Seed Culture / BARM

In my first step of embarking on the journey of sourdough bread making or wild yeast bread, I first need to cultivate a batch of my own homemade, home growth wild yeast. Growing your own wild yeast is a easy but 4 days or more process, mine too 4 days exactly. Basically the concept is to let your dough ferment at room temperature to grow the bacteria that we want and this will then be made in to a BARM that will become the starter for all our sourdough bread.

Seed Culture 

DAY 1

1 Cup         Dark Rye flour
1/2 Cup      Unsweeten Pineapple Juice

- Mix the flour and juice together till then form a ball of dough. Do not worry if the dough is stiff or soft but ensure that the flour is properly hydrated. Press this dough into a 4 cup measuring beaker and place a piece of tape to mark the top of the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 24 hours.

DAY 2

1/2 Cup        Bread flour
1/4 Cup        Unsweeten Pineapple Juice

- The dough would not have risen much if at all. Combine day 2 ingredients with day 1 sponge. Mix until evenly distributed. Return to beaker and press down. Make the top of the dough and cover with plastic wrap. Leave at room temperature for 24 hours.

DAY 3

1 Cup           Bread flour
1/2               Water, at room temperature

- Check to see if there has been a rise in the dough. There will probably be some but not alot. Maybe a 50% rise. Regardless, discard half of the starter or give it to a friend to continue. Mix the remaining with the 3 day ingredients and return it to the beaker, press it down and mark the top. It should press down to the same height as on day . Ferment for 24 hours.

DAY 4

1 Cup           Bread flour
1/2               Water, at room temperature

- The sponge should have at least double in size; more is even better. If it is still sluggish and hasn't doubled in size, allow it to sit out for another 12 to 24 hours. Otherwise, discard half of the starter and mix the remaining half with the new ingredients, returning it to the beaker as before. Cover the ferment until double in size. This may take 4 to 24hours. It is okay if it triples in size but because it is now fairly soft and spongelike, it will not be able to sustain that large of a rise without falling. IF it falls easily when you tap the beaker, that is the sign that your seed culture is ready to be turned into a barm or a mother starter.

BARM

Makes 6 cups of barm

3 1/2 Cup     Bread flour
2 Cup           Water, room temperature
1 Cup        Seed Culture

- Stir together the flour , water and seed culture. Ensure all the flour is evenly hydrated. It will become a wet and sticky sponge.
-  Transfer this to a clean plastic, glass or ceramic storage container as least twice the size of the barm.
-  Cover and ferment at room temperature for about 6 hours or until the barm is bubbly. Open the lid to release the gases and replace cover. Place in fridge overnight before using.
- The barm will be ready to use the next day and will remain potent for 3 days. After that, you will need to refresh the barm.

Saving and Refreshing the Barm

You can store the barm that you do not wish to use in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 months and then refresh it when you want to use but discarding all but 1 cup of the barm and built up from there.

You can also freeze it in the freeze for up to 6 months and then defrost it in the refrigerator 3 days before you need it. When it is thawed enough to use, discard all but 1/2 cup and refresh accordingly. Then refresh it again the next day building back to 4 to 6 cups of barm

The standard refreshment for barm is to double it at least, measure out the weight of the barm and then to double the it, measure out equal amount of bread flour and water by weight and mix to the barm. eg. for a 500g Barm, to double it, you add 250g of flour and 250g of water to it.

Leave the refreshed barm at room temperature for about 4 to 6 hours until it become bubbly and foarmly again. Cover and place it in the fridge overnight before using to allow the flavour to develop.

Garlic Cream Cheese Dinner Roll

Having some cream cheese left over from making my cheese cake so decided to put them into use by making them into filling for my bread. These bread at stuffed with garlic herb cream cheese and baked to a golden brown.

 Recipes (makes 20 rolls)

Dinner Roll

Wholewheat Dinner Roll recipes....

Cream Cheese Filling 

• 200g             Cream cheese
• 2                   Cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp              Dry Basil
• 1 tsp              Cayenne Pepper  

Assembly 

• After dividing the dough into 20 equal pieces
• Flatten the dough and place a tsp (or more if you like) into the center and seal
• Roll the dough into round and place onto baking tray
• Proof for 45 minutes 
• Top the bread with shredded cheddar cheese
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes 

Wholewheat Dinner Roll

Decided to make some soup for dinner and what better to have a dinner roll to dip into the soup and provide some carbs at the same time!! Came across this recipes online and after some modification, made this quick and easy wholewheat dinner roll that is so soft and fluffy inside, you can eat it just by itself!!


