#sourdough discard gingerbread

[la-quarantine-bakery]

Aran to end the year: week of 12/28/20

End of the year which means trying out more recipes from Aran Bakery and using up as many leftover ingredients as possible.

Sourdough cranberry panettone

Grade: B+

Panettone is a holiday bread. I originally wanted to bake it for Christmas but felt it would be too much after the croissant loaf, so I baked it for New Year’s instead. This recipe is a condensed recipe that doesn’t require cultivating a sweet stiff starter over several days, but it was still a complex recipe as it required incorporating 125 grams of butter into 225 grams of flour. I used Miyoko’s vegan butter, which melted faster than butter, became very liquid, and smelled strongly of cashew (although that might be what I was cooking).

Panettone also called for soaking sultanas and raisins in orange juice or liquor. I used cranberries and soaked them in warm water, because I totally goofed and forgot that I have both orange blossom water and actual oranges, which I tried to add after the fact (and Mom seemed to like the taste). Another goof: forgot to take pictures of the finished products, which looked like cute little brioche mushrooms.

Despite the usage of the vegan butter, the bread tasted nice and buttery. My parents liked the cranberries and the oranges, and the fact that the dough was not overly sweet. Next time I would try to play with the ratio of the add-ins and use actual butter.

Recipe: easy sourdough panettone recipe from Foodgeek

Sourdough discard gingerbread

Grade: B+

This was a recipe with a few substitutions made: I used Puffy in place of some flour and milk, heavy cream instead of some butter and milk, vegan butter instead of butter, and more golden syrup than called for to use up my bottle. Oh, and I used dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar, in lower amount.

Alas, still too sweet likely due to the higher ratio of golden syrup. But the warm spices felt comforting all the same.

Recipe: iced gingerbread from Flora Shedden’s Aran

Chocolate oat cookies

Grade: A-

I wanted to try this recipe for a while due to the usage of rolled oats and both white and dark chocolate, but since it didn’t call for sourdough I always skipped it in favor of recipes that would allow me to use up some discard.

Since Puffy went to the gingerbread, I finally got to make this, using more white chocolate chips than called for to use up the bag. The texture was wonderful thanks to the oats, but it was a bit too sweet due to the extra white chocolate chips. I think it would’ve tasted amazing if I kept the original ratios because my dark chocolate baking chunks tasted amazing in those cookies.

Recipe:  chocolate oat cookie from Flora Shedden’s Aran

New Year’s Day cherry shortcake

Grade: A-

Mom bought a cake decorating kit so we baked a cake to test out piping. The cake itself was interesting as it involved heating the eggs (whole, not separated) and sugar together, then beating until airy and tripled, and then folding into flour and fat. We ran out of butter so used vegetable oil, and we ran out of cake flour so used bleached flour. Not sure if that affected the final product.

The pan was a bit big so the cake was thinner than we wanted, which meant no layers. I used cherry syrup to soak the cake, giving it a nice cherry taste, and we beat heavy cream together with sugar to create the frosting, which was a bit soft. The piping wasn’t as hard as I expected since Mom actually put the tip on correctly, but the effect leaves much room for improvement.

The cake tasted nice and light, and the frosting was milky. I would’ve liked more layers as I like frosting and I think it would’ve made the cake itself more moist, so something to work on for the next cake.

Recipe: Japanese strawberry shortcake from Just One Cookbook

Sourdough granola with gingerbread spice

Grade: 

Another sourdough buildup, another variation of sourdough granola, with pumpkin and sunflower seeds, almonds, the last of my cranberries, and new gingerbread spice.

