Bread Archives - Page 9 of 11

Pulled pork on sourdough hamburger buns

August 31, 2017 15 Comments

Pulled pork in sourdough hamburger buns

I was looking through my cookbooks, trying to find some inspiration for the weekend dinners. When I found pulled pork on hamburger buns, I knew I had found the perfect meal for the Saturday evening. It takes some time to cook pulled pork, but most of the time it takes care of itself. You just have to add some wood chips and checking the temperature now and then. The rest of the time you can just relax in a comfortable chair drinking a beer or whatever you prefer to do.

The recipe was written by Jonas Cramby, a popular food writer here in Sweden. He has no formal chef training, I think. But he has a genuine food knowledge that he writes about with a humorous twist.
The recipe for pulled pork in this post is almost a copy of the one in his book. I just decided to replace some of the chili powder with some smoked paprika in the BBQ sauce.

There was a recipe for hamburger buns in his book as well. I decided not to copy that recipe. It was nothing wrong with it. I’m sure it tastes great and fulfills its function, but it was baked with instant yeast.
And I am a typical sourdough guy. I know that you will always get bread with more taste if you bake it with a sourdough starter than if you use commercial yeast. Therefore, I always try to replace the yeast with a sourdough starter if possible.

You can find a lot of good recipes for sourdough buns, but I wanted to do something that was my own.
A good hamburger bread should be light, soft and airy. At the same time, it must be able to withstand some meat juices without getting soggy. I wanted a brioche type of bun. But not too much brioche, so I decided not to go overboard with the butter. Feel free to experiment with the amount of butter, but whatever you do, don’t use margarine. It’s a grisly invention. Remember what Anthony Bourdain said. Margarine is not food for humans.
Milk, on the other hand, is excellent food, and it is also the secret to get soft bread. Most of the times you don’t want a soft crust on your sourdough bread, but hamburger buns is an exception. So I used equal parts water and milk for this recipe.

Bread

Swedish crispbread

July 6, 2017 2 Comments

Swedes have a special relationship with their crispbread. I’m talking about the traditional crispbread, baked on rye. You find it in 85% of all households in Sweden compared with 8% of French ones.
And that’s not so strange. After all, the crispbread originated from Sweden. It dates back to the 5th century. That is even before the Vikings began to go the rest of Europe on their nerves.

If you visit Sweden, you will encounter it everywhere. Hotel, lunch restaurants, and even in coffee shops sometimes. Swedes simply have trouble imagining a life without crispbread.
I remember when I was a kid and would visit Spain for the first time. The trip went to the Canary Islands off the African west coast. I had never been so far away. Neither had my parents. Therefore, they brought some packets of crispbread. They thought it would be impossible o buy something so typical Swedish so far away.
Imagine their surprise when they realized that it was possible to buy Swedish crispbread in most grocery stores where we were living. The Canary Islands had been a popular tourist destination for quite a while, and the Spaniards had learned what we Swedes are missing on our vacation.

But why is it so deeply entrenched in the Swedish food culture? It tastes good, but so does other food also. Like Swedish meatballs for example. Nevertheless, most Swedes do not have any need to bring meatballs on holiday (I say most because there are probably some).
Perhaps it’s because you can always rely on Crispbread. When the sourdough bread has begun to mold or become stale or dry, the crispbread will always be there for you as a dear old friend who won’t disappoint you. It’s very rare that crispbread mold, and it’s supposed to be dry. You can count on it.

Traditional Crispbread is baked on whole rye, but for this recipe, we will add some whole wheat to the dough, and spread seeds and flake salt on top to make it a little more exciting. I have used the following combinations:

Pumpkin kernels and flaxseeds.
Sesame seed and flake salt.
Polenta and flake salt.
Anise seeds and flake salt. (My favorite.)

Sometimes it’s tricky to get it crispy enough. Even if it has been in the oven long enough and starts to get a dark brown color, there can still be a hint of sogginess. Don’t worry. It doesn’t mean that you have failed. Just let the crispbread cool of completely. At least an hour. Is it still soggy? No problem. Just place the bread in the oven for a few more minutes. That will usually do the trick.

There are two other things to keep in mind.
When you roll out the dough, make sure to make it thin. It should not be thicker than 2 mm. (How much is that transformed to inches? 1/12 0r 0.08 perhaps. )
You can also reduce the air bubbles by pricking the dough with a fork before the final rise.

This recipe provides a crispbread with strong rye flavor despite the addition of wheat flour. Just like traditional crispbread should taste. You can serve it with all kind of food, or as snacks to the drink. Or why not with just a dollop of your homemade sour cream butter.

