A loooong while back, I posted a recipe for making your own sourdough starter. I had intended to post a bread recipe shortly after, but it took me this long to get one that I was completely happy with. Some recipes were too wet, some not enough flavour, and others too dense. I kept trying new ones, and new methods until I had one that I knew would work every time. And here it is!

This recipe started out as a San Fransisco sourdough recipe from my old school textbook, On Baking: A Textbook of Baking and Pastry Fundamentals. It’s a great book that teaches the science and fundamentals of all manner of pastry and baking techniques, and includes recipes for almost anything you could think of! I often think that I need to really work through my recipe books, and this one is definitely high on the list. It’s got such a wide variety of recipes and explains them in full detail.

I tried making the sourdough recipe, as it’s described in the book, and it was okay, but not quite sour enough for my taste. That could be simply because of the unique wild yeast that lives in San Fransisco (L. Sanfranciscensis), or because this particular recipe was too ‘quick’ to develop a sour flavour. It actually used a small amount of commercial yeast in the dough, so that you could bake the loaf the same day you make it. Great if you’re strapped for time, but it leaves a bit to be desired in taste. However, it did explain one thing I had been wondering in the past – how to achieve what I consider a San Fransisco sourdough crust.

See, in Victoria, BC all sourdough that is labeled as “San Fransisco” has this soft glossy crust. It’s not the super tough stuff you associate with artisan bread, but something almost more akin to buns. While you can definitely make a San Fransisco sourdough with a traditional crust (like they do at Tartine in San Fran), for me, the key to making a San Fransisco sourdough bread (besides the yeast) is that soft crust. And you want to know the secret? Egg White! You simply brush the loaf with whisked egg whites all over before slashing and baking. It adds the glossiness from the egg proteins and softens the crust by preventing the chemical reaction that normally occurs.

Okay, but back to this bread recipe – I took the original one from the book, and started changing things, one at a time. First, I reduced the amount of flour in the recipe, to create a higher level of hydration. See, the higher the percentage of water in a recipe, the larger the holes and glossier the texture will be in the final bread. Really good sourdough bread has a slightly chewy texture, and large aeration holes – which can only occur with more water. Too much water and the dough will become very wet and difficult to work with – which I had at first. Of course, if you can master bread with a high level of hydration, it’ll produce an amazing loaf. However, for this recipe, I wanted something a bit easier to manipulate.

Second, I omitted the commercial yeast. I didn’t add anything to replace it, but simply went from a quick fermentation and proving, to a much longer one (overnight, in the fridge). Third, I added a series of folds instead of simply kneading the dough. This was partly due to the higher level of hydration (and how annoying it was to knead) but also because a longer bench time and folds produce a nicer crumb structure. And finally, I changed the oven times and temperature to the style of bread I was now making – and baked it in an ovenproof dish. Oh, and I omitted the egg wash, as I was now proving the bread in a floured banneton.

And that produced this recipe! Now, I will give a few tips to help you along with it.

1. If you don’t have a banneton, you can use a well-floured tea towel in a bowl. The bowl should be a small mixing bowl size, and you really want to work the flour into the towel. Start by just rubbing flour into the towel surface, then drape it in the bowl, and dust over even more flour. If you end up with too much on the bread, you can always dust it off with a pastry brush before scoring. I like to secure my towel with an elastic.
2. If you’re uncertain if your bread has proved enough, try gently pressing a floured fingertip in it. If the indentation remains, you are ready to bake. Just shy of doubled in size should be perfect, as it means the yeast still has a bit more energy left.
3. If you don’t have the time for all of the folds, simply knead the dough twice as long, until smooth. You’ll develop a nicer texture with the added time and folds, but you’ll still have a great loaf without.
4. Don’t fight the bread during folding – as the gluten develops it will not stretch as far. Just stretch it as much as it will let you, even if it means only 3 sides instead of 4.
5. You can turn the bread out directly into the baking dish, but I prefer to use parchment paper. It allows me to shift the bread in the dish to center it, and provides more room to score the bread. I traced the bottom of the dish onto parchment paper, cut it out, and scrunched it up many times to soften the paper. I reuse it each time I bake.
6. If you don’t have a lamé (scoring knife) use the sharpest paring knife you have or a serrated knife. You want to cut about 1cm or so deep – too deep and the bread will open up too much, and too shallow and the bread will tear elsewhere to allow steam to escape.
7. If you’ve never shaped bread into a boule or batard, watch some videos online. There are many great ones out there to show you how to do it (it’s hard to put into words). If the bread doesn’t hold its shape well after your initial shaping – you can let it rest for 20 minutes and then shape again.

