Adventures with Sourdough (I)

Sourdough has long been one of my absolute favourite breads (tied with dark rye, if you're interested). Give me a couple slices of sourdough, some cheese and a cup of coffee, and I am a very happy girl :) If forced to choose my last meal, it would probably be something along those lines (a bold statement, but one I stand by, nonetheless). So when I saw the sourdough recipe in my new favourite bread cookbook, Paul Hollywood's 'How to Bake', I knew I had to try it.

I've been wanting to experiment with bread starters for ages, but have always been put off because they seem like so much extra work, and rather time consuming. I'm not going to lie - they are a bit of extra work, and they are more time consuming, but definitely not enough to have warranted my prolonged hesitation. I've also long been wary of steaming my home oven, which bread bakers always suggest for the nice crusts you get on baguettes. For some inexplicable reason, I'm always waiting for things to explode in my face (even when I'm not in the kitchen - it made the chemistry bit of my PhD extra challenging...), and steaming my home oven has always seemed like a recipe for disaster.

Making the starter and using it in the Sourdough Baguette recipe that follows was a really great learning experience - it was just difficult/fiddly enough to be challenging without being stressful, and I felt the finished product was supposed to be rustic enough looking to be forgiving of little handling failings. All in all, it's definitely given me the confidence to bake more with starters and to steam bread, which is what I really wanted out of this (as well as a rather amazing sourdough, which this also, fortunately, provided).

*This is a multi-day process, so give yourself a week(ish) from creating your starter to baking the bread at the end. None of the steps in themselves are particularly time consuming, it's just lots of waiting, so don't be put off by the time frame!

Day 1

Sourdough Starter
1 kg strong white bread flour
360 mL lukewarm water
1 apple, cored and grated
(make sure your apple's organic/clean - you don't want any craziness in your bread!)

Day 1: Mix 500 g flour, water and the grated apple together very well in a bowl. Store in an airtight container, marking the height of the mixture on the outside (so you can monitor its growth). Cover in a tea-towel and leave in a cupboard for 3 days.

Day 4: Your starter should have grown if not twice, then at least a third bigger, and have some great fermenty bubbles at the top. It might stink (the fermenting apple smell is initially rather awful, but I promise it goes away by the time you use the starter). It will also be very runny, almost like a pancake batter consistency at this point. Give the mix a stir, and then discard half of it (I know it hurts to do this - it took me a while to come to terms with it too). Feed the mix by adding 250 g strong white bread flour, 170 mL water and mix well. Seal and cover again, leaving it in the cupboard for another 2 days.

Day 3

Day 4

 Day 6: Your starter should have grown again - if it doesn't look any higher than the mark level, check the sides for evidence of smearing dough, as it could have already risen and sunk back. Give the mix another stir (again, forgetting about the smell!) and discard half of it. Add another 250 g strong white bread flour, 170 mL tepid water and mix well. Seal and cover again, leaving it in the cupboard for 1 day.

Day 6

Day 7: This time, when you open the container, your starter should smell more like apple cider. If you don't see bubbles or evidence of rising and sinking, your starter may not be fully mature yet. Add some more flour and water to return it to a thick pancake batter consistency, mix it well and let sit, covered, for another 24 hours. If there are bubbles, or evidence of rising/sinking along the sides, your starter is ready to use! Congratulations!

Day 7

Day 7 - ready to use!

From this point on, you can store the starter in the fridge, as that slows the growth and you don't have to feed it as much. If you have friends interested in sourdoughs, you can give them some of the starter now too, as it's mature and ready to use. Just keep in mind that you'll need between 250 - 500 g starter for many recipes, so make sure you keep enough in there. Also, bring the starter out of the fridge about 24 hours (ish) before you plan to use it so that it can come completely to room temperature prior to use.

Sourdough Baguettes (makes 3)
250 g sourdough starter
375 g strong white bread flour (plus more for dusting)
175 - 225 mL lukewarm water
7 g salt
olive oil for kneading

1. Combine starter, flour and water in a large bowl, mixing until a sticky dough has formed and pulled in all the flour from the sides of the bowl.

