Simple parkin recipe (vegan)

(My latest, most definitive parkin recipe is here. This post tells the story of how I developed it, beginning down at the bottom.)


As a Lancashire lad I remember the parkin of my youth with great affection. My mother's version was full of oats (obviously), treacle and ginger. The mouth feel was 'claggy', thick and ultimately - well, unctuous!


As a vegan I'd given up on the idea of ever experiencing its like again.


However, after the success of the vegan chocolate cake I've been making fairly frequently recently, I thought why not adapt the oil-based recipe to make parkin?


So I did, with great success! You'll find the recipe and pics further down the post.


Saturday, 30th June.
I've made this recipe several times since I last reported, and, in an attempt to make it less crumbly (my only criticism - if it can be called that!). So last night I made one with a little more wholemeal and a little less porridge oats (120g flour to 80g porridge oats). Didn't make a damn bit of difference! :) It was still gorgeous - still crumbly. Next time I'll try 120g oats and 80g of flour - but I won't alter the definitive recipe until I find something that does make a difference.


Friday, 10th February.
Happy to report the parkin was just terrific when I ate the last piece yesterday.


Made two more tonight - one at the request of the husband of my Lancashire mate. She's going away for the weekend so we're having a men's get-together on Saturday night - rugby and cards at his place. He's asked me to bring some parkin along, which I'm happy to do. Since I shall be visiting my daughter and son-in-law on Sunday I thought I'd take a load of parkin over with me.


Went down a treat, with SIL!


Wednesday, 8th February.
Just gets better every day. Next time I'll have to make two batches, then I can have one to eat straight away and one to put on one side.


I've got about 40g left and I'm trying to leave it until Thursday.


Monday 6th February.
Just had a little nibble this morning - it's firming up nicely. It was fairly crumbly to begin with, but now it's slicing much better - and the taste is - well, superb? Can I say that? :-)

Here's the crumb - it was sliced on the second day

Sunday 5th February.
Finally tasted the parkin this morning - and it's wonderful! It's very close to the parkin of my youth - and it's not even a day old, yet!


The acid test is coming up this afternoon, when I take a piece to a Lancastrian friend of mine, from Preston. I'll report back when I hear her judgement.


In the meantime, I'll just have another nibble...


This afternoon I gave a piece to my Lancashire friend and she was well impressed - I believe she actually used the word "Fantastic!" at one stage!


Saturday 4th February.
Thought it was time to make another batch of parkin. It's freezing outside - tried to snow this morning - and thoughts of a cup of something warm and a piece of parkin are very appealing! Apart from which, tomorrow I'll be taking a piece of parkin round to my friend's house - his wife comes from Preston, so she'll be able to pass a considered opinion.


The changes I decided to make were - wholemeal flour (bread flour, as it happens), instead of white - and extra baking powder to replace the self-raising bit.


So the amended recipe looks like this:

100g porridge oats

100g wholemeal flour

2 and 1/2 tsps baking powder

4 tsps ground ginger

1 tsp mixed spice

100g sugar

100g blackstrap molasses - warmed and added after the oil and water

80g oil (sunolive, in this case)

220g lukewarm water

Here are the before and after pics:

That dark swirl in the middle is a bit of the molasses which had stuck to the side of the bowl 

Which can still be seen on the finished article.

I wish I'd taken a pic of the first parkin whilst it was still in the silicon case - then it could be seen if they both had risen the same. I'll post a pic of the crumb tomorrow, when I cut into it. Have to admit, it's very tempting, sitting here on my worktop, smelling of treacle and ginger!


Thursday 26th January.
I ate the last piece today, by which time it was 5 days old - and it was brilliant! Maybe not the same cake as I remember - but since that was over 50 years ago, how would I know. All I do know is that it's a darn good cake, and one I'll make again.


I've decided that the only change I need to make is to use wholemeal flour (with baking powder) instead of white self-raising flour. Parkin is supposed to be heavy and dense, not as light as this one was.


Monday 23rd January.
Still improving - now I'm not thinking of changing anything. We'll see.

