Noix Pain Au Levain/ Walnut Sourdough Mini Bread recipe

Nom nom nom...the taste not bad, rather sour because 1 week-old sourdough was used to make this bread, it will be better if it is walnut instead of cashew nuts. ;p overall, good.

It;s a simple yet gives strong flavour wholemeal bread. It is cut and form in flower shape.

Noix Pain Au Levain /Walnut Sourdough Mini Bread recipe

340g High Protein Flour
60g Wholemeal Flour
8g    Sugar
120g Water

5g      Salt
100g Sourdough starter

80g    Walnut, Roasted, coarsely chopped.

First 4 ingredients in a mixing bowl, mix with slow speed for the first 2 minutes, then put in salt, mixing for another 2 minutes, add in starter, continue mixing for 3 minutes, turn stand mixer to speed 3 to continue kneading for another 30 minutes. or till the dough is elastic. 

1. Oil the a large plastic bag (9" x 11"), let the dough sit in the  plastic for the first rising - 1 hour. 
2. Take it out after 1 hour, knead it and press the excess gas out to knead into round dough keep this back into the plastic bag, let it prove for 12 hour in room temperature. Make sure press all air out before tying up with elastic band. 
3. Bring out the dough, give it the last knead. Add in walnut chunk. 
4. Using a plastic cutter, cut into 6 pieces (@138g) 
5. On a baking tray with baking sheet, form a round dough, let it set for 2 hours, with a dry cloth cover them to prevent drying. 
6. Slightly press the round dough to slightly flatten it, using a plastic cutter to make 5 cuts to make 5 'petals'. 
7. Pre-heat oven 200°C. Spray into oven, turn it to 210°C and bake for 15 -17 minutes.

Press as much air out as possible

Triple the size

Prideful me, sorry!

Prideful is really the evil I have been combating with, not that somebody told me  , it takes a very establishEd relationship to be able to hear a truthful comment from oneself.  It is also what I realized long ago and still sometimes loose guard of this evil character of mine.

I never wanted to accept this truth of it is already in me, argh! (scratching my head) But I believe self-examine is the first step to overcome this flaw (though I made this "first step" many times). ;p

I feel bad every time I over reacted with this character, though closed friends have noticed my improvement, I wish I could do better to at least get rid of it.

Trust me, I never wanted to do this to hurt you.
What a prideful me, I dislike this side of me.

A surprise gift from Hong Kong

A surprise parcel from childhood friend, who are now married to Hong Kong, thanks so much of this sourdough recipe book, nope, not my birthday, it was a surprise gift. Thanks so much, I loved this book.
She mailed me a cookies recipe book last year, this book also teaches technique for cookies decoration,sadly i haven't tried baking one yet.
Perhaps she saw many photos of sourdough breads posted up in my timeline recently, so thoughtful of her sent me this recipe book.
"Start baking sourdough bread with an apple" the title of this book was  written by a Japanese baker, translated into Mandarin. Recipes were written in small portion though, good enough for small family or individual consumption. Love it.
It teaches us to use apple enzyme to make sourdough starter, I believe fruit sourdough gives extra flavour and enriched the aroma of all breads, and hence without any hesitation I started the apple enzyme 3 days ago, temperature in Malaysia is higher than Japan, I reduce the fermenting period to 4 days instead of 5 days as written.  When I tried to take a sniff this morning, it smells awesomely good, apple enzyme simply richer than ordinary sourdough starter that is only called for water and flour.  I will have to come back and check it out tomorrow.
Just can't wait....

The cover of "Start baking sourdough bread with an apple"

Sourdough sandwich loaf

I forgot where I got this recipe..... mmm, ah, I guessed it was modified from a white bread recipe from Carol 自在生活 again, it wasn't tasting... haha, ya many of them not tasting which I have to finish all of them. 

Sourdough white bread

Yee Neo found a site Carol 自在生活she provides many sourdough bread recipes, with details of teaching how to cultivate sourdough starter. You should try this site, it's in mandarin somehow you may use 'google translate' to help you read those Chinese characters. 

Simple Sourdough bread

Have been searching high and low, watching many youtube clips for sourdough recipes, this is Baking Basic Sourdough Bread Recipe  by Chris so far the first recipe I have gotten online that is said "simple". A simple recipe, because he gave clear instruction, I followed, tastes okay, rather hard. It's my first sourdough bread, I was happy that I could bake one.

Sewing Octopus Coloured zipper pencil case

Zipper for Gab, as requested by him, I sewed a special compartment where only could reach by three zippers from the back panel. And I think it is a brilliant idea. 

Coloured Zipper Cases is a combination of YKK zippers, which I followed smiggle® zipper case, the only difference is the secret compartment, which only could be reached by three zippers from the back panel.

Measurement:
9" x 5"
YKK coloured zipper Cotton compartment

All open edges are carefully handsewn.

