just discovered this make of organic flour

i haven't been to juslife for a while so i was pleasantly surprised to see they have an addition to their product line now. it's this range of organic flour from this turkish company, karahan.

the website's here http://www.karahanun.com.tr/ though i'll say i wished they did a better job on the website!











i haven't used the flours yet but the price is good. there are a few varieties of wheat flour but too bad no rye etc. maybe juslife should just bring the rest of the product range here!

oh yeah! the price. it's rm7.90 for a 1kg pack. but if you are a member, you get 10% off each purchase. membership fee is rm20 a year so if you bake quite frequently, it makes perfect sense!
same price for wheat flour, whole wheat flour and "luxury wheat flour".

i have no idea what's the "luxury part" of the last item but for bread baking, it's easy. just go for the higher protein count variety. usually these are expressed in terms of percentage and anything above 11% is good. some of the flours labeled high protein could go as high as 14%. i think i've seen 15% before but don't trust me on this. i'm not good with numbers!

ok! will report more later...

more sourdough bread!

got to retry our other breads with sourdough now!

on the left, rosemary raisin bread. on the right, multi-seeds which we have done countless times.

both were done using sourdough starter.

i realized some folks don't like the tangy sourness of sourdough bread. one of the way to control this is not to use a pre-ferment and let it sit overnight. unfortunately i realized this after baking these 2 loaves. so will explore this next baking time.

i think sourdough bread will compliment savoury fillings, say ham or bacon etc, where the saltiness from the meat neutralizes the sourness of the dough. oh well, so many things to try, so little time!

bread stick

of all the various mailing lists i'm on, very few i look forward to. most are just sales talk, hype etc. the only one i really look forward to, and the only one which i learn a lot every time i read them, is the king arthur flour's mailing list. the last issue that came into my mailbox talked about baking soft bread sticks.

that seems like another excuse to bake bread! but typical of me, went for 100% wholemeal.

i used basil (just love this herb!) and oregano as dried herbs and sprinkled olive oil and some sea salt before baking.

then cut them into slices (the scissors tip is a good one!) and baked them again for 5-10 minutes.

these are great for mopping up sauces, gravies, curries... or just slath on some jam/butter. or just eat it on its own!

actually come to think of it, if it's a little thinner, it's pizza bread!
if it's a little thicker and not cut into slices, it's like foccacia!

anyway, there'll be kids coming over to our house later this afternoon. let's see how they like it. let's see if i could bribe them to keep quiet and stop bumping my stuffs around... tall order i know!

sun dried tomato bread via sourdough!

this is my first ever bread done using sourdough starter instead of instant yeast! recipe is like my previous blog on this sun dried tomato bread. read also on how to make your own sun dried tomatoes. it's really easy...

followed the same recipe but with sourdough starter now. as mentioned before, got some sourdough starter from mustaffa. mixed it with some 2 cups of rye flour (as i wanted to bake 2 loaves) and 1.5 cup water. if one loaf, that's 1 cup flour + 3/4 cup water, which is exactly like the biga method. if you are scientific, you'll notice we are mixing equal weight of flour and water. nice...

anyway, then mixed with the rest of the remainder 6 cups of wholemeal (3 for 1 loaf), sun dried tomatoes etc, but the main difference is, i took out about 1/3 of a cup and stored this in the refrigerator for the next round of baking. hey, otherwise got to go look for mustaffa again for more sourdough starter!

the yeast and bacteria colony (basically this is what the sourdough starter is) is fairly active. took just slightly longer to rise compared to say 1/2 tsp of instant yeast. mustaffa recommends only 20% sourdough in a recipe even though most european bread books go for 40% or higher. he reckons our higher humidity here helps. hey, he has baked more bread than i have eaten them my whole life so i'll listen to him!

so how does it taste? the bread has a slight sourish taste to it. just a slight subtle sourishness. that's the first impression on taste. texture wise, seems softer too though i'll have to evaluate again after couple of loaves to be sure it's the sourdough doing this. nevertheless... interesting!!!

as this is the first time i've tasted sourdough, i can't comment much but it sure is interesting! will have to try again on other loaves.

once again, thx a lot to mustaffa!

mardia and mustaffa's organic artisan bakery

i was surfing for some info when i came across this website and was pleased to discover they are based in malaysia! in sungai buloh! after some emails here and forth, we managed to visit mardia and mustaffa's organic artisan bakery over the weekend.

mustaffa (or martin) is one cool guy. my kind of guy. not only he encourages/uses organic ingredients but he prefers wholewheat too. but he's right in that the malaysian market isn't ready for 100% whole wheat yet. i guess later in future.


after communicating him, i just got to visit him. got to try those sourdough starter! and also the coconut soap!



as for the bread, you don't have to visit him. you could buy from the juslife chain of organic shops. yes, mustaffa supplies them.

i've heard/read a lot about baking bread with sourdough starter but never tried it. even considered importing some sourdough starter but never got round to it. guess what? it's just some 30km drive away...

so i got some sourdough starter from mustaffa. you may have heard of the famous "san francisco sourdough"? well, here's the famous "sungai buloh sourdough starter"! no need to use yeast anymore, just refresh the starter, use however much you need and save off a little for the next batch. as i bake every week here, this works out nicely. the above shows the starter in whole wheat flour and water.

mustaffa does provide instructions on how to get there but a friend of mine knows him personally! so i ditched those instructions and just got mark to navigate us there. it's in the middle of a kampung alright, with many wannabe mat rempits along the way. spotted some nice old cars along the way too.

mustaffa's work place is just next to his house. he has the conventional oven and also a clay style fire wood oven! i don't think he could use this for his commercial production.

mustaffa welcomes visitors and bread baking students! so if you prefer a hands on approach with a guru over your shoulders, you should contact him.



http://www.bakerette-cafe.com/


you know what i'll be doing soon... got to put those sourdough starter to work!