Sunday 22nd January.

24 hours later, the cake is improving; it's moist, full of flavour and definitely more parkin-like. It's becoming more crumbly, as well - and parkin should be crumbly. Perhaps I'd better wait and check it out over the next few days before I decide what changes to make - if any.

Saturday 21st January.
After spending some time comparing recipes, I've come up with this recipe:


100g oatmeal
100g s/raising flour
1 and 1/2 tsps baking powder
4 tsps ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
100g sugar
100g blackstrap molasses - warmed and added after the oil and water
80g oil
220g lukewarm water


I'm not expecting great things from this, but, once I've made it, I can then think about tinkering with it and hopefully come up with a reasonable alternative to the traditional recipe.


I mixed the dry ingredients, then warmed the molasses and water - since the molasses was quite cold and stiff, I was afraid it wouldn't mix with the water properly.


I then added the oil, followed by the water and molasses.


It's now mixed, poured into the cake case, and it's in the oven. We'll found out in about 40 minutes how good it is!

Turned out OK!

40 minutes at 175C, and it came away clean from the silicon cake case.


My first bite I thought a bit strange - but it was too fresh, still hot from the oven. Now it's cooled down a bit I can make a more considered judgement.


It's a lot lighter than I remember, but it is still 'claggy' and sticks to the teeth.


I forgot to mention in the original recipe that I ground half of the porridge oats, thinking the baking powder would react better. Next time I'll leave them whole.


It's also very 'treacly', which is no bad thing, but it tends to dominate and drown out the flavour of the ginger. Next time I might use 50g of syrup and 50g of molasses.


Otherwise, I'm very happy with it. As with the chocolate cake, I need to cut it up into 50g chunks and freeze them - otherwise I'll just nibble the parkin away.

(Update - 7.00 pm - I've eaten about a third of it already! It's very moreish!)

The piece on the left shows the crumb with the cake broken, whilst the one on the right was sliced with a bread knife. 

Pierogis, pirozkhis, parathas and - pasties

Poland, Russia, India and - well - Cornwall?

The similarities of these bread parcels - for that is what they are - are plain for all to see.

I made these with my special needs groups this morning, using a simple bread dough:

160g strong white flour

1/2 an Oxo cube, crumbled

100ml yeast liquid

Splash of olive oil

Rolled the dough out into a circle, cut out circles and filling (curried lentils and potatoes) placed in the middle. Dough folded over and pinched together to make a small pasty.

Some of these were boiled, some were baked and some were just fried. The boiled ones (pierogi) were then fried in olive oil.

The general conclusion of the support staff - Emma and Donna and Ruth - was that, first of all, they were delicious; and that the fried ones were the best. So let's hear it for the stuffed paratha of India!

There didn't seem to be much difference between the pierogi which were fried after simmering, and the ones which were only fried.

A couple of my students, who couldn't cope with anything small and fiddly, made pasties.

Here they all are - it was a fun session!

The pierogis simmering for a couple of minutes each side

The parathas, fried to a golden brown

The morning's haul. The baked pirozhki are at the top left, and the pasties are bottom right.

YEAST-RISEN (VEGAN) TEMPURA BATTER

Tuesday 19th June - update.
Today I made another batch of these - and found the batter a little on the thin side. I halved the recipe and added 25g more flour*. This time I included slices of mushroom:

These are so tasty! Never having tried deep-frying food before I discovered this, I'm still amazed by how quickly everything cooks!

And it's not just the speed - half of these were enough for my evening meal! So a cheap meal as well as a quick one!

29/4/12
First time I've made these - and I was well impressed!

These are the leftovers - which didn't survive until the morn!  

Battered sausages, etc:
(Because I was in a hurry, I used about 50g of apple juice as some of the liquid. This helps the gluten form just that little bit quicker. And if you made the batter an hour before you needed it, you would only need half as much yeast as I did.)

