Sourdough - Keeping and Feeding

A Sourdough man in a cup

I often use sourdough in my baking. I like the texture and flavor the sourdough give baked goods. I started using my sourdoughs 5 years ago, and they are still going strong. I was somewhat unsure how to start my sourdough, so I bought it online at KingArthurFlour.com. I divided it in two, feeding one with rye flour (for Danish rye bread) and one with whole wheat (for breads like Basic country bread a la Tartine). I bake with a young sourdough, which means it has fermented for about 8 hours, making for a mild flavor-profile. The longer the fermentation the more sour you bread becomes.

Many are afraid to bake with sourdough, because they have to maintain and feed it. But here are my tips and tricks to maintain a sourdough. 

Feeding:

Feed the starter every 2-3 weeks or about 8 hours before you need it for baking. If you bake everyday you don’t have to feed the sourdough before using.

If you have a liquid on top of the sourdough, discard this. If you mix it in, your sourdough get way to sour. Discard about half the sourdough before feeding, so you feed about ½-1 cup sourdough. I do not measure this. I just discard about half and do the feeding directly in the storage container.

Rye sourdough:                    

• ½-1 cup sourdough

• ½ cup dark rye flour

• ½ cup all-purpose flour

• 1 cup water

 Wheat sourdough:

• ½-1 cup sourdough

• ½ cup whole wheat flour

• ½ cup all-purpose flour

• 1 cup water

Directions:

Mix well, so all the flour is wet, let stand on the kitchen table for about 8 hour or overnight, fermenting. The sourdough will now be bubbling and smell kinda like beer. Now you can use the sourdough for baking, or store it in the refrigerator. 

When baking save about ½-1 cup of the fed sourdough for your next bake, this will be your new starter.

Keeping:

Keep the sourdough in the refrigerator in a closed container, double the size of the volume of the sourdough. The sourdough will keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks with no feeding. With the long rest in the refrigerator you will have a dark liquid on top, discard this before feeding. (This will keep the sourdough from becoming to acidic.)

If you think your sourdough is gotten too sour to your taste. Just feed the sourdough 2-3 days in a row. This will freshen up the sourdough, and eliminate the harsh acidity you might have in the sourdough. 

Generally I only use "young" sourdough, meaning a newly fed sourdough in my baking.

Rygeost - Danish Smoked Cheese

Rygeost - Danish Smoked Cheese

Rygeost, Danish smoked cheese is a local tradition from the island of Funen or Fyn as it is called in Denmark. Rygeost is a smoked fresh cheese, so it is a soft, and fairly spreadable cheese. You can use the cheese on pizza, in mayonnaise based salads or with seafood. But more traditionally you will eat it as an open-faced sandwich on a slice of rye bread, with sliced radishes and chives on top.

Ingredients:

• 1 quart (1 L) organic whole milk, I used Saint Benoît Organic Whole Jersey Milk
• ¼ cup (1 dl) organic butter milk
• 3 drops rennet, I used Animal Rennet from New England Cheesemaking Supply Co.
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds

Equipment for smoking:

• 1 charcoal starter (chimney)
• 2-3 handfuls dry straw (if you have straws from oat or wheat, you will get the best favor)

Directions:

In a large pot heat whole milk and buttermilk to 26℃/79℉. Pour the mixture into a scalded plastic container, mix in the rennet and put a lid on. Let the mixture stand at room temperature for 21-24 hours.

After 21-24 hours, cut the coagulated milk (cheese curds) with a knife in small cubes, this will help releasing the whey from the curds.

Scoop the cheese curds into a strainer/colander lined with cheesecloth. Let the cheese drain for 2 hours before adding the salt. Let the cheese drain for another 5-7 hours. The fresh cheese will hold for 3-4 days in the refrigerator without adding anything else. The whey (liquid) can be used for baking bread.

Smoking:

Place the cheese in a strainer or on some kind of grate. Place the grate on top of a charcoal starter (chimney) filled with dry straws/hay. Light the hay from the bottom of the starter, and smoke the cheese for just about 60 seconds. The cheese is quickly flashed with the hay smoke to produce the unique flavor. Place the cheese upside-down on a plate with the smoke-lines up. Sprinkle with caraway seeds.

Serve the smoked cheese on a slice of Danish rye bread with sliced radishes and chives.

Enjoy!