2. Tip the dough out onto an oiled surface and knead for about 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Lightly oil the bowl, return the dough to it and turn to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to sit at room temperature for 5 hours, or until doubled in size.

3. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently fold in half repeatedly, until the air is gone from the mix. Divide into 3 equal portions (each will be about 300 g), and gently shape each into sausages about 20 - 30 cm long. *This is a runny dough, so I suggest you flour your hands before handling it, and don't press too hard - the dough doesn't bounce back as quickly as, say, a whole wheat dough.

4. Cover a large cutting board/baking sheet with a tea towel and apply lots of flour to the towel. Transfer the baguette to the covered board (don't worry too much if it doesn't keep it's shape - you can fix it on the board), then place the board into a large plastic bag (I used a clear recycling bag). Fill the bag with air and then clip/seal it to keep the air in. Then let the bread prove for 12 hours, or until doubled in size.

5. Fill and boil a kettle and preheat your oven to 210C (410F), with a rack in the middle and a large empty roasting tray on the bottom. While the oven's heating, transfer your baguette to a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.

I found this part rather tricky, to be honest, as evidenced in my first photo here - the dough is runny and difficult to handle without pulling and causing it to lose its shape entirely. So what I ended up doing for baguettes 2 and 3 was gently rolling the sides in, and then roll the dough right off the board onto the baking tray. By first rolling the sides in, I was able to a) minimize the exposed unfloured/sticky surface area, b) reshape the baguette into a tighter roll, and c) get flour all over myself and the counter. It was a win-win, really!

6. Just before you put the tray in the oven, fill the roasting pan about 2/3 full with hot water. Make three large diagonal cuts along the top of the baguette, and then put the tray in and bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

*After 5 - 10 minutes, check that the water hasn't evaporated completely from the pan. If it has (only after 5 minutes, don't open the oven door in the first 5 minutes), carefully open the oven (it's full of steam, so don't burn yourself!) and fill the pan 2/3 full again. Keep an eye on the water level throughout the bake, filling when necessary.

And that's it! I know it seems fiddly and time consuming, but I promise that it's worth it - the crust on this bread was exactly, exactly right, and the sourdough taste was perfect. Thank you Paul!!

New Look / MIA

For the last year or so I've tried to figure out exactly what I want to get out of this blog...I still have no idea if it's worth doing, but I'm still enjoying it (on those rare occasions that I actually post something), so I'll keep at it. But I felt it needed a change - hence the change in title and overall appearance.

Tilfeldigheten is a Norwegian word meaning randomness, which I think, a) is a great word, and b) better sums up this blog than the previous title. Since I still can't decide exactly what direction to take this, 'randomness' seems appropriate! Also, I'm learning Norwegian, and this is one way I can use it :)

My family is Norwegian, and I visited Norway for the first time in May and fell in love with the whole country! I'm determined to go back as soon as possible, and when I do I want to be able to communicate in Norwegian (even though everyone I met spoke better English than I did).

And just a quick update on my MIA status, which will hopefully change soon - I'm in the last month of writing my thesis. This craziness is almost over, and I can't wait!! So the MIA status is partly because I'm busy, and also partly because I've not really done much worth writing about for the last couple of months (unless you want to read about me staring at my computer screen trying to figure out the physical reasons why two datasets are statistically different from each other). I am very ready to move on!

I've got some good recipes / baking posts coming up though (because while there's not always time to write them up, there is always time to procrastinate with baking). I've just made a sourdough starter, so we'll see where that goes, and I've got amazing recipes for cinnamon rolls and foccaccia!

In the meantime, here's a photo from the aforementioned trip to Norway (at a bakery. Obviously.).

English Countryside

Before leaving Swansea, I took a bunch of photos of all the lab equipment I used so that a) I would be able to tell if my lab partner moved my stuff in order to encroach on my space (I would do the same to him, so this is really more me being both a hypocrite AND proactively indignant. Look! Multitasking!), and b) when I was writing up my thesis and realised I forgot to write down the make/model of, for example, the gas chromatograph, I would have a photo of said chromatograph on hand to save the day. I am not normally this proactive nor this organised, so I'm rather pleased with myself for this endeavor.