Ingredients:

For the yeast batter

360ml lukewarm water

*200g strong white flour (I first made this with 150g of flour, but found it a little thin)

10g fresh yeast

Filling

One Linda McCartney sausage and one Fry's sausage - both of which are vegan. I cut each sausage into half, then split the pieces lengthways. I also divided a 1cm thick slice of Fry's vegan polony into 6 pieces.

Method:

Whisk the ingredients together and leave for 10 minutes.

I placed about 1cm of vegetable oil in a small saucepan, which I heated up quite hot. I tested it with a drop of batter and found it was done within about 15 seconds.

Using tongs, I picked up a piece of sausage, dipped it in the batter and turned it over to coat it properly, then placed it in the saucepan. I immediately slid a palette knife under the sausage to prevent it sticking to the bottom of the pan. After 15 seconds or so I turned it over, gave it another 15 second, took it out and put it to one side. Then I fried the next piece.

These I kept warm on a simmering pan of curry sauce and had them with the sauce and some spicy wedges for dinner.

The ones in the pic above were what was left (this is a very filling dish!) and I made the mistake of just having one (cold) before retiring for the night. I have to say the rest followed pretty quickly. Even cold they were delicious!

Breadmaking at St Mark's Primary School, Basingstoke (2)

Once again it's the time of the year when there's space in the curriculum when I can go into my daughter's school and make bread with her year group.


It's the third year I've done this, and last year I made bread with 74 children (it's a three form intake). I'm hoping to break the record this year, since there are 79 children in the year.


Bread roll recipe (with suggestions for different shapes.)


Tomorrow, starting with the first group of 25 at 8.50, we plan to have the bread proving by 9.50; the second by 10.00 with the bread proving by 11.00; and the third starting at 11.10 with the bread proving by 12.10.


These times are very flexible, of course, and I'm well aware we didn't finish until 3.20 last year (although we did take time out for lunch).


Wednesday 13th June.
We got under way at 8.50, as planned, with 25 youngsters and soon got into a routine. Up to ten tables arranged in a U shape, each with groups of 2 or 3 children. Every group had a mixing bowl, a mug and a teaspoon.


After a demonstration of making a bread dough, dividing the dough and forming a few shapes, the children followed suit. Sharing the activity between themselves, the children measured the flour and salt, poured the water and stirred in the yeast. This was added to the flour and the dough was mixed.


Once made, the dough was divided into, generally, three pieces and shaping began. Here are some of the busy tables and the shapes the children attempted:

This is a coiled snake - a cobra, but the head wouldn't stay upright 

The numbers are important - to identify the bread

Lots going on - the children were completely engaged

Once the dough was shaped and on the tray, it was safe

This was from the first session. 

The numbers built up: 1-25 in the first session; 26-51 in the second; and 52-77 in the third.

My projected timings were pretty close - we began the second session around 10.10 and the third about 11.30. By 12.40 the last batch were baking. All this in one domestic oven!

There weren't many pics of the finished rolls, since I wasn't in charge of baking them. By the time I got down to the kitchen area, most of them were bagged up and tagged with the name labels the youngsters had been wearing.


It was a brilliant morning and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves - I certainly did! It was hectic at times but I had some lovely feedback - one youngster calling the session "Awesome!" Praise indeed.


I had some terrific support from teachers and teaching assistants - and I'm already hearing of the knock-on effects.


After I summarise the lesson, I always give the students some homework - which is to go home and teach someone what they've learned today.


I wasn't allowed to show the children's faces in the pics. However, the teachers took photo's which will be posted on the school's internal website - with a link to this blog.

Bread rolls

Ingredients:

200g or 1 mug strong flour – either all white or a mix of white and wholemeal

¼ teaspoon salt

125ml or 1/3rd mug lukewarm water

1 tsp yeast, fresh or dried

Method:

1. Measure the water and stir in the yeast. Place the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and pour in the yeast liquid.

2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary, remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with a knife, cutting through the dough as it forms. When it gets too stiff for the knife, use your hand to squeeze the mixture together. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.

