Tomsbread

2011-04-17T02:30:00.000-07:00

Walnut Gouda Bread

The 40% rye sourdough from the last bake was so flavorful that I was inspired to make more rye bread. It was also a good opportunity to use up some Gouda cheese. For this bake, I made up a rye starter using 500g of Organic Rye flour. I used up the 2kg of Pilsbury Maida which I picked up on my way home on Friday. After making the mistake of using too much water in my last bake, I reduced the hydration this time round to 68%.

The walnuts and cheese were folded in before the bulk fermentation. During the shaping of the loaves, I added in the remaining cheese. I decided on a batard shape as I wanted to cram it in a single bake.

The smell was heavenly and I am looking forward for a bite as soon as they cool down.

2011-04-12T07:56:00.001-07:00

40% Rye Hazelnut Fruit Load

A friend asked me for some sourdough starter recently but I was unable to give him then because I had thrown out my existing culture. I promised to give him some as soon as I have started a new culture.

To test this new culture, I decided to bake some rye fruit and nut bread. I had only some Pilsbury Maida and the remaining organic rye flour. The formula was based loosely on Hamelman's 40% rye sourdough formula.

The loaves turned out a little flat as I included a little more water than the formula called for. Their lack of beauty was compensated by the robust flavor.

I can't wait for the morning to slice it and see how the crumb turn out. Just thinking of the bread with Sarabeth's Blood Orange jam and butter has already got me drooling.

2011-03-26T23:36:00.001-07:00

Super Peel from Cut The Mustard

Walnut Fennel Raisin Bread with Wessex Mills Strong White Bread Flour

Cut The Mustard

I visited Cut The Mustard at 1 Greendale Ave in Bukit Timah recently. They carry a range of specialty and gourmet products at very reasonable prices. There was a range of flours from Wessex Mills as well as Organic Stoneground Spelt and Whole Wheat flour from Gilchester Organics. I picked up a bag of the Strong White Bread Flour to try. It was very reasonable at $6.50 for 1.5kg. Considering that the local Prima Bread flour is retailing at over $3.00 per kg, the price for this unbleached high quality flour from the UK is a steal.

There is also a surprise find at the store. They actually carry The Super Peel. The Super Peel is a magical tool and it works in a very dramatic way. See this video. This is probably the only store in Singapore carrying this product.

For this test bake, I used the entire bag together with 1kg of whole wheat flour, making it a total of 2.5kg. This was the largest quantity of flour I have ever attempted. As it was a totally new flour and I was clueless about how much water it would absorb, I hazard a guess of 80% hydration.

I prepared a preferment with 500g of the White Flour in the afternoon and the main dough was mixed at around 11.00pm. As it was already very late, I opted for the prolonged autolyse method. The following day after about 12 hours, the dough was taken out for a couple of folds. I decided to make my favorite walnut fennel raisin bread. The 2.5kg of flour yielded 6 loaves.

After the loaves had cooled down, I sliced a couple of them and was very pleased with the results of the bake.

2010-12-16T02:05:00.000-08:00

Poilane. See the heavy snow.

Poilane cushions, not miche :=)
Poilane backroom with bread chandelier
Poilane slices with Proscuitto de Parma and Meslun assembled in hotel room
Gosselin
Baguette Ancienne
Breads at Borough market
Breads at Borough market

Visit to Poilane and Gosselin in Paris

Ever since I started baking Artisanal bread, I have always wondered what the real stuff tastes like. Although I have had slices of Poilane which has been shipped here, the bread was already past its prime.

I finally got a chance to visit Poilane recently. Despite the heavy snow on that day, I managed to visit Gosselin also. Unfortunately there just wasn't enough time to visit Kayser , Boubsa and Ganachaud.

The people at Poilane were obliging in answering my questions. I requested for a visit to their wood fired oven in the basement but the lady said that they entertained visits only in the Summer.

Trudging in the heavy snow with slush all round with an armful of stuff was worse than an army route march. With one hand holding an umbrella, the other hand holding a map to navigate the streets of Paris and bags and bags of wife's shopping dangling from the arm, it was an ordeal that only a bread fanatic could endure. I had to call it quits after 2 bakeries as it was getting dark.

At Gosselin, I was surprised that the Baguette Ancienne cost less than local baguettes at 1.15 Euro. Baguette Ancienne, which Peter Reinhart described so much in his book selling for less than our local baguette in Paris??? and we are talking about the baguette which won the Parisian baguette of the year.

Over in the Borough Market in London, there were stalls selling the most beautiful breads and the only reason why we don't hear of such bakers is that they don't write books nor do they have on online presence.

It was certainly an eye opening experience and it made me realise that there are many superb bakers and bakeries out there other that those we know from the books. The bakeries in Switzerland were superb and the breads there were exceptionally good. The only regret I had was being unable to carry all those bread home.

2010-10-23T04:22:00.000-07:00

Indian wheat flour

I have been baking more whole-wheat breads lately and the inclusion of Indian Maida flour warranted a new post. Maida is the Indian equivalent of all purpose flour. Since the Indian grocery store near my work place carried Pillsbury Maida, I picked up a couple of bags for this flour test.

When I poured it into the flour bowl, I was surprised by the creamy color compared to the Prima bread flour. I would not have noticed the color had it not been placed side by side to the Prima bread flour. In comparison, the Prima flour was so white that it looked absolutely bleached.

For this bake, which is my favorite fruit and nut bread, I made up a formula of 50% Pillsbury Maida and 50% Swarna Chakki Atta. Swarna Chakki Atta is very fine stone ground Indian Atta. You can see their advert on Youtube. The hydration was 80% with 2% Himalayan Pink Salt. So other than the yeast, it was an entirely Indian affair. Even the Walnuts and Giant Raisins were bought from Mustafa although they were imported from California.

The first time I used Swarna Chakki Atta, I was extremely surprised by the flavor. I would say it was the most flavorful bread I had ever made. However, subsequent bakes were not so remarkable. I cannot say that the quality had deteriorated because the law of diminishing marginal utility may have kicked in.

The dough was mixed in, the night before and given a prolonged autolyse overnight. This morning, it was given a stretch and fold with the toasted walnuts and raisins scattered in. After an hour proof, it was baked at 225C for 10min, followed by another 1omin at 200C. I turned the oven down to 190 for the next 10. After the bake, the oven door was left ajar for another 10 min.

The breads were very flavorful when they were taken out from the oven. I brought a loaf to a an Indian food vendor selling Tandoori chicken. He has a Tandoori Oven in his stall where he makes a variety of Naan breads. I had come upon his stall in Bedok Food center by chance and tried out his Garlic Naan breads which I found to be very well made. We chatted about bread(what else?) and I told him about my experiments with Atta flour. Since I had promised to bring him a loaf to try, I had to make good my word. He was surprised when I showed up at his stall with a loaf of bread and some home roasted Organic coffee from Gayo, Indonesia.

2010-07-31T01:09:00.000-07:00

Favorite Fruit and Nut Bread

For the past few weeks, I have been making my favorite fruit and nut bread based on a Middle-Eastern stone ground Atta. After trying out a kilo of the flour, I was so impressed by its quality and freshness that I went back to the store and got myself 3 more kilos of it. Somehow, it seem better than the Indian Atta that I had been using.

I made up a formula using the entire kilo of flour. The rest of the flour used for the bread was German type 550 flour to make up a total flour weight of 60 Oz. The water absorbing qualities couldn't have been more different that the Type 550 flour. I ended up using a 85% hydration. For the past few bakes, the nuts that I used were Walnuts and Almonds. For the fruit, I used Golden raisins.

For this bake, I had to resort to Cashews, Almonds and Cranberries as I did not realize that the Raisins and Walnuts were already used up. The resultant crumb was not too dense as the Atta was only 58%. This made the bread very pleasant to eat. The bread was made over 6 hours with only a couple of hours fermentation. Despite the short time, the bread was very flavorful.

2010-06-03T05:22:00.001-07:00

Wonderful book

I was rummaging through a pile of music books, looking for my volume of Antonio Carlos Jobim's Bossanova guitar scores when I came upon this little book, a gift from Dan Lepard. It must have been stuck there by my son who has a voracious appetite for books.

I have always loved books of this nature. They offer nuggets of wisdom which are so appropriate for the situations we get ourselves into. The first time I came upon this kind of book was when I was an undergrad in the University. Someone from the Catholic Students Society lent me a book, The Song Of The Bird by Fr Anthony de Mello. It was a collection of stories which were either original or compiled from masters from the past. That book opened up my mind at a time when I was having a lot of doubt. Ironically, I learned recently that the books by Fr De Mello were actually frowned upon by the current Pope.

I went on to discover the writings of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Lao Tze and the Zen and Sufi masters. What struck me was that they were all so similar. It made me realize that the wisdom passed down through the ages transcended organized religion. As Sri Sri Ravi Shankar once said that Religion is like a banana, the flesh is all the good values that we all treasure, the traditions and rituals that come with the religion is just the skin. Nobody fights over the teachings of love, compassion etc but everybody is fighting over the skin.

2010-05-22T19:44:00.001-07:00

The turbo broiler did not work as well as I had hoped.
Bag of Grade 1 Sulawesi Toraja green coffee

Roasted beans waiting to be packed.

Coffee Roasting

It was inevitable. The ideal companion to a good loaf of bread is a cup of good coffee. I have been able to source for good Columbian and Brazillian coffee from an old man in a HDB market. However, my last purchase from him disappointed me. I have to thank him instead because it led me to roasting my own beans. This was a project that has been on my mind all this while but then, green coffee beans are not exactly easy to find unless you are willing to buy hundreds of kilos of the stuff.

However, I managed to get samples of my favorite Mandheling and Toraja coffee recently. My first attempt was in my bread oven. Although the coffee that came out was good, I did not want to see another blizzard of coffee chaff whipping up in the oven chamber ever again. I had thought that a turbo broiler would have been an ideal substitute but to my horror, the highest temperature that it could go up to was 230C, not the 250C on the dial. Now that I am saddled with another red elephant, I decided to bake a bread with it. It turned out pretty good. I am convinced that it is possible to bake good bread with fairly basic equipment. You just need to know how dough behaves.

Since the turbo broiler was out, I had to resort to another basic equipment for roasting my coffee. It turned out better than I had expected. I under-roasted my first batch of Toraja but the subsequent batches made great coffee without the excess acidity of under roasted beans. This morning, I made 2 extra batches for my friends who are fellow coffee lovers.

2010-05-01T20:49:00.000-07:00

Flour Test - Turkish Tezcan Un

I was given a kg of Turkish flour at the FHA 2010. My intention was to use it to make baguettes since it was a general purpose flour with 11% protein. However, due to my busy schedule, it did not happen. Instead, I used it to make some sourdough loaves.

The entire kg of flour was in the main dough. The sourdough starter of about 100% hydration was 400g. I used a hydration of 66%, surmising that it was typical of European flour. In the American system of calculation, this would have given it an overall hydration of about 71%.