Anyway! The point is, I was looking for a photo today for my thesis, and in the process I stumbled across these photos, which I'd completely forgotten about, but which make me so happy every time I see them. I'm pretty sure I haven't shared them anywhere yet, so I figured I'd put them up here. They were taken last summer. I was at an infrared spectroscopy workshop in Gerrard's Cross (try to contain your enthusiasm), and decided that after the workshop I was going to walk to Cookham, a town about 5 1/2ish hours (walking) southwest of GC. And so I did - thank goodness it didn't rain! And I had a lovely, lovely day - I followed this route, approximately, and so wandered through Egypts Wood and the Burnham Beeches, passing a lot of gorgeous English countryside and horses and ending up at the Thames in Cookham, which is a really cute town. I spent the next morning in there before heading off to meet my friend Angie, so I killed time by heading over to Clivedon, a National Trust house (love National Trust houses) about 20 minutes away.

The whole trip (even the workshop, amazingly) was a lot of fun, and made me fall a little bit more in love with the UK. Added bonus: I felt very much like a hobbit. All I was missing was a walking stick.

On to the photos!
*Warning: lots of flowers/inanimate objects and very few (no) people

Fresh blackberries along the path

  One of the reasons I love National Trust houses - weirdest / great food! All I wanted was a cheese platter and some crackers, and lo and behold! Thank you National Trust.

Ok - geeky photo here, but the soil is all chalky! So yes, this is a soil face, but still! Cool, yes?! (Just say yes)

This is the photo I had been looking for, by the way!

 

Oatcakes and Veggie Soup

I've been eating a lot of soup lately - partly because it's cheap to make and partly because my kitchen, while technically stocked, is not really stocked for people who like to cook or bake much (fair enough, many don't). So I have two medium saucepans and two frying pans and a massive tart dish. But that's about it, really, so I'm somewhat limited in what I can make. 

Now this hasn't been an issue so far, really, because I should be working most of the time. But every once in a while I need to make something with flour and butter or I'll go out of my mind. Today that madness resulted in these: oatcakes. Perfect, because they require no rising agent (which I've not bought because I knew I wouldn't be baking much), you only need a griddle, and they're great with soup!

My soups have become kind of catch-alls for any vegetables I have sitting in the fridge. Today I had garlic, onions, carrots, leeks, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes and squash (an orange squash they sell in these packs of soup produce here, but I don't know what kind of squash it is). Cook them all in 2 tbsp olive oil until the carrots start to soften and the leeks and onions go translucent. Add 2 cubes of chicken/vegetable stock directly to the vegetables and then add enough water to cover. Season with salt, pepper, and chili (I've been using piri piri since I've been here, which has worked well) and simmer until the squash is soft. Blend with a hand blender until you get the consistency you like and serve!

As for the oatcakes, I made these a tiny bit thicker than the store bought versions, and they came out as kind of a cross between oatcakes and American biscuits. And while they are quite nice all warm and covered in honey or served with cheese, you don't actually need anything with them - they're great just on their own.

 

Oatcakes (from BBC Food)
Makes about 16
110 g (~1 c.) plain flour
110 g (~1 c.) oats (plus more for the board)
55 g   (~1/4 c.) butter
1 tsp salt
cold water (few tbsp)

1 egg
1 tsp white sugar
1 tsp milk

Combine the flour, oats and salt in a bowl and mix well. Rub the butter into the dry mixture until it's crumbly, then add just enough cold water to bring the dough together into a ball.

Cover the counter or a board with oats and press the dough out until it's about 1 cm thick. Cut into circles using a scone cutter (or a cup - no scone cutters in a house with no baking sheets!).

Beat the egg, sugar and milk together to make a glaze. 

