Sourdough Foccacia _Paddington House of Pancakes the Curves

~Ham and Cheese Foccacia Sandwich~

I have been baking a lot sourdough bread mainly for my family consumption. I have never think of one day i can even supply my homemade sourdough bake to a restaurant. Until Paddington House of Pancakes which is located at the Curves approached me and asked me to supply my homemade sourdough focaccia for their new menu, which will be launched on 3 Nov 2017.

Natural Yeast made with Apple Yeast Water 苹果天然酵母酵種

After i gaining more experiences with making sourdough and soft bread using natural yeast from sourdough starter , then i promised myself to try back apple yeast water which i tried few years back. At that time i didn't continue as i was lacking of experiences and guidance. But today the trend of using natural yeast from sourdough starter or yeast water are increasing, more related information are available. Many people are trying to bake healthy bread for their own consumption that without any addition of chemical substances.

Rotiboy (coffee bun)_Natural yeast 天然酵母_咖啡墨西哥包

Rotiboy coffee bun is my little boy's favourite bread. So i try to replicate this bun using natural yeast from sourdough starter. Anyway, i also provide you recipe using instant yeast method if you don't have natural yeast, but you need to adjust the water portion. Also i will update this recipe on my new FB page which i work together with another sourdough buddy. Feel free to visit my FB page : SEED Artisan Bakers , as we will share more sourdough tips and recipes in this page.

Red Bean Bao_Natural yeast 天然酵母_ 红豆包子

Earlier i taught you to split sourdough starter into two, one feed with all purpose flour and another with bread flour ( can use to make bread). So i can use the starter that cultured with all purpose flour to make steamed baozi, mantou or buns. Actually sourdough starter is like Chinese so called 老面.

Snowy Milk Buns _Natural yeast 天然酵母_牛奶小餐包

Actually this is just a normal milk buns recipe using natural yeast, but i wanted it to look special, so i sprinkle flour on top, so it look white and pure , Lolz.. Anyway, this bun is very soft and less sweet, so you can enjoy with spread of butter, peanut butter, Nutella and etc. Also you can use it as basic dough recipe and wrap any filling or toppings as you like.

Pumpkin Rose buns_with natural yeast 天然酵母_南瓜玫瑰形馒头

When i was planning to make some buns using natural yeast from sourdough starter, a rose shape came into my mind since this Sunday is Mother's day. I also used some pandan extract to make the leaf. This is wholesome buns which has no preservative added, using sourdough starter and no artificial colouring.

Red bean bread buns_Natural yeast 天然酵母_ 红豆面包

Some reader asked me is there any standard calculation for the amount of sourdough starter to use to make bread. From my experience, for rusty or country sourdough bread, usually use very little of starter, around 25%-30% ( starter over total dry ingredients), as to slower down the fermentation and create very nice aroma and mild tangy taste of sourdough bread. As for Asian type of soft bread, based on my own calculation, usually i use about 70-80% (starter over total dry ingredients) , as to speed up the proofing process in order not to get a sour taste of bread. You know it will not taste nice if a soft buns tasted sour right?
This time i baked this batch of red bean buns using homemade red bean paste, and use very simple bread ingredients which easy to make, still resulted soft and nice buns.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake_with natural yeast 天然酵母_巧克力戚风蛋糕

Natural yeast from sourdough starter can be very versatile, not only can make into bread, even can use it to make baozi, steamed cake , kuih-muih, pancake, waffle and etc. This time i used it to bake a chiffon cake and great that it work well too. The best thing is I can't detect any sour taste and it just tasted like normal chiffon cake. So when you have discard sourdough starter, instead of throw it away, why not use it to make a chiffon cake?

Coconut water White Loaf_Natural yeast 天然酵母_椰子水面包

Nowadays many people like to consume coconut related products example like extra virgin organic coconut oil, fresh coconut water and etc as they believe coconut is good for our health. When i combined fresh coconut water with natural yeast from sourdough starter to make this white loaf, i believe this is consider a super food ^_^.

Fresh Strawberry and Blueberries bread buns _Natural yeast 天然酵母_新鲜草莓蓝莓面包

This very soft and refreshing buns was made before CNY. After CNY rest for almost a month, now just got some free time to sit down record down this bun recipe using natural yeast from sourdough starter.

Wholemeal Loaf_Natural Yeast 天然酵母_全麦土司

A basic wholemeal loaf that using natural yeast _sourdough starter , wholesome and healthy home baked bread for my family. Even it has to wait long hours to complete a loaf. But with better planning, you can still doing many tasks while waiting.....furthermore it didn't taste sour at all.

Bear wholemeal Pull-Apart bread_Natural yeast天然酵母_小熊小面包

My bread baking journey has begun with natural yeast, i guess it is quite hard for me to use back instant yeast to bake bread. There is nothing wrong baking bread with instant yeast, at least still homebaked bread. Since i have natural yeast, and i need to keep it active and alive, so i have to bake more often with it. Furthermore it has more nutritious than normal bread.

Pain de campagne_natural yeast 天然酵母_乡村面包

When I travelling in Europe, i like to enjoy their sourdough bread especially in Germany where they have good sourdough breads. And also admiring on those bread and promise to myself that i have to bake this type of real bread in one day. Finally with my natural yeast, now i could enjoying homebaked sourdough bread at home which is healthy as no sugar and oil are added, simply use flour, water and salt (good to consume by diabetes patient). After made quite a number of sourdough breads, now i start to understand how to control the sourness of this bread, so my family also started to accept this type of healthy bread.

Sourdough Pita bread 天然酵母_口袋面包

Once my new batch of natural yeast ready, first i removed some to make this Pita bread. I am so glad that the bread nicely puffed and has big pocket that we can fill up with anything, roast meat, pulled pork, vegetables, pickled vegetables and etc. My chidlren also like to spread with Nutella and banana.

By the way, baking with natural yeast, you need to have two P (Passion and Patience) ^_^.
Here are the benefits of Sourdough bread:-
Easier to Digest
Natural Preservatives
Blood Glucose Regulation
Better Absorbtion of Vitamins
Better Absorbtion of Minerals
 *extracted from a piece of information that my friend forwarded to me

Making Natural Yeast (Sourdough starter) 自制_ 天然酵母 (面粉和水）

This is not my first time dealing with natural yeast. The first time i made natural yeast with apple. I didn't continue to bake with the first natural yeast as that time i was a busy working mom (it was 4 years back) and also has limited information of maintaining a natural yeast (the first natural yeast cookbook i bought was in Japanese, Lolz). Until few months back, i met two new friends and now became lost sisters ^_^, Jennifer and Elvina. Jennifer has been baking with natural yeast whereas Elvina love to eat sourdough bread (she is expert in eating very rusty sourdough bread which taste sour , hard and thick crust ^_^). Slowly i was influenced by them and start back to make my own natural yeast with the consultation by Jennifer and few of my Instagram's friends. This time i made Sourdough starter just using flour and water. There are many ways to get natural yeast, Asian way usually used dried fruits or fresh fruits to make yeast water then add flour to make the starter. This time i prefer simple way of natural yeast using sourdough method, just need flour and water, which are easily obtain in my kitchen. Some of you might already know the benefits of baking with natural yeast, if you not, please google for the answers as i am not the expert to tell you the benefits. Some of you may ask me will the bread using sourdough starter tasted sour? If you are making a rustic country bread, yes, it taste sour because of long fermentation. If you using it to make Asian sweet buns,even you can make into bao or kuih-muih, you will not taste sour because the short fermentation and the way of keeping the starter (will share later).