Finding Flavorland

Recipe from Claire Saffitz’s “Dessert Person” * Recipe: 6 + 7 of 107 Attempt #1

This was def a huge hit for me. Delight of apple pie but without the wetness of all the pie. I loved every bit of it. So moist, so apple-ly.

Halved the recipe of the book to make this in a smaller 7-in cake pan and it was a perfect fit. I did make some math mistake and accidentally forgot to halve the baking soda/powder and salt.

Claire instructs to NOT use any pre-spiced apple butter, but that was all I had in the fridge and I wasn't going to buy more. Even though it was pre-spiced, I didn't bother adjusting the volume of spices used in the cake. I did however, halve the amount of sugar for the recipe as well since the apple butter was already pretty sweet. The increased salt, decreased sugar, and additional spices made an amazing, flavorful cake that wasn't too sweet. I loved every bit of it.

Cake was absolutely moist and amazing.

For a 7in cake, all I needed was 1 cup of crumble, which was 1/3 of the recipe in the book. Good reference to know for the future so I don't end up with too much crumble in the future.

Recipe from Claire Saffitz’s “Dessert Person” * *Used recipe for Kouign Amann instead of spelt croissants. Recipe: 5 of 107 Attempt #3 (for croissants)

Servings: 8 full croissants + 1 made from half pieces, + 1 scraps roll, 1 croissant = ~ 85g Nutrition Info: 416 cal • 31.8g Carbs / 32.4g Fat / 5.6g Protein

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Outcome

This was by far the most successful croissant making out of the 3 attempts at croissants. I don't think the success was from the recipe per se, but from the directions and notes that Claire left.

Not used to using salted butter in recipes, so these croissants were relatively unsalted despite attempts to add salt. Claire's original recipe for croissants also utilizes bread flour whereas her kouign amann recipe uses AP flour. Did not realize the differences there until after, so worth trying it out next time.

These croissants were so rich and high in fat that they left me feeling pretty sick even from eating half. Curious to try the techniques with other recipes...aka Kouign Amann, Cruffins etc.

Cross-section is still not as beautiful as I hope. I think there is potential to bake one sheet and allow the other to proof as long as Claire suggests to see if it makes a difference. Would also potentially try with bread flour for stronger gluten structures that may allow for it to grow more?

Lamination – I think techniques of lamination were pretty successful. Layer separation is cleaner!! The butter sheet did visually break at the final turn, so that's something to work on.

Overall: I would consider this a relatively close success.

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Key lessons:

1. Freeze the dough before encasing the butter until it's relatively firm, but not frozen solid. Dough should feel the same level of firmness as butter block. This will take longer than the 10 min Claire suggests.

2. Let the butter block melt when making the block. This allows the slices of butter to be rolled/smooshed into each other, then allow to chill and re-firm in the fridge.

3. Go by feel, not by the timings in the recipe. Trust yourself. When the dough feels too soft, throw it in the freezer so the butter firms up quickly. If the dough need to relax, throw it in the fridge. Proofing timing was also much shorter than Claire instructs, almost half the time. Go by your senses.

4. Turn the A/C on so the room temp is cold enough for the butter to not melt away.

5. Beat the dough butter package before rolling out. Impt in making the butter pliable. Be patient. If you are impatient and roll it out before the butter is ready, it will break like icebergs and this unevenness will cause your dough to tear.

6. If the dough breaks, pinch it., then throw it back in the fridge/freezer for the butter to firm so it's doesn't melt and leak everywhere instead.

7. Cream/butter + yolk results in a nice tan. Not too dark, not too light. A thin coat is sufficient for color, but more = shinier and crunchier.

Recipe from Claire Saffitz’s “Dessert Person” Recipe: 4 of 107 Attempt #1

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Servings: 16  Nutrition Info: 200 cal • 22.4g Carbs / 11.8g Fat / 2.5g Protein

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Review: This was pretty tart, maybe a little too tart. The first bite was quite an initial shock to the system. It's not a tartness that will cause your jaw to cramp up, but still feels a little too much. You do get used to it after the initial shock. It's definitely so rich that one small piece is sufficient. I definitely was not left wanting or needing more.

The shortbread was decent, as with most shortbreads, but the mint does not come through at all. The lemon curd flavor was just too overpowering.

