What I miss most when not eating bread? Actually, I miss doing the bread! Can't say I'm missing much the writing, as I haven't gotten into regular blogging to the extend that it's even becoming a habit. Still, I do miss the baking! However, as part of a non-declared diet (not to be mistaken for a New Year's resolution!), I'm staying away from my daily breakfast bread, so there is no need to do one every week.
Can't really say how long I will do so, but it's possible that the Dough Note blog might accumulate a few cobwebs. Shame on me, but what can I do?
In the meantime, I will at least write down the last bread I did before the Christmas break. I should not mention, though, that we also did a few seasonal cookies, as I don't know if that will ever become a post. I mean, they did turn out nice, so that's not the reason. As a matter of fact, they were more successful in certain ways than the bread that I will report about...
So, let's get baking:
We need 500 grams of white flour, 125 ml of milk, 4 egg yolks, vanilla extract, 125 grams of soft butter, the usual amount of yeast , 125 grams of sugar and some salt. Hold, I hear you say, that sounds like the typical sweet bread that people do around Christmas and possibly for Easter again. I admit, it is... it is not! So bear with me...
We start with the preparation for the yeast, mixing the sugar with the milk. It's just like the usual bread making procedure, with 1/3 hot and 2/3 hot liquid, adding 3 spoons of yeast and let it work its magic for 20 minutes.
While we wait we sieve the flour, add some sugar, the egg, vanilla, salt and, if you prefer, also some lemon zest and mix everything in a large bowl. Then in goes the yeast mix plus the soft butter; work into into a nice dough for approximately 5 minutes and let it rest for at least 1 hour.
For the seasoned baker this should all sound quite familiar... so let's continue! We now chop a big pile of dates and pecan nuts and put them aside (ideally resting in a bowl of rum) while we take a pack of pancetta and fry them until crispy. I would recommend at least 150 grams of each...
Alright, that was already the great twist. It's really nothing that outrageous and exotic, but believe me, it's a winning combination.

When the dough has had it's time resting, we can work the filling into it, form 6 nice balls, but them into a buttered and floured spring form and let it rest for another 30 minutes. Following a rather curious suggestion I was basting the surface with butter, however, I now would think that egg (another yolk!) would be more suitable.


I then did follow some recipe (mistake!) rather than my own gut feelings, starting with a pre-heated oven at too high temperature and leaving it in the oven for too long, as one can clearly see from the pictures. Next time I will start with a cold oven, set to 160 degree. My estimate would be around 60 minutes, but if anybody wants to try at home, I suggest keeping an eye on the oven and testing when necessary: Poke it with a wooden stick, which should come out clean...
As for the success of the bread I've done: I think I clearly burned the surface, but apart from that, it didn't even survive a single morning in the office. I guess that means it's approved!

Time for some catching up... but that's not the reason why I'm squeezing 2 breads into one post! As a matter of fact, these could have turned out pretty similar (or even identical)..
In other words, after seeing the result (and observing the problems) of bread no.1, I figured I'd try the same recipe again, slightly varying the parameters and see how that would influence the outcome. This of course is far from being a scientific experiment, because usually when I'm doing bread, it depends of many more factors, such as time of the day or mood.
So, here's what goes into the bread:

400 grams of spelt flour
3 spoons of sugar
2 spoons of yeast
water (for the yeast starting-mix)
honey
Guinness
salt
olive oil
some strong white flour (for working the dough)

After having some success with using Guinness in our bread a while ago (when we still used the bread maker) I really wanted to use it again. In the meantime however I learned that alcohol is making the yeast 'sluggish', so it became clear to me that I cannot substitute water for beer when doing the yeast mix.

Therefore, while the mixture of yeast, sugar and water was starting to bubble, I was mixing 400 gram of wholemeal spelt with a good helping on Guinness and honey, adding salt and oil. So far so good, but of course when bringing the flour mix and the yeast mix together, I ended up with clearly too much liquid!
So, I worked the dough for a few minutes, adding white flour until I got a familiar bread dough consistency. Let it rest for an hour, worked it quickly into shape and let it rest for 20 minutes while the oven was heating up to 210 degree.

