The Crumpet Trumpet

Posted on April 12, 2015 by cityhippyfarmgirl

Talk of crumpets and it usually leads to other words like buttery fingers, dripping honey and piping hot cups of tea.

Crispy on the bottom, soft in the middle. There was something about the humble crumpet that most certainly appealed.

When I started making sourdough crumpets, (now not to blow my own crumpet trumpet here) well that appeal went through the roof.

The fact that they are dead easy, tasted good AND so much easier on the tummy being sourdough…well the requests started to pile up.

It seems everyone else in the family wanted in on the crumpet action as well. There really was quite a loud trumpet for crumpets.

Buttery fingers, dripping honey and piping hot cups of tea? Seems it really is the only way to eat crumpets.

Sourdough Crumpets

1 cup of sourdough starter

1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda

1/4-1/2 tsp salt

extra melted butter

You’ll need a whisk, egg rings and a frying pan to cook them in.

Top Tips for Sourdough Crumpets

* Your starter doesn’t need to be refreshed for this to work. Straight from the fridge is fine, just leave it on the bench for a little to bring it back to room temp.

* Work on a fairly liquidy starter, if it looks to thick, just add a little extra water. You should see bubbles within the egg ring when you cook them. If it’s too thick you won’t see this.

* If you like the big holes, divide your starter mixture in half before adding the bicarb and salt, stagger the timing and add the second lot just before you start to cook them.

* Use a whisk when adding the salt and bicarb.

* When cooking them, pour the batter into the egg rings- gently rub some melted butter round the edges so the batter doesn’t stick.

* If your crumpets don’t have the bubbles you are after, take the heat up a smidge in the initial cooking period, then turn it down a little.

* After a few minutes of cooking gently jiggle the ring off and leave the crumpet to continue to cook. You can either flip it over to cook the top a little or once the crumpet is 75% cooked, add a lid and steam the last bit of the crumpet. This is purely to keep your holes completely intact so you are not squashing them.

* These can easily be frozen and toasted again later (once cooked the first time of course.)

* Great camping food.

* Also good for kiddo’s to do on the weekend.

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If you don’t have a sourdough starter and you are keen to give it a crack. This tutorial here will get you started.

sourdough crumpets || cityhippyfarmgirl

Trickster Bread Tips #1

Posted on November 9, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

This is a fancy bread demystifying post. Got some bread dough? Got scissors?

Ok, lets make fancy pants trickster bread.

For this first one, I had made up a cinnamon bun dough. Easy to do and recipe can be found here.

trickster bread tips #1 || cityhippyfarmgirl

First up, on your tray roll up the dough. The cinnamon sugar butter mixture is rolled up within it. Now get your scissors and cut equal parts along. (Depending on what type of bread you are using, you might like to do it on baking paper so it’s easy to move around or to catch extra drippy bits like the sugar butter here).

With the scissors, cutting three quarters through the log, so the bottom is still attached.

Next, on one side cut through a little of the attached bottom. Alternate rolls, push to the side. And that’s it. Too easy right?

Taste test at earliest availability, and then try again with the same technique in a slightly different way. It looks fancy, but really is dead easy.

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See here for how to make Fancy Pants Flower Bread.

Cinnamon Bun Day

Posted on October 5, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

This year I was organised. This year I had planned to bake, and bake oh yes I would. I would bake these delicious cinnamon bready bundles of goodness and I would know I did it on the right day. Cinnamon Bun Day, which was yesterday, the 4th of October. Not quite with me? Let me explain for those that are new to my scandi obsession. I’m a lover of anything Scandinavian. Viking history, Vikings to watch (this awesome bloody show), this beautiful book, given to me from my favourite Norwegian friend and blogger. I eat knekkebrod with gusto, mix bread with an Assistent, wear Danish boots with pride, think Figgjo retro kitchenware is the bees knees and come the 4th of October, well I’m baking buns… Cinnamon Buns. For these little bundles of Scandinavian dough goodness I used my recipe from last year. Untweaked and left alone surprisingly. Common sense told me I shouldn’t be bothering messing about with a recipe that worked. For once I listened to myself. For more posts on all things Nordic, see here and here, where you’ll find all things knekkebrod, last years buns (which were twisted), and other Scandinavian obsessions that I may have had in recent times.

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Do you have any particular country obsessions?