My curd didn't really set/solidify as much as I wanted. It wasn't runny, but it was a little too soft, making it somewhat messy and hard to handle for a handheld treat. I did make this in a rush, not realizing they needed time to cool and set before serving. It did get some time in the freezer for a quick chill, but had the opportunity to sit in the fridge during the cookout. Still, the middle wasn't set. Perhaps an overnight chill might do it good. We'll see.

Overall, the tart didn't feel too balanced and I definitely wasn't craving for more after I was done.

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Adjustments:

Buy an extra lime and lemon just in case. The recipe calls for 7 limes and 1 lemon and they barely made just the volume that the recipe asked for.

Increase volume of cornstarch to help the curd set (if it doesn't set more overnight...) or note in the recipe that this need to be made the night before if it does set.

Use a tall bladed knife for cleaner cuts to cut straight through the curd and shortbread. Do not slice and drag through cuts.

Clean your knife between cuts so the leftover soft curds on the blade don't marr the surface of your cuts.

Make tarts instead of bars. If you don't want to change the softness of the curd, this recipe would be better off as a mini tart instead of bars. The short bread doesn't crumble when bit into, so it might work well for a tart.

Maybe add whipped cream or a meringue to create some balance to the tartness of the lemon.

Recipe from Claire Saffitz' Dessert Person Becoming Dessert Person 3 of 107 Attempt 1

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This cake was such an Instagrammable cake with its beautiful orange layer.

Flavor wise, it was ok. Something felt a tad off, like the olive oil was rancid even though it was a brand new bottle from the store. The cake was nice and soft. It did look a little gummy on the inside, but that could be due to me pulling it out the pan too early and not resting it enough.

Slicing the oranges thin enough is key for this recipe, and it was tough without squishing it. Use of the mandolin was the solution since a knife would squish the slice and make it hard to get thin slices. Thick slices would make this cake hard to eat. The rind is pretty tough and chewy even when thinly sliced, so eating the cake did pull the entire slice off, leaving naked bits of cake bites. The oranges were key to the orange flavors, so I do wonder if removal of the skin would detract from that.

The addition of the semolina was interesting, and added a nice textural note to the cake which I enjoyed. Claire suggests having the cake with yogurt, but I didn't really think it added anything to it and was a weird combination, esp with the gritty semolina.

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Recommended tweaks for future:

Bake in a regular cake pan instead of a springform. The recipe instructs to bake this is a springform pan to make releasing the cake easy. However, I experienced no problems at all with releasing the cake as long as it was well buttered. The springform pan resulted in the precious sugar syrup leaking everywhere, getting into the nooks and crannies of the pan, making it a pain to clean. It was leaking brown sugar water for days after no matter how much I washed it. I would have loved to have the sugar glaze caramelizing the top as well, but alas it was all gone.

Recipe from Claire Saffitz's "Dessert Person" Becoming Dessert Person 2 of 107 Attempt #1

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Review: The mango caramel was the absolute star of the show in this recipe. It added such an amazing depth and layer of flavor to basic caramel.

The rice pudding cake on the other hand, felt too dense, both in texture and calories. I did make the recipe in a smaller 7.5 in cake pan vs the 9in pan, so the cake was taller in height. The pudding layer seemed to have separated, perhaps due to the weight of the rice pudding sitting at double the height it was intended to. I might reduce the volume of rice pudding in the future, or maybe make mini cakes.

The recipe says to let cool on a wire rack. Do NOT flip the cake out onto a wire rack to cool. It will sink into the wire rack, creating ugly marks and ruin the smooth pudding. Re-reading it now, Claire prob means to let the cake cool inside the pan, on top of a wire rack.

The cake does need to be enjoyed at room temp or warmer for several reasons. 1) The caramel needs to be warm to be poured over the cake. 2) The rice pudding cake was really only enjoyable at room temperature or warmer. Any colder and the rice pudding felt too stiff. 3) Warm caramel and cold stiff rice pudding cake is just terrible. The mango can be served warm or cold, either worked well.

While Claire writes to serve the cake with thinly sliced mango, I found that the slices were too thin to balance out the cake and caramel. Chunks, or diced mango equal in size, or at least half of the bite, would create a better balance.

Overall, it reminded me of the pandan kueh seri muka/kueh salat, but a more unhealthy version loaded with heavy cream and butter. Would love to attempt this as an asian version instead.

Claire rated the recipe as easy, but I'd rank it higher in difficulty due to the time and labor required in babysitting the rice pudding and caramel.

