.
7. Divide dough into desired pieces and transfer dough on to baking pan. I use a non stick Tefal cake pan with extra flour and semolina.  Cover with a plastic and let rise for an hour.
8. Preheat oven at 240C for at least 30 min. It has to be very hot to gives your bread that oven spring.
9. Bake dough for 20 to 25 mins with steam ( I used a tin cup with some hot water in it) or until golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped at the bottom.
10. Remove the bread from tin and let cool on a grill.

First batch came out a little pale (see below right) with thin crust. So the second batch (below left hand side) I took out the steam cup after baking for 20min and let it bake for another 5 min to crisp up the crust. Which I like better. It's less moist and gives more crisp to the crust.

Ciabatta for lunch

Petite Madeleine

Our very colurful Easter eggs with confetti in it

It's Easter weekend and LM is on spring break. To keep him busy and also to get his mind away from French Conjugaison, multiplication and also history time periods.. we did some Easter crafts.. Egg painting of course. I bake some Madeleine with the eggs and LM decorated the egg shells then we went down to the park next door and hide the eggs.. FH and MIL hunt the for those colourful eggs. Which was not difficult at all..we had fun :)



Hiding eggs



The ant is trying to carry the feather??

Madeleine are little traditional almond sponge cakes that are sold in every bakery or supermarket. It is usually baked in a baking pan which has a shell shape. Traditional recipes include very finely ground almonds. A variation uses lemon zest, for a pronounced lemony taste. We can also coat it with chocolate or make it marble.
You get what I mean.. shall we start??



To make the frangipane, mix all the ingredients below and set aside.
50g     Ground almonds
50g     Fine sugar
40g     Butter (melted)
1         Egg
A pinch of salt

Madeleine ingredients:
3         Eggs
130g   Butter (melted)
150g   Flour
1tsp    Baking powder
120g   Sugar

1. Preheat oven at 240C.
2. Whisk together eggs and sugar until mouse like.
3. Then fold in shifted flour, baking powder, melted butter and frangipane. Blend well but not overmix.
4. Prepare your mould (butter and dust with flour)
5. Spoon or pipe the batter in the mould and tap it on the counter to make it even. Which make less dishes to wash :)
6. Bake 3 min at 240C then 4 min at 180C.

This recipe makes 24 Madeleines. This is a great snacks for Quatre heures (4 o'clock) which means tea time for the French. We had it for dessert after lunch, tea time and breakfast the next day.. it's all gone now cause it is best consume fresh..