Another 20 minutes and the bread was ready. I must say, it wasn't bad, but it didn't grow as expected and with the extra flour added it became a bit heavy...

Now, we fast forward to the next attempt: Same ingredients, but this time I already started with using less 30% less water for the yeast preparation. I also forgot to add salt, but that wasn't on purpose (I just realized that after working the dough, so I sprinkled it with coarse salt before resting, that's where the white spots come from...) However, the biggest difference probably was that I resisted the temptation of adding more white flour, even though of course the dough was initially too wet again. Instead, I was just kneading it more (probably some 10 minutes more), until I felt confident that it could turn out well. Did I say that I'm an optimist?

After approximately 1 1/2 hour of resting I kneaded it again (more than I would usually do after the resting period), put it on the baking tray and let it rest covered for almost another hour. Then it went into the oven as usual.

This time, the bread grew much bigger, got a nice crust and a good moisture in general (even after more than a week it didn't turn hard really). It was also surprisingly soft, but it tastes good. Sometimes it's worth trying the same thing again in order to get a better result!

'If they don't have bread, let them eat cake!'
Okay, apparently it wasn't Marie Antoinette who said this, but it still makes a good quote and I thought it would be appropriate as this post isn't about bread...

As I started a tradition of optimistically attempting making incredibly difficult cakes for Ana's birthday by doing a Prinzregententorte last year (took me about 3 1/4 hours), I started searching for suitable recipes this year with 3 key words in mind: Rum, coconut and white chocolate. And yes, I ended up with 3 recipes that I decided would capture the essence of what I was planning. Thought it might work by combining them into one...
First step was doing a kind of cream / mousse for the inter-layer: It involved heating up 1/8 cup of water with 1/3 cup of sugar and melt 50 grams of white chocolate. When everything turns into a smooth cream, leave to cool and then put it to chill. Note to myself: Try to translate cups into 'proper' measures before starting to bake. 'Cups' are for Americans only... Another note: I used half of the measures that the recipe stated, as I didn't want to do a dessert for 6 people. So it gets twice as difficult to get the balance of ingredients right. It's best to use as little water as possible!
None of the recipes I used was for making a layered cake, but I kind of like layering. Maybe because it makes things unnecessarily complicated. Anyway, while the cream / mousse was chilling, I did the cake's layers, I then finished the mouse while the second layer was in the oven. Here's what needs to be done to finish the interlayer material: Beat half a cup of whipping cream and some vanilla extract (so it becomes whipped cream) and fold the chocolate mix under. In my case it turned out to be more of a cream, use less water (as mentioned earlier) and the result would probably be more fluffy. Will try next time!
So, on with the layers:
I started with mixing 100 grams of white flour with baking powder and baking soda. Separately, I mixed then 100 grams of sugar and 50 grams of butter with 2 eggs, 100 ml of plain yoghurt, vanilla extract and a good shot of rum. Then I combined the two parts and mixed approximately 100 grams of coconut cream (which I heated up earlier, so that it was indeed a cream rather than scrapes from a block, in pretty much the same way I'd melt it for doing a thai curry...)
This then went into a buttered and floured spring form and into the oven at 180 degree for 50 minutes. The usual 'bake till it's golden and a blade stabbing the cake comes out clean' rule applies!
I think this bottom layer turned out quite nice (but for some reason I felt I had to slice it into 2 layers... this is not really necessary!). I put it on a large plate and turned my attention to layer no.2 (or no.3 in my case).Here I experimented a little: It's largely similar to the first part (used slightly less yoghurt, because I didn't have more. Note to myself: Buy more yoghurt next time, or possibly a big pot of buttermilk). I didn't melt the coconut cream this time and I used about 50 grams of coconut and 50 grams of white chocolate, both grated. Maybe melting the chocolate and the coconut and adding 50 grams of dessicated coconut flakes might be better. I also think that it could be interesting to vary the texture of the upper layer slightly by separating the eggs and whisk the egg whites stiff, just to fold them under in the end. Didn't do it this time, but hey! This cake's a prototype, there's always room for improvement!
Alright, from now on it's fairly easy: Spread the interlayer cream (or mousse) on the bottom layer, put the top layer over it. Melt white chocolate with butter for the icing and pour it over the cake carefully. Done! Happy Birthday, Ana. Let's enjoy the cake...