I was quite happy with the result. The texture and flavor was comparable to the type 55 flour that I was using. Having had the opportunity to use American and European flour, I now have a better understanding of how these flours behave. It is hard to say which is better as both can produce bread with the deep aroma that I like. It all boils down to the process.

2010-04-23T00:49:00.000-07:00

My prized catch of green Indonesian coffee from 4 different regions
Joseph Grenier's loaves baking in the Wachtel oven
Joseph Grenier in action
French baker from a Vietnamese flour mill
Baguette shaping in progress
Rolling the baguette
The baker from Ireks shaping baguettes
Pre-shaped Baguette dough resting in a tray
Miche from the same baker

FHA 2010-Part 2

I was fortunate to be able to attend FHA for the entire 4 day event. Here is the second installment, focusing on my 2 loves, bread and coffee. I had a first hand look at how a baguette was shaped by the baker from Ireks. Unfortunately, the bakers were often very busy and it was not possible to talk to them at length. However, a picture speaks a thousand words and just seeing them in action spoke volumes. I was happy that they were willing to share about the composition of the flours used in the breads that they were baking. It seems that they almost never use pure white flour.

Coming to my second love, coffee. I got myself a stash of green Indonesian coffee. 4 types were available at the booth that I visited. They were all organic grade 1 coffee from Lintong, Gayo, Timor and Toraja. I am looking forward to roasting them since nothing beats freshly roasted coffee. My experimental batch of Brazillian Santos coffee given to me by a kindly gentleman. He is a coffee expert whose whole life revolved around coffee and has been in the business for decades after learning from a Dutch Master Roaster. I gave a batch to my good friend and colleague and his comment was that he liked the beans because there was no harsh burnt note in them.

I fell in love with Indonesian coffee after trying out Mandheling and Toraja coffee. All these beans have interesting stories to tell but it is the full bodied richness of the coffee made from these beans that gets one hooked. So when I chanced upon a booth offering green Indonesian, I was delighted and they were equally happy that I had brought my trolley on the last day to scoop off my babies. This was because they came to the trade show without a trolley and the boss had to lug the 60kg of beans and spices as the rest of the staff were petite ladies.

2010-04-21T05:29:00.000-07:00

King Crab
Live Abalone
Red Scorpion Fish
Gigantic Moon Fish and lobsters
Tuna
Salmon, Cod and other treasures from the sea
Kopi Luwak, the most expensive coffee in the world retailing at $62 for 100g
Truffles
Fine seafood selection

Jamon Iberico
Surprise, surprise. Real good bread from Delifrance.
Dean Brettschneider
Selection of breads made by Dean
More breads from Dean
The friendly people from Tuksei Tezcan Flour, Fatih and associate.
The flour given to me to be tested soon.
Maasi Orimo San from Japan Salt Corporation

FHA 2010-part 1

Food Hotel Asia 2010 was finally here. Although I was expecting tickets, they arrived at the very last minute. This kept me on tenterhooks as I had promised to pass some to my group of dear baking friends. I was glad that I was able to fulfill my promise. The appreciation from this group of friends was reward enough.

I had a chance to see many bakers in action. I discussed the merits of different fermentation strategies with a German baker, Joseph Grenier and he told me that a recent trend was to have a prolonged final proof. He showed me the final proofing trays complete with lining and cover that facilitate stacking. From his explanation, there was no doubt that there was an advantage where logistics was concerned and the bake at the point of sale would guarantee that the customer gets the freshest bread.

A beautiful array of bread caught my attention and when I went to find who the skillful baker was, it turned out to be none other that Dean Brettschneider, the author of The Global Baker. Other celebrity chefs I met was the talented and funny Ryan Hong of Bespoke Dining. I was pleasantly surprised by the breads at Delifrance. The breads there were vastly different from those found in the retail outlets. It's a real pity that the breads at FHA are not available at the Delifrance outlets.

FHA was a great chance for me to talk to some Turkish millers. One miller I spoke to was Yuksei Tezcan Flour Co. The friendly Sales and Marketing Executive, Fatih Karabay gave me a kilo of flour to test when I told him about my bread baking passion. There had been some discussion on Turkish bread flour in the forums and I was very happy to get hold of some to do some testing on.

I am always on the lookout for top quality ingredients for my bread and since salt is such an important component of bread, I was happy to chance upon the Japan Salt Corporation. I had a fun time talking to Masaaki Orimo San, the General Manager of Saitama Branch. I had initially thought that it was all Japanese salt. I realised that the company carried special salt from all over the world, ranging from my regular Himalayan pink salt to Truffle flavored Guerande salt. I also recognized a bottle of Utah salt given to me by a friend.

2010-04-16T08:09:00.000-07:00

Type 550 flour

I had a chance to try out European type 55 flour. The German classification is 550 which is an indication of the ash content of the flour. I had tried it out on baguettes and the result was acceptable as it was the first time I had used an European flour.

So far, I have been using mostly flour from the US. Typically, American flours absorb a lot more water and I had to modify my recipes significantly. This is one aspect of baking that is difficult to convey as the only way to know a dough is by getting your hands into it. I get emails from fellow home-bakers asking me about recipes and other aspects of baking. I try to answer as best as I can although deep in my heart, I know that these answers are far from adequate.

I know this by experience after reading and trying out the recipes by the well known masters. No matter how well written the instructions are, the chances of the bread turning out exactly as the author intended is slim. The reason is simple. The ingredients and environment are different. However, over time as one becomes more experienced, one will know what adjustments to make to increase chances of success.

Coming back to the flour, other than absorbing less water, I noticed that it was ground much finer than the Prima flour that I was using. For this bake, I wanted to see how it will fare with the addition of 40% WW. The pre-ferments for this bake was the entire WW portion plus 10% of my refreshed sourdough culture. The dough felt slack even though the hydration was a mere 70%. As usual, my bakes typically end late into the night and the lighting in my kitchen is less than ideal for good photographs. The consolation for this is the anticipation of sinking my teeth into a slice with a good cup of Sumatran Mandheling coffee the next morning.

2010-04-03T22:11:00.000-07:00

Hot Cross Buns

The many Easter breads posts in the forums inspired me to make some for Easter Sunday. Knowing my family's indifference to sweet bread, especially those laden with raisins, I was a little half-hearted when I made these. However, I plodded on because when you can't please everyone, you've got to please yourself.

I chose Dan Lepard's version of Stout flavored Hot Cross Buns posted in the Guardian.

Since I did not have Stout at home, I made do with some Sulawesi Toroja coffee that I had made earlier. Using coffee was also another clever tip I picked up from Dan's Black Pepper Rye bread.

On Easter morning, I woke up and made some more Toroja coffee and warmed up 4 buns for the family. The verdict from my daughter was positive but my son gave a cryptic remark saying that it was not as good as I thought it would be. I wonder what he meant by that as I have not said a single word about the outcome of the buns.

2010-04-03T21:44:00.000-07:00

Strange Fruit

I was given a fruit to taste and identify. The golden fruit looked so pretty and delicious. I could imagine how it must have looked with a whole tree laden with the fruit.

When I cut it open, the flesh was reminiscent of soursop but the taste was new to me. It had a bright flavor which is very refreshing. The fruit had a large hard black seed and that was the clue. It reminded me of a Chiku(Sapote family) and since that fruit was originally from Central America, this fruit should be a relative.

Thanks to Google, I found that it was called a Canistel.

http://www.google.com/search?q=canistel&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

ERRATUM
Following a lunch with my friend who gave me the fruit, I was promted to do a little more research on the fruit and I realized that it was not really a Canistel(Pouteria Campechiana) but something close. From the following website, it seem to be a Caimito or Abiu(Pouteria Caimito).

The difference was the color of the flesh. The Canistel had yellow flesh while the Abiu had white flesh. However, both are from the Sapote family and known to us in SEA as Buah Chiku. The Buah Chiku originate from South America so no surprises with the similarity there.

Abiu, Caimito
http://toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/garden_catalog/cat.cgi?uid=Pouteria_caimito

Canistel
http://toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/garden_catalog/cat.cgi?uid=Pouteria_campechiana

Flour test Bacheldre whole-wheat flour

2010-02-06T23:10:00.000-08:00

I have been out of action for a couple of months. After living with the defects in my house for decades, my wife and I decided that we have had enough with the defects in the house. The worst was having to live with leaks from the bathroom into the living room. Since we were going to endure the mess, we decided to bite the bullet and optimise the living areas once and for all.

What was supposed to be a month off baking ended up taking longer as I succumbed to the bad living conditions during the month long renovations. It took me a long time to recover. Fortunately, I had the care and concern of a few doctor friends who gave me advice and although they were not specialists in that field, provided me with supplements to help me along. I was also lucky to be treated by Prof Christopher Goh whose experience and cheerful demeanor always made me feel assured that I was going to be alright.

I have not been baking since Nov 21 and the arrival of a baking accessory which I had ordered from Unox spurred me into action. I had been waiting patiently for this magical Fakiro for 6 months and when it finally arrived, I lost no time in trying it out. True to its name, it worked beyond my expectations.

It was supposed to be the perfect bake but I was as little rusty. Although I was able to save the situation, I was not able to execute a critical step in the baking process. So it ended up looking ordinary. For this bake, I was able to try out Bacheldre Mills wholewheat flour given to me by a friend.

2009-11-21T17:55:00.000-08:00

Foccacia

Another attempt at Dan's Foccacia. Since type 00 flour is not easily available, I was interested in finding a flour available locally that will do the job. It seems that just about any lower protein flour will make pretty good versions of the bread.

I was making this bread again as it was well received. My mother loved it and because it was so soft, my father had no trouble eating it. I was able to get a very good flavorful, open crumb.

2009-11-15T05:38:00.000-08:00

Storing flour in the tropics.

I was told by a friend about the dangers of storing flours at room temperature in tropical Singapore. I remembered reading about this a couple of weeks ago. In the article, 1g of plain flour left out in the open can have as many as 1750 dust mites crawling in it. The problem is that even when dead, the mites can cause serious problems among asthmatics. This is because the bodies of these mites can still trigger asthma attacks even when the food is cooked at high temperatures.

For me, the preferred storage area for my flour is the freezer. The freezer is great, especially for wholemeal flours. At room temperature, the oils in the germ can turn rancid rapidly. However, this is greatly inhibited at freezer temperatures. I use up flour quite rapidly also as I bake very regularly and in larger quantities than most homebakers.

The following is a link to that article that appeared in the Straits Times.

http://www.asiaone.com/Health/News/Story/A1Story20091016-174054.html

2009-11-15T01:08:00.000-08:00

Foccacia with Type 00 flour

After many rounds of the foccacia, I finally got to do the foccacia using the type of flour used in Dan Lepard's demo. The friend who gave it to me told me that it was the last bag at Culina. This was the reason why I couldn't just squander it. It had to take 3 practice bakes before I would contemplate using it. The dough smelled fragrant during the mix and now, I am wondering if it really was the flour that gave the bread that wonderful aroma.

I am really glad to have learnt first hand from Dan how this bread is made. It is a bread that will be welcomed in any party. Given the Singaporean preference for soft bread, it will surely be preferred to the other types of bread that I make.