That’s it! A great sourdough recipe, for days when you have lots of time (folds) and when you don’t (just kneading). Oh, and once you’ve got it down, why not experiment with adding in some flavour? My most recent bread had walnuts and figs worked into the dough (100g figs, 80g walnuts). I can’t wait to keep creating new flavours with seeds, herbs, and spices. Perhaps olive and rosemary next? Or beetroot from our own allotment?

Now I must get back to my next bread recipe development – a proper 6-day loaf. And one with a San Fransisco crust!

See, sourdough isn’t a new thing. Despite its recent popularity, sourdough is what all bread used to be back in the day. Before breweries developed the commercial yeast that we now use today, the only kind of yeast we had was wild! Wild yeast is everywhere… in the air, on the walls, etc. – all you need to do is provide it with food, and water to let it grow!

They say Egyptians first discovered how to bake bread – someone left a bowl of a porridge-type dish (made of wheat) lying around and discovered it started bubbling. I love the idea of whoever thought “Let’s put this in an oven!” And since that day, we have been raising cultures of wild yeast to add air and flavour to our breads.

So, do you want to make your own starter? You can go about it two different ways – first, you can make one out of just flour and water, or you can use fruit and vegetables! Unwashed fruit contains lots of wild yeast on the surface, plus plenty of sugar inside to feed the yeast culture. Grapes are an obvious choice, but really any fruit and certain vegetables will do (apparently beets work).

In my copy of Justin Gellatly’s Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding, I found a starter recipe that used rhubarb! As I had let my last starter die, I thought I might give this one a shot! I had some leftover rhubarb to use up and figured why not? Not only does the rhubarb add food for the yeast, but it brings its own sour flavour to the starter.

The one thing to consider when using the different starters in a recipe is the water content. Some starters have a higher water ratio than others and will impact your recipe. If the recipe has its own starter recipe, do the calculations to determine the ratio. If your own starter is different, then you’ll have to adjust the amounts to match.

I normally like to keep my starter at a 50/50 ratio to keep things simple, but Justin’s rhubarb recipe came out just a little on the dry side. As I was planning on trying out his sourdough bread recipe, I didn’t bother adjusting the ratio. But in the future, I will feed it 50/50. That way I can add my starter to any recipe and keep my mental math to a bare minimum. I’ll also use only white bread flour, as I prefer it for flavour.

So if you want to make your own starter, why not try one of these?

The Kitchen Basic Sourdough Starter

(One of my favourites – the recipe link has great explanations)

• 440g all-purpose flour (divided)
• 440ml water (divided)

Day 1: Make the initial starter by mixing together 110g flour and 110g water. Stir into a smooth batter, scrape down the sides, and cover loosely with cling film. Leave out at room temperature overnight.

Day 2: Feed the starter by adding another 110g flour and 110ml water to the mixture. Mix well, scrape down the sides, and cover again with cling film. Leave overnight at room temperature.

Day 3: Feed the starter again, just as day 2. You will probably see bubbles by now, and the starter will begin smelling a bit sour, like vinegar.

Day 4: Feed the starter again, just as before. Your starter should definitely smell sour by now. Don’t worry if there is lots of liquid on the surface, but simply mix it all in.

Day 5: Starter is ready to use. You can bake with it today, or place it in the fridge until you need it. Remember to feed about once a week, by removing about half the starter and then feeding it to replace the amount lost. Keep the ratio 50/50 between flour and water unless you intend to alter your starter’s consistency.

Sourdough Starter Made with Grapes

• 120g unwashed, organic grapes
• 480g all-purpose flour (divided)
• 360+ water (divided)

Day 1-2: Mash the grapes thoroughly in a container, cover with cling film, and leave at room temperature for 48 hours.

Day 3: Strain the grapes to remove the juice, and add enough water to equal 120ml. Mix in 120g flour, cover loosely with cling film, and leave at room temperature overnight.

Day 4-5 (same for both days): Feed the starter by adding 120g flour and 120ml water. Mix thoroughly, cover with cling film, and leave at room temp. overnight.

Day 6: Your starter is ready to use. You can bake with it today, or place it in the fridge until you need it. Remember to feed about once a week, by removing about half the starter and then feeding it to replace the amount lost. Keep the ratio 50/50 between flour and water unless you intend to alter your starter’s consistency.