3. Knead by flattening the dough out, folding it over and flattening it again. If the dough is too sticky, instead of putting extra flour on your worktop, place some in the bowl, put the dough back in and turn it round to coat it all over. That way you keep the flour under control and you won’t be tempted to add too much. Knead until the dough becomes smooth – and then stop before you get fed up!

4. Divide the dough into 6 pieces with the side of your hand and give yourself plenty of room on your worktop. Take one of the pieces in each hand and flatten them down with the palms of your (flat) hand. Keeping them pressed down, gently move them round in a circle. After a couple of circles, start to ease the pressure off. Still moving in circles, let your hands form a hollow shape. Gradually cup your hands and relax the pressure, whilst still making the circular movement. Your little finger and thumb should make contact in turn with the side of the roll as it tightens up. Ease off the pressure altogether, and you should have a couple of bun shapes! Place the rolls either on greased bun trays or on oven trays lined with baking parchment.

5. Cover and leave to prove until the rolls have doubled in size, then bake at 220C, 425F or gas mark 7 for between 15-20 minutes.

Why not try the 'Undercover', or 'Cloche' method to get a better rise for your rolls?

Or, why not make some shapes - Fancy Dinner Rolls:

Roll each piece of dough out into a long thin rope, long enough to tie a knot in it – Lover’s Knot

Roll the dough out a bit longer and roll it up from one end – Whirl

Roll the dough up from both ends – Twirl

Roll the dough up on top from one end and underneath from the other – Swirl

Pick up the dough in the middle and twist one end around the other – Twist

And of course, you can invent your own shapes!

This dough will also make a large pizza base. Simply roll it out to fit your baking tray, cover with your favourite topping, then, when the dough has become a little puffy, place it in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Peirogi/Pirozhki

Simmered for 2 minutes on each side

Not enough room to simmer them all, so these were baked. Does this make them pirozhki?

The crumb of one of the pierogi. Need to make the dough thinner next time.

Ingredients:

200g (1 mug) strong white flour

¼ tsp salt

125ml (1/3rd mug) lukewarm liquid including 1 tsp fresh yeast

2 tbs olive oil

Plus:

Filling of mince (I use a meat-free mince), cabbage and onion. Flavoured with stock cube and a little curry powder

Method:

1.     Place the yeast in a measuring jug (or a mug) then measure up to 125ml (1/3rd mug) with lukewarm water and stir to dissolve.

2.     Whilst the yeast is working, place the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. When the yeast is ready, add to the mix and then pour the olive oil into the liquid in the bowl. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary, remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with a knife, cutting through the dough. When it gets too stiff for the knife, use your hand to squeeze the mixture together. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.

3.     Knead by stretching the dough out, folding it over, stretching it out and so on and so forth. Do this until it is smooth – or until you get fed up!

4.     Leave to prove for about an hour on your worktop, covered with a dry tea towel. Or place in an oiled plastic bag until you are ready for step 5.

5.     When you are ready to proceed, place the dough on to the worktop and divide into 8, 10, or 12 pieces, depending on how big you want your pirozhkis to be.

6.     Drain the filling to remove any liquid.

7.     Flatten out each piece of dough, place a spoonful of filling in the middle of it and make a small parcel by bring up the sides of dough to meet in the middle. Press the tines of a fork into the edges of each pierogi, to both stick the edges together and provide some decoration. Place them on a baking sheet, lined with baking parchment.

8.     Continue with the rest of the dough and the filling, cover with a dry teatowel and leave to prove until they have risen appreciably.


9.  Simmer for two minutes on each side and place on a cooling rack. Or:

9.     Bake at 220C, 425F or gas mark 7 for around 10 minutes. The pirozhkis are done when they are browned underneath.


Pierogis are often fried - a couple of minutes each side - and served with fried onions

For a spicy version, include a chopped chili in the filling.

Variation:
Mashed potato, cheese and onion filling

Sourdough

(19th May - making a white sourdough loaf. Scroll down to Latest attempt!).

My sourdough recipe. 

(The rest of this post comprises of sourdough ramblings - here's the complete recipe.)