2009-11-14T06:44:00.000-08:00

Dan Lepard Black Pepper Rye

I have been thinking of doing this bread ever since a friend in a bread forum posted his attempt. The recipe is from Dan Lepard's column in The Guardian. This bread is unusual in many aspects. Using coffee as the liquid is unusual in itself. Using it to boil part of the rye with the spices is another touch of brilliance.

I used fennel as that was the only spice I had on hand. The resulting bread had a very interesting flavor. I believe it will go well with the toppings suggested in the column.

Update: We had it for breakfast this morning and everyone in the family gave it the thumbs up.

2009-11-08T06:04:00.005-08:00

Foccacia again.

Today's attempt is my third attempt at Dan's foccacia. I have been thinking about how I can improve on the previous 2 bakes. I was sure that it will work well this time. This time round, I followed the recipe to the letter. True enough, the bread turned out very well and I was able to bring it to another friend who was with me for coffee the other evening. I did not give him the sourdough version as it was really terrible. I mentioned that I will bring him a loaf the next time I baked so since I baked today, I had to make good my word.

The result was very encouraging indeed as the flavor was quite good. It was light and fluffy with very good crust texture. It even passed the severe home critics at home. I am sure the flavor will be more enhanced with a little more retardation.

2009-11-08T02:23:00.000-08:00

Sourdough foccacia

I was one of the participants at Dan Lepard's demo and I was glad to have had the opportunity to learn from him. He demonstrated a foccacia served at Locatelli in London. It included malt and a levain. The flavor took me by surprise after I took bite of it.

I would never have imagined a bread made within that short period of time can have such a deep penetrating aroma. Needless to say, I left the demonstration very inspired. I was sure that the flavor did not come from the levain brought by me. It was a source of embarrassment for me as it was not its usual self. I thought that if the bread had turned out bad, I would have done Dan a great disservice. Surprisingly, the bread made by Dan had such a superb aroma that everybody who sampled it expressed their approval with uums, and other expressions of delight.

For the demonstration, Dan used a Type 00 flour, malt and my levain. However, for this bake, I omitted the yeast just to see the difference the yeast made. It was made using my usual sourdough process.

The outcome: The bread was flavorful but the texture was pathetic. Unfortunately, I promised a friend that I would bring him a loaf of bread for our meeting. After seeing the way the bread turned out, I hesitated in bringing it. However, as I have already given my word, I had to bring it for him.

2009-11-04T02:32:00.001-08:00

Dan Lepard Foccacia

This bake was a just dry run of the real thing for reasons best known to myself. It included malt which I had made myself. Unfortunately, that batch of malt was not optimum so for my next attempt at this bread, I have resolved to make a better batch of the malt. This time round, I am going to watch the process more carefully and not let my schedule wreck it.

It also included a levain which was not at its optimum. I am still trying to figure what happened exactly and I experienced Murphy's law at it's worst. I thought I was going to embarrass an important guest and in turn embarrass myself even more but thank God, I was spared that. On the contrary, everything turned out very well.

Since this bake was done without the correct ingredients, I did not expect it to taste like the real deal but it was acceptable. Talking about the real deal, the flavor was beyond my expectation. After eating it, I wondered if it was really possible for me to recreate it without using the same kind of ingredients.

After the bake, I realised that I had forgotten to scatter some salt on top before the bake. Well, at least I did not forget the Rosemary.

2009-11-04T02:18:00.000-08:00

Poilane Miche

Anybody who loves bread will dream of visiting Poilane in Paris. Their bread is exported to many parts of the world and even to Singapore. I had the chance to eat the last slice available at a cafe once but I was rather disappointed because it tasted like cardboard. The entire miche retailed for $50 at that time, possibly making it the most expensive loaf of bread in Singapore.

Recently I received a call from from my friend asking me pick up a couple of slices of the miche. It was not at its freshest but at least it was better than my first experience with it. Having eaten it, I was inspired to make one in the near future. The recent gift of Bacheldre Mill flour should come in handy.

2009-10-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

Quantity vs quality

I wanted to use up my surplus of wholewheat flour so it was yet another batch of 40% wholewheat again. Being an environmentally conscious person, I have always felt guilty about using all that energy to bake the breads in my large oven. So it was always down to squeezing maximum capacity with minimal preheating of the stone. As a result, my breads have never been baked to its optimum.

I was usually the person consuming the bulk of the bread so the aesthetics of the bread was secondary to me. However, ever since I baked the breads in my friend's place, I have been doing a rethink. There is absolutely no doubt about the joy one gets when a beautiful loaf comes out of the oven. So life is short, why not do the best that is possible.

2009-10-27T06:58:00.001-07:00

Baking session at friend's place

For the past week, I had been rehearsing for a bake at a friend's house. It was a first time for me to bake bread in an oven other than my own. Needless to say, I was a little apprehensive because I will be working with unfamiliar equipment.

I brought along 5 loaves for the dinner as backup just in case the bake did not work out. The bread that I chose to demo was a 40% wholewheat bread. After the first loaf came out of the oven, I was able to breathe a little easier. It was a very enjoyable afternoon spent among friends. We were treated to a splendid spread prepared by the host.

For the bake, I prepared enough dough to let my friends do some hands on practice. The breads from their efforts were outstanding. While the loaves were proofing, I showed them the method for mixing. This dough was brought home by one of my friends.

The following day, I got an email from my friend showing the results of her bake in her own oven. I have to say it was outstanding for a first time effort. The pictures speak for themselves.

2009-10-02T21:22:00.001-07:00

Rehearsal time

I have been invited to a baking session at a friend's house. This will be the first time that I am baking in another kitchen so needless to say, I am hoping that the bake will turn out well. My friend has a preference for whole-wheat bread. It was time to do a little practice before the show. For the next couple of weeks, I will probably be doing a lot of whole-wheat breads to refresh my memory.

I decided to do another fruit and nut bread again since the last bake was so delicious. However, this time round, I used a 50% Atta as the base. The fruit and nut portion consisted of Walnuts, Pumpkin seeds and 2 types of raisins. The 1.5% spice mix was the same used in the last bake. Hydration was at 72% with 3% olive oil.

2009-09-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

Article by Tan Hsueh Yun. Straits Times Urban supplement. Click on the article to read.

Durum Double Raisin Bread with Pumpkin seeds

I was in the Aljunied area and decided to check out the an organic products outlet. They carry a wide range of organic products, including flours such as rye and spelt. I love their products, which I feel is good value for money. I have been using their Himalayan Pink rock salt since I started baking. I gave a bottle to a food writer friend once who subsequently featured it in the Straits Times Urban supplement. Another product that I love is their organic Demerara sugar. Since I love good coffee, I couldn't possibly just use any sugar. So whenever I was at the supermarket at Fairprice Finest, I will load up with a dozen of the salt and sugar. This never fails to earn some stares from the people in the queue.

While I was at the outlet, I chatted with the salesperson there. She let me sample the three types of organic raisins sold there. They were huge and tasted fantastic. Most of the raisins out there are soaked in oil which imparts a taste but the oil in these raisins was minimal and the natural taste of the raisins was more pronounced. Needless to say, I left the shop with 3 bags of goodies for my bread making. I have to add here that I am not paid to endorse their products nor am I related to anyone in the company.

I got some Durum flour from Phoon Huat store at Sims Place on my way back. This was different from the gritty semolina sold by Prima. Durum flour is used in Sicilian bread but Amy Scherber has a Semolina Fennel Raisin bread which I used to make. It is one of my favorite. Since I had all these ingredients on hand, I wanted to make a special Double Raisin Durum Fennel bread. I was looking high and low for my pack of Fennel but alas, it had been thrown out by my wife because it was past its expiry date. Fortunately, I had a pack of German bread spice given to me by a friend. The spice mix consisted of Fennel, Cumin and Coriander.

For the bake, the Durum flour was one-third of the flour used. The hydration was 70% and included 5% olive oil. I used both Black and Green Raisins with the pumpkin seeds. The bread was delicious. My only regret was that I did not add in enough raisins. However, the main reason why I did not overload on the raisin was because I was afraid that the kids would not touch the bread. My wife also dislikes the burnt raisin sticking to the crust. Fortunately for this bake, my daughter actually complimented me for the bread. What more can I ask for?

2009-09-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

Flour Test - German Ciabatta premix

I am very happy to have received a gift of flours from some friends recently. The 4 bags included a Ciabatta premix, Volkonbrot mix, Spelt and Rye flour. I started with the Ciabatta premix because it was a bread that I was familiar with. Moreover, I did not have the time to translate the German instructions for the rest of the flours.

Thanks to the internet, language is no longer a barrier. I was able to figure out the contents of the package with minimal effort. The premix contained sugar which is one ingredient I seldom use. As a result, the bread turn out a little darker than usual. I tweaked the hydration up to 70% as the specified 65% was dryer than the Ciabatta dough that I was used to handling. Even so, I felt that the bread might have been better if I had adjusted it up to 75%. I did not follow the instructions on the package as I preferred my own method. Besides, it was a working day and I only had 30 minutes to make the dough.

The verdict? The flavor was good considering the fact that it was just a 12 hour bread made without preferment. The bread was a little more salty that what I was used to making so it would be better to go with unsalted butter. The crust was a little different from bread made with my regular flour. It was crunchy and was easier to bite off, exactly the quality of crust that I had been looking for. I wonder how I can tweak my regular flour to get this kind of crust.

2009-08-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

Baguettes with poolish and levain

I was in major baking overdrive this weekend, baking a total of 10 ciabattas and 6 baguettes over a 2 day period. For the 6 baguettes, I was in a situation where I had a ripe poolish and a starter which was in its first build stage. Since I didn't want all that flour to go to waste, I decided to incorporate both the poolish and levain to make some baguette. The main dough was mixed at midnight and I made the baguettes after I returned from my yoga session.

When it came out of the oven, my wife remarked that it had a very beautiful color. It was a good chance for me to thank my neighbor for his gift of the original Tarragon sprig which has since multiplied. Another loaf went to my French neighbor. I hope the bread was good enough him. After all, he must grown up eating really good authentic French bread in France.

2009-08-01T20:53:00.000-07:00

Walnut Raisin Bread

It's been some time since I made some fruit and nut bread. I thought I'd do some bread but with a twist. The bread was a gift to a friend who invited me to lunch and since I was going to give him one of my infamous hard stony bread, I thought I had better balance it with something softer and sweeter. I hope he and his children will enjoy it. At the same time, I want to bake something softer for my father who has a problem eating the hard bread that I bake.

I settled for walnut raisin based on Hamelman's Pullman bread but tweaked the hydration for the additional walnuts and raisin.

2009-07-29T08:01:00.000-07:00

DIY Piezoelectric musical instrument pickups

I have been fooling around with my new electric guitar recently and it was really fun. I have been playing the guitar since I was in Secondary 2 and that's probably too many decades than I would like to admit. All this while, I have been playing classical guitar but now electric guitars are very affordable as they are made in China. The guitar I own is made by a company linked to Gibson and the quality for the price cannot be matched. Since I am a novice, I settled for a small guitar amp with built in effects and I am hooked, spending my evenings trying to master the solo from Hotel California.