Swedish crispbread

Traditional crispbread baked on rye and whole wheat. Carefully flavored with seeds and flake salt. Eat it with all kind of food, or as snacks to the drink. Or why not with just a dollop of butter.

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Cuisine Swedish

Ingredients

500 gram water
20 gram honey
15 gram yeast fresh
100 gram sourdough starter rye or wheat
250 gram whole wheat flour
550 gram whole rye flour
20 gram sea salt
4 gram bicarbonate (baking soda)

Instructions

Mix all ingredients except toppings. Knead the dough for 5 minutes.
Divide the dough in two and wrap the pieces with cling film. Place the dough in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
Take out the dough from the refrigerator at least two hours before it's time to bake.
Flour your working surface and roll out the dough thinly, not thicker than 2 mm.
Prick the dough with a fork. About 1 inch/2.5 cm between each mark.
Brush lightly with water a spread with preferred seeds and flake salt.
Sprinkle some rye flour and cut into desired form and size. A pizza cutter works fine.
Place the pieces on baking plates and let them rise for 40 minutes.
Preheta your oven to 390ºF / 200ºC.
Bake for 10-15 minutes.
Let cool for at leats an hour.

Notes

This is a hybrid version of crisp bread, meaning I have used both fresh yeast and baking soda together with sourdough starter. If you want to use sourdough starter only, that works fine. Just add 50 gram starter and take it out from the refrigerator 3-4 hours before you roll it out.

Keyword crisp bread

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Bread

Sourdough Focaccia with salt and rosemary

March 2, 2017 8 Comments

The good thing with sourdough Focaccia is that you can put almost anything on top of it. Olives, tomatoes, salami, you name it. It’s almost like a pizza. Some say that focaccia is the precursor to pizza. I won’t argue with that.
This bread is dating all the way back to ancient Rome. So, please approach it with some respect. Something we should do with all the great food by the way.
I decided not to use a dough mixer for this recipe. Remember that in ancient Rome, they had no dough mixer, but they still managed to bake Foccacia. You can use the stretch and fold technique described here instead.

The dough for sourdough Focaccia reminds much of pizza dough, with high-protein wheat flour and olive oil. Most recipes out there are based on yeast, and I won’t lie to you. It’s easier with yeast. But I don’t think they had yeast in ancient Rome, so therefore I want to bake with a sourdough starter. Feel free to call me a geek if you want to. I won’t disagree. But I do think that sourdough starter beats yeast most of the time. Not always, but most of the time.

Day 1. Mixing the dough

I mixed a levain and let it ferment overnight, approx. 8 hours. I also mixed the rest of the flour and the water and let it autolyze. 8 hours is quite a long autolyze, but with the high amount of strong flour, it works.

Day 2. Mixing the dough

As you can see in the picture above, the dough had developed a lot of gluten in the morning. I added the levain, oil, and salt and incorporated them into the dough by pinching it with my hand.

I placed the dough in a well-oiled kitchen bowl and wrapped cling film over it.

Bulk Fermentation

The required time for bulk fermentation depends entirely on the surrounding temperature. I let the dough ferment at room temperature for five hours at room temperature, about 72 ºF/22 ºC. It should increase noticeably in size, and if you can see bubbles on top of the dough, it’s a good sign.

Shaping

On the pictures, you can see how I pressed out the gasses from the dough and folded it. After that, I started to form it into a rectangle fitting into the stainless steel tray. I oiled the tray thoroughly with olive oil and placed the dough into it. I pressed the fingertips through the dough in some places and brushed more olive oil on the surface. Don’t skimp on the oil. Real focaccia should feel a bit greasy when holding it.

All that remained was to sprinkle some flake salt and fresh rosemary over the dough, strap it with cling film and leave it for the final rise.
It will take at least 1,5 hours for the dough to double in size, but I recommend that you leave it some extra time if possible. 2-3 hours will give the crumb a fair chance to develop properly.

Baking

30 minutes in the oven should be enough. Remember that it’s not desirable to get a hard and very crispy crust. Just let it get a nice golden brown color.
As said earlier you can use all sorts of topping for Focaccia. I only used salt and rosemary because I intended to use them in another dish. Chicken burger with sourdough Focaccia and Mojo Rojo. I will soon publish the recipe. Because of that, I wanted it a bit neutral.
But don’t let that stop you. Unleash your creativity and tell us about the result.

About flour.

The hydration of this dough is about 80%. The flour I used has 11.5 % and 13% protein. You may have to increase the water amount to get the same result if you are using a higher amount of strong flour.