Recipe: sourdough granola from 24hourkitchen

[dish-ev]

Glazed Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies - Home Grown Happiness

Glazed Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies – Home Grown Happiness

Published: December 5, 2021 · Per Elien · These cookie cutters are full of warming spices. They are slightly soft in the middle and covered with a sweet glaze. It’s baking cookies season and gingerbread cookies are one of my all-time favorites. This recipe is a great way to use the discarded pasta. The beginner in gingebread cookies La dough starter in this recipe can be discarded starter or…

[thesuretaste]

Banana Gingerbread

there is a single ripe banana on your counter. harmless, yet quickly turning into something other than that familiar sweet yellow companion. i hate to admit it, but time is against you. ok, let’s evaluate. so our spotty, browning friend, banana, can be used in overnight oats, a pb banana sandwich, mashed into anything i guess, frozen for smoothies or nana nice cream, but with just one banana, hey, maybe a lil banana bread.

this recipe is adapted from a beautiful mess with some extra mmph with the gingerbread component. sure, it’s summer, but who doesn’t love a little spice and hearty seeds? in the end this does taste more banana-ey than i’d envisioned with all additions to traditional banana bread, but the mix of dark flours, the little bit of sourdough, spices, and seed toppings compliment, lift, and give a rich foundation to a classic comforting bread.

1 ripe banana 1 flax egg 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 tbsp molasses 3 tablespoons olive oil 1/4 cup rye flour, 1/4 cup buckwheat flour, 1 tbsp all-purpose flour (or 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour) (+ optional: 1/4 cup sourdough discard) 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp cloves 1/4 tsp ground ginger (or 1 tsp grated ginger) 1/2 cup chopped walnuts sprinkle oats and seeds

Preheat oven to 325°F

In a bowl, mash the banana. Prepare the flax egg and stir in, along with the vanilla extract, molasses, and oil. Then add in the flours, optional sourdough discard, sugars, baking soda, salt, and spices. When well combined, stir in the chopped walnuts. Pour into a small oiled loaf pan and top with your choice of oats, seeds, or more chopped nuts. I used quick oats, flax seeds, sesame seeds, and pumpkin seeds. Bake at 325°F for 20 - 25 minutes.

recipe adapted from: https://abeautifulmess.com/one-banana-banana-bread/

[la-quarantine-bakery]

Pandan and palm sugar: week of 8/30/21

Sourdough croissants, pain au chocolat, and croffles

Grade: A- (croissants), B+ (pain au chocolat), B (croffles)

Wanted to make croissants with Kerrygold butter. Using commercial yeast this time too, which helped with the dough not being too sour like last time (wow has it really been almost 9 months since I tried to laminate dough?!).

Burned (er, caramelized) the bottoms of those croissants. The Trader Joes chocolate I stuffed into the pain au chocolat was probably not intended for chocolate filling as they sort of became grainy. They taste quite good overall, quite flaky actually.

I used leftover scraps to make croffles for my brother. Those turned out less well. For some reason — maybe the lack of proofing — they tasted somewhat sour and needed powdered sugar or sweet topping / filling to balance.

Recipe: sourdough croissants from Baking Sense

Sourdough carrot cake

Grade: A-

Had shredded carrots and Puffy discard, so why not? Turned out quite nice. I could’ve baked at a muffin temperature (vs. a cake temperature) for better texture, but the flavors worked out.

Recipe: whole wheat sourdough carrot cake from Veggie Converter

Modifications: reduced sugar by >50%; coconut yogurt for vegetable oil; gingerbread spice for chai spice

Sourdough furikake crackers

Grade: B+

Burned them, but taste was pretty good.

Recipe: sourdough crackers from Feasting at Home

Modifications: dumped in all of my remaining salmon furikake seasoning

Bingka tepung buras

Grade: B-

Too watery last time so wanted to remake. Somehow, they were even more watery this time despite achieving porridge consistency. I guess I need to keep working on this, though it worked out nicely when stir fried with eggs.

Recipe: bingka tepung buras from What to Cook Today

Ongol ongol hunkwe

Grade: B+

Might as well use up my sticked rock sugar so made this too. A bit on the sweet side, but mung bean flour made for nice sweets.

Recipe: ongol ongol hongwe from What to Cook Today

Pandan coconut macaroons

Grade: B+

Had leftover pandan coconut flakes from ongol ongol hunkwe (which really didn’t need that much coconut coating). A bit too salty from all the salt I added while steaming. I technically didn’t have enough egg white for all the coconuts, but the moisture level actually felt a bit on the high side probably from the steaming.