Well, long before I was hooked on bread, I was already hooked on the guitar. Since I could not find a teacher at that time, I had to learn it by myself through books. Thankfully, for the electric guitar, there is now Youtube.

Since the guitar amp is there and my daughter has been pestering me to get her an electric violin, I decided to improvise one for her. I have been doing some research on the internet about Piezoelectric transducers. These are usually found in cheap $2 buzzers found readily at Sim Lim Tower. The surprising thing is that these buzzers can be used as pickups because the piezoelectric element will produce a signal when subjected to vibrations. So all it takes is a soldering iron and you got yourself a high quality pickup for your acoustic instrument.

Since it was so easy to make, I made one for my classical guitar and one for my daughter's violin. It worked better than I expected with good gain and negligible noise. I covered the piezo element with sticky foam pads meant as scratch protection pads for chairs.

When I showed my daughter the modification which I did to her violin, she was not very pleased and I realized that she might have some problems explaining all those black pieces of foam. I improved the placement and concealed it under the tailpiece. Now the only thing showing is a little pig tail. I told my daughter that if she happens to be on a stage where there are amplifiers around, she'd be able to plug in her violin and play directly.

Thriving again

2009-07-11T06:09:00.000-07:00

Pots of dill waiting to be given away
My mini-terrarium method of growing from cuttings.
Beautiful curry leaf berries.
Bushy Terragon grown from a sprig given by a neighbor.
Sage thriving from a sprig given to me by a dear friend.
Thyme and basil just released from its plastic protective dome.

Thriving again

My herb patch was hit by a swarm of red spider mites which were extremely difficult to eradicate. Fortunately they did not attack my precious European herbs but attacked the butterfly pea till they all perished. Even the passion fruit vines were not spared. I tried everything from soap water vegetable oil emulsions, neem oil and even sourdough starters to glue them. The only thing I did not use was chemical based pesticides as I did not want to poison myself ingesting pesticides. I had to re-grow all the butterfly pea again. This time round, I spread the seeds from two different plants to ensure cross-fertilization. The plants are thriving again with many seed pods hanging on the vines.

Just as suddenly as they had appeared, they were greatly reduced in recent weeks and the plants seem to be thriving again. I wish I knew the reason and can only guess that it was because of the cooler weather. It is yet again another example of the maxim that difficulties do not last forever. I am reminded again of Adi Shankara's Vivekachudami (Crest Jewel of Wisdom).

My herb patch has grown because I found an effective way of growing herbs from cuttings given to me by friends or bought from the supermarket. The cuttings are dipped in rooting hormone and planted in a sealed plastic container with a little water. The moisture is sealed in and the cutting does not dry out while the leaves are still able to make food. Over a week or two, the roots will sprout and the cutting can then be transplanted onto the soil. After transplanting, the plant is capped with the plastic container for another couple of weeks. It protects the vulnerable young plant from the rain, wind and insects.

Rosemary Lemon Sourdough Bread

2009-07-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

Rosemary Lemon Sourdough Bread

I have not been making bread for the past week and supplies in the freeezer was down to the last quarter portion of a whole-wheat boule which I had made a week earlier. My son has been bringing sandwiches to school for lunch recently. He came back one day saying that his classmate sampled the bread and wanted to buy some. I am happy to see the bread consumed quickly these days.

For the last 2 weeks, I have been feeding my rye starter diligently and since my Rosemary was looking very bushy, I decided to harvest it to make some Rosemary Lemon bread. I had wanted to try out with Thyme and Terragon but decided to stay with the Rosemary.

The bread was made in the time intervals when I was in the house. It was a busy day for me as I had to help my son with the logistics of organizing a BBQ for his uniformed group and coupled with sending my wife and daughter to their classes, I thought the bread was not going to make it. The bread was slightly under-proofed as I had to rush out to pick up my daughter. However, it turned out better than I had hoped. The bread had a pleasant Rosemary aroma with a hint of lemon.

I used 4 stalks and the zest of 1 lemon with 50oz of flour. The hydration was slightly over 70%. The slash pattern was that of a cluster of Rosemary leaves.

2009-06-27T23:45:00.001-07:00

Levain Bread with new rye starter

After a week of feeding, the culture was ready to do some work. I was planning to bake the bread at 9.00 pm last night but after mixing the dough, I realised that I was going to finish late into the night. I had already done a previous baguette bake earlier in the afternoon and after a whole day of playing with my new electric guitar, I was feeling a little tired.

It was a good chance to see if the culture can withstand a night in the fridge. When I woke up in the morning, I was hoping to see the dough reach the top of the container. I was disappointed to see the dough barely a third of the container. I had no choice but to let it continue on the kitchen counter.

After about 2 hours, it was ready to shape. I tested it out on 2 different shapes. They looked beautiful when they came out of the oven. As it came out around noon, I was able to photograph them outdoor in natural light. The results were much better than the usual photographs I take in the kitchen at midnight.

2009-06-21T01:15:00.000-07:00

Rye berries looking like grains of rice

The active bubbly starter with chunky bits of the rye chops

Rye Starter

I chanced upon some organic rye berries recently. It was something new and this was a chance for me to play with building a new sourdough culture. The rye berries were ground up and some water was added into the container. It was able to double without any additional flour. Since it was active and well, I fed it with a teaspoon of flour and it doubled in 3 hours. The starter had a very pleasant aroma and it looks promising for making some sourdough loaves out of it. I have never started a culture with rye berries so it would be interesting to see how this new culture works out.

I had cultured a starter out of organic wheat berries before and it was so easy to make that I did not even bother maintaining the culture. Instead, I maintained my Carl's sourdough culture faithfully. This was more for sentimental reasons than for the fact that it was reputed to be 150 years old. It was sent over the mail to me by Charles Perry from Carl's friends and I received invaluable advice from him.

2009-06-10T07:13:00.001-07:00

Stone vs Sheet Pan

I have always felt guilty using a baking stone and try to reduce the time for the pre-heat. Simple physics tells us that this is probably worse that baking on a sheet pan as energy is sucked up by the stone. Despite my using a baking stone and copius steaming, the results I get for those on the stone were no different from those on the sheet pan.

For this bake, I preheated the stone for a longer period and the results speak for themselves. Those baked on the stone had a more pronounce grigne. It showed that my previous preheat was insufficient. The 3 shorter loaves were baked on a stone and showed great oven spring.

2009-04-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

If you can't beat them, join them!

My family wanted supermarket bread and they got what they wanted. I have not bought Sunshine or Gardenia breads for a long time but since they wanted sandwich bread (the kind that they were used to), I had no choice but to do some for them.

I got a Pullman loaf tin recently when my wife and I checked out Phoon Huat's outlet at Sims Lane recently on my day off. I chose the larger loaf tin which measured 13 x 4 x 4 and that required about 46 oz of dough. In a previous bake, I used 36 oz of dough because I followed Hamelman's Pullman recipe which was for a 13 x 3.5 x 3.5 tin.

For today's bake, I decided to do a whole-wheat version using up what's left of my Shipton WW flour in my freeezer. The WW was 40% so I increased the hydration to 70% from Hamelman's recipe for a white loaf.

The first 2 Pullman bakes that I did was well received by my family. Sad to say, they prefer soft bread to the hard ones I usually bake. Most of the time, I am the one eating up my own bakes. I have to admit that there is a sense of satisfaction in seeing my daughter eat up a complete slice for breakfast. Usually, with those crusty French bread, the crust is left behind, probably as a message to me.

Perhaps it is time for me to be more accommodating to the needs of my beloved daughter and my aging father. He will smile when I asked if he has eaten the bread that I had brought for him. His usual reply was that his teeth are falling out after eating my bread.

2009-04-25T19:11:00.000-07:00

Pictures of my Butterfly Pea
Mint
Oregano
Terragon
Rosemary

More herbs (Previous post on my herbs here)

I was on my way back from work and passed a house with a roadside herb garden. The owner of the house was weeding the patch and we had a little chat about gardening and the herbs that he was growing. He invited me into his compound where there were more interesting plants growing there. Before I left, he broke a sprig of terragon and gave it to me.

When I got home, I planted the spring in a little bit of soil and capped the plastic container with another transparent disposable container like a temporary terrarium. I figured that since the sprig had no roots, it was necessary to conserve moisture and what better way than to 'seal' the moisture in. The leaves can then continue to make the food that the plant needs while the roots take the time to sprout. It certainly beat soaking the cutting in water. The results was proof that I was correct in my hunch. That little cutting of terragon has since multiplied into a few healthy plants.

After this success, I applied the technique to cuttings of rosemary and oregano given by a friend. These worked equally well.

However, I am most happy about the Butterfly Pea(Bunga Telang) that I had planted from pods which I found by the roadside. To me, it is the most beautiful flower in the world. When I was a boy, I observed my grandmother extracting a glorious blue color from the flower. I was enchanted by the blue coloring and to this day, my favorite nonya kuehs are those with the blue coloring like Kueh Salat, Nonya Rice Dumpling and Pulut Inti.

My grandmother was a traditional Peranakan who dressed in sarong kebaya dress with kerosang. She made the most delicious dishes and snacks. The memories of those days are clearly etched into my mind. I recall her feeding me Tapeh, a sweet fermented rice wine and was already a coffee addict even as a child. She was definitely instrumental in making me love good food.

The Butterfly Pea(Clitoria Ternatea) was named by Rumphius. He seemed to have followed the example of Carl Linnaeus, the originator of the scientific classification system of plants and animals(taxonomy). Apparently Linnaeus had this penchant for naming things in this curious manner. Although some of the names are controversial, I am glad that the names have prevailed simply because they show that scholarship need not be dry and dusty. Rumphius was a botanist employed by the East India Company and the flower was probably found on the Indonesian island of Ternate. The rich flora and fauna is documented in The Malay Archipelago by Alfred Russell Wallace who came up with the Theory of Evolution independent of Charles Darwin.

The Butterfly Pea is a legume and such plants actually fertilize the soil that they are planted on because the bacteria in the roots of the plants fix nitrogen. I intend to verify this by planting the seeds right among the herbs to see if they thrive on the enriched soil.

2009-04-11T22:10:00.000-07:00

One more attempt on the hearth

I was not completely satisfied with my last bake. Although the crumb was what I had been trying to replicate, the overall look of the baguette was dissatisfactory. Since the baking stone is there, I just had to do it one more time. With some mental mise en place and a fewer loaves to juggle, the results were a little better. The 3 shorter loaves were baked on the stone as those were the only ones that fit.

Hamelman showed a series of baguettes which were baked with steam and the use of a baking stone as variables. My results concurred with the pictures shown in the book. Those baked on the hearth had that open crumb texture found in authentic French baguettes as can be seen in Eric Kayser's books.

There are still areas for improvement and one of the obvious one to correct is the shaping. I am shaping my baguettes on a smooth piece of marble. I found this to be a little too tacky when I roll the baguettes. From the videos of the pros, they seem to be using wooden work tops but I am not sure if I want to acquire yet another piece of baking equipment.

