Adventures in Sourdough

After my fabulous sourdough lesson last week, I thought it was time to get moving and finish the loaves that were started 7 days ago. We prepared the dough in the session up to stage where all of the kneading had been done but non of the rising had occurred. Last Sunday when I brought the dough home, I placed it into the fridge as Yoke told us that we could do this for up to 5 days. I was a little worried as I had left it a week.

I let the dough get back to room temperature for about an hour and then gave it a gentle stretch to strengthen the gluten.

After a 15 minutes rest (the dough, not me) I divided the dough into two loaves - one for a tin and one to be freeform. For the freeform loaf, the dough was stretched and then some dried apricots and walnuts were generously sprinkled before it was rolled up.

I also bought a lovely little loaf tin from Yoke after the lesson. It is a great size and the dough from the basic recipe should make 2 loaves of this size.

Both loaves were left to rise for a few hours until they had doubled. This took a little longer than I had expected as the weather was quite cool here today. I left the loaves covered by a damp tea towel on the front seat of the car to warm up.

The results are great and I know that there is so much to learn about how the process works best. I am excited about having another go during the week.

Take care.

Wholefood Seminars

Just a little heads-up to any of you around Perth that might be interested in going to any of Jude Blereau's seminars.

There is one seminar called What's in the Bag about school lunches with special guest Julie Eady, the author of Additive Alert. This is a repeat as the first session was a selloout, so if you are interested in this event held on 16b June, you should get in quick.

The second seminar which will be held on 25 June is called How Does Your Garden Grow. This looks at wonderful winter vegetables and gives you great menu planning ideas. I have been to a few of the seasonal seminars and found them to be really interesting.

For those of you too far to travel, perhaps you could check your local library for some of her wonderful books. I have written about the delicious Chocolate Chip Biscuits before and have also tried her fabulous Pear Harvest Cake.

Take care

Sourdough Sunday

This past weekend barely left me with time to catch my breath.

Saturday was spent involved in a community planting activity, watching a worm farming demonstration and going to a Slow Food lecture with Paolo Di Croce.

Now if that wasn't enough for one weekend, Sunday was spent on an amazing four-hour Wild Sourdough cooking class with the incredibly talented Yoke Mardewi. This was a Mothers' Day pressie I bought for myself.

I have never attempted sourdough. I had often worried about the starter, and how to get it started and keep it all going. Now that I have had quite a bit of experience with yoghurt, and using some of the last batch to start the next, I wasn't as worried about it.

The class was a mix of listening and watching, and some hand-on. 

It started with some taster plates on arrival that consisted of a selection of sourdough breads and homemade jams and preserves. Yoke then made a few different loaves using dough she had prepared earlier - fig and walnut, sundried tomato and roasted red onion, and haloumi and dried herbs. These were rolled up and left as free-form leaves. While these were doubling in size, we where shown how to get the pizza dough ready, as this was to be our lunch. These was a selection of tasty treats to use as toppings, including some homemade pesto. 

After lunch we collected the bowls we had brought which now had some starter and water ready for us to add the flour. This was where is was great to be shown what the dough should look like at certain stages. I had to mix the dough for about five minutes until it was completely mixed. That was such difficult job as the dough is very thick and the stirring involved a lot of muscle. The dough needed 15 - 20 minutes to rest so that was enough time to have a cuppa (or two) and we were able to see the free forms loaves come out of the oven and watch these be cut open. Throughout the session, Yoke spoke about successes and failures and gave great little tips. 

The last part of the afternoon involved learning how to air knead the dough. I could see how this could be a great thing to do in the afternoon after a busy day a work. By the time we left, each of us had enough dough to make two nice-sized loaves, as well as a started to get the next batch on the go. We were instructed that to stop the rise, we had to put the dough into the fridge as soon as we got home. Later in the week I will get organised to finish off the process.

On the way out I had to buy myself a copy of Yoke's book, Wild Sourdough, and it looks amazing. The instructions seem really clear and there is a great variety in the bread types. Yoke is a very good teacher and is so approachable. Once you have been to a class, she is happy to answer any questions you have regarding making the bread at home.

I like to think that this is where the sourdough experience starts.

After the lesson I now have a better appreciation of why these loaves are generally quite expensive to buy.