Cinnamon Buns

250g sourdough starter

1 tsp commercial yeast

675g strong bread flour

250mls milk

200mls water

100g sugar

100g softened butter

1 tsp cardamon

1 tsp salt

Cinnamon mixture

100g softened butter

100g raw sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Add all dough ingredients together, mix well and then knead until dough is elastic on a lightly floured surface (I use my mixer.) Dough should be well incorporated and feeling smooth. Pop the dough back into the mixing bowl and leave to prove for a couple of hours, with a fold or two in between, (or covered and over night.) On a lightly floured bench, roll the dough out to a rough rectangle, add cinnamon mixture and cut into portions. Line on a tray and bake at 200C for approximately 15-20 minutes (depending on the sizes.)

Date and Pecan Sourdough

Posted on July 13, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

I like knowing what the date is. Life with three small people seems to be a whirl wind of calendars, times and places to be. All those things would be a bit of a mess without knowing what the date was.

I also like my dates to be surrounded by a square, a calendar with big squares for me to scribble things on. There is not much point in me putting things in my phone as I invariably check it only after the activity or appointment is that I’ve just missed, (and I still don’t like to be that enslaved to technology anyway.) If there is enslavement to be had, I much prefer it to be with my kitchen calendar, with the big quares.

Put it on the calendar; I have been known to shriek out.

Why wasn’t it on the calendar? I demand.

Checking those little squares for where I am supposed to be and what I am supposed to be doing is part of my obligatory morning routine. Never in a studious, calm fashion where I neatly check off things as they go by. No, it’s done as I close the fridge with my foot. Toss the second school lunch box to the bench, reach for the cup of tepid tea on my left and yell out; have you cleaned your teeth yet!? That’s when I do my laser scanning eye over the appropriate square and silently hope I haven’t forgotten to add something on this particular date.

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How about you? How do you keep track of the date and all the things going on your life?

Date and Pecan Sourdough

400g refreshed starter (100%)

300g wholemeal spelt flour

450g flour

550mls water

200g chopped medjool dates

100g pecan halves

1/2 tsp dark malt flour

2 tsp salt

Mix all your ingredients together except your salt. Mixing for about 6 minutes. Now leave it. Go find something else to do for about 40 minutes.

Add your salt and mix again for about another 6 minutes or if by hand until you get a smooth dough.

Put it back in the bowl and leave it for about an hour.

Dough out on to the bench, and do a three way fold. Back in the bowl for another hour or so. Divide the dough in two and then do a three way fold with the two portions. Leave them on the bench for twenty minutes or so.

Shape it. Laying it on lined trays, banetton baskets or tins, cover it and prove for 1-3 hours. Bake at 220C with steam.

How to make fancy pants Flower Bread

Posted on May 6, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

Bread is one of those things that at times look far more fancy than what it really is. Well, it can do anyway. This Flower Bread is one of them. An easy one to do if you want to team it up with a simple soup or alternatively, tear chunks off and slap some butter on those sides.

how to make fancy flower bread || cityhippyfarmgirl

First up flatten your dough, this is done at the stage when you would normally shape your bread. (For a basic bread dough recipe see here for a regular yeasted one, or here for a simple sourdough.) Any old shape, as long as it’s the same thickness generally all around. Next you need to divide it into equal portions. I would normally do this as I go along. Again any shape is fine, and a rough triangle is excellent for the next step.

Next you are creating little balls. If you pull those corners into the middle (as if you were making a dumpling) it traps air in and creates a smooth outer surface. Pinch the ends together to seal it. Lightly plop it into some flour (this stops it from sticking to the board or bench top) and leave to the side. Carry on with the rest.

Once you have all your balls. Get two small bowls, one filled with water and the other with poppy seeds (or any other seeds, you might like to use.) Holding your ball of dough at the top where you sealed it, gently dip about a quarter of the dough into the water and then the seed bowl.

Next place them, seed side up into a lined cake tin. Depending on how big you did them, you should fit about seven. Six on the outer and one in the middle. Cover, and let them prove. Then bake at 230C with steam for about 25-ish minutes.

And there you have it… easy fancy pants Flower Bread!

Kitchen Crumbs

Posted on April 9, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

Bench tops are groaning, the sink is over flowing, and there is rather a lot of flour wedged between the kitchen floorboards. If you can ignore the growing number of scattered crumbs and butter smeared finger prints on the drawers, I’ll give you a quick peek into my kitchen at the moment.

There have been some teeny tiny locally grown famers market pears.

sourdough baguettes || cityhippyfarmgirl

Some crunchy bread ends and lazy coconut biscuits- slab style.

Lots of home grown chilli that certainly gets your attention. Hot? You betcha.

Then there was Moon Bread, as it was aptly named. Over proved thanks to crazily humid afternoon- which is never forgiving with my bread. Still passed the taste test though, (this bread had sprouted millet, sunflower kernels, linseed, dark malt flour and water kefir in it.)

