Chocolate brownies

 

Introduction

I never understood the attraction to chocolate brownies until I found this recipe - and now I get it. Very rich and soft with a nice crusty outside. It is heavily based on the recipe in the Modern Sordough cookbook by Michelle Eshkeri. 

Ingredients

Stage 1

• 125g active sourdough starter
• 200g flour (white or rye)
• 250g eggs (about 4 whole eggs plus an egg yolk)
• 100g caster sugar

Stage 2

• 200g butter
• 500g dark chocolate (2 large blocks of Whittakers dark)

Stage 3

• 77g caster sugar
• 265g brown sugar
• 70g cocoa
• 5g vanilla essence
• 3g baking soda

Method.

Mix the stage one ingredients together and leave in a warm place for an hour or 2.

Melt stage two ingredients together in a double boiler or the microwave, mix well and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees.

Add the stage 2 ingredients to stage 1 and then add the stage 3 ingredients and whisk until well combined. (I use a cash mixer).

Pour into a large swiss roll tin, lined with baking paper, and bake for 35 mins until no longer raw in the middle. When you bring it out of the oven dust with icing sugar.

Delicious eaten when warm but keeps well in a sealed container for a few days. 

Sourdough Pancakes

Intro

So you will have figured out that I am in love with sourdough and have quite a repertoire now of recipes to use up discarded starter - including these pancakes.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sourdough starter
• 1.5 cups milk
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons oil

Method

Sift dry ingredients together, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix together. Cook in 1/4 cup dollops on a greased, hot cast iron pan. When bubbles have appeared flip the pancake over for a further minute or so until cooked. 

Sourdough Bread

Intro

In 2018 I was off work for awhile because I had a PE. In my boredom I started a sourdough from scratch out at Waitarere Beach. I have had that starter ever since and still find it a miracle that from 'fresh air' I was able to make a lively yeasty thing that with only flour, water and salt makes gorgeous bread for about 50c a loaf. 

Maintaining the Starter

The starter needs to be fed every 12 hours.

To feed the starter weigh it then take out what you need for baking (see bread recipe below, cracker recipe or pancake recipe or chocolate brownie recipe.. You need to save a minimum of 140g of starter to be going on with.
Generally I feed my starter with its equal weight so for 140g of starter I add 70g of strong bread flour (high grade) and 70ml of almost luke warm water. You can change the formula if you prefer a wetter starter so 60g of flour and 80ml of water. If you want to grow the starter faster then add 140g of flour and 140ml of water to the 140g of starter.  Stir it well, doesn't matter if its a bit lumpy, then place in a sealed glass jar on a bench etc but out of direct sun and head.

If I am planning on baking that day I feed it at 7am and can then use it to bake from about 11am - 2pm.

The starter can keep in the fridge for a week. If you want to cook on Saturday then get it out and feed it Friday night and Saturday morning.

Sourdough Bread 

3 sizes are shown below depending on how much starter you want to use:

• 130 / 260 or 390 grams of sourdough starter
• 25 / 50 or 75 grams of rye flour*
• 25 / 50 or 75 grams of wholemeal flour*
• 250 / 500 / 750 grams of strong bread flour (high grade)
• 1.25 / 2.5 / 3.75 teaspoons of salt
• 250 / 500 or 750 mls of lukewarm water (approx)

* Ideally - but you can just use plain flour so: 300g/600g/900g of plain flour instead of the 3 flours.  

Place all ingredients except the salt in a mixer with a dough hook and mix for a couple of minutes until a raggy dough. Cover mixer with a towel and leave to autolyse for 30 mins at least but up to an hour or two. Then add the salt and mix for 5 minutes or more until it is a smooth mix. It will be looser than a hand kneaded dough (and you could do this by hand). 

Tip into an oiled bowl, cover with glad wrap. Every 30 minutes or so get your hands into it and lift, stretch and fold the dough over itself several times.  If you can do this 3 or 4 times it makes a good difference. This stretches the gluten. Leave the dough to double in size. This will take a long time.  If I make it at 11am it might not have doubled until 3pm. This is because of the natural yeast. My favourite way is to leave it to rise overnight in the fridge.  This also makes the next step heaps easier.

Once it has doubled in size push it down then portion it out shaping it into oiled tins or make cobs. You want to stretch the shape over itself and under to create a tension on the top.  (Find a video on You Tube for this step - its really hard to explain.)  Pop into tins or a bannetton, sprinkle with flour and leave to rise again. Ideally you really want to do one of the rises slowly in the fridge.

Preheat your oven to 250c. Place an empty dish into the oven with about a cup of water in it. Slash the tops of the risen loafs several times using a razor blade.

Place the loafs in the oven, along with the dish with water, and bake for 40 minutes, dropping the temperature down to 220c for the last 20 mins if the loaves have browned too much. Remove from tins and cool on a rack. Sourdough keeps really well and also freezes well.

Notes and variations

• I use the 390g of starter recipe and place it in 2 loaf tins. The dough fills 2/3rds of tin and rises to the top. This produces a big loaf great for slicing and toast.
• I sometimes spread dough out into a big lamington tray and make focacia. eg stud it with cubes of cheese and teaspoons of onion marmalade, or olives and cheese, pushed into the dough. Once the dough rises brush it with oil and sprinkle with Maldon sea salt or herbs.
• You are not supposed to use a tin for sourdough and I have used a baneton quite successfully, cooking the cob in a preheated Dutch oven works the best. 
• Replacing a quarter of the flour with seeds works really well: sunflower, pumpkin, linseed and sesame is a good mix. 
• Walnuts, apricots, raisins and mixed spice.
• For paprika and cheese bread make a thick slurry with olive oil and paprika (3 tablespoons of paprika) and on one of the last folding steps spread the dough out flat and brush the paprike oil on and top with a cup of grated cheese. Then do the last folding steps to swirl the paprika through. Carry on as normal. 

Sourdough Crackers

Ingredients

• 1 cup leftover sourdough starter
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 ozs room temperature butter
• 2 tblsps dried herbs

• olive oil
• Maldon sea salt or coarse salt
  

Method

Combine first 5 ingredients into a cohesive, not sticky, dough (I used a dough hook in my mixer).
Divide into 2 and place each on baking paper with plastic wrap on top.  Roll into a thin rectangle. Place in fridge and chill for at least an hour.

Remove top sheet of plastic and place the baking paper with dough on it onto an oven tray. Roll out to 1/16th of an inch thick. Cut into squares, or 1 cm wide 'straws', brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Prick each square a couple of times with a fork.

Bake at 180 deg C for 25 mins changing sheets over half way through cooking. For the last 5 mins watch carefully and remove the crackers from the edges as they brown evenly. The middle ones take longer.

* 1/2 a cup of very finely grated strong cheese can be added to dough or sprinkled on top.