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Breakfast 'n Bread

Hi guys, I know it's been long .... I've been trying to come up with a topic that interest me for months on now but came up nada.. so many ideas came and went but it was not enough to haul my arse up from the couch.

Coming up with a blog content for Shouse that is fairly credible is no easy feat. I have to make something from scratch, be it designing, crafting, baking or some DIYs, it usually involves time, money, research, capital E for effort and a lot of self-bitchin'. 😉

For those of you who took the time to tell me that they're missing Shouse, and could I write a blog pretty soon please, this ♥️ goes to you.

Bread = flour, water, salt and yeast, sounds easy right? Oh boy, could I be wrong! I've been having a love-hate relationship with bread for years now. Unlike other types of food where the recipes are pretty much straight forward, bread depends on so many variables- hydration content, temperature, gluten percentage, autolyse, time and so on...

Two most common breads are Asian breads (using tangzhong method) and the crusty breads (European). Since the heat is easing up a li'l bit, a bread with soup for breakfast sounds cozy right? A day old Ciabatta (Italian slipper bread) is just about good. I need a sturdy bread that will not go gooey when dipped in the soup.

A good crusty bread has a thin crust that crackles and a crumb that is open, meaning it has large holes making it airy, tender and light. Also the crumb glistens a little bit because the starch is all about used up by the yeast's activity leaving that all coveted gluten structure behind.

These characteristics can only be acheived thru high yeast fermentation activity, high hydration (65% or more water) and using high gluten bread flour (local bread flours do not work). Since this post is becoming too long already, i'll save further discussions about bread for another blog post. 😊

The Recipe for Ciabatta

Flour selection:

75% Artisan Bread Flour

20% Spelt Flour

5% Buckwheat Flour

Starter:

25g High gluten bread flour

25g Spelt

50g Water

A pinch of yeast (like 10 pcs of granules)

-Mix the starter in a clear plastic container the night before making the bread, cover and mark the volume using a rubber band. Place in a draft free area at room temp.

Levain:

100g High gluten bread flour 50g Spelt 150g Water

-The next morning, check if your starter has doubled in size, if it hasn't, put it in a warmer area and wait until doubled before building the levain. Build the levain by mixing the above ingredients to the starter.

Levain that has doubled in size.

Dough:

250g High gluten bread flour

25g Spelt

25g Buckwheat

2tsp Salt

2tbspOlive oil

250g Water

-When the levain has almost doubled in size, mix the dough flours with water in a separate bowl to autolyse for an hour.

-When the levain is ready (doubled in size), about 2-3 hours, put it together with the salt and oil to the autolysed flour.

-Do a series of stretch and fold every 15 minutes for about an hour, then cover and let rise (bulk fermentation).

- After 1 and a half hour, divide the dough into 2, then shape the dough into flat ovals.

-Transfer the shaped dough into a parchment-lined baking sheet then let rise again for an hour or until very bubbly.

-Bake in a 400 degree F or 205 degree C preheated oven for 40 min.

-Let cool, slice and enjoy!

During stretch and fold.

Those bubbles are from the yeast's activity during fermentation.

Note: I came up with this recipe thru time and a lot of errors, if you have questions or want more details just send Shouse a message.

On to my favorite part... Breakfast in bed, totally a luxe for me. The soup I ended up having was a thick cheese soup made from monterey jack and sharp cheddar.

Holey-holes.

That stretchy cheese! I put shitake mushroom for added flavor. Crumbled bacon will also do the job.

This meal can easily be made ahead of time.... if you're not into bread baking, any crusty bread in the supermarket or bakery will do. Just toast the bread, nuke some canned-soup and you're good to go.