current favourite bread recipe

have been baking over 30 loaves with this recipe and absolutely love it!

baked various types too, ranging from rosemary raisin to multi-seed to 100% whole wheat. and this recipe just works great. no wonder richard bertinent says it's his favourite bread recipe.

actual recipe is for a ciabatta but found that could be used for all types of breads. it's a very wet dough so you need a dough knife/scraper as well as the "stretch and fold" technique shown by mr bertinent in this video here.

ferment
350gm flour
180gm water
2gm instant yeast  (i use less than 1/4 teaspoon)

baking day
450gm flour 
360gm water
50gm olive oil  (okay to use less)
10gm instant yeast  (i use slightly less than 1 teaspoon)
15gm salt  (i use only 11gm)

mix all the ingredients of the ferment and let it sit for 17-24 hours. it's quite a dry ferment as it's only 50% hydration. if it's too dry, add a bit more water. try 2 tablespoon each time.

mix everything on baking day, then "stretch and fold". it's a very very wet dough so you definitely need a dough knife.

do not flour the work surface. the dough will stick somewhat to the surface but as you work on it, it slowly gains shape and less and less of it sticks to the table. [watch the video!]

let it prove for an hour, then divide and prepare to bake!

the oven should be pre-heated to 250c. before placing dough in, squirt at least 15-20 times of water into the oven to create enough steam.

place dough in and squirt another few times. 5 minutes later, reduce heat to 220c and bake for additional 15 minutes or until golden brown.

note, no honey/sugar is used but bread still has a golden hue. this is due to the natural solutions developed during the fermentation process.

mr bertinent recommends 20gm less water for rainy days (humid weather) but his recipe is all white flour. if you use whole wheat, you may use same amount of water. when i bake with 100% whole wheat flour, the consistency feels a bit "dry". it's still a wet dough by any standards but after working with wet dough, this feels a little "dry"!

there you go. enjoy this recipe! enjoy the crust, the most delicious bread crust!

japanese women don't get old or fat

read this book few months back. thought it's relevant to comment.

japanese women don't grow old or fat

if you are foreign to the asian diet, then you should read it. otherwise like all asian diets, the japanese diet is rich in rice, vegetables, bean proudcts and lean in meat.

what differs from other asian culture is that

• the japanese do not view meat as the main dish. veggies are the main dish. meat is secondary. and when meat is consumed, it's usually sliced very thin, just for the flavour.
• the japanese consumes lots of seafood due to the buddhist belief of not consuming land based animals, given a choice.

nothing new really. we know this already but the first point of treating veggies as the main dish is something new to me. i believe this is where many asian food culture is wrong to treat meat as the main dish. this thinking alone, i believe, contributes to the much lower cardiovascular related diseases in japan.

the other thing to notice is that the author also feels that despite the japanese diet is working well, some tweaking is still necessary. incidence of stomach and colon cancer is very high in japan and it is believed due to the high amount of salt intake. hey, shoyu (japanese soy sauce), miso etc are all high in salt.

and when you consume meat, naturally salt will be added. perhaps not directly but indirectly through seasoning, soy sauce, fish sauce etc.

so all in all, this book worked for me as it taught me not to regard meat as central during meal time and also go slow on salt intake.

my blood test result

just got my blood test results back. i ought to do a medical check up every year but due to laziness... the last one was done in 2005! of which i lost the results. sigh... so the only reference i have is from 2002.

nothing unusual though the reading that concerns most is cholesterol as my family has not so colourful history in this aspect.

                           2002       2009

Total cholesterol     5.7   4.7
HDL                  1.12    0.97
LDL                   4.2      3.45
Triglycerides       0.8    0.63

overall, 7 years later, my overall cholesterol level has dropped significantly though the LDL is still a bit high.

i believe the diet of less meat, high grain, whole wheat bread, olive oil-instead-of-butter do work!

world meatless day

this wednesday nov 25 is world meatless day.

a bit about us.

we have been slowly reducing our meat intake over the past few weeks. this effort isn't a conscious decision, it's more of subconcious decision as we slowly veer towards organic food.

and choosing organic food is a result of my baking our own bread! hey, if you want to bake your own bread, might as well use the best ingredients possible. if you are going to have a go at it half heartedly, might as well forget it.

now after testing organic bread, you appreciate what's real bread is like and you look down at the commercial variety, especially what goes into it! armed with this insight, now everything we buy, we make an effort to scrutinize what goes into it.

and through bread baking, we got to know mustaffa (of mardia and mustaffa). mustaffa gave us a bar of his organic soap made of coconut oil. boy! this is the best soap we ever used so far!

it doesn't dry our skin. it lasts so long, it cleans so well and it lathers beautifully! so this is what real soap is all about! now we consider the commercial variety as detergent! (which isn't a far off description.)

think about it, out of all the food and consumer products we use every day, even the most basic - bread and soap, couldn't pass the test. what more other food products?

so going organic is for our own health. it's also for the environment as we really don't need all that chemical out there. there is such a thing as a "filler" even in soaps!

now if you care about the environment and your own health, going meatless is the way to go. if you find this too drastic a step, then reducing your meat intake is already going to do wonders.

we still take meat, but less so. when faced with a choice between veggies and meat dishes, we just go for more greens and way less meat.

over the past months, we feel lighter, sleep better and overall a lot more energetic throughout the day.

so it all comes together. go organic, use/eat natural food products, support the organic food industry, reduce your meat intake - and you have a healthier you!

a healthy lifestyle is wayyyy better than trying to cure a sickness.

so let's start off this wednesday with the world meatless day.

whole wheat shortbread butter cookies

organictobe.org is quite an interesting site if you want to learn about eating healthy. the more you read about what goes into our food, the more you want to do it right - and cook/bake it yourself.

found an interesting recipe on this site, it's for a whole wheat shortbread butter cookies.

now i don't quite favour cakes nor cookies as it's usually really greasy (usually it's baked with the much cheaper and way inferior tasting margarine) and toooooo sweet. also, it uses baking powder, a chemical i hate to use. what's the point of going organic if you end up adding some baking powder in it?

anyway, that's just my thinking.

so this recipe is interesting as there's no baking powder. and it uses whole wheat flour!

• 2 cups of whole wheat flour
• 1 cup of butter
• 1/2 cup of turbinado sugar
• 1 tsp salt

the recipe calls for all organic ingredients. i adhered except didn't go for organic butter, just regular variety. turbinado sugar is really expensive here! could have used raw sugar for the same effect.

mix everything, form into logs, then refrigerate for half an hour to help solidify it.

then cut into slices, place on parchment paper, on baking sheet and bake at 180c for 18-20 minutes.

all this is from the recipe on the site.

as you could see above, some of the sugar was a bit burnt. i overdid it but still liked the cookies.

not too greasy but whole wheat cookies just taste right!

go whole wheat!