Rhubarb Sourdough Starter (Justin Gellatly – Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding)

(When I made this, I didn’t use rye flour and instead substituted it with more white or whole wheat. It’s up to you what flour you use for flavour. I also didn’t discard as much as I wanted to build a bigger culture.)

• 30g rhubarb, thinly sliced
• 500g water (divided)
• 285g white bread flour (divided)
• 185g wholegrain rye flour (divided)
• 60g wholemeal bread flour (divided)

Day 1: Place the rhubarb in a bowl with 100ml water, 50g white bread flour, and 50g rye flour. Mix together into a paste, cover loosely with cling film, and allow to rest at room temperature overnight.

Day 2: Mix in 50ml water, 25g white bread flour, and 25g rye flour. Cover, and allow to rest at room temp. overnight as before.

Day 3-4: Same as day 2. You should see fermentation starting.

Day 5: Pour 30g of the starter into a new clean container. Pick out any pieces of rhubarb (it’ll be mostly broken down now), and discard them. Whisk in 125ml water, 80g white bread flour, 30g rye flour, and 30g strong wholemeal flour. Discard the rest of the starter (I know, wasteful).

Day 6: Same as day 5.

Day 7: The starter is ready to make bread! You can bake today, or refrigerate until needed. Feed with whatever ratio you want, about once a week.

Well, it’s officially 2018! And why not start the new year with some good old-fashioned doughnuts? My grandma always called these New Year’s Küken (or “cookies”) but you may also know them as Portzelky. They are a German Mennonite favorite, always made for New Year’s Day.

When I was a kid, these weren’t my favorite things because they contained a dreaded ingredient – raisins. Not sure why, but I have always disliked raisins, especially in baked goods. You know when you pick up a cookie, thinking it’s a chocolate chip, only to eat a raisin?! Worst thing ever… I can remember eating raisins out of those little red boxes as a child and enjoying it. But now, despite my best efforts to get used to those shriveled little pockets of sadness… I just don’t like ’em.

Now that I am making my own New Year’s cookies, I can use whatever fruit I want! (Eat that, raisins!) I have always wanted to experiment with these little doughnuts and decided to try three different flavors this year.

The first uses raisins, but I soaked them with some alcohol for flavor (sloe gin to be exact). The second was candied citrus zest, and the third was apple and stem ginger, with a hint of cinnamon. All three also have some fresh orange zest and vanilla in the dough… because apparently, I cannot leave anything alone. When I told Richard I wanted to make these but add/change things, his response was “Of course”.

(You may wonder why I am bothering to make raisins, but I want Richard to be able to try them, and he likes them.)

Now, my grandma always waited for these to cool a bit, and then dusted with icing sugar, but I decided to mix that up too. For the candied citrus zest ones, I rolled them in a bit of caster (berry) sugar after letting them drain off the oil. You need to do it while they are still warm (like the paska doughnuts I made last year) so that it stick properly.

As for our opinions on which flavor is the best? Well, Richard and I both liked the candied zest and apple ones, but he also liked the raisin ones. He preferred the icing to caster sugar, but I can go both ways. Caster looks prettier than icing sugar, but it’s really a personal choice. As always, they taste best warm, so invite a few people over while you make them! Who would say no to warm, sugary doughnuts on New Year?

Are you lucky enough to find yourself with an excess of lemons and oranges this Easter? Looking for something to make with them all? This was the bounty that I had the other weekend, and I was quite keen to use them all.

The other day I posted about the more unique take on Paska that I made this past weekend, and I promised more. I decided to try making a regular paska recipe that my aunt gave me, as well as using a challah bread recipe to make a paska-flavored challah. I had remembered paska dough as being quite wet and wanted something I could braid into shapes. However, after making my Aunt’s paska recipe, I realized it wasn’t as wet as I thought. I could have easily braided it into wreaths etc.

But you want to know what this huge amount of paska means, besides being something Richard can take to work? Paska French toast!! Awesome Easter breakfast… if I do say so myself.

So my reasoning behind wanting to make paska challah bread, was that I wanted a more decorative Easter bread. As much as I like the simple icing with sprinkles, as far as nostalgia goes, it doesn’t really say “Easter centerpiece”. I decided to make both the regular recipe (in unique tins) and the challah recipe. Perhaps these will inspire you to make a showpiece bread of your own?