And lastly the ever present kitchen window sill of sprouting things. While the shadowed bench tops are full of things fermenting, the sunny sill is where sprouting action is. Window sill farming at it’s very best.

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What’s happening in your kitchen at the moment?

Linking up with Celia this month for more sneaky peeks into other peoples kitchens, see here.

Sticky Buns of the Spelt and Hot Cross kind

Posted on April 6, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

I do wonder what food memories I’m creating for my kids sometimes. I occasionally ask them if they have seen any food from other kids school lunch boxes that they might have rather liked the look of and would perhaps like to try as well? I’m yet to get an answer of anything different to what they generally get though. Whether they really aren’t that fussed or they are keeping those wishful lunching thoughts to themselves, I’m not sure.

Me, I longed for white bread, devon and tomato sauce sandwiches. With more butter than should be legal slapped up on the side. Plastic cheese was longingly looked at and don’t get me started on packets of chips for recess. That’s what I wanted when I was a pint sized school girl. Did I ever get it? Nope, not a once. ( Thankfully I did grow out of that one.)

Would my own kids get it, if that’s what they said they were lusting after while watching someone else unpack their lunch box. Oh hell no!…but I’m still curious.

Spelt Hot Cross Buns is what the small people are packing at the moment. Easy to make, easy to eat, and easy to keep in the freezer.

Every year I seem to fiddle with my Hot Cross Bun recipe. Sourdough, semi, yeasted, chocolate and now spelt. Wholemeal spelt flour is a firm favourite round here. So much so, that I buy the 12.5 kilo bags, so it’s always on a high turn over round here, (it’s good stuff, really good stuff!)

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But before the recipe, for something completely different…*small polite cough*. I was wondering if you would like to vote for me for the AWC- Best Australian Blogs- Peoples Choice. Would you like to? It will be super quick, promise. Either click here, or the badge on the side bar, and a huge thank you, to those that do.

(If wholemeal spelt isn’t your thing, easily switch these recipes to a regular wheat flour.)

Spelt Hot Cross Buns (sourdough)

250g dried fruit

150mls hot water

2tbls brandy

(soak this mixture of three ingredients the night before)

300g starter (100%)

600g (4 cups) wholemeal spelt flour

1 tsp dark malt flour

200mls water (approximate)

1/2 tsp cardamom

1 tsp cinnamon

100g (1/2 cup) raw sugar

100g softened butter

2 tsp salt

Add all ingredients together except, 200mls water, softened butter and salt- either by hand or mixer. Mixture will look shaggy and dry. Now slowly add the 200mls water. This an approximate amount, depending on the dried fruit mixture and your flour. If it looks too wet, don’t add it all in, too dry, a touch more.

Let it rest for 30 minutes and then mix through your softened butter and salt. Dough should look smooth and coming together off the sides of the bowl.

Place a damp tea towel or plastic shopping bag over the top of the bowl. This creates a gentle humid environment for your bread to rise. Leave it for an hour or so.

On to a really lightly floured surface, give your dough a brief three way fold or knock back. Back into the bowl for another hour or so.

Divide your dough into equal portions, (this recipe makes roughly 16 portions) rolling them into balls and then on to your baking trays. Allow them to prove for roughly another 1-3 hours, (depends on the temperature- dough should neither spring back or leave an indent.) Or overnight in the fridge. Again covered by either a damp tea towel or plastic shopping bags.

Crosses

75g (1/2 cup) plain flour

100-125mls water

2 tbls raw sugar

Mix ingredients together and use a piping bag to squeeze out crosses just before popping buns in the oven.

Bake at 210-220C for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until golden.

Sugar Glaze

1/4 cup raw sugar

1/4 cup water

Heat the glaze and brush buns as soon as they are out of the oven.

Spelt Hot Cross Buns (commercial yeast)

250g dried fruit

150mls hot water

2tbls brandy

(soak this mixture of three ingredients the night before)

600g (4 cups) wholemeal spelt flour

2 tsp dried yeast

1 tsp dark malt flour

200mls water (approximate)

1/2 tsp cardamom

1 tsp cinnamon

100g (1/2 cup) raw sugar

100g softened butter

2 tsp salt

Let it rest for 20 minutes and then mix through your softened butter and salt. Dough should look smooth and coming together off the sides of the bowl.

Place a damp tea towel or plastic shopping bag over the top of the bowl. This creates a gentle humid environment for your bread to rise. Leave it for an hour or so.