Recipe: coconut macaroons from Just One Cookbook

Modification: steamed unsweetened coconut with pandan and salt instead of out-of-bag unsweeted coconuts

[la-quarantine-bakery]

Birthday week sprint: week of 7/12/21

Didn’t bake too much during the week, and then baked four things between Friday and Saturday!

Tartine country loaf

Grade: B

In honor of bro’s birthday. Though I think a worse effort than last time -- need to work on structure and crust. He said that it does taste like sourdough but nothing like Tartine, which is to be excited.

Recipe: Tartine basic country bread from Karen’s Kitchen Stories

Sourdough beesting brioche

Grade: A-

My birthday cake and bread! I was kind of disappointed in the brioche, as the texture was too closed and the taste was too sour. But the topping is delicious and the diplomat cream filling was decadently coconutty. Definitely want to try this again.

Recipes:

Brioche from the sourdough brioche bread from Home Grown Happiness

Assembly, topping, and cream from Bread by Jeffrey Hamelman (skipped the gelatin powder and used coconut cream in place of whipped cream; reduced sugar)

Birthday angel food tiramisu cake

Grade: B+

Frosting is too bitter and cake is too sweet and cake layers are too thick compared to frosting, but overall okay. I should go for thinner cake layers so the coffee soak could’ve moistened the cake more -- that was probably what made Dad’s cake from last year so successful.

Recipes: 

Cake from homemade angel food cake from An Italian in My Kitchen

Frosting / filling = some random combination of heavy cream, mascarpone cream, espresso powder, and powdered sugar

Sourdough sesame and poppy seeds crackers

Grade: B+

First time making sourdough crackers that are Puffy-only, no additional flour. Mom liked them even though she also felt they were a bit sour.

Recipe: sourdough discard crackers from Little Spoon Farm

Sourdough rye gingerbread

Grade: B

I ran out of molasses so had to substitute honey, but at least I got to use up rye flour. It’s not the most gingery gingerbread I’ve made and I think the baking was a bit lacking too.

Recipe: rye gingerbread from King Arthur Baking Company

Modifications: 28g sourdough for rye flour + buttermilk; coconut milk instead of buttermilk; honey when molasses ran out

Coconut mochi cake

Grade: A-

The shiratamako flour I used is green due to mugwort (I wish I remembered to snap a picture) so the final product is actually quite pretty, a green cake with coconut flakes. Grandma says that she could taste the difference between Chinese sweet rice flour and shiratamako, something about the glutinousness. I’m just happy it tasted good to family.

Recipe: coconut mochi cake from the Subversive Table

Modification: reduced sugar by 1/3 (55g in a half recipe)

[la-quarantine-bakery]

Maple sugary goodness: week of 2/22/21

A lot of maple sugar this week as it’s hardening into lumps.

Sourdough sesame spelt boule

Grade: B+

This was my first sourdough bread ever but at the time I didn’t realize that I baked a pancake, and even bragged to Reddit about it. Then I realized how far I was from mastering sourdough bread, from dough mixing to shaping to proofing.

This time I followed the recipe almost exactly, including the salt which was a bit too salty for me. The dough was less wet than a lot of sourdough doughs that I handled, which I think helped a lot with the baking, plus the tighter shaping. I also used whole instead of ground seeds in the dough which might’ve soaked up the moisture.

The result: the best looking sourdough that I had produced to date. Not the best tasting, but very photogenic and looks almost professional. I even got a like from Flora Shedden herself on Instagram.

Recipe: sesame spelt loaf from Flora Shedden’s Aran

Birthday gingerbread cake

Grade: B+

This cake was made over two weeks: first the sponge last weekend, and then the frosting and cookie crumbles this week.

The sponge was close to what I want from a layered cake, but the taste wasn’t great - I think the vegetable oil was starting to go rancid. I used baking powder to help with the rise. One of the cakes rose evenly and the other collapsed a bit, but the first cake made for neat layers.

The icing was made of coconut cream and mascarpone cheese because I didn’t get heavy cream, which worked out fine. I added gingerbread spice to overwhelm the weird oily taste from the sponge layers and also brushed the layers with leftover coconut milk. I think the taste of the frosting was quite nice.