Preheat an ungreased frying pan over medium heat. Add the oatcakes to the griddle and immediately spread one side with the glaze. Bake, without flipping, until the glaze has turned glossy and the cakes are very light golden brown (about 5 minutes, depending on thickness).

If you've never had oatcakes before, you should definitely try them. I've never noticed them in Canadian grocery stores, but I wouldn't have looked for them before moving to the UK. They've definitely become a staple since living here. Try them with cheese/smoked salmon/cucumber or have them warm with honey - so good!

Portugal: The Sequel, and Imposter Syndrome

This time last year I was considering maybe doing an exchange to Portugal, but wasn't completely sold on the idea. And now I've been here for a month! Only two months left here now and then I'm away again...it's a bit crazy, really, how fast time goes and how much can change in what feels like a short time. 

 

Portugal has been lovely so far - it's really nice to be somewhere new again and to experience a new city and to be able to go back to cities like Lisbon and Porto and recognize things and remember what was good. The language barrier, which I keep meaning to diminish and yet never seem to find time to put much effort towards, makes things challenging sometimes, but overall it's been alright. I've got the basics down anyway - glass of wine, please, cup of coffee, cup of coffee with milk, and yes. What more do I need, really?

I'm supposed to be writing my thesis here, and it's been going fairly well, but I'm having THE hardest time concentrating today...hence this post. And the random instagram updates of food and espresso cups. I promise to Perhaps one day I'll take a picture of something inedible, just to mix things up a bit!

Some friends from Swansea were just here for a visit, and it was so nice to catch up again and have some conversations beyond the basic niceties, you know? I think because I know I'm going to be here for only three months I'm not making much of an effort to get to know people very well. Which I realise is a bit ridiculous, but it's also a bit easier to work on the thesis if I'm not frequently tempted by socialness. So it's probably for the best. In any case, the self-imposed solitude definitely made it all the nicer to see good friends again...

It's odd - working (or not working, as is the case at this moment) on this thesis has me both terrified and excited. Excited because I can't wait for a change - I love trying something new and moving to a new place, meeting new people, learning new things and all of that kind of stuff, and excited for that completely free feeling you get when you're able to move on from something that's been hanging over you for literally years. But I've discovered that I'm also totally scared - scared that I won't finish, scared that if I do finish it will be horrible and people will think that I have no idea what I'm talking about, scared that I won't find something to do afterwards, and rather terrified of finding a job outside of academia and sucking at it. Apparently what I feel is called imposter syndrome, according the Globe and Mail, although I have a feeling it's more just me being ridiculous. Still, it's nice to be able to assign a name to those feelings when I'm being self-critical.

Anyway, I'm sure it'll be fine - the thesis will get done, I know. And I'm too excited about too many things to be horrible at all of them! It's statistically impossible (well, not impossible, but definitely improbable) - so I'm bound to find something after this that I can do well and enjoy. At the very least I can work at Starbucks, and I'd probably love it. I hear they even give their employees free coffee - imagine the flood of instagram photos :)

Procrastinating / Random Baking

I actually haven't done as badly as I thought I would - I expected the working from home and thesis related frustration to bring on a lot more baking than this! But it helps that it's January (aka universal diet month), and so my efforts would have been poorly received. Therapeutic for me, but not for anyone else. So instead I have limited myself to only 3 things since Christmas, and all were baked for company-related purposes: lavender shortbread (the recipe's here - you should try it!), zucchini loaf (my long standing go-to recipe when I want to bake something not too sweet but still treat-ish), and something new! Orange cardamom madeleines! (I haven't changed anything from the incomparable Martha Stewart's recipes, so I've just linked to them here rather than type them out).