On to a really lightly floured surface, give your dough a brief three way fold or knock back. Back into the bowl for another 40mins- to an hour.

Divide your dough into equal portions, (this recipe makes roughly 16 portions) rolling them into balls and then on to your baking trays. Allow them to prove for roughly another 40-60 minutes, again covered by either a damp tea towel or plastic shopping bags.

Crosses

75g (1/2 cup) plain flour

100-125 mls water

2 tbls raw sugar

Mix ingredients together and use a piping bag to squeeze out crosses just before popping buns in the oven.

Bake at 210- 220C for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until golden.

Sugar Glaze

1/4 cup raw sugar

1/4 cup water

Heat the glaze and brush buns as soon as they are out of the oven.

the bread that I had to try

Posted on March 12, 2014 by cityhippyfarmgirl

Baking.

There is quite a lot to love about it isn’t there. The textures, the creations, the science of it, the…eating. Rather a lot to love about the eating part of it. Sourdough for me, sits pretty firmly up top of the figurative ‘baking love list.’ Love the taste, the flexibility of it and the fact that not one of my loaves ever seem to be the same. Ever.

I saw this little loaf of doughy goodness recently on another blog and fell in love. I wanted in on that, yes indeed. It looked fancy and fiddly and it wasn’t, and I LOVE that. Let’s give it a crack.

And so I did. And I loved it, we loved it.

I loved the effect, they loved the eating part.

Yep, very pretty Mama, now lets eat!

Notes from the kitchen-

-This recipe isn’t really a recipe, it was simply playing, and a lovely excuse to try this new method from Living a Little Greener.

– I also used water kefir as my liquid when making up my dough as it needed using, but please use an everyday bread recipe if that’s more accessible to you. The visual results will still be the same.

– Sweet or savoury (one apple and one salami/cheese) this method gets 10/10 for me. Easy to cut up and pop into lunch boxes.

– As Bruise Mouse states, roll it out on the tray or paper you are baking on, I forgot the first time and it was a little nerve wracking moving it.

* Basic Sourdough Recipe here

* Basic Yeasted Bread recipe here.

Water Kefir Filled Loaf

400g starter

1 tsp yeast

150g softened butter

750g flour

600mls water kefir

3 tsp salt

Make it and bake it.

Baked at 220C until golden.

when stollen steps in

Posted on December 15, 2013 by cityhippyfarmgirl

There are two kinds of people in this world. Those that like marzipan and those that would well, rather not. Not me though, I love the stuff. I mourn the shift in wedding cultures that don’t seem to have the traditional densely fruited cake covered in marzipan any longer. For me, it was the highlight of a wedding. How can they serve a carrot cake or chocolate mud instead I ask you? Oh how?

I still can’t quite put my finger on why I like marzipan. It’s a textural thing, kind of gritty and ever so slightly medicinal tasting. There’s just something about it that just quietly whispers to me.

I was first drawn to the lovely Joanna’s blog over our mutual love of marzipan across the seas of the world. I am also lucky enough to have a dear friend that would quietly slip in a little marzipan log into my bag, whenever I was having a tough day. (You see, marzipan has special healing properties, that very few people are aware of- it really is the good stuff.)

As I don’t seem to be going to many marzipan laden fruit cake filled weddings at the moment, I have to find my fix somewhere else. That’s where stollen steps in.

It had been awhile since I had made it last, three years to be exact, and quite frankly it was time to give it another crack.

Stollen

(makes two big ones)

500g mixed dried fruit

80mls amaretto

300g sourdough starter (or 2 tsps of dried yeast)

600g flour (4 cups)

200g softened butter

50g brown sugar/raw sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamon

1/2 tsp ginger

2 beaten eggs

zest of a lemon

200-250mls water

Extras

500g marzipan

100g melted butter (extra)

To begin with, soak the dried fruit in the amaretto overnight. The following day, mix the dough- add starter, soaked fruit, flour, sugar, spices, butter, eggs, lemon zest and water. (Go slowly on the water, the amount you’ll need will vary depending on your dried fruit, flour and starter.

Mix the dough for about 8 minutes on a low speed. Allow to prove for about an hour and then give the dough a quick fold. Prove again for several hours. Meanwhile divide marzipan in two and roll into a log of about 20cm long.

For the dough, divide it in half, slightly flattening with finger tips to make a rough rectangle. Place marzipan in the middle and roll it up within the dough. Place on a tray, cover with a plastic bag to create a humid environment and allow to prove for another couple of hours. Preheat oven and bake at 180C for approximately 45 minutes, or until golden. When out of the oven and still hot, brush with 100g of extra melted butter between the two stollen.