Finally I added some cookie crumbles from sourdough gingerbread cookies to help with the taste and texture. And then added freeze dried raspberries on top, which actually tasted like raspberries rather than tasteless powder.

I still would’ve preferred more icing, and I still wish that my cake were neater, but overall my cakes are improving.

Recipes:

Cake from recipe - lychee cake from Miss Tam Chiak

Frosting: mix coconut cream from chilled can of coconut milk with mascarpone and flavor

Cookie crunch from sourdough gingerbread cookies (see below)

Sourdough gingerbread cookies

Grade: B+

I made this to test out the recipe as another way to use up sourdough discard. Too oily due to the usage of duck fat instead of butter. But it made for pretty tasty cookies on their own and nice crumbles for the cakes and pudding.

Recipe: sourdough discard chewy spice cookies from Make it Dough

Modification: gingerbread spice for the spices; less white sugar; 54g duck fat + 32g Greek yogurt for 84.5g butter

Homemade banana pudding

Grade: A-

This was done on a whim as I had an empty Vermont Creamery mascarpone cheese container from the cake, as well as a ripe banana and leftover cream cheese. So I thought, why not make my own banana pudding with cake layers, cookie crumbles, and banana cream cheese frosting?

It actually tasted pretty nice, although I gave most of it to my parents.

Recipe: inspired by banana cream cheese roll from King Arthur Baking Company

Maple sugar nian gao

Grade: C+

My maple sugar from last summer was starting to clump so I wanted to use it up, thinking it would taste good in a nian gao recipe. As it turns out, maple sugar is sweeter than white sugar, so the result is too sweet. Tastes okay pan fried with salt and eggs, but not what I wanted. Sprinkling lemon juice on top did not help tone down the sweetness.

On the other hand, I learned that the usage of rice flour in this recipe meant that I didn’t have to steam the nain gao for hours as it lent the nian gao more structure. So learned something new from the experiment.

Recipe: nian gao from the Woks of Life

Modification: maple sugar and maple syrup in place of brown sugar and molasses; no spices

Sourdough coconut macaroons

Grade: D

Wanted to use macaroons to decorate the cake and use up the last of the shredded coconuts. Way too sour, might’ve worked if I added more sugar. Poor Puffy and the other ingredients.

Recipe: coconut macaroons from Just One Cookbook

Modification: 30g of sourdough discard and 30g of maple syrup in place of egg whites and granulated sugar

Coconut flour maple shortbread

Grade: C

Too dry. Boo coconut flour. A nice subtle maple flavor though and used up the rest of Miyoko’s vegan butter.

Recipe: keto coconut flour shortbread cookies recipe from Wholesome Yum

Modification: maple sugar instead of white sugar at a lesser amount; last of Miyoko’s vegan butter

Coconut rice pudding

Grade: A-

Made with leftover coconut water and some rice. Surprisingly had a subtle sweetness despite not adding any sugar.

Sourdough pumpkin spice bread

Grade: B+

Mom gave me some pumpkins and I wanted to use up some Puffy discard and coconut flour, so made this Frankenstein recipe. There is a bit too much liquid (probably could’ve used another 5g coconut flour in place of 20g all-purpose flour) so after over an hour it was still kind of gooey. But it tasted pretty nice and is theoretically healthy. And I’m glad I know that applesauce can be used as a sugar substitute now.

Recipe: sourdough pumpkin spice bread from King Arthur Baking Company

Modification: for 1/3 recipe, 4oz recipe in place of some pumpkin, all of the sugar and oil; 10g coconut flour for 40g all-purpose flour; 1 instead of 2/3 egg

[la-quarantine-bakery]

Lots of cupcakes: week of 2/15/21

A lot of cupcake liners were used and reused this week.

Sourdough poppy seed challah

Grade: B

I’m trying to eat less butter in hopes of losing some holiday weight (an ongoing process) so baked a challah that uses vegetable oil, with the side effect of discovering a good recipe for Dad. Except I messed up the proportions - some ingredients were cut by 1/2 while others were cut by 2/3 - so the dough and the final bread was a bit too oily.