The first time I had madeleines was also the first time I had a lavender baked good, and both are now serious baking addictions for me. Anyway, my first madeleine was from the Duchess Bakeshop in Edmonton - an amazing bakery that my friends and I waited in line to get into the first week it opened (a European bakery opening in the land of coffee and donuts is worth waiting in line for!) and then proceeded to linger at our table long enough to try new items as they were brought out. That was a wholly unhealthy but fantastically pleasant day :)

I've since started making my own madeleines, and I've found that they're fairly versatile and really easy. I usually make them with lavender, and I think they're still my favourite, but I've also made lavender-lemon and rose water versions, both of which turned out quite nicely. I came across this Martha Stewart recipe though, and was excited to try the cardamom-orange combination. The orange glaze gives the madeleienes a really nice finish, making them more of a dessert than a biscuit/tea cake, but I think, actually, they'd be just as nice without the glaze and with the orange zest (not the juice - just the zest) mixed directly into the batter. Also, I had some trouble at the beginning finding a proper madeleine tin, but I did end up finding one at Lakeland. Since buying mine though, I've noticed them in fairly random places, like the hardware store in Mumbles. Go figure.

Just out of the oven...

Without orange glaze

With orange glaze

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! This holiday season has flown past - almost to the point where it never quite felt like Christmas, despite my mother's best efforts to replicate Santa's workshop in our living room...

The past few months have been so busy that I haven't had much time to properly keep up with most people. So just in case you weren't one of the lucky few forced listened to me moan about how stressed I was, here's a brief (moan-free!) review of the past few months. 

I've finally finished all the lab work for my PhD! I had funding for three years, and that funding finished at the end of December, so from the end of October until just before Christmas I've been scrambling to make sure I have enough data for a decent thesis. I think I've been successful, but we'll see how decent the thesis is soon enough! Either way, I've finished everything I can do in Swansea, and I'm feeling pretty good about it all. 

Unfortunately, no more funding means I had to move out of my lovely little place in Mumbles, and say goodbye (for now!) to some amazing friends. We did manage to get in a few weekend visits before I left though, filled with brunches, Thanksgiving dinners, and some great walks along the Gower. Still, it's never easy saying goodbye, even when you've known it's coming. The nice thing about academia, and academia friends, is that you stand a very good chance of seeing them again at conferences or meetings (and the mandatory tourist time tacked on to the end of said conferences and meetings!), so goodbyes are mostly temporary.

So now I'm home, having come back to my parents place for Christmas, and I'll be here for all of January, holed up in their basement with many pots of tea, analysing my data and thesisizing like a madwoman. It's been a year since I've been back, so coming home and seeing everyone has been amazing. Christmas-busy, but amazing!

The only difficult part of coming home is answering the question 'what's next?'. Partly because I feel like there's still so much to do with the PhD (this thesis isn't going to write itself!), and partly because I've never been one to have a solid plan, I find this question ridiculously difficult. But I do have a fairly nomadic six month plan - ready for it?!

I promised myself I'd take the week between Christmas and New Year's off, but now I'm back to work, organising my next random life event - Portugal! I got some funding a few months ago to do some work in Portugal for 3 months, so I'll be living there from February 1 until April 30, doing some labwork related to my PhD and continuing to write up my thesis. I can't wait! I visited Portugal last February and while it was a bit nerve-wracking (it was my first time visiting a country where English wasn't always the first language), I found the country and the culture really interesting, so I can't wait to go back. I'm going to get some Portuguese language CDs from the library and try to learn a little bit before I go so I can at least attempt a broken conversation with the locals. Wish me luck - languages are not my strength!

After Portugal there's a family trip to Norway in May that I'm beyond excited about, and then a conference in Iceland I'm attending at the end of May. And then I'm back in Swansea to defend my thesis in June. If all goes well I should be back in Canada (for good?) sometime in July. And that's when the plan ends...

It all sounds crazy, especially for a girl who never cared too much while growing up about leaving North America, but I think traveling abroad has been the best thing I've ever done. It can be frustrating and tiring sometimes, but in the best ways. And you meet so many amazing people and see so many great things that it makes all the challenges worth it. 

Anyway, that's all for now. I expect now that I'm thesisizing I'll blog a bit more in an effort to procrastinate, and I have some great recipes from Christmas/New Years that must be shared, but for now I'll just say that I hope your Christmas was wonderful and Happy 2013!