Allow to cool and wrap in baking paper oven night, the following day drench the stollen in large amount of sift icing sugar.

Serve small slices with excellent coffee and bundles of enthusiasm.

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this post submitted to the always delicious yeastspotting

when the hunger sets in

Posted on December 1, 2013 by cityhippyfarmgirl

This is what happens when you try to take pictures just before dinner time and unbeknownst to me, the hunger had already set in.

I quietly took pictures, she quietly nibbled.

Both doing what we needed to do.

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Sunflower and Linseed Bread

any day can be Cinnamon Bun Day

Posted on November 6, 2013 by cityhippyfarmgirl

It seems I’d missed the boat again.

Last year after seeing multiple blogs and Instagram pictures from Scandinavian bakers, I was determined to give those twisted cinnamon buns a crack. A whole year zipped by and before I knew it, my Instagram feed was filled with the twisty kind of buns that I had so longed to make.

My Nordic ship had sailed again.

Damn it.

Despite being Australian and without any strong Scandinavian heritage to speak of, I still like to imagine that I perhaps could be, (if I screw my eyes up nice and tight.) I’m happy to mutter words like reindeer, knekkebrod, Marimekko, snow, Moomin’s, northern lights and Figgjo. If I added making cinnamon buns on Cinnamon Bun Day (October 4th) than that pretty much made me half Scandinavian didn’t it?

Well it would have if I had remembered to bake that particular day, (I blame the Aussie heritage for this forgetfulness.) With a pouty lip and crossed arms I mentioned similar words to my favourite pregnant Norweigen goddess. She helpfully reminded me that any day could be Cinnamon Bun Day…and that was good enough for me.

Cinnamon Buns

(adapted from Morten Schakenda)

250g sourdough starter

1 tsp commercial yeast

600g strong bread flour

250mls milk

200mls water

100g sugar

100g softened butter

1 tsp cardamon

1 tsp salt

Cinnamon mixture

100g softened butter

100g sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Add starter, yeast and water together in a bowl. Whisk and leave for an hour or so. Mix remaining ingredients together and then knead until dough is elastic (I use my mixer) on a lightly floured surface or until well incorporated and dough is smooth. Leave to prove for a couple of hours, with a couple of knock backs in between, or pop dough in a bowl, cover and leave overnight in the fridge. Roll the dough out to a rough rectangle, add cinnamon mixture and then divide rectangle in half. Gently give it a quick roll and then divide the dough into long strips. Have a look at this video on how to roll them.

Bake at 180-190 for 15-20 minutes.

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For my regular cardamon buns see here

For my knekkebrod recipe see here

bringing the bread back

Posted on October 10, 2013 by cityhippyfarmgirl

I’ve made a few dud loaves lately.

Distracted, not enough effort, too much effort, unhappy starter, busy…I could tick all of the above boxes. The funny thing was I felt my sourdough hat was sitting slightly skewiff, I knew it and the month that it was sitting a little wonky, well I certainly didn’t produce any of my finest loaves that’s for sure.

Come on girl get it together, where had the magic gone?

I played with a buckwheat starter…ick.

I ate a whole loaf of under proved sourdough, (toasting it three times helped a little, felt it was a tad heavy to subject the kids to)

My teeth battled through over cooked rolls, and I did have a rather long thought process of, hell maybe I’ll just start buying it again.

Then thankfully something flicked, I didn’t have to walk that supermarket bread aisle. The time was right, the starter was eager and the hands willing. My sourdough hat felt straight once more, and with it a greedy need to bake bread.

Sunflower and Linseed Bread

600g active starter

750g strong bakers flour

150g wholemeal spelt flour

75g linseed

75g sunflower kernels

700-750mls water

1 tsp dark malt flour

3 tsps salt

Mix together in your usual sourdough bready kind of fashion. I baked these at 230C with steam for free form loaves or 220C and a little longer baking time in a tin.

cityhippyfarmgirl

simple connected living, city style

Category Archives: Baking Bread

The Crumpet Trumpet

Trickster Bread Tips #1

Cinnamon Bun Day

Cinnamon Buns

Date and Pecan Sourdough

How to make fancy pants Flower Bread

Kitchen Crumbs

Sticky Buns of the Spelt and Hot Cross kind

Spelt Hot Cross Buns (sourdough)

Spelt Hot Cross Buns (commercial yeast)

the bread that I had to try

Water Kefir Filled Loaf

when stollen steps in

when the hunger sets in

any day can be Cinnamon Bun Day

Cinnamon Buns

bringing the bread back