Today's baking day again, as last week's bread is coming to an end... hold on, which bread? Indeed, I have to admit we're running a bit late, so let's try some catching up. I should not mention that there was a particularly good bread before the one that I'm reporting about now...
So, before getting ready doing the bread for the coming week, let's have a look at last week's White Rustic Boomerang. I'm still chasing the idea of having a proper rustic white bread with a good crust outside and a light, open structure inside. I know, I could do some research and follow a recipe, but my nature of achieving certain results is usually by trial & error. You could also call me a stubborn donkey!
The approach of the day was called 'pre-dough'. I made my usual yeast-mix (3 spoons of dry yeast, 2 spoons of sugar, 100ml of water and 50ml of boiling water) and mixed it with 200 grams of strong white flour, kneaded it and but it to rest not just for 1 hour but for a whole day. Of course, I put it in a warm place and covered with a wet cloth.


Now this is how it looked like after coming out of the cupboard... it did grow, which is nice. But it also developed a thick hard 'skin', which is less nice. But, I needed to continue with what I had, so I added 200 grams more flour, some salt (not enough) and some water in a desperate attempt of getting a nice smooth dough. After some serious kneading I was almost there...
Oh well! All there was to do is getting it into shape (no, it's not a half-moon shape, it's a baguette shape bent to fit into the oven), make some cuts and add a bit of herbs: olive salt, thyme and rosemary. And then I was remembering that I forgot about the oil that I usually put in the dough... so this time, we just had some oil sprinkled on top.

The masterpiece was then resting under cover for about an hour before going into the oven, 30 minutes at 220 degrees. The result left me with mixed feelings: On one hand it had a nice crust and a good and even inner structure. On the other hand it was missing some salt, it was missing the oil (or butter) in the dough and it certainly didn't turn out light and airy. Let's see if I'm more lucky next time!

Today we'd like to introduce you to the Arbitrary Hedgehog Bread. I should not mention that it turned out really, really nice, because this one will be a bit difficult to put into a recipe that one could follow. Nevertheless, it makes a good story.
Let's start with stating that I had no particular plan as to what kind of bread I wanted to do. We finished with the previous one, so there was a certain urgency to do a new one. I also need to mention that I wasn't in the best mood for baking for reasons outside the scope of this blog. Usually, that would not be a good outset!
Anyway, while our zuccini and the lamb where in the oven getting ready for dinner I started measuring the flour. There was a nearly finished pack of strong white flour and a nearly finished pack of rye flour and the next thing that caught my attention was flames shooting out of the oven!
After getting the situation under control again I returned to the flour to find the electronic scales having gone back to stand-by, so I just added a bit more flour to get an amount that I felt comfortable with. Luckily I've done the sugar- water- and yeastmix earlier, so at least that was done properly measured. However, now I simply added some salt, a splash of olive oil and another splash of cider (you see what I mean by 'arbitrary'), mixed everything together, got reminded that dinner by now was ready... things were getting hectic!

All there was left for me to do was quickly (but using good old stress-releasing brute force) knead the dough, cover it and let it rest while we were having dinner. Now don't ask me how long I allowed it to rest, I estimate about 90 minutes, after which I returned to the dough for more stress releave. As a matter of fact, there was a moment it almost looked like I was trying to do a pizza, but I thought better and rolled it up to a more bread-like shape. Did some deep cuts, rubbed some thyme into the wounds and covered again while I was preheating the oven to roughly 220 degree.

The rest was fairly simple.. get the dough into the oven, wait 20 minutes, take it out, tap (sounded 'proper') and resist the temptation to sample it right away.