Many bakers say that the baguette is the simplest loaf but in reality, it is the most difficult bread to bake well. From the fermentation to the handling, it takes many iterations before one gets the feel for it.

2009-04-09T03:38:00.000-07:00

Mission accomplished?

Today was my final attempt at replicating the baguette from Le Grenier a Pain. I put in the baking stone for this last attempt and that made a great difference in the appearance. Unfortunately, it was also the attempt to bake in a larger quantity that did me in. For this bake, my preferment was 40 oz but the total flour weight was 60 oz. Usually, the total flour weight was 40 oz and that results in a very flavorful baguette. When the loaves came out of the oven, the aroma was more subdued. That's another point to note for my next bake. I had trouble juggling the 10 loaves, 3 of which were baked on the hearth. The other 7 were baked in trays. The handling problems resulted in some snaky loaves and disappointing poor scoring.

The only good thing about this bake was that the crumb was identical to the one I bought from the Grenier bakery. The loaves baked on the hearth also had the ends curling up.

2009-03-27T23:34:00.000-07:00

One more attempt

Ever since I embarked on a baguette quest, I have been telling myself to get a flip board. At first, I thought that my baguette peels could do the job but unfortunately, they have their limitations. A friend mentioned using the planks from wine cases but since that is difficult for me to get, I thought of using Balsa wood from Art Friend. However, since this is definitely not food grade, I settled for one made of Aluminum. I walked over to the metal workshop near my work place and asked the boss for a scrap piece. The kind gentleman charged me a mere $2 for a 70x10cm plank. It was put to good use for this morning's bake. It made the transfer so much easier.

For this second attempt at Le Grenier baguette, I used a 75% hydration dough. I realised that my previous bake was a little over-proofed. This time round, I resolved to do it right and was rewarded with a better grigne. I couldn't wait to see the crumb and as soon as it was sufficiently cooled, I sliced open one of them and found the crumb to be very holey despite the fact that it was baked without a baking stone.

2009-03-18T07:49:00.000-07:00

Le Grenier a Pain baguettes- First replication attempt

It's my first attempt at recreating the baguette which I had bought last Sunday. It was supposed to be the most authentic Parisian baguette to hit our shores. If that is true, it will be the second time that I have eaten authentic French bread. The first time was a Poilane miche which retails for $50 a loaf here in Singapore. I must confess to being terribly disappointed when the staff at the cafe told me that there were no more loaves available but they still had slices of it which they serve for lunch. I had an over toasted slice there for lunch. It did not leave an impression, probably because it was pass its prime.

Now that Michel Galloyer has open a boulangerie here in Singapore, it was a good chance for me to taste some real French bread. Unfortunately, although I could see him in the shop, I did not have a chance to talk to him. I was wondering if the bread was parbaked in France and airflown here or did they have a bakery somewhere else. If so, was it local flour that they were using or were they using French flour. So many questions and no answers.

Anyway, after eating the baguette, I was really inspired to replicate it. I can only guess that the hydration was slightly higher than the ones I bake typically. Although the hydration was relatively high, the results were not too bad when they came out of the oven. The baguettes at Le Grenier were matt and they were definitely baked on a stone. Personally, I prefer a redder hue with a shine as I think that is more attractive. Anyway, that was not the characteristic that I was trying to replicate. It was the crumb that I was after and I'd have to know that only tomorrow morning.

2009-03-15T05:17:00.001-07:00

A visit to Le Grenier A Pain

Last Thursday, I had lunch with a couple of ex-colleagues at the new Sembawang shopping center and was surprised to find a French bakery with an assortment of nice looking French bread. There was a bundle of baguettes there which caught my eye. One of the loaves was sliced in half showing a very holey crumb.

After I had finished my weekly kriya session on Sunday morning, I popped in to have a better look and the baker himself was in the shop. Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to talk to him as he was in some sort of conference with the shop owner. I picked up a baguette for afternoon tea. It looks like a fun baguette to replicate and I'd probably be back to baguettes in the weeks to come.

2009-03-11T07:10:00.000-07:00

Hazel nut fruit loaf

This is an encore of the bread I made 2 days ago. It tasted so good that I couldn't get enough of it. The first 2 loaves were made with 40% Shipton mills whole-wheat flour which has been sitting in my freezer. This was made into a preferment. The rest of the flour was made with AP flour. This time round, only 25% of the Shipton WW was used. I hope to have a lighter loaf with less WW. The fruit and nut was around 30% of the total flour weight. I had to restrain myself this time round as I had been too greedy in my first bake. As a result, I had a case of fruit overload.

The fruits consisted of candied orange peel, currents, sultanas and cherries. The nuts were freshly toasted hazelnuts which is my favorite. I avoid chelory made from colored papaya. I think this is a monstrosity.

It has been a fruitful day off for me and I finally got down to tesingt out a theory involving the making of kaya, another sinful favorite of mine. I really have to be more careful with all these calorie and fat laden favorites of mine.

2009-03-06T06:29:00.000-08:00

Flour Test-Everest Chakki Atta

I paid a visit to Mustafa on my day off and spotted some Atta flour that had spilled onto the shelf. It was a nice creamy color and that made me pick up a pack to try out. Chakki Atta is 100% stoneground wheat flour. It is probably made from a soft wheat. I was quite happy with the results as the crumb was relatively open for a 100% whole-wheat bread. The flavor was very good and tasted fantastic with butter.

I decided to use the entire pack as I did not want to leave any lying around. There is just too many packets of leftover flour from our kitchen exploits. Sometimes I wish I can just dump everything into a mixing bowl and come up with something nice but alas, I know only too well that the end result are usually monstrosities.

For this 100% whole-wheat bread, I decided on a hydration of 80%. The poolish was made the night before and this morning, it was incorporated into the main dough. It has been some time since I had made a 100% whole-wheat loaf but this time round, I felt a level of maturity as a baker. When I was mucking around with 100% whole-wheat bread over a year ago, I was still experimenting with techniques and I could never be certain if I was doing it right. However, it was all those years of experimenting that was the most fruitful.

Bread is certainly a big subject and as I look back at my experiments in making malt, culturing wild yeasts, dabbling in homemade natural bread improvers, testing wheat and other exotic flours, playing with wood fired ovens, not to forget making homemade baking implements such as peels and proving rattan baskets, I realize that there are still many more challenges out there.

The next few projects to try out will be the Tang Zhong method and making Poh Piah skins. I am really inspired by my baking buddy whose talent and passion for the culinary arts is unmatched. Maybe I should do one more project since I am at it and that is to learn to make roti prata from scratch. The flipping should be fun to do.

2009-02-28T01:13:00.000-08:00

Bread musings

A colleague of mine asked for some advice on troubleshooting a problem with the bread he baked. I helped him to resolve the problem but he ended up using an alternative recipe I sent to him. His verdict was that the alternative was a better recipe. Given Singaporeans' preference for soft sweet dough bread, I was quite sure that the recipe would suit him. However, I stopped short of introducing the 'Tang Zhong' method. I have not tried out the method before but have read that it resulted in a soft fluffy crumb. This method was developed by Chinese Bao makers to create a soft fluffy bun and adapted by bakers to make softer fluffier bread.

I am not a fan of sweet dough bread as I prefer French bread made with only 4 ingredients namely flour, salt, yeast and water. Not a drop of oil is used. When you make bread this way, there is only one inevitable outcome, bread that has a hard crunchy crust compared to the chiffon soft sweet dough bread. Most Singaporeans do not like hard crusty bread. There is a softened down version of the baguette called the "Asian Baguette" sold in most neighborhood bakeries which carry mainly sweet dough buns. The type of baked products in these bakeries is proof that hard crusty bread is not popular. I do not have the statistics to back this up, only the following anecdotes.

A colleague related this story to me about his tour of France. He told me that the breads of Paris was so hard that many people in his tour group had bleeding gums after eating bread there. I remember reading in the papers about an interview with the boss of Cedele. Her first customer returned the bread and asked if it was made of stones or something to that effect. Recently, a poster in a popular American bread forum complained about 'tasteless colleagues'. He gave a Chinese colleague a loaf of baguette which we was extremely proud of and to his chagrin, he was told that the bread was too hard and inedible.

Ever since I started baking 'Artisan Style' bread, I have always wondered why the Chinese never made this kind of bread. They have been working with all kinds of dough cooked in every single way from dumplings to noodles. Closer to bread, they have steamed bread like Bao, Mantou and fried bread like Bing. They have baked laminated pastries but they just do not have simple baked breads common to the Europeans. A colleague from China says that they have rye bread near the HeiLongJiang area but then thats near the Russian border.

It is true that Chinese in the south prefer rice but since wheat is also grown on a large scale in China, why is it that they do not have crusty European style bread? After all, they have wood fired ovens. They have sourdough yeasts and everything that is necessary to make good bread but this did not make it into their culinary traditions. I am at a loss to explain this but in the back of my mind is the feeling that hard crusty bread is deemed to be simply too hard to swallow, literally. Maybe more intelligent readers can enlighten me.

2009-02-21T05:55:00.000-08:00

Automation

The weather has turned hot again and I finally got round to firing my beehive to make bread again. M wife planned a menu of Otah, roast chicken, cream of asparagus soup, sweet potatoes and a beef stew to be slow cooked for tomorrow's breakfast.

I had intended to make fougasse today but ended up making 2 batards, 2 fougasses and a ciabatta. I started the fire at about 4 pm and after 3o minutes of fanning, the sloth in me decided that enough was enough and I brought out an electric fan to blow air into the beehive oven. It certainly worked better than my manual fanning.

2009-02-01T06:37:00.000-08:00

Levain Baguettes-Shipton mills

I made the starter for these 2 loaves late last night after I had prepared the main dough for 4 poolish baguettes which I had intended to bake after my weekly yoga practice. My thought was that they can continue right after the 4 regular yeasted loaves come out of the oven.

This morning, right after I had mixed the dough for these 2 loaves, I realized that I was running out of time. There was no choice for me as the fridge was full to the brim. The only space left was the freezer and that was where they went. I did this as I was curious if I can still salvage the frozen dough. Thankfully, they recovered although the dough was a little sluggish at first.

Nowadays, I tend to bake the loaves till they reach a reddish tinge similar to the ones made by Anis Boubsa.

2009-01-31T22:06:00.000-08:00

Mistletoe

I discovered another mistletoe plant growing on my Shui Mei plant outside my house again. The first time I discovered it, I was intrigued by this parasitic plant. I had no clue as to what it was but saw that the leaves were huge, thick and fleshy. I had thought that my Shui Mei had mutated. Later on, a horde of hairy caterpillars appeared and devoured all the leaves. They hatched into a dozen Painted Jezebel butterflies mentioned in an earlier post.

http://tomsbread.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html

It was only after watching David Attenborough's Private Lives of Plants did I learn that it was a mistletoe plant growing right in front of my house.

The mistletoe is propagated by birds, in this case probably by the sunbird that feeds on the Shui Mei flowers. The seed of the mistletoe is very sticky and pass through the gut of the bird just as sticky. The bird has to do a little dance routine to wipe the seed off its butt on a branch.