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

If you enjoy the crust of a cheesecake more than the cheese part like I do, you might like this better than a cheesecake.

Verdict: 6/10

Also known as the Medovik. This was somewhat like a cheesecake with the ratios of cheese to crust reversed. As the recipe requestor, Joannie said, “I will call this...pie crust cake.”

Taste:

I liked that this wasn’t too sweet. It had a nice balance between the tanginess of the sour cream and the sweetness of the honey. Drizzling more honey on the slices made it more delicious when eating, with the taste of honey dancing in and out. I did wish that the recipe for the icing called for honey instead of condensed milk though, as that would have provided a more honey-focused cake.

Texture:  I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from this since everything about it was so unexpected. Sour cream in a cake?! Cookies for layers?! Although the cake sat in the fridge overnight before being eaten, I felt this got better as it aged. Although the frosting got chewier from drying out, the textures of the “cake” had a nice bite to it, like a frozen sara lee pound cake.

The Making Of:

The cookie layers

The chemistry of making the cookie sheets was very interesting. I was nervous about making the caramel and very surprised at how it integrated, and then how the baking powder interacted with the mixture and got all foamy. The frustrating part was how sticky the dough was and how I had to make sure things were floured properly before rolling and cutting. I also had to roll the dough out on the silicon baking sheet because transferring the cut dough to the baking sheet proved impossible without tearing the dough and distorting it. I couldn’t roll it out thin enough without it getting sticky and ruining it, so layers are thicker than it looks in the recipe.

Since I shrank the cake down, I was able to bake 2 cookies at once instead to speed up the process, and the time it took for the cookies to bake in the oven was the same amount of time it took me to roll and cut the next cookies, so swapping in and out was pretty seamless.

The “cookie” layers were surprisingly more cake-like than cookie like. There was no snap to it, kinda like stale cookies that sat in a cardboard box for too long – still stiff when picked up, but no snap when broken, though it would still splinter. It’s also apparently supposed to absorb the icing a little bit and soften further, which then makes it softer and more cake-like, when eaten. Researching recipes said that these were similar to honey grahams, and in a sense, they were.

Putting the cake together:

Frosting this cake was surprisingly better than the crepe cake. Definitely an improvement from the crepe cake, though I’m not entirely sure why. Probably more generous with the icing and more even application made this better.

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Key learnings:

**1. Cut each layer out with a mold. ** This will give you cleaner, squarer edges for a neater, stacked cake, and easier time icing the sides. If you can, use acetate ala Milkbar cakes.

2. Blitz the cookie for a finer, even dust to coat the cake. I had initially just crushed the cookies with my hands. The resulting crumbs were too thick and refused to stick to the icing and made for an ugly clumpy cake.

4. Drizzling honey over the crumb coat for decor DOES NOT WORK. It just slides off like water droplets on a repellent jacket.

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Pushing the recipe

1. Adding a variety of textures. 

I did really miss a balance of textures in this cake. I was yearning for some crunch or pops or burst or gooeyness. I think adding some berries and leaving the icing as is rather than coating it with dust would be better. The dust almost felt like eating a mouthful of powder, so it added a layer of dense thickness to the already dense, pound-like cake.

Another thing to do is prob change the dust with a snappy cookie crumble instead, or do a sugar brittle, which I’m sure will make the cake look even fancier too.

2. Decorating in a different way

Wished i did some research prior, because the honeycomb, clean cookie top looks way better. The Koreans and their clean craft. Check this out by The Cooking Tree:

Recipe by Artisan Bryan

This was a super duper fun bake. It was a kneaded, enriched bread, something I’ve never done before. The dough itself was much stickier thanks to the butter, and it took roughly an hour+ to slap the dough around until it was no longer sticky and smooth in appearance.

The other surprising thing was how much the dough grew. It doubled in the first bulk rise, then doubled again after resting, and then doubled again in the oven after shaping into a babka, and then doubled AGAIN when baking. I should have halved the recipe, because I had bucket loads of babka. Thankfully, I was able to give half of it away.

Things I would do differently for future babkas:

The nutella flavor wasn’t very obvious. I’ll need to put more nutella and twist and braid more so that more nutella is layered within a single slice.

It was also too soft to handle easily for braiding, which is why for the next attempt, I would highly recommend the following:

Laminate and roll, then chill the log before cutting and braiding

Cut each strip and twist the half rolls before braiding so