Tag: Fermentation

Blue Cheese & Walnut Sourdough Loaf

Categories bread, Fermentation, Recipes, sourdough1 Comment on Blue Cheese & Walnut Sourdough Loaf

I love how customizable sourdough can be! I have been trying out different variations, and this combo may be one of my fall favorites. The walnuts add this wonderful crunch while the blue cheese highlights the tanginess of the sourdough. It makes a wonderful bread for grilled cheese, to dip into soup, and to eat toasted with some butter!

Ingredients

  • 300g Water
  • 175g Active Sourdough Starter
  • 450g Bread Flour
  • 10g Sat
  • 1 Cup of Walnuts, roughly chopped
  • 1 Package of Your fav Blue Cheese, crumbled

Let’s Get Baking

In a large bowl, combine 300g water + 150g active sourdough starter and whisk until fully incorporated.

Then add in 450g of bread flour + 10g of salt. Mix well until there are no dry spots on the dough. The dough should be sticky. Cover with a damp towel and let sit on the counter for an hour.

After the initial hour, uncover the dough and add in most of the chopped walnuts + blue cheese. Be sure to save some of the fillings for the shaping process! Now we begin stretch and folds. Wet your hands and place them underneath the dough, pull the edges of the dough up and fold them on themselves. Repeat on all sides of the dough. Once folded, cover the dough with the towel and repeat the stretches every hour until the loaf has doubled in size – the timing will vary. The dough will feel light, airy, and it will be less sticky when it is ready.

Time to shape! Turn out your dough on a lightly floured surface. Pull out the edges of the dough to create a rectangle. Add in the remaining walnuts + blue cheese. Fold one side halfway into the rectangle and fold the other side over that. Roll the dough away from you, creating a log. Place your hands on the sides of the dough and begin pulling towards yourself to get rid of the seams and create a tighter ball. Prepare a bowl by placing a towel in the bowl and sprinkling flour on the towel. Place the dough ball upside down [or seam side up] into the prepared bowl. Cover with the towel and let it proof for one hour on the counter before moving it into the fridge overnight.

Preheat the oven to 500°F and put your Dutch oven in the oven while it preheats. Place your dough on a piece of parchment paper and score the bread to release the steam. Carefully remove your Dutch oven once the oven has preheated and place your dough inside. Cover with the lid and bake at 500F for 20 minutes. After the initial 20 minutes, reduce the heat to 475°F and bake for another 25 minutes.

Allow to fully cool before cutting into the dough – this is the hardest part! Then enjoy!

What will you serve this bread with?

Made with Love,
Hannah

Dill & Lemon Sourdough Loaf

Categories bread, Fermentation, Recipes, sourdough1 Comment on Dill & Lemon Sourdough Loaf

I have so much dill in my garden now that I don’t know what to do with it! I usually plant it for my homemade pickles but I wanted to find ways to incorporate it into other dishes. I decided that adding dill to my sourdough loaf would be a perfect start to using up my harvest. All I could think about was making BLTs on homemade bread. I loved how the dill and lemon highlighted the sourness of the bread. This might be my new go-to summer loaf! I used Sourdough by Syd recipe on TikTok – I make the perfect loaf with it every time!

Ingredients

  • 300g Water
  • 175g Active Sourdough Starter
  • 450g Bread Flour [I used bread flour and whole wheat just because I did not have enough bread flour]
  • 10g Sat
  • 1 Bunch of dill, chopped
  • 1 Lemon, zested

Let’s Get Baking

In a large bowl, combine 300g water + 150g active sourdough starter and whisk until fully incorporated.

Then add in 450g of bread flour + 10g of salt. Mix well until there are no dry spots on the dough. The dough should be sticky. Cover with a damp towel and let sit on the counter for an hour.

After the initial hour, uncover the dough and add in the dill + lemon. Now we begin stretch and folds. Wet your hands and place them underneath the dough, pull the edges of the dough up and fold them on themselves. Repeat on all sides of the dough. Once folded, cover the dough with the towel and repeat the stretches every hour until the loaf has doubled in size – the timing will vary. The dough will feel light, airy, and it will be less sticky when it is ready.

Time to shape! On a place your dough on a floured surface. Pull out the edges of the dough to create a rectangle. Fold one side halfway into the rectangle and fold the other side over that. Roll the dough away from you, creating a log. Place your hands on the sides of the dough and begin pulling towards yourself to get rid of the seams and create a tighter ball. Prepare a bowl by placing a towel in the bowl and sprinkling flour on the towel. Place the dough ball upside down [or seam side up] into the prepared bowl. Cover with the towel and let it proof for one hour on the counter before moving it into the fridge overnight.

Preheat the oven to 500°F and put your Dutch oven in the oven while it preheats. Place your dough on a piece of parchment paper and score the bread to release the steam. Carefully remove your Dutch oven once the oven has preheated and place your dough inside. Cover with the lid and bake at 500F for 20 minutes. After the initial 20 minutes, reduce the heat to 475°F and bake for another 25 minutes.