Ingredients:

600g wholemeal flour

6g salt

300g starter (comprising 200g water and 100g white flour)

300g water

50g extra virgin olive oil

(Including the flour and water from the starter this gives totals of 700g of flour to 500g of water, my usual mix)

Method:

24/36 hours before baking, pour 300g of starter into a mixing bowl. Refresh the starter with 200g of water and 100g white flour.

Add the flour, salt, water and olive oil and mix into a sticky dough.

This is now kneaded for about 20 seconds, several times at intervals of 10 minutes or more. To enable you to work the dough easily, pour oil over the top of the dough. Knead until the oil disappears. Wash your hands in a little flour before washing them in the sink.

Repeat this until the dough becomes easy to handle without adding oil.

Cover with the mixing bowl and leave until you're ready - overnight if need be.

When you are ready for the final phase, shape the dough into a loaf. First of all place it on the worktop smoothest side down. Lift the sides of the dough up and bring them to the middle. Wherever there is a corner poking out, lift it over to the middle and push down. By doing this you're smoothing the underneath of the dough. Now turn it over and place it on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment.

Leave it on the worktop, covered with a tea towel, for between 1 and 4 hours. 

Because this is your first time, you won't know how long it takes to rise. Once you've made this several times you'll be able to time it much better.

When you judge it is ready to bake, turn the oven on to 220C and, with a serrated bread knife, make three shallow cuts in the top of the loaf.

When the oven is up to temperature, place the loaf in the oven and set the timer for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes turn the loaf around and leave for another 10-15 minutes.

The loaf is ready when there is a good colour across the bottom of the loaf.

Make notes of what you've just done so you can replicate it next time. 

Latest attempt! 19th May.
Preparing the ferment:
Around 6 this evening I took the starter from the fridge and added 200g water and 100g white flour, mixed it together and left it on the worktop.

Preparing the dough:
6 hours later it was bubbling nicely, so I poured 450g of starter into a bowl. This comprised of:

150g white flour
300g water

To this I added:
350g white flour
5g salt
50g water

I mixed it together roughly, covered it, and left it overnight.

The following morning I came down to this:

So far, so good

I tipped the - very wet and sticky - dough out onto the worktop:

Decided to shape it using oil - stretched it and folded it a few times, refreshing the oil once or twice

And a little flour. 

[More to come, including my conclusions!]



Previous ramblings:
(Not sure to which this refers!)

In the event I didn’t bake on Tuesday night – so on Wednesday morning I took the starter, poured it into a mixing bowl and added 200g Doves organic wholemeal and 200g water. I mixed this and left it, covered with a dry tea towel, all day.

About 7 in the evening, in the scale pan I mixed another 400g wholemeal, 60g of ground flax seeds and a teaspoon of salt which I mixed and added to the bowl. I made a well in the middle of the flour and added 5g of fresh yeast and 125-135g of lukewarm water. I paddled the yeast and water around for about 20 or so seconds, then added 50g of EVOO.

I mixed this together, turned it onto the worktop and gave it about 20 seconds quick kneading (using a dough scraper – this was quite a sticky dough), placed the bowl over the dough and left it for about 10 minutes.

I repeated the quick kneading and resting periods about 3 times, by which time the dough had lost its stickyness and was a handleable dough.

I left it for a further 2 hours, shaped it into 12 rolls, which I placed on a baking sheet and covered with a roasting tray. After an hour or so, the bread had risen and it was baked for about 35 minutes (first 20 minutes covered, the rest uncovered).

Saturday 12th  May.
Overnight I soaked a handful of sultanas in the discard. For breakfast I made about half of the discard into 8 pikelets, five of which I had for breakfast, with orange and ginger marmalade.

I've turned over a couple to show the colour underneath

The starter, bubbling up nicely. It'll go in the fridge from now on.

Friday 11th May.
Good head on top of the starter tonight, so we're off and running.

Removed 300g of starter and refreshed with 50g wholemeal flour and 100g of water.

I've always been a great advocate of using the discard - I hate throwing good food away! - so tomorrow I shall make some sourdough pikelets for breakfast.

