No knead sourdough multiseed bread

my go to multiseed gets the sourdough treatment

Remember spaceships that used to pop and fizz in your mouth? well this bread with the seeds that ‘pop” is kind of the adult  equivalent. kind of. I know some people like my white bread addicted sister will never be convinced but I like the satisfying crunch factor all the same.

Ingredients for 3 small loaves

300g sourdough starter
400g organic strong white flour
100g organic rye flour
2 tsp salt

350g seeds: sunflower, pumpkin, flax, sesame,poppy
350g warm water

How To

Mix all the ingredients  (except the salt and the seeds) together as if making cake batter, in a large bowl.

Cover with a wet tea towel and leave at room temperature

With a bowl of water to wet your hands in, to stop the dough sticking, fold it every 30 minutes for 3-4 hours.  If you don’t it will not be a disaster.  If this sounds like hassle, think of it as “bread therapy”…there is just something very very relaxing and rewarding about messing around with bread dough and this should be timed to be done in the evening.

Put in the fridge over night to rest and in fact all of the next day… the following night is baking night

The next day….Remove from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature and start to prove

Now add the salt and the seeds  (sometimes I have forgotten the salt…thats when the bread has ended up with a “salt crust”)

Shape and form into the loaves – freestyle or in tins

Allow to prove – 2-4 hours

Bake at 250C or as hot as your oven allows.  The sourdough version of the bread takes longer than the yeast version – it seems to take 30-40 minutes.  Bake until they sound hollow when you tap them.

Sourdough Starter

Having killed off many sourdough starters, mainly through neglect and being too busy, I think I have learned the hard way that the best thing to do is to feed the starter a little but often – twice a day and to keep a close eye on the bubbles, the texture and the smell. 

Here is how I made this glorious starter bursting with life without measuring a thing although I have given some nice references and sites as sourdough is after all where we can all access our inner biochemistry nerd

 

Ingredients

Normally I would make my starter from the following:

1 tablespoon of organic white flour

1 tablespoon of organic rye flour

1 tablespoon of organic live yoghurt

water to make a loose paste

some raisins or if in season unwashed grapes 

but this time I had some much treasured 100 year old starter from my friend Lone from Denmark so I added two teaspoons

How To

For a couple of days I fed the starter morning and evening with two tablespoons of the flours and enough water to keep the mix to a thick paste, in a bowl, uncovered at room temperature. By days three and four I increased the amount of flour to 100g and again enough water.  By now the paste becomes a healthy bubbling “sponge” before each feeding and has a healthy beery smell.  I sieve it to take out the raisins and whole grains from Lone’s starter. 

It is ready to use. 

Great References

The Sourdough School

 

https://www.hobbshousebakery.co.uk/blogs/recipes/henrys-sourdough

 

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/nov/27/sourdough-recipe-dan-lepard

 

 

 

Visinata chocolate cherry ice cream

Chocolate and cherries – the adult version.

Sozzled boozy cherries, whipped cream and chocolate – can anything go wrong? Well no not really. This is a recipe that can be made with a machine or without, with or without a blender too.  I used a damson ice cream recipe from the ever inspirational pink ice cream book “Lola’s” by Morfudd Richards.  Its one of those really great cookbooks – quirky, focused and full of information and inspiration. 

Ingredients

450g visinata leftover cherries ie the cherries that have been used to make Romanian visinata liqueur

100g apple or agave nectar or honey (a liquid helps the texture of the ice cream)

600ml 35% cream (“smantana dulce” if you are Romania, whipping cream if you are British and heavy cream if you are North American) 

A bar of dark chocolate (100g) chopped into chunks

How To

Squish the cherries a bit by blitzing on pulse.  Do be careful not to create a puree.  Alternatively chop them finely. 

If you do not have an ice cream machine whip the cream to soft peak stage and fold in the cherries, chocolate chunks and sweetener so you do not lose the peaks and air.  Now freeze this “mousse” in a plastic container and according to Morfudd, always with grease proof paper on top of the ice cream (its an amazing tip). 

If using a machine you don’t need to whip the cream just mix the ingredients in a bowl and place in your ice cream maker and churn according to the instructions. 

Serve with sour cherries just for excess. Don’t eat this alone.