Tempering Chocolate

Dark chocolate:

Chop the chocolate finely, set just under ⅓ of the chocolate aside, and add the rest into a stainless steel bowl. Set the bowl on to a saucepan with very hot water. Let the chocolate melt while stirring. When the chocolate reaches 118-120℉ (48-49℃), take the bowl off the hot water. While stirring add the remaining chocolate in the warm chocolate. This will cool the chocolate. You need the temperature to cool to 80℉ (27℃). To make this process speed up, place the bowl in a bowl with ice-cold water for a short moment.   When the chocolate reaches 80℉ (27℃) put the bowl over the hot water again, and heat the chocolate to 88℉ (31℃), and now its ready to use for coating. It is Very important that the chocolate stays under 91.3℉ (33℃), if it does not, you need to start all over again.

TIP: If you keep an extra bowl with some warm chocolate, 118-120℉ (48-49℃), you can add small amounts of this, to the tempered chocolate if the temperature is getting to low while you are working with the chocolate.

Milk chocolate:  

You need to do the same steps with milk chocolate, as for the dark chocolate.

Heat to 116-118℉ (47-48℃)

Cool to  80℉ (27℃)

Reheat to 86℉ (30℃)

White chocolate:

You need to do the same steps with white chocolate, as for the dark chocolate. White chocolate is per definition not a real chocolate, 

Heat to 116-118℉ (47-48℃)

Cool to  80℉ (27℃)

Reheat to 84℉ (29℃)

How-to videos:

How to temper chocolate? Here is a video from CHOW, on how to do it. I also like this video, that gives you the science behind tempering chocolate. This warms a food chemists heart. ❤️

Hvordan temperer man chokolade? Her er en video fra Mette Blomsterberg, der viser hvordan hun gør. Blomsterberg køler ikke chokoladen til 27℃, for igen at opvarme chokoladen, til arbejdstemperaturen 31-33℃, som jeg ellers har lært. Men man må tro på at hun ved hvad hun gør. + jeg kan lide at hun har den lune chokolade klar, til at tilsætte lidt, for at holde temperaturen konstant, mens du arbejder med den.

Puff Pastry - Wienerbrødsdej

Danish with custard and jam aka a Spandauer.

Most americans knows what a danish pastry is. Going in to pastry shops in America, you'll find a cheese danish. But even though Danes like their cheese, they would never, as in Never Ever Ever put cheese in a pastry, or in a wienerbrød, as they are called in Denmark. Wienerbrød translated is a bread from Vienna. That style of pastry originates from Austria, and became very popular in Denmark. Danes like their sweets. 

The Danish pastry is a laminated yeast dough much like the French croissant. There are many ways to make this lamination. The amount of layers are different from country to country and from baker to baker. You get the  flaky layers by folding sheets of dough with butter. 

There are different kinds of folding. 

Letter fold: Dough folded in thirds, like you would do a letter going into an envelope. (I did that for this recipe.)

1. Turn: makes 3 layers of butter

2. Turn: makes 9 layers of butter

3. Turn: makes 27 layers of butter.

Book fold: Dough folded to the middle and folded again on the middle like a book. This makes 4 layers per fold or turn as they are called.

1. Turn: makes 4 layers of butter

2. Turn: makes 16 layers of butter

3. Turn: makes 64 layers of butter

Some people claim that any more layers than 3 turns using a letter fold, will make the dough like a brioche instead of providing the flaky layers. The 3 turns makes 27 layers. You can mix the folding methods to get the amount of layer you want.

I'm sure that it is possible to make the laminating with more layers. Even in a normal kitchen without special equipment. Next time I'll be making a book fold in the second turn, making it for 36 layers.

Makes 16 pastries. Recipe adapted from Kvalimad.dk.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 375 g all-purpose flour
• 200 ml milk
• 25 g live yeast or 2 teaspoons dry yeast
• 45 g sugar
• 50 g butter, salted and soft
• 1 egg

Butter block:

• 350 g butter, cold (use a european style butter, it contains less water, than the american butter)
• all-purpose flour for dusting

Remonce:

• 50 g butter
• 50 g sugar
• 50 g marzipan

Filling:

• vanilla custard 
• raspberry jam
• sugar
• chopped almonds
• Icing (confectionary sugar and water, made into a thick paste)

Directions:

Dough:

Heat the milk to lukewarm (99℉/37℃). Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk. Add the sugar. If using dry yeast, let the yeast wake up for about 5-10 minutes, until creating a foam on top. Incorporate the egg.