Tried out a four-strand braid for the first time. I’m still having trouble elongating challah strands, but the braiding is really fun. Need to do a better job of sprinkling poppy seeds next time.

Recipe: sourdough challah from the Gingered Whisk

Braiding: challah part two: how to braid challah from Tori Avey

Sourdough condensed milk bread

Grade: A-

Needed to use up the condensed milk in my fridge because I don’t like having random ingredients lying around, and after condensed milk mantou I obviously know it’s time to finally try condensed milk milk bread.

The main snafu was the baking: it’s overbaked because the tops were initially only brushed with coconut milk, and I’m not sure if it’s the milk or the coconut but it was not browning. So I applied a last minute egg wash and it needed to bake long enough for the egg wash to turn a nice color. Even then the top isn’t as golden as it could’ve been.

The flavor was nice - sweeter than most milk breads I’ve baked, but not in an overpowering way - and the texture was soft, though a bit on the gummy side. I definitely didn’t do something right with the hydration so something I’ll need to watch out for next time.

Recipe: adapted from easy milk bread rolls from Omnivore’s Cookbook at 30% levain

Baked oatmeal with dates and hazelnuts

Grade: A-

Not much to say here except I’m not sure the hazelnuts really added to the oatmeal. So good.

Recipe: 1-bowl baked oatmeal from Sally’s Baking Addiction

Fa gao

Grade: B+

A bit gummy, a little on the sweet side (I didn’t end up cutting the brown sugar by much as I was trying to use up the hardened sugar in my fridge) but they blossomed nicely. I might try adding in sourdough starter next time.

Recipe: Chinese fa gao from China Sichuan Food

Sourdough matcha cupcakes

Grade: A-

Finally used up the last of my matcha powder from an open container. It was actually a little too strong on the matcha because I was trying to use up all the matcha powder. But I like the taste - not too sweet, somewhat bitter, a nice balance. And got to use up some Puffy discard too.

Recipe: matcha green tea cupcakes with whipped cream from Wild Wild Whisk

Modifications: substituted in 90 grams of sourdough starter and weight for weight applesauce for vegetable oil; almost halved the sugar; accidentally added 2-3 grams extra matcha powder; skipped baking powder

Black sesame and nuts tang yuan

Grade: A

Lantern Festival! Grandma made the fillings so I just made the wrappers. There are different versions of how to do the wrappers, some involving using boiling water to cook part of the dough, but I went with a lazy version where I just mixed in warm and room temperature water until I got a mochi dough ball. It was a bit on the wet side but by the end, the dough dried up and shaping them wasn’t too hard.

Tasted nice, especially with some leftover condensed milk.

Recipes:

Fillings from Grandma

Doughs from tang yuan from Red House Spice 

Shaping from Chinese tang yuan recipe from cherryday

Cornmeal lemon poppy seed cookies

Grade: C

Cornmeal expires soon and this recipe also uses brown rice flour so I thought, why not? Wayyy too dry and tasteless. Needed more sugar for once. I’m not sure I’ll finish this batch.

Recipe: cornmeal cookies from Sugar Loves Spices

Modification: applesauce instead of extra-virgin olive oil; less sugar; lemon juice instead of lemon zest; added poppy seeds

Cornmeal drop biscuits

Grade: B+

Again, wanted to use up more cornmeal. Needed to add more salt and the duck fat caused the biscuits to spread too much, but otherwise it was quite delicious and the texture / taste from the cornmeal worked nicely.

Recipe: cornmeal drop biscuits from Baking Bread by Martin Philip

Modification: duck fat instead of butter

Gingerbread crème fraîche muffins

Grade: A-

A bit overbaked - was supposed to turn down oven temperature after the first five minutes. But they are good looking little muffins and tasted nice. Got to use up applesauce and crème fraîche here, and in the future would add Puffy discard as well.

Recipe: gingerbread muffins with sweet lemon glaze from Sally’s Baking Addiction

Modifications: a combination of crème fraîche, non-fat plain Greek yogurt, and applesauce in place of sour cream and butter; less sugar; no glaze; did not warm the molasses; 20% rye flour