So, after another 10 minutes the whole ordeal was over and done, and, much to my surprise we had a good looking, hedgehog-shaped (can't you see?), gorgeous smelling bread with a subtle crust and a nice and tasty inside. maybe a hint on the soft side, but hey! You should always leave some room for improvement!

Cider Rye Loaf, not as difficult as you might think.

So finally my first post in this blog! I must admit I am a bit of a lazy writer... never really like writing essays at school and still no different, apart from the fact that I am not at school anymore.

Lately, I've been following recipes for breads since we've changed to the new yeast and they seem to work. Also I've found out that when a recipe calls for a certain amount of dry instant

yeast, you should use the double for dried active yeast.

As the bread ran out in middle of the week, it was

my turn to make some bread and I decided for a Cider Rye loaf from Dan Lepard.

Seems like rye bread has a reputation of being difficult to make but to my surprise and as the recipe stated it was pretty easy. You just need patience really :)

First you need to prepare the overnight mixture.

Next day, mix the rest of the ingredients and rest for 30 minutes.

Shape the dough in a nice ball shape and place on an ovenproof dish. Leave for 2 hours.

Put it in a cold oven, lid on and set temperature to 200C for 30 minutes. Take lid out and leave for more 15 minutes. In my case, after testing the bottom of the bread, I decided to leave for 5 minutes more.

The result is a nice moist loaf! All that and no kneading required :)

A different bread for a different purpose!
Usually, we do the bread for the week for eating it at breakfast. It should be an interesting bread (who wants same-old all the time?), should go well with butter, jam, Nutella or peanut butter. Hopefully, it should last us the whole week without getting too dry or too chewy.
Now, this time the brief was slightly different: We bought clams, and we didn't want to do them with either rice or pasta, so bread was a good idea. Something that would help soaking up the sauce, too. Like a French baguette... alright, we could have just bought one, but that would be too easy, right?
I was looking up a few ideas from my cooking books, knowing that you won't be able to do a baguette unless you prepare the dough the day before. I found two interesting suggestions, one being Portuguese and the other one from Lebanon. I wonder if that is a good idea...

So, here we go: 350 grams of strong white flour, 50 grams of barley flour. One teaspoon of salt, 1 table spoon of sugar. 2 table spoons of olive oil. Extra virgin, obviously! Prepare the yeast as usual (or as per instructions), 100 ml cold water, 50 ml boiling water, 2 table spoons of sugar and 3 table spoons of yeast. I'm happy that since the last time, my yeast does behave as it should. 10 minutes in a warm place and you see it bubbling away!

Mix everything and attempt making a nice, smooth, elastic and not overly sticky dough out of it. Chances are you won't succeed, because I didn't allow for sufficient liquid. No, no beer. No cider either. Instead, I opted for more olive oil (still extra virgin and, if I may add, I prefer unfiltered). Don't ask me how much oil I added in the end, I'd say about 2 more table spoons. Once the dough was okay. I smeared it with more olive oil and left it covered to rest for one hour.
After that, I split the dough in half, as I expected we would want only half of the bread with dinner, while the other half would serve a few days of breakfast. Also, I didn't want the dough balls to be that big (as a matter of fact, the Lebanese recipe suggested splitting the dough in 12!). As you can see, the result did have some resemblance with Naam (but that would be totally different again!)
Again, rub it in olive oil (did I mention 'virgin'?) and leave it resting covered while the oven gets preheated to 230 degree. Yes, let's turn it up full blast!
Just before slipping the 2 breads in the oven I sprayed them with cold water, so the top would not turn to charcoal prematurely. I left it then in the oven for about 15 minutes and gave it another 10 minutes at about 150 degree. See, I did say in the beginning that today we were doing something somehow differently.

We do enjoy the result and it did serve the purpose brilliantly. It's soft, but not too soft, and it soaks nicely. It has a very subtle sweetness, too. And after cutting I even found a suitable name: Evil Bunny Bread. But then again, that's just me...