Allow to fully cool before cutting into the dough – this is the hardest part! Then enjoy!

I would love to hear about all the creations you make with this bread! What are your favorite dill recipes?

Made with Love,

Hannah

Slow Cooker Korean Style Pot Roast w/ Kimchi

Categories RecipesLeave a Comment on Slow Cooker Korean Style Pot Roast w/ Kimchi

HOLD. THE. PHONE.

This is a new favorite recipe that I need everyone to make ASAP. The Modern Proper gives various different ways to make this dish but I say the best route is LOW and SLOW. This is an easy recipe to prep in the morning and forget until dinner time. I served mine with kimchi from a local Asian market, some cucumbers for extra crunch, and some white rice. I shared some with my mom and her friend & still had more to pack lunches for the week. What’s great about this dish is it’s all the deliciousness of a pot roast without the heaviness.

Ingredients

  • 4 to 5lb Chuck Roast, cut into 3 in pieces
  • 1 TBSP Salt
  • 1 TBSP Canola or Vegetable Oil
  • 1 Sweet Onion, thinly sliced
  • 6 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped
  • 1 TBSP Fresh Grated Ginger
  • 2 TBSP Gochujang Paste
  • 1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
  • 1/2 Cup Soy Sauce
  • 2 Cups Beef Stock
  • Cooked Rice & Kimchi for serving

Let’s Get Cooking

Pat the beef dry and season with salt. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over MED-HIGH heat. Once the oil is hot, brown the meat on all sides in batches and transfer to a slow cooker.

Add the onions to the Dutch oven and cook until softened about 4 minutes. Add in the garlic + ginger and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add in 1/4 cup of beef stock and scrape up the browned bits. Transfer to the slow cooker.

To the slow cooker stir in the gochujang + brown sugar + soy sauce + remaining 2 Cups of Beef Stock. Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours.

Serve with cooked rice, cucumbers, and kimchi.

Made with Love,

Hannah

Brad’s Sourdough

Categories Fermentation, RecipesLeave a Comment on Brad’s Sourdough

We all know that I love Brad Leone, my sourdough starter is named after him. I got his new cookbook for Christmas and was excited to see that he shared his sourdough recipe. Brad’s recipe is completely different from Claire Saffitz recipe that I had been using from the New York Times. Brad’s recipe incorporates olive oil which brings out a fatty flavor that I love in the bread. Brad also doesn’t require you to knead the dough for 20 minutes, which my arms appreciate. If you’re making bread at all it’s increcibly important to have a kitchen scale.

Ingredients

You need a total of 1000g of flour, it can be of different types, but Brad notes it also can be 1000g of all the same

  • 700 g Bread Flour
  • 150g Rye Flour [I used whole wheat]
  • 150 Fine Italian Flour/type “00” [ I just used the bread flour again]
  • 750g Filtered, Room Temp Water
  • 15g Fine Salt
  • 30g Extra-Virgin Olive Oil [I had a little fun here and used my herbs de provence oil]
  • 150g Active Starter, fed the night before

Lets Get Cooking

Sift the flours together into a large bowl and mix in the water. You want the flours to autolyze which will help build up the gluten development. Make sure there is no dry flour left in the bowl. Cover and let sit for at least 30 minutes, you can let it sit for longer.

Once you’re done letting the flours autolyze, add salt + oil + starter to the flour mixture. Using your hands, knead the mixture into a smooth uniform ball. You can knead by gently pulling the dough and folding it over itself, or whatever kneading method works for you. Once you get the dough how you like it, place it back in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. This will begin the fermenting process. Be sure to leave the dough at room temperature.

Here’s the part where you need to watch.

Every 60 minutes during the fermenting process you’re going to have to ‘turn’ the dough. This is done by wetting your hands and pulling up a side of the dough and folding it over itself. Turn 90 degrees and complete these ‘turns’ on all 4 sides. After each turn, cover again and let the dough rest. Depending on how your dough is fermenting you may do 3 turns, you may do 6. Once you’ve noticed that the dough has about doubled in size in the bowl and has a light and airy texture.

Once your fermentation is done it’s time to shape and bake! Flour a surface and let the dough fall out. Cut the dough in half if you are making bread, if you are making pizza dough, cut it into 4 equal pieces. With a bench scraper, slide it under the dough and turn, making it into a ball almost. Have floured bowls ready to place the shaped dough back into it and cover. Flip the dough into the floured bowl so that the bottom of the loaf is facing up. You can refrigerate for a day, which I recommend. Or you can bake that day.

Preheat the oven to 500F and place the dutch oven with the lid on into the oven. Gently flip out the dough onto a floured piece of parchment paper. Cut the top of the dough so it can release steam while baking. Place the dough/parchment into the dutch oven, cover, lower the temp to 460F and bake for about 20-25 minutes. Remove the lid and then let bake for another 45 minutes.

Let sit for about an hour before cutting into it!

If you’re making pizza with the dough, follow along with my sourdough pizza recipe after making the dough!

Made with Love,

Hannah