The mistletoe then takes root through an enlarged outgrowth called a haustorium. It is anologous to a placenta. The mistletoe then sprouts leaves which are a favorite of the Painted Jezebel caterpillars. Once hatched, the caterpillars strip the mistletoe bare leaving the leaves of the Shui Mei untouched. They migrate to the lower boughs of the Shui Mei and pupate.

When I think of the 3 players of this little drama, I couldn't help see the Generator, Operator and Destroyer (GOD) principle at work. This principle orchestrated by the One Supreme Intelligence manifests everywhere in nature. The agent of the Creator is the little sunbird, the Operator is the Shui Mei and the hairy horde of caterpillars destroys the mistletoe when its life works has been fulfilled. It is interesting to note that the caterpillars came only after the mistletoe had blossomed and fruited. I look forward to seeing the re-run of this little drama again.

http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/nis/bulletin2008/2008nis103-108.pdf

http://gardeningwithwilson.com/2008/10/20/hortparks-mistletoe/

2009-01-11T06:12:00.000-08:00

Muesli Bread

I've been playing with baguettes for some time now and thought that it was time to give it a rest. There is still one more thing to do and that's to bake it on the hearth. This week, I decided to do a muesli bread as I am getting a little jaded eating baguettes.

For this bake, I used a wholewheat preferment. The amount of WW used was 25% of the total flour used. The muesli mix consisted of rolled oats, corn flakes, black sesame, pumpkin and golden flax seeds, almond flakes and sultanas. The hydration was 75%. This was mixed in the morning and after I came back from my weekly yoga kriya session, I started the bake at around 3pm. When I returned, the dough was nicely risen.

When they came out of the oven, the aroma was heavenly. The crumb was not too bad. It was delicious with butter.

2009-01-04T05:48:00.000-08:00

Baguette-grigne

I had another practice on slashing again today. Now that I have steam management in place, I need to work on the slashing. However, I was sloppy in my shaping and my wife commented that the previous batch looked better.

The consolation is that the ears were definitely more pronounced this time round and that convinced me that the slashing method I tried out today was right. I will have to work on the shaping for future bakes.

2009-01-02T05:05:00.000-08:00

Playing with more steam

Today is my second attempt with my new homemade steam vent cover and I was rather pleased with its performance. I was getting nearer the kind of grigne that is seen in Hamelman's book. The huge amount of steam resulted in a reddish glossy finish on the crust. The flaps on the grigne was more pronounced than usual. However, I feel that there's still room for improvement and I can't wait to bake another batch as I have another idea to try out.

2008-12-31T01:14:00.001-08:00

New vent cover

I managed to mod my oven vent cover after scouring hardware stores for suitable materials. I settled for an aluminum bracket and instead of a hinge type design, I made a sliding cover.

I got to test it out today on some baguettes which were meant for a New Year's eve party. I hope it will go well with the curry.

Today's baguettes were the best looking I have baked so far. The steam vent cover worked reasonably well although I could still see wisps of steam coming out from the vent. I will try lining the cover with a heat resistant soft material to improve the seal. However, going by how the baguettes turned out, I may just leave it alone for some time.

The ears opened up better in some of the slashes but I was still unable to get those that Hamelman illustrated in his book.

2008-12-17T07:20:00.000-08:00

Rosemary herb bread

I was given a bag of Rosemary by a baking friend and made some Rosemary herb bread with it. The breads were about 75% hydration with the addition a couple tablespoon of EVOO. While they were in the oven, my wife remarked that the aroma of roast chicken was in the air. I wonder how I should eat it. Rosemary is such a wonderful herb and I was devastated when I singlehandedly destroyed 2 specimens which I had grown from a cutting bought from the supermarket. Hopefully, the sprigs that I had planted will survive and thrive.

It has been a long day as I had spring clean the kitchen from morning to dinner time, stripping down the fume hood and hob for a thorough scrub down. I always wish I had a helper to do this thing for me but alas, I guess I will be doing this till the end of my days. I hope that there will be such things as a robotic helper intelligent and versatile enough to replace a human in doing household chores in 20 years time.

2008-12-16T03:39:00.000-08:00

Passionfruit Lemon Curd

Last Sunday I delivered some flour to a couple of baking friends and one of them gave me a bottle of Passionfruit Lemon curd. She made it from Tan Hsueh Yun's recipe. It was so super yummy that I was already scraping the bottom of the bottle within a day.

I had made a batch of Levain baguettes to go with it. Since my craving for it has not been sated, what I can do but to roll up my sleeves and make some for myself. Thankfully, all the ingredients for this delight is easily available and cost next to nothing. The only thing I lack is Hsueh Yun's recipe, ironically. My wife had cut out the recipe and filed it in her collection of recipes but they were somewhere in the house and I haven't had the faintest clue where it was. My wife was not in but as I did not want to bother her or my friend, I decided to follow Martha Stewart's recipe because I was confused by Dorie Greenspan's list of ingredients. The only extra ingredient was the pulp from five Passionfruits.

I got myself 3 large jars of 'sunshine' for my efforts, thanks to Hsueh Yun for such an inspired combination of flavors and of course to my friend for her gift which inspired me much.

Update

Hsueh Yun wrote to me and was so kind to send me a copy of the recipe. Thanks to the link which she sent, I was able to get an online copy of the original article with the recipe. It can be found here:
http://www.soshiok.com/articles/8815

INGREDIENTS
6 lemons
250g cold unsalted butter, cut into 1cm cubes
450g caster sugar (add 50g more for a sweeter curd)
250ml passionfruit pulp, from 6 passionfruit
8 large eggs
METHOD
1. Zest the lemons using a fine grater, set aside. Then juice the lemons. You should get just over 250ml of juice.
2. Fill a pot about 25cm in diameter with water up to the one-third mark. Bring the water to a simmer.
3. Turn heat down to low. Sit a glass, heatproof bowl about 30cm in diameter on the pot, making sure the bottom of the bowl never touches the water. Add lemon zest, lemon juice, butter and sugar into the bowl.
4. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until the sugar and butter melt.
5. Add the passionfruit pulp and stir to mix well. Taste and add more sugar if needed.
6. Crack the eggs into a medium bowl, beat with a fork just to break up the yolks, then strain the eggs through a metal or plastic strainer into the curd mixture.
7. Continue stirring. Adjust the heat so that the water in the pot does not come to boil. It should remain at a gentle simmer.
8. After 20 minutes or so, the curd should start to thicken. Watch it carefully, keep stirring and when the mixture coats the back of the wooden spoon, the curd is ready.
9. Take the bowl off the pot and spoon the curd into clean glass jars. Cool completely, screw on the lids and refrigerate. It will last about two weeks in the fridge.

2008-12-12T05:57:00.001-08:00

Steam

I have been tinkering with the steam vent of my oven again. The thought of modding my oven has been on my mind for the last few weeks but procrastination has ensured that the vent cover never materialized. I had a hinge type design in mind so that it can be opened when a steam environment is no longer needed. All this was put into the back-burner of my mind until yesterday when I stripped out the innards of my oven for a thorough cleaning. I had anticipated a thick build up of flour caked onto the oven's inner walls. However, I was pleasantly surprised that the accumulated flour was less than I had thought. While cleaning the oven, I had a clear view of the oven vent and this jarred my memory about modifying the vent.

In the meantime, I blocked the vent with foil to ensure that the steam stayed in the oven chamber. I was quite happy with the results as the slashes opened up nicely. The effect of steam made the crust more shiny instead of the matt finish.

Tonight's bake was my favorite busy person's baguette. The dough has been doing its thing in the fridge while I had gone on a 7 km walk and returned by 6.30 p.m. The 24 hour baguette was shaped at 7.00 p.m and by 9.00 p.m, the kitchen was already cleaned up and I was sitting on the sofa, contemplating if I should bring out the butter as the smell of the loaves was so enticing. I ended up eating a leftover slice of Bertinet's sweet dough bread that I had made the night before. It had a wonderful flavor as I had added orange zest and rum soaked raisins. It was really decadent with some handmade kaya. I really should curb my bread craving and intake considering the fact that I had had my dinner only a couple of hours earlier.

I was satisfied with the result. The crumb was creamy with a holey texture and a flavor which is addictive after a single bite. My only gripe is the short shelf life of the bread. Actually, it is the humid Singapore weather which is the problem. The crunchy crust degenerates quickly and has to be refreshed in the oven everytime before consumption.

2008-11-30T08:07:00.000-08:00

Slashing and Steam

I played with covering the steam vent of my oven in an experiment to see if it would help in improving the appearance of the slashes. High energy prices has forced me to bake without a baking stone and my conclusion is that it is possible to get good results on a sheet pan.

I decided to give the baguette a rest this time round as I have been baking these for the six to seven bakes consecutively. It is time to use up some of the whole-wheat occupying premium freezer space. I have been using a liquid preferment and long bulk fermentation recently and since I like the results, I did not change it in this bake.

The results were very satisfactory indeed as I was able to get the results I had hoped for. The only problem now is having to wait for morning so that I can feast on these beauties accompanied by some fresh pesto which I had made earlier in the afternoon.

2008-11-25T04:44:00.000-08:00

More baguettes

I found myself making baguettes again. The process I used evolved out of necessity because of my busy work schedule. The combination of a preferment followed by a long bulk fermentation guaranteed their excellent flavor and the hand mixing ensured that the dough was not overmixed. The result was a creamy crumb, irregular air pockets and fantastic flavor. One of the constraints was that they were baked on a sheet pan and the oven was barely preheated.

In the past bakes, I had been a little disappointed in the way they looked. The grigne was hardly there and they were all splitting at the bottom. I managed to solve that with a little bit of failure analysis and I was able to get a more decent grigne.

I know that I am still a long way from perfection but that's the best part since the pleasure is in the journey, not the destination.

2008-11-07T20:01:00.000-08:00

Levain Baguettes

Dan Lepard once made 3 different styles of baguettes for comparison and his verdict was that the levain baguettes was the best. My starter culture has been neglected in the fridge lately as a result of my busy work schedule. I have had no time for anything lately as work at the office has been piling up this month.

Strangely, despite the hectic schedule, I found myself working at a new level of efficiency and creativity, gaining insights which helped to solve some long festering quality problems. One of the insights I had was to realize that the polar effect of solvents could be the root cause of a problem which some co-workers had been working on. I used to demonstrate this effect in science experiments for my kids in the kitchen and it was ironic that this should come in handy at work.

I had been waiting for the week-end to make some levain baguettes but since I had run out of bread, I had to do it earlier. Unfortunately, the starter was not properly refreshed and that affected its power. Coupled with the longer than optimal fermentation period as I had returned home late, I was certain that the baguette would be a disaster. Fortunately, it worked out better than I had hoped.

I am undecided if the flavor and taste of these levain baguettes beat those poolish baguettes that I had been doing for the past weeks. The levain baguettes while having a complex flavor and taste, lack the clean refined flavor of my regular poolish baguettes. Hopefully, I can improve on this the next time round.

2008-10-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

The crumb is creamy and has irregular holes.
The loaves proofing on a couche.
The dough after 18hours bulk fermentation.

