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.

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?

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. 

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.

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.

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.