What I found after making both recipes, was that the paska was a bit on the dry side compared to the challah bread, but sweeter. Maybe I used too much flour in the original paska recipe, but I think that the use of oil as opposed to butter was the main factor. As controversial as it may be, I think in the future I may make the challah recipe instead of traditional paska, but increase the sugar. I did the math and the original paska recipe had about 9% sugar, while the challah was only 6%. So if you feel like trying the challah one, I have included another sugar amount, that should hopefully give you the same sugar level.

Paska Challah Bread:

Okay, so first up, we have the challah bread. I had made this recipe before and knew that it would make amazing French toast. This bread is moist, and subtly sweet… perfect to turn into paska! I made a double batch, in order to create two different shapes – a braided crown, and a five-strand braid.

If you don’t already know how a five-strand braid is actually quite simple. You can see it in the photos below, but I will try to explain. Number the strands left to right, 1 through 5. Cross 5 over 2, 1 over 3, then 2 over 1. And repeat! Make sense?

At the end of the braid, simply pinch the ends together and tuck it under. Unfortunately, my baking sheet wasn’t quite long enough to fit the bread. It caused it to flop over a bit while proving and ended up looking less than perfect.

For the braided crown, it’s a simple 3 strand braid, which I won’t bother explaining here. Just finish the braid, and connect the ends together! Luckily, this one fit my sheet, so there were no problems proving.

Jump to Recipe

Last year for Christmas, Richard and I spent a month traveling (side note – am I the only one who always tries to spell this traveling?) around the UK. We spent time in England, Northern Ireland, and Wales, and even drove through Scotland (albeit without stopping) while visiting his family! For some reason, one of the things we remember most is getting stuck in the wind and rain outside of our hotel beside the Giant’s Causeway after a fire broke out. Not exactly the most fun we’ve had, but the reward was worth it!

We were in the middle of a wonderful breakfast at the hotel, when one of the dryers in the laundry caught fire, and we were told we had to go outside right away. Unfortunately, it was in the middle of December, and of course, we forgot to wear our winter coats to the dining room. After freezing outside for a while, we were brought into the nearby visitor center to wait until the firemen cleared the building. Luckily nothing was damaged.

As we were checking out after breakfast, they asked us if we had managed to finish our meal before the fire. With the exception of a cup of tea or two, we had, but we asked them if they could do us a favor in lieu of the rest of our meal. Would they be willing to share their wheat bread recipe with us? I doubted they would as restaurants/chefs aren’t normally known for that sort of thing, but lo and behold, the chef not only gave us the recipe, but a loaf of bread (still warm from the oven) to take with us!

Now, I should just clarify what wheaten bread is for those of you who aren’t familiar. In Northern Ireland, two of the favorite breads (at least where Richard is concerned) are soda bread and wheaten bread – both quick breads made without yeast. Wheaten bread (the proper kind) is a sweet bread, made with really coarse whole-grain flour, normally eaten with some butter or jam (or both!). They can sometimes be shaped in boules but normally baked in tins (it’s a super wet mixture), and they are a bit crumbly due to the flour and lack of gluten development. They remind me a bit of cornbread, in that they are sweetened both by sugar as well as the grain itself.

The wheaten bread at our hotel was the best Richard had ever had, which is why we wanted the recipe so much. Of course, it was written as a chef would, with no temperature, or instructions, and to make 12 loaves. I adjusted the recipe to make only 2, and have tried it a few times, trying to make it just like it was back in County Antrim. The key I have found is that you don’t work the batter too much (just mix until all the dry has been moistened) and use a really coarse whole grain flour (ideally fresh, as whole grain flours can go rancid or lose some flavor sitting around too long). At the end of the day, this whole wheat bread gets a lot of its sweetness from the grain itself, so it’s a pretty important part.

This recipe makes enough for two loaves of bread, in a regular loaf tin. I tend to store it well wrapped up in cling film to prevent it from drying out. It won’t last as long as a regular loaf of bread, but with the thick slices we tend to cut, that’s okay!.

Roasted garlic no-knead bread | Hello Victoria

Richard’s Aunt gave us this Le Creuset pot as a gift a few weeks back!

Originally, when I decided to make this bread, I wasn’t thinking I would photograph it in any way. After all, the whole no-knead bread thing had been done many times and was all over Pinterest. I didn’t think anyone would care to read another post about it. It’s why I have no pictures of the beginning of the recipe.