Baguette again

It's that time of the year again when most of my colleagues are taking their annual holiday. When this happens, I'd be extremely busy as the workload would be shouldered by the rest of the team. This year, as fate would have it, Fornax the goddess of fertility has been busy and 3 of my colleagues had buns in their ovens if you know what I mean. This meant more work for the rest of us. While Fornax has been busy, she has not blessed me with good weather to fire up her namesake, the hearth or in my case, my beehive oven.

Busy schedule or not, there must still be be bread on the breakfast table and I was prompted to develop a schedule which will allow me to make bread even when I reach home a little later than normal. I settled for a preferment which will ripen fully in the morning. Before breakfast, I would mix it in the main dough and the bulk ferment will happen while I am at work. My process allows me to complete my bread easily before I turn in to bed, even when I am back late from work. The wonderful thing is that dough contact time is actually minimal and I am still able to watch a little TV and do the dishes. I like to do the dishes after after I have worked the dough because I can wash the dough off my hands while soaping up the dishes.

I have also been baking without a baking stone and minimal preheating. Somehow, the characteristics of my oven results in side splitting despite my slashes. After a while, they kind of look attractive although they are not in the form of the classic Parisian baguette by Ganachaud. In any case, the long fermentation process and minimal mixing result in a creamy crumb and the flavor was what made me fall in love with bread in the first place. Somehow, a simple homemade baguette with good butter and coffee is something that I can eat anytime of the day, everyday.

2008-10-17T22:33:00.000-07:00

Baguettes

I have been on a baguette spree lately. Ironically, the simple baguette can be quite a challenge. Compared to other types of bread, I find that it is very difficult to make the perfect baguette. My goal is to make baguettes that look as good as Hamelman's and Ganachaud. I am getting nowhere near that at the moment and it is compounded by high energy costs. These days, I have been avoiding the use of a baking stone because of the long preheat times. Getting it to taste great is not the main issue as this can be achieved through correct fermentation processes. I have to console myself that modern prize winning baguettes by Gosselin and Anis Baoubsa don't exactly look like the classic baguette.

I have settled for poolish baguettes in most of my bakes because I find this suitable to my schedule and setup. The dough hydration was 70%,

The poolish took 12 hours and the main dough had a bulk fermentation for another 12 hours. The baguettes were baked at 220C for 10mins followed by 190C for another 20mins. Unfortunately, I did not manage to get a decent grigne and this is something I am striving to get without a baking stone. However, the crumb and flavor was to my satisfaction. All that open structure will make it perfect for this evening's curry dinner.

2008-08-14T08:23:00.000-07:00

Cardamom Fruit and Nut Loaf

I ran out of bread this morning and quickly made a batch of dough for baking in the evening. I made up a formula with 70% white and 30% whole-wheat flour. Using the regular amount of yeast and salt, I thought it might be better if I raised the hydration to 80%. For a kick, I threw in a teaspoon of cardamom and a teaspoon of organic molasses.

Despite the ridiculous increase in the price of bread flour, it is still more convenient and cheaper to bake bread at home. Bread is my daily staple but I do not mind eating some other type of food for breakfast. Unfortunately good breakfast food served outside is hard to find. One of the rare gems is Yong's Teochew Kueh. It is still made with integrity and sincerity and the quality speaks for itself. The kueh that they make have a fragrant clean taste with abundant filling. It's truly Artisan Kueh!

Update: I had some of the bread this morning and I have to say I loved it. My main mistake was the uneven distribution of the fruit and seeds. Need to do this better the next time round. This bread is definitely worth revisiting.

2008-07-19T22:39:00.000-07:00

Flour test - Kamut

I was given a bag of Kamut by a friend to test. I have read good things about Kamut and needless to say, I was very eager to see how it will turn out. As I was in the process of refreshing my sourdough starter, I decided to do some sourdough loaves with it. I did not follow any specific recipe of the masters but just made up one using my generic method. That was probably not very wise and to aggravate that, my wife announced that she had a dental appointment and that I had to send my daughter for a class. OMG.

Initially I wanted to make a rye starter since I had some leftovers taking up valuable freezer space. The initial build was with rye flour but I decided against using rye for the second build because I was afraid that it will compromise the evaluation of the Kamut. I ended up with a starter which was one-third rye at 100% hydration.

The main dough consisted of 25% Kamut with the rest consisting of Prima's Clover flour. I have always had problems with this flour and the recent batch that I got seemed to be at the higher end of the protein range. I keep telling myself that this was the last time that I was using this flour and I hope I remember this the next time I am at the distributor.

The Kamut had a pleasant nutty smell and it was relatively easy to handle the dough which was at 75%. The bread was baked at 220 deg for around 10 mins with the rest of the bake at 190 deg. The loaves smelt fantastic when they came out of the oven. As luck would have it, my friend happened to be on an errand near where I live and I was able to present two loaves to her.

The flavor of the bread was good although the crumb was a little moist when I first cut it a couple of hours later. However, this was characteristic of sourdough as this type of bread needs a day to set. The crumb was a little better when I ate it the next day. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell my friend about this and I guess I'd have to do better the next time. On the whole, the bread could have been a little better had I followed a proper recipe instead of making one up on the spot.

2008-06-21T19:36:00.000-07:00

Kalamata Olive Bread

A friend once said that she baked on borrowed time and I am beginning to feel the same. There seems to be a thousand and one things to take care of. This is even more so with baking in a beehive oven.

I was itching to bake and eat bread again. I don't think I'll be eating scones for some time to come. That's the problem of having a big oven. Everything has to be done on an industrial scale. The advantage is that I get to eat my fill of my favorite goodies. Unfortunately there is also a tendency to get tired of them after a while. This is especially true for the sweet stuffs. I don't seem to get the feeling when eating bread.

Since the weather seem to be holding, I decided to chance it and fired the oven for lunch and for making bread. My wife bought some Kalamata olives which she used for her pasta the day before. Since my daughter loved the olives, I decided to make Kalamata olive bread. I made up a 40 oz formula with 10% semolina flour, 20% wholewheat and 70% bread flour. The hydration was 75% with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Lunch was pizza, my favorite banana leaf otah and roasted Japanese sweet potatos. The pizza came out horrible. It was a mistake baking it on a tray. I should've done it direct on the oven floor. The bread came out not too bad although it was a little pale at the top. Ideally, the beehive should be fired with larger logs but I was firing the oven with small pieces of charcoal which did not heat the roof sufficiently.

2008-06-14T01:32:00.000-07:00

My garden in its former glory

Tumeric and Thai Basil

Sage

My Passion fruit plants grown from seeds. I was thrilled by the growing tendrills.

Pandan

Mint

Lemon grass

Laksa leaf for making my favorite Laksa pesto.

Ginger

Dill

Curry leaf

Sweet Basil

Rosemary grown from a sprig bought in the supermarket.

Rosemary

Herbs

The weather has not been favorable for baking and cooking outdoors recently. Most of my baking had been done indoors and this morning I enjoyed myself with a breakfast of scones made from a recipe from Michel Suas new book on Advanced Bread and Pastry.

After breakfast, we headed down to Oh's farm to get a few herbs for the garden. With my limited floor space and not so green thumb, the herbs that I grow are clearly insufficient for my regular use. Instead, they are used only in contingencies to make up for my recalcitrant lack of planning. The herbs would be laid bald if I were to use them in daily cooking. They are very useful to have around when you suddenly find yourself needing a sprig of a herb called for in a recipe.

I had taken a renewed interest in gardening following my discovery of a wonderful website featured in the local papers. The website(greenculturesg.com) has a forum with a food sub-section and populated by individuals who seem quite competent in baking bread also. The forum is also an indispensable resource for finding out the wrong things that you have been doing with your plants.

A few years ago, I had a very nice garden simply because I had learnt to place plants in their natural habitat. From a management point of view, it seems people are also like plants. They have to be deployed in roles suitable to their temperament. I had learnt that some plants neeed partial shade while others love full sunshine. Before this realization, I was doing it all wrong and was guilty of burning and killing many of my beloved plants through excessive sun exposure. After I realized this simple fact, my garden began to thrive.

More recently, I was thrilled that my passion fruit seedlings have been thriving well in the pot, sending out tendrills. I would have to make a trellis for them soon. The Rosemary which I had grown from a sprig bought in the Supermarket has been growing very well too. I attribute this to the ash from my Beehive oven.

2008-05-04T06:09:00.000-07:00

A good first attempt

Today was my first attempt at free form loaves in the Beehive. It was a very hot sunny day and it did not look like it was going to rain. At 2pm, I fired up the oven and tried out the Otah recipe from Mrs Leong Yee Soo's cookbook. It was so hot in the oven that the banana leaves singed in a couple of minutes. When I opened the banana leaf wrapping, it was moist as if it was steamed in the leaf. I would have love it a little more dry but it looked as if the leaf was going to give way soon. The one in the steel tray was a little more to my liking but we forgot to line the tray with banana leaf. It would have been perfect with the aroma of the leaf.

I decided to repeat a foccacia as the oven was not big enough to accomodate 3 loaves on the hearth. This time round, the foccacia baked in a steel roaster did a lot better.

Next came the finale. By then, the sky had turned ominously dark and I was really afraid that I'd have to shove out the coals and cover the oven. This would have been a disaster as I was not sure if the plastic canvas can stand the heat of the oven. Fortunately the sky brightened up again.

The charcoals were shoved out, followed by a good brushing of the hearth to clear away the remaining dust. Next, a wet rag was used to mop the oven to clear away any remaining ash. I was a little apprehensive that the hearth will crack but all I could see was the little bit of moisture evaporating in the high heat. The loaves were loaded into the oven on the back of a tray.

The oven spring in the beehive was tremendous. It was much greater than those baked in my other ovens. My only disappointment was that the crust was only golden brown. I would have loved them a little redder and glossier.

2008-04-26T02:55:00.000-07:00

Foccacia

Today was the big day for baking with my new toy. The main objective was to try out foccacia and I selected the basic foccacia recipe from Carol Field's book on Foccacia. I used Gold Medal Unbleached AP Flour. It is a waste of charcoal to fire up the oven just to make bread. We decided to cook lunch with the oven. My wife decided on a lemon garlic recipe from Williams' Sonoma Essentials of Roasting which I had borrowed from the library the day before. After sending my daughter for her classes, it was a mad rush to the supermarket to get all the required ingredients. By the time I came back, I was faced with the task of setting up the fire, preparing the dough and the topping. However, this had to wait because breakfast must come first!!

After my daily dose of newspaper and coffee was sated, I swung into action by starting the fire in a flower pot outside the house. This was the only time where smoke is generated from the firestarter which contains wax. After transferring the smouldering charcoal into the oven, I plied on some more and started fanning the oven like a satay-man. I used an old aluminum tray, fanning the oven in a vertical motion which looks as if I am offering incense from the side view. My wife and I thought that the oven made our house look like a temple and now with my fanning action, I certainly look like I was worshipping a deity.