Hopefully by the weekend I will have impressed my family with a wonderful homemade sourdough loaf. The funniest part is that I know that after all of the time taken to prepare and bake this lovely bread, it will be eaten within minutes.

Take care.

And the winner is ...

cityhippyfarmgirl

Could you please email me at bruisemouse@gmail.com with your postal details so I can get the book out to you this week.  Congratulations.

Thanks to those of you who played along in the little giveaway.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and I look forward to telling you all about the sourdough class I took today. My head is still spinning.

Take care

Decluttering On My Mind

It is that time of year again. As the seasons change I feel the urge to get the house and yard sorted. I know that over the coming months we will be spending more time indoors so it would be nice to be able to see the floors in all rooms, rather than just the paths that everyone follows to get outside. A good clean of the yard is also needed as we won't be out there as regularly as we are over the summer.

As the kiddies get older, many of the clothes, books, toys and games that have accumulated have now been outgrown. The clothes don't fit quite as well as they did last winter and we usually find that socks keep feet much warmer when they aren't full of holes.

I am hoping that by the end of the day there will be a pile of things that are no longer needed. These will either be sent to a charity bin or uploaded to Freecycle. I am usually pretty good at working out what can stay and what must go, but my problem is that then I seem to lose enthusiasm when needing to get it out of the house. I end up with piles by the front door.

It is always such a great feeling to declutter. To have benches cleared and wardrobe doors and drawers able to be closed can easily bring a smile to my face

Last night the ipod was charged, with a podcast or two and an audiobook uploaded, and it is ready to keep me company through the day.

The older I get, the more I appreciate "Less is More".

Take care

P.S. I would much rather be sewing like Rhonda Jean today.
P.P.S. Head over and join in the giveaway before Sunday. Good luck.

Quince Paste Update

Sunday night was spent tending over a pot of simmering quinces after reading about the wonders of Quince Paste over at Greening of Gavin and Gooseberry Jam.

After about four hours I can certainly say that I was happy with the final result.

We have been having it on crackers with a lovely tangy cheddar but I am sure by the weekend there will be some brie involved.

I used silicone cup cake cases and managed to fill all 12.

Super easy and definitely worth a go.

Make sure to drop by and add a comment if you are interested in winning a book in a giveaway that closes on Sunday.

I also had a few requests for buttons for Sow. Give. Grow.  If you are interested I have now managed to get one up in the SGG sidebar. Please feel free to pop one on your site. Thanks again to you all for the support.

Take care.

Sunday and a Giveaway

I need another weekend to get over this weekend.

Yesterday the lilly pilly tree was generously trimmed so that we could reach the fruit more easily next year. I made sure that every berry was picked off the branches before they were taken to the greens tip for mulching. We ended up with a whopping 5.3kg.

This was the beginning of the domino effect for the weekend.

I knew that there was no way I could deal with all of that fruit in one weekend so it would need to be frozen. To make room I would need to do something with a lot of the fruit I already had in the freezer. I found blueberries, nectarines, strawberries and peeled bananas.

Luckily I had seen a great Blueberry Frangipani recipe on Friday so that was the first bake of the day.

Now on to finding something to use up the nectarines. After a bit of searching I came across this divine Nectarine Cake.

Smells amazing. Tastes incredible. The only problem was that it didn't use enough nectarines.

Off to find one more option. Donna Hay can always be relied on to help out in a predicament like this. Her Nectarine and Blueberry Slice was the perfect way to end a morning of baking. I did change it a little by using only half the sugar prescribed. Also I added more nectarines just after the beating of the eggs so that there was fruit through the slice as well as on top.

All were received rather enthusiastically by the family so all worthwhile. I now also have room in the freezer to pack the lilly pillies.

There was also a little time to head out and do some trans-planting for Sow. Give. Grow.

After being inspired by Gavin and Gooseberry Jam, I thought I should stop paying for Maggie Beer's retirement and have a go at making some Quince Paste myself. It is on the stove as I type and is looking and smelling delicious.

Now for a giveaway. I have talked about Michael Pollan before and his great little easy read, Food Rules. So much of it is common sense but it was a great book to show the kiddos. They got quite a bit out of it and I still hear them remind each other of some of the rules.

If you would like to go into the draw for a copy, leave a comment on this post by Sunday 22 May. Hopefully some of those lovely little 'lurkers' will join in and say hello.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Take care