Visit Sewing Octopus for custom made request

Happy Peter Sourdough recipe

Happy Peter sourdough recipe 

As mentioned in previous post, I have changed some of the instruction which I found online to suit those who wish to start your own sourdough starter and yet live in one of the tropical countries which we have summer season the whole year round.


Here it is:

1st day:

1 Tbsp of water
1 Tbsp of bread flour
mix well, and keep in a warm place, what I did is, I turn on a small light in my kitchen to keep the place warmer.

2nd day:

1 Tbsp of water
1 Tbsp of bread flour 
Mix well and keep. Smell not quite pleasant.

3rd day:

1 Tbsp of water
1 Tbsp of bread flour
 
Mix well and keep. Normal fermenting smell.

4th day:

Ok, here is the key day, I didn't keep it in liquid form anymore, I add in more bread flour to make them paste form or till it is in dough form, up to you, just don't keep it in liquid form any more.
1 Tbsp water
Sufficient of bread flour

5th day:

1 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp of bread flour
(mix well lah)

6th day:

1 Tbsp of water
2 Tbsp of bread flour

7th day:

1 Tbsp of water
1 Tbsp of bread flour

This is Happy Peter Sourdough Starter as
today's date 7th April,
I have start feeding it with rye flour and
wholemeal flour a month ago,
you may do some variation to it,
no harm brings. 

By then sourdough gas beginning more stable, and it won't turn bad easily.
(whispering) I don't actually follow the ratio, as long as I mix them and till I get the same consistency (same paste / dough form).
Remember to keep it in fridge if you are not baking, make sure you feed it once a week, if you would like to feed it every day, feed bit by bit, this will prevent sourdough turns very sour, unless you like the sourness.

I have read some questions that posted online, some like the sourdough to be very sour, this is easy, if you keep the sourdough starter longer period in fridge the sour-est it could be.

If you do not like the bread tasted very sour, try to feed sourdough starter everyday no matter if you are baking or not.

Good planning helps to keep everything in control. Feed it in small amount. Or..... giveaway to friends.

Cranberry walnut sourdough country bread with
 home-cooked Roselle jam I bought from
Carpenter's Daughter Artisan Bakery in Taipan.

Another cranberry pumpkin nut sourdough country bread.

Rosemary Biscuits

 Mun Wah tagged me in a post that says sniffing rosemary could improve memory by 75%

Everybody knows I have bad memory, this is a good news to me, I went to Asia Bakery shop to look for rosemary herbs, it was out of stock, but I reserve 100g of rosemary herbs without hesitation, it costs about RM30+ Next is to sew a few small sachets for this herbs, for me to keep under pillow, wardrobe and car, hall.... everywhere I can smell them.

Later of the day, I searched a recipe that calls for rosemary, here I found this Flaky Herb Biscuits. Easy to make, something like making scones. Best thing is I have thyme and rosemary herbs at home. I can bake it right away.




It does give a pleasant aroma to your house while baking it. tasted salty, and I had this serving with a small piece of salted butter which I bought last night, recommended by Leonard, to really know the butter well, I took a small cube of it alone. I can I take SCS butter alone, but I find it rather salty by taking this alone. It should go well with sour dough bread.

This herb biscuits are salty biscuits, it went well with this French butter though.

Here is the recipe for Rosemary Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon chopped mixed fresh herbs, such as rosemary and thyme
• 100gm Salted butter, cold, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
• 3/4 cup milk

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven 200°C. Line baking tray with parchment paper.

2) In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients together 

3) Add butter cubes into mixture, knead into crumbs 

4) Pour in milk to knead into dough form

5) Move dough on lightly floured table top, use a roller to make a 1/4" thickness, cut out with round shape cutter. Transfer it onto lined baking tray.

6) Bake until golden brown, it takes roughly 18 minutes, serve immediately.

I

Sourdough starter

After a few attempts, finally get this time successfully cultivated, hooray!! What happened to the old unsuccessful sourdough starter? "Those? " "most of them gotten maggots on the 5th day, some turned blackish and smelled badly." I was finally realised that I should not wait till 5th day, as the temperature in Malaysia is warmer. Hence, I got this sourdough recipe for myself, use this recipe if you are in tropical country. Go to - Happy Peter Sourdough Recipe

I finally decided to use 2:1 ratio instead of 1:1 ratio. Meaning 2 tablespoon of flour, 1 tablespoon of water, make them into paste form rather than liquid form. And with this try and change, I got it successfully cultivated and I name it "Happy Peter Sourdough Starter" Meet my "Happy Peter Sourdough Starter"

I made a few more, simply don't like the idea of throwing away, I gave them to Cynthia, Yee Neo and KC Goh. "Happy~"

I made a few more, simply don't like the idea of throwing away, I gave them to Cynthia, Yee Neo and KC Goh. "Happy~"