Mix in half of the flour, forming a sticky dough. Mix in the softened butter. Finally mix in the rest of the flour and knead the dough until you have at shiny, slightly sticky and elastic dough, for about 3-5 minutes.

Place the dough on a very lightly floured surface. Using a bench scraper and one hand, work the dough into a round. The tension will build as the dough achieves to the surface as you rotate it.

Place the dough back in the bowl and let it rise until doubled in size, for about 60 minutes.

Butter block: 

Place the cold butter on a well floured surface. With your palms press the butter a little flat. Using a rolling pin pound on the butter to flatten it. Fold the butte into its self, and keep pounding and folding until the butter has the same consistency as the dough. You want to end up with a 15x15 cm / 6x6 inch square of soft but still cold butter. If the butter is too warm or too hard, it will be hard to roll it out in the dough, and it might make holes in the dough, instead of the lamination.

Laminating:

Place dough  on a lightly floured surface, roll 4 wings out from the center, leaving a center (15x15 cm / 6x6 inch), the same size as the butter block.

Place the butter block over the center, fold the wings over the butter, making sure not getting too much flour in between the layers. Turn the dough over, so the seams are facing down.

Roll the dough to a rectangle, 3 times as long as the hight. Keep it lightly floured so the dough do not stick to the surface. Make sure to roll the dough with straight edges. This will ease the folding.

1. Turn: Fold the rectangle in thirds, like a letter. Now you have 3 layers of butter. Place the dough in the freezer for about 20 minutes to cool the butter again.

Repeat this 2 times, making 3 turns and ending up with 27 layers of butter. Let the dough rest on the kitchen counter for 10-20 minutes. (If your kitchen is warm, do the resting in the refrigerator.)

Now the dough is ready to use as a puff pastry for sweet or savory dishes.

If you want to make sweet pastries, you want to make the 3. Turn on a surface sprinkled with about 100 g granulated sugar, and sprinkle another 100 g granulated sugar on top. This will make the dough sweeter and more crispy.

Making Danish pastry/spandauer:

Remonce: 

Mix the sugar and marzipan well. Add butter little by little until it’s just incorporated.  Be careful not to over mix or the remonce will be runny when baked.

Roll the dough out to a 40x40 cm / 15¾x15¾ inch square. Try to make the  edges as straight as possible. Divide the dough into 16 smaller squares.

Place a teaspoon remonce in the middle of each small square. Bring all four corners to the center and press down firmly on the top of the center of the dough. Each pastry has a small dent in the middle. Brush the pastries with egg wash (egg and water or milk, whisked together), and sprinkle with sugar. Place a heap teaspoon of custard or some raspberry jam in the dent, sprinkle some chopped almonds round the filling.  

Let the pastries rise covered until doubled in size, about 30-60 minutes.

Baking:

Preheat oven to 400℉ (200℃). And bake the pastries for about 20-25 minutes, until deep golden brown and crispy.

When cooled completely, drizzle some icing round the center.

Enjoy!

This post has been submitted to YeastSpotting

Tips:

The unbaked pastry can be frozen just, after shaping, individually, and can be baked straight out of the freezer, just add about 5 more minutes to the baking time.

Roasted Garlic

Roasted Garlic

If you have followed my blog, you might have discovered that I really really like garlic. My life would not be complete without my loved ones, red wine, garlic, bread, cheese and maybe even bacon. 

Roasted garlic is addictive, it's a healthy kind of crack cocaine. You should be aiming for a lighter color on the garlic, because the dark caramelized garlic is bitter, but my phone rang just as they were perfect, and the 2 minutes later they were caramelized. I squeezed the soft sweet garlic out of the bulb, and cut of the brown parts. And ohh what a taste. Just spread the soft garlic on a piece of toasted bread or crostini. If served with a great glass of wine, you might hear the angels sing.

Ingredients:

• 5-6 garlic bulbs
• 5-6 teaspoons olive oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375℉ (190℃). Cut off the top quarter of the garlic bulb to just reveal the single cloves. Lightly rub each bulb, so you only leave 1 layer "paper" round the garlic. Pour about a teaspoon of olive oil on top of each garlic bulb and let it sit to soak for about 10 minutes.

Place the garlic bulbs in a baking dish. Cover the garlics with foil and roast them for 30-45 minutes, or until light-golden brown, and the garlic is soft and spreadable. Let the garlic cool for a few minutes, so you can handle them. Squeeze from the bottom of the garlic head to release sweet soft baked garlic.

Enjoy!