Thursday 10th May.
Added 50g wholemeal flour plus 100g water.

Wednesday 9th May 2012.
Began my umpteenth go at sourdough tonight:

20g of organic spelt
80g Dove's organic wholemeal
200g water

Put all the ingredients in a Kilner jar, stirred together  and left on the worktop.

I'm going to try once again to make a sourdough wholemeal bread that tastes better than my current wholemeal. We'll see.


Sunday 10th July.
Here's my latest sourdough after spending a couple of days in the company of some real experts.

I began last Monday morning by putting 300g of starter (made up of 200g water and 100g white flour) into a jug along with 300g of flour and all the water I was using in the recipe:

The basic amounts of flour to water I use are 70g of water to 100g of flour (known in the jargon as 70% hydration) - so, wishing to make a loaf with 600g of flour I needed 420g of water. Subtracting the amounts used in the starter I still needed 500g of flour and 220g of water. Given that I'd added all the water and 300g of flour

[To be continued shortly]

Friday 1st April.
For general info on sourdough and how I began my latest foray into the subject, read on:

I say in my daily bread thread I'm not really a fan. It's too unpredictable in my experience - I like to know that when I've shaped some bread it'll be ready to go into the oven within the hour or so; and, since I already make bread that satisfies me flavourwise - using wholemeal, I'm not convinced there's much of an increase in taste.

However, there's one other way of using a sourdough starter I'd like to try out - one which is used by many European bakeries - adding some leaven to each batch of home-made bread.

This is exactly the procedure adopted by a large plant bakery I visited in Pecs, southern Hungary about ten years ago.

I was shown a large room, with big vats containing ferments lining the walls. Above each vat was a blackboard with details of when each vat was 'fed', which batches it was to be used for, how much was to be used, etc.

Every batch of bread that went out of that bakery, from huge rye and wheat flour loaves through fruit breads to doughnuts contained some of this ferment.

With S. John Ross' instructions for making sourdough (no longer available - boo hoo!) - which are about the simplest, clearest I've come across - to hand, on Sunday morning I began.

I took some Dove's malted grain flour, which contains some rye flour, and sieved out 100g (to remove the wheatberries, which would add nothing to this exercise, IMO). I placed this in a 500ml Kilner jar (which I'd scalded) and added 200ml (or grams - same thing) of water. I  mixed this thoroughly and left it to one side on the worktop. I left the lid open, but after scaring away a fruit-fly (I presume) in the afternoon I covered it with a damp dishcloth.

(I fixed on the ratio of 2:1 - 100g water to 50g flour - so that it's easy to subtract those amounts from the ingredients when I come to make a batch of bread. Won't be for several days, since there's plenty in the freezer ATM.)

I saw some faint stirrings on Monday evening - and on Tuesday morning, the fermentation was in full flow:

This took exactly 48 hours 

Later that day I weighed out exactly half - 150g - pouring it into a measuring  jug.

I then added 50g of white flour and another 100g of water to the starter, mixed it thoroughly, and placed it in the fridge. At this stage I removed the rubber seal and just let the glass lid sit on the container. I'm a bit wary about pressure building up in the Kilner jar. (I should say the smell from the starter at this stage is very mild and pleasant, not sour at all.)

I then mixed similar amounts of flour and water in with the discard, mixed it and left it in the fridge for pikelets for Wednesday's breakfast.

This morning I stirred in another dessertspoon of flour - to thicken the batter - and added a handful of sultanas.

This made a total of 16 pikelets:

One dessertspoon of batter for each pikelet

Half of these I had for breakfast, spread with homemade ginger marmalade. Made a very pleasant change from my usual fruit naan. The other half are in a plastic bag ready for tomorrow's breakfast.

If I continue refreshing my start every 2 days for a week, that'll be my breakfasts sorted for a while! Must remember to add sultanas to the discard - they plump up very nicely when soaked overnight!

Thursday, day 4.
Divided and refreshed again.