But then, I realized that despite the simplicity of this bread, there are still some ways in which people might have trouble; and I could help! Also, I can show you how to take this humble bread recipe, and jazz it up with additions! Like roasted garlic!!

The great thing about this recipe, besides how simple it is to whip up, is that its flavor opportunities are limited only by your imagination. For my first bread I did plain, and then experimented with lemon and rosemary bread, and now roasted garlic. Richard wants me to try caramelized onions next. Mmmm… perhaps one with dried figs and a balsamic reduction?

I used only one bulb of garlic for this bread (and it wasn’t large by any stretch) and found it gave the whole bread a subtle flavor. I think that if you want a strong garlic taste (a proper “garlic bread” if you will) you need to use 2-3 bulbs of garlic. To roast them, simply cut the top of the bulb to expose the cloves, and drizzle over a little olive oil. Wrap it up in aluminum foil, and roast it in the oven at 200°C (400°F) for 40 minutes. Once cool, simply squeeze the cloves out of their paper cases.

To add additions to this bread, you treat it a little differently than traditional breads. Normally, when you are kneading bread, you avoid adding any additions that are firm (think seeds or nuts) or that have lots of moisture (fruit) until the end of your kneading time. In the case of the firm additions, this is because they will cut the gluten strands you are trying to develop with your kneading (not helpful). With the wet ingredients, it’s so that you can develop a bit of gluten at the beginning, which will help to trap the moisture of the additions. But, since we’re not kneading this bread at all, you need to add the items in at the beginning. This also means that the flavors can sort of infuse overnight, which is nice.

When I made this most recent bread, the recipe was all in cups. I’m lazy and didn’t want to have to use cups, wanting to work in grams. So I googled how many grams a cup of bread flour was, and it came up with 127g. I mixed it all together, and thought to myself – Man, this dough looks waaaay too wet… oh well, I’ll see in the morning.

this is what it looked like in the morning – still too wet!

And by the morning it wasn’t much changed! Now, here is where I went wrong – because further inspection of a cup of bread flour, is that it might not weigh the 127g I was told. This is partly why I hate working in cups, despite having grown up in Canada. Depending on how people use them (Pack it full? Tap it to remove air and level off?) the weight of each cup can differ drastically. This is why I found things online telling me 3 cups of flour was everything from 360g-420g. After how wet my dough was, I weighed a cup myself – and came up with 150 grams. That means I added 69 grams less than I should have!

So now, if you wake up in the morning, expecting to find dough you can simply tuck the ends under and make a nice boule (round dough shape) – only to find your dough spreads uncontrollably due to being too wet? I can help! You might initially panic, thinking that you can’t add flour to this dough, as it needs to be kneaded in, and this whole thing is supposed to be no-knead! Maybe you don’t know how to knead, and the dough is all wet, and you’re frustrated? Well, I have a kneading technique for you, known as the “slap and fold”.

Now the beauty of no-knead bread is that it uses a technique called autolyse. See, if you add the ingredients together, but don’t knead the bread, the gluten itself will start to develop, but it takes a reaaallly long time (hence waiting 14+ hours). But you can speed up that process with very little effort. Think of your dough on the table as a four-sided square. Pick up one edge until you feel the tension (where it doesn’t want to stretch anymore), and slap it over to the opposite side. Like folding. Then go around the other 3 sides, picking it up until you feel the tension, and then slapping it over. Once you have finished all four sides, you let it rest for 20 minutes. That is the slap and fold! It’s a great technique for making really wet doughs without over-kneading (I use it for baguettes).

So if your dough is all loose and wet, sprinkle over a good dusting of flour and do this technique. Then dust it with flour, and cover it with cling film while it rests for 20 minutes and repeat. You’re incorporating a bit of flour each time, while also developing more gluten tension, which will help the dough keep its shape. Once the dough feels like you can’t really stretch it over properly each time, turn it over and tuck under the edges to make a nice tight round (don’t do all 4 sides if the dough is tight after 1 or 2). From there, you can continue with the recipe, waiting for the second rise and then baking!

Now about the baking, I know that the recipe says to flip the dough over into the Dutch oven, but I think I will bake it with the seam down in the future. If your seam isn’t tight (like mine – due to there being too much flour on my table) you will end up with a very craggy surface. However, if you put it smooth side up, the cracking will result in more of a round shape. You could even slash the bread yourself!