I had read from Hamelman that the ancient Romans worshiped Fornax, the goddess of the hearth or fireplace. (If you look up Wikipedia, Fornax was the goddess of bread and baking). It is interesting that bread is inextricably linked to life. The oven is linked to fertility and today we have phrases like 'a bun in the oven' for example. Even in anatomy of the womb, parts of it is named Fornix which is from the Goddess of the Hearth again.

After the fire was big enough, I pushed out the coals to the the back of the oven in a semi-circular arc. The foccacia was topped with my favorite laksa pesto and bell peppers. I used the 3 terracotta roasters that came with the oven and made the mistake of putting all 3 into the oven at the same time. I faced some difficulty adjusting their placement inside the oven and as a result, some parts of the breads were burnt at the bottom. In retrospect, I should not have baked such a large quantity.

The chicken could have been better had it been marinaded a little longer. The roasted tomatoes with Sumac was delightful. I was introduced to this dish when I was invited to lunch at my friend's house. It was a spice that I have not heard of before so I was very happy to learn something new that day.

Today's bake showed that I have a long way to go before I can orchestrate the kind of cooking session that my friend executed. There are so many factors to watch out for. Next time, I'd definitely have to be more diligent in my planning.

2008-04-24T08:02:00.001-07:00

Animal magnet

This is a little off topic from my usual theme but I was delighted by the emerging of a large number of Painted Jezebel butterflies on a Wrightia Religiosa(Shui Mei) bush in front of my house. This is the latest in a string of wonderful visits by some unusual guests. They seem to want to share in my little abode of peace. For the last couple of weeks, that bush was invaded by an army of hairy caterpillars. They disappeared suddenly but one Saturday while pruning the bush, I saw a huge number of chrysalises on the underside of the leaves. This morning they emerged eventually just after I returned from breakfast with my wife. The burst of color was so delightful to watch. I was glad that I had left them alone.

One week after I moved in many years ago, a cat gave birth to a litter of kittens in my garden. They were inconspicuously hidden under some shrubs and nobody would have known of their existence had they not mewed when their mother was not around. Although I grew up in a countryside setting, I had never looked after a pet directly. In those days, there was no shortage of wildlife and in the family compound, there was a talking mynah, parakeets and even a monkey from goodness knows where. Not knowing what to do with the cats, I called the SPCA.

My neighbor's runaway pets also had a penchant of ending up in my house too. I had a Chinchilla hiding under my Christmas tree once. The Chinchilla even dropped me a few black pellets as a Christmas present. This was followed by a visit by her white mouse and rabbit.

Even though my house is not at the edge of any forest, I had a visit from an Iguana in my backyard. I was not there to greet him as I was at work. However, my wife came face to face with him while hanging out the clothes to dry in the backyard. I had to do some homework that evening to seal up the backyard grating to prevent him from getting trapped in my backyard.

The most memorable visit must be from a pair of Olive-backed Sunbirds who built their nest right in front of my sliding door. For the next couple of months, my sliding door stayed shut as I did not want to be an inconsiderate neighbor. I tried my best to respect their privacy. I guess nobody likes to have busybodies peering in while passing by. The wife finally laid an egg which hatched eventually. From then on, dad and mum were busy flying in and out feeding and cleaning up baby. When I had to change my babies' diapers, I had hands but for these bird parents, clearing up after baby involved baby raising its rear to the nest opening. Daddy bird, perched at the entrance, grabbed the white dollop of poo in its beak and proceeded to the nearest tree to wipe off on a twig. It was just fascinating.

2008-04-14T05:59:00.000-07:00

A new toy

Do dreams come true in real life? Perhaps only the Divine knows the answer and sometimes they do come true. Unfortunately for most of us, we do not know what is really good for us. I was told that if the Divine gave us everything we wished for, there would be an excess of firemen, bus-drivers or any occupation that a kid think is 'cool'.

Ever since I started baking, I have always dreamt of doing it the traditional way in a wood fired oven. After reading Dan Wing and Kiko Denzer, the idea of baking in a wood fired oven was so enticing that I even toyed with the idea of flying to Australia to take a course in baking bread in wood fired ovens just for the experience. However, this remained a dream with my limited resources.

One day, out of the blue, I received an email from a fellow baker who bake breads out of a wood fired beehive oven. Needless to say, I accepted the invitation to see the oven in action without hesitation. The foccacias and bread that came out from the oven was exceptional. It was the kind of bread that I'd have loved to bake and eat. I was amazed by my friend's passion in baking bread and culinary talents which exceeded mine in all counts.

My friend told me that there was still one more oven left sitting in the warehouse. After almost half a year later, the oven is finally sitting in my front yard. The months were spent on indecision, procrastination and anxiety about whether the oven will survive the move. Finally, I opted for the lowest cost solution in siting and housing my oven. Instead of getting a contractor to do up a lean-to extension in my backyard, I opted for a wrought iron stand and a parasol. I will be fabricating an aluminum cover to keep the oven out of the rain. The canvass cover that came with the oven was clearly insufficient for our climate.

This weekend, I finally got to fire up the oven. This was neccessary to season the oven and drive out the moisture in the walls. I got a lot of advice from my kindly friend. The week before, I went down to Temple Street and picked up an ash scraper, a pair of charcoal tongs, a brush for clearing the ash. It was exciting firing up the oven. My wife took the opportunity to pop in chicken to roast since she was in the process of preparing lunch. I couldn't wait for next week to bake some foccacias and pizzas.

2008-03-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

Flour Test - Shipton Mills Bread Flour

I was given a bag of Shipton Mills bread flour recently. It was a gift I appreciated greatly. Although it is 'just a bag of flour' you may say, it was certainly no ordinary bag of flour. Perhaps, more important than the exclusivity of the product, it is the token of the friendship it represents that mattered even more to me.

It was not the first time that I had tried Shipton mills flour. Another friend had given me a bag of Shipton mills wholewheat flour before but at that time, I did not have much luck with it. It was never documented because so many things went wrong that time, including a disaster with the camera.

Now that I have a chance to play with the Shipton mills flour again, I did the test with great reverance. The flour that I was given the last time was hand carried all the way from the UK. Even if this flour had been available in Singapore, I'd have to contemplate three times before I part with my limited 'dough'. My friend mentioned in passing that it was $18 a bag and that's a little too steep for me.

Using my standard test recipe for a white loaf, the flour weight was 40oz with 70% hydration. I used my lazy baker process for this test as I was expecting a plumber to relocate a pipe in the garden. The yeast used was only 1 teaspoon. Salt was 2%. The dough sat for about 12 hours in the fridge and this morning, it was given 2 folds before it was baked. During the folding, I noticed that the extensibility of the dough was markedly different from my regular flour.

The bread was baked for around 40 mins. The oven spring was outstanding and when I took them out from the oven, the crust crakled. After it had cooled, I ate a slice with butter and my conclusion is that it really is a great flour. The aroma was what I love in this kind of bread. I guess taste is something very personal and it is inevitable that different people have different tastes. However, I couldn't help feeling that those who prefer the sweet soft breads are missing out on something really good.

My verdict? The shipton mills flour is great and I'd surely use it more regularly if I had the extra money. For those who can afford it, it is worth every penny. After all, Dan Lepard and Linda Collister couldn't be wrong.

2008-03-23T00:18:00.000-07:00

Blood Orange Marmalage

I was at Fairprice finest last Friday and spotted some Blood Oranges. They were prepacked in net bags and there were bruises on some of them in each bag. When I got home, I realised that they were more damaged than I had thought. Rather than eating them fresh, I selected the good ones to make some marmalade.

The skin of Blood Oranges is rather soft and I found the flavor of the Orange itself to be more intense. It was an ideal candidate for making marmalade. The sugar used was only 1/3 the weight of the oranges. After the marmalade has been reduced, a small amount of butter was stirred in. I have to say that I loved it and will probably make more the next time.

I am still contemplating the addition of an Orange Liquer. With such an intense flavor, perhaps I should hold the liquer and enjoy it au naturel.

2008-03-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

Potato Bread With Chives
Last week's potato bread tasted so good that I couldn't get enough of it. I made some modifications to Hamelman's recipe. Instead of the 15% wholewheat, I made it with 100% bread flour this time. The percentage of Potatos was the same but I added in a handful of chives and to complement the flavors, a dash of pepper and nutmeg was added. The aroma from the oven when the bread was baking, herald the birth of a winner (as far as my taste in bread is concerned).
I realised that I had made a mistake about the shaping of fendu loaves. A more careful reading of Hamelman made me realise that I had done the shaping wrongly. So this time, I resolved to get it right but failed again because the wood dowel that I had used was far to slim and cut into the dough too much. I'd have to do this shape again and this time with a rolling pin.

2008-03-18T08:33:00.000-07:00

Hamelman's Roasted Potato Bread
My wife made a loaf of Potato bread recently and I was very surprised by the depth of flavor of the bread. I decided to try out Hamelman's version of Roasted Potato Bread. The bread is 85% bread flour and 15% wholewheat. Roasted potatoes was 25% of the flour weight. Since this was the first time that I had made this bread, I made a lot of mistakes including a very silly one of not mashing the potatoes sufficiently. Hamelman commented that roasting the potatoes concentrated their flavor. It was also the first time that I had tried the fendu shape and I realise that I did not have a sufficiently long dowel for the job.

2008-03-18T08:12:00.000-07:00

A new year, a new beginning

I have finally decided to move from my website to a blog. The free web-hosting provided by Angelfire had given me endless headaches. After 2 years on it, I have finally decided enough is enough. My well meaning friends have always urged me to use a blog format but I guess I must have been a real masochist for punishment. Enduring the shortcomings of free Angelfire is no easy task. I have always thought that beggars cannot be choosers since I am too cheap to pay for web hosting. Well, maybe in the real world but then on the net, beggars can be choosers!!

Here is my first post which was salvaged from a third Angelfire spin-off. I had to do 2 other spin-offs to work around the 20MB storage limit. Starting from my initial website at

http://www.angelfire.com/planet/tomsbread/index.htm, I spun another web at

http://www.angelfire.com/planet/artisanbread/index.htm

Traversing through these 2 websites is complicated enough and it would be downright silly of me to do a third spin-off especially when bandwidth is exruciating limited for free Angelfire webhosting. Publishing the updates was equally daunting. Finally tonight, after wasting 2 hours trying to upload some updates, I decided to quit Angelfire and start with a blog format. I will maintain the original 2 sites as there are some useful links and information for people to start baking bread.

I had been inspired to do a website after learning so much from fellow bakers in the US. Their websites gave me so much inspiration that I felt compelled to try out the breads that they had posted.

So now, a new year, a new beginning. First post: Operation salvage from crippling Angelfire:

Blueberry Tarts
I had some guests today and to entertain them, I made a batch of blueberry tarts to serve them. The tart shells were baked in the morning together with my Cinnamon buns. My wife made the Mascarpone cream cheese filling and they were topped with blueberries. I had to use frozen blueberries sitting in my freezer but they turned out well. These were not very sweet and still had the mild tartness of fresh berries. An apricot glaze completed the assembly. There was even a request for a 'take-away' so what more can I ask for?