It's important to say that at this stage the starter separates into two components - all the flour sinks to the bottom, and there is a clear dark liquid on top - 'hooch'. Some say that this can be discarded, but if you do that the flour:liquid balance goes out of the window - which only matters if need to know exactly how much flour and water your starter contains. It's perfectly safe just to stir this in before using.

I added the same amount of flour and water to the discard, plus a dessertspoon of flour to thicken it to the right consistency for pikelets. Added 100g of sultanas (probably too many) and made 8 pikelets for Friday's breakfast (won't have time to cook in the morning).

Friday evening. Just looked at the batter for tomorrow's pikelets and it's almost solid! The fruit must have sucked up most of the water from the batter - so tomorrow I'll need to add a lot more water.

Won't refresh the starter again until Sunday evening, as I won't be needing any more pikelets until Monday. (Sunday breakfast is always porridge for me!)

Sunday, day 7.
Divided and refreshed the starter. To the discard I added 25g water and 50g flour ready to make pikelets on the Monday. I also put 50g sultanas to soak - keeping the fruit and batter separate, this time.

Tuesday, day 9.

Now I thought the starter was ready, so  made some bread with my sourdough tonight for the first time - having refreshed it 3 times.

To a dough made with 700g of flour, 60g of flaxseeds, etc, I added 150g of starter - then refreshed the rest and replaced it in the fridge.

I suppose if I'd have thought about it, yesterday I could have increased the size of the starter - say an extra 150g - then I could have added 300g of starter to the mix. Might do that next time if I remember.

My initial reaction is that the bread is very tasty - but whether the sourdough has made any difference it's difficult to say. I'd have to compare the two batches side by side, which is not easy since I've only got one roll left of the old batch - and I've had that out of the freezer and in the breadbin since last night.

Monday 28^th Feb, day 15 in the life!

I intended baking on Tuesday evening, so, 24 hours before this, I took the starter from the fridge and poured it into a jug. I doubled it up, so that it was now 600g (400g water and 200g white flour). I poured half of this back into the Kilner jar (after giving it a good wash) and replaced it in the fridge.

So now I had 300g of starter to make by bread with – comprising 200g water and 100g white flour, which I left in the fridge overnight.

In the event I didn’t bake on Tuesday night – so on Wednesday morning I took the starter, poured it into a mixing bowl and added 200g Doves organic wholemeal and 200g water. I mixed this and left it, covered with a dry tea towel, all day.

After about 8 hours on my worktop this was how it looked.

About 7 in the evening, in the scale pan I mixed another 400g wholemeal, 60g of ground flax seeds and a teaspoon of salt which I mixed and added to the bowl. I made a well in the middle of the flour and added 5g of fresh yeast and 125-135g of lukewarm water. I paddled the yeast and water around for about 20 or so seconds, then added 50g of EVOO.

I mixed this together, turned it onto the worktop and gave it about 20 seconds quick kneading (using a dough scraper – this was quite a sticky dough), placed the bowl over the dough and left it for about 10 minutes.

I repeated the quick kneading and resting periods about 3 times, by which time the dough had lost its stickyness and was a handleable dough.

I left it for a further 2 hours, shaped it into 12 rolls, which I placed on a baking sheet and covered with a roasting tray. After an hour or so, the bread had risen and it was baked for about 35 minutes (first 20 minutes covered, the rest uncovered).

This time, you could taste the difference

Whether it's worth all the extra fiddling about...well, I found it fun, and I had the whole day around the house. Given that, I'd do it again, but only if I had the time.


Friday 1st April 2011.
I've had 450g of ferment in the fridge for the past week, and this morning I took it out of the fridge first thing.


Around 5 in the evening it looked quite active I poured it all into a jug and washed up the Kilner jar. I then poured 150g back in the Kilner jar and added 200g of water and 100g of white flour, leaving it out on the worktop for the moment.


To the 300g of ferment I added 200g of Doves organic wholemeal and 200g of water.


Around an hour later I noticed a few large bubbles had appeared;
By 7.40 the starter was expanding and was up to 750ml on the side of the jug;
By 8.05 it was up to 825ml;
At 8.40 it had risen to 875ml