Recipes (Makes about 12 to 15 dinner roll )

56g            Butter
85g            Honey
2                Eggs
100ml         Milk
50ml          Water
250g          Whole wheat flour
40g            Coarse whole meal flour
1 tsp           Salt
1 tbsp         Instant yeast

• Cream butter and honey until soft in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment Add eggs and incorporate 
• Add Milk and water and incorporate
• Add in flour, salt and yeast
• After mixture have been mixed properly, cover with damp cloth and leave to rest for 20 mins
• Change to dough hook and knead until dough is tacky but not sticky and dough passed the windowpane test. Add more flour if needed. Or you can need by hand like I did. 
• Place dough in a lightly greased bowl and proof at a warm place for about 1 hour or until dough double in size. 
• Remove for bowl, flatten dough into a rectangle using your finger to distribute the air bubbles and cover with a damp cloth for 5 minutes to let the dough rest.
• Cut dough into 12 equal portion, shape into a ball and seal the bottom.
• Place the dough in a greased rectangle baking pan with a slight space between each ball. 
• Cover with damp cloth and proof for about 45 mins or until dough about double in size. 
• Preheat oven to 180 degree C 
• Spray the top of loaf with water
• Dust top of dough with fine corn meal (optional). 
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown on top and tapping the bottom gives a hollow sound. 
• Remove from baking tray and cool for at least 30 minutes before serving. 

Simple White Bread / Raisin Loaf

 

My very first post bread making. This recipes for a simple white bread loaf and making it is simple enough well if you get the basic of the bread baking down, ie: how to proof the bread, how to form the loaf, how to knead the dough. Maybe I should write up a post on how the technique of bread making, I shall think about it. I still learning and don't want to be giving out wrong instruction!! haha.

With this basic recipe, you can easily get your favorite topping into the loaf, chocolate, raisin, bacon, cheese, herbs, it is only limited to your imagination. So why make your own bread when you can simply buy one from the supermarket. Well when you make your own loaf of bread it just simply taste better, at least that is what I think, plus there is no added preservative, chemical or anything of those artificial stuff. You control what you are putting in your bread hence what you putting into your body. Making bread is fun and it can be a good workout too if you are kneading the dough by hand.

It may look like a lot of work making bread but actually most of the time if spent allowing the dough to proof and the actual working time spend on making the bread is very short.


Recipe (Adapted from Julia Child's white loaf Recipes)

Make one loaf of bread

265ml     Water
3g           Instant yeast
6g          Sugar
400g      Bread flour
7.5g      Salt
50g       Butter
20g       Milk powder

(Optional)
100g     Raisin soaked in warm water for 10 mins then drain

• Combine flour, salt, instant yeast, sugar, milk powder in a mixing bowl and mix well.
• Add in water and stir well to mix. You can do all this by hand or using your stand mixer using the dough hook.
• Cover the dough with a moist cloth for 20 min to allow the dough to rest (This rest called "autolyse" will allow the flour to hydrate and gluten to relax)
• Using your hand or stand mixer, begin to knead the dough for about 5 to 8 minutes. 
• Add the butter one tablespoon at a time, dough may come apart but it will come together eventually.You can add more flour so that the dough will become tacky but not sticky. It should also be able to pass the windowpane test, meaning that you are able to stretch the dough into a thin membrane yet not tear the dough. This means the gluten in the dough have been properly developed. (You can also add in your other ingredient like raisin etc at this time)
• Once all the butter is mix in, turn out the dough into a lightly floured surface and shape into a bowl. 
• Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a moist cloth and leave it at a warm place in the house to proof for 60 to 90 minutes or until the dough double in size. 
• Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface, flatten it into a rough shape of a rectangle, and fold the dough into third like how you will do a sheet of paper. 
• Roll the dough into a roll, pinch the seam close and fold the ends in so that it will fit into the loaf pan. 
• Drop loaf into the pan and cover the pan with a moist cloth to allow it to "bench proof" for another 60 minute or until dough almost dough in size. 
• Preheat oven to 190 degree C 
• Before the loaf go into the oven, spray the top with water, place the loaf into the oven, mist the oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes. Bread is ready when tapping the bottom of the pan gives out a hollow sound. 
• Turn out the loaf on to a cooling rack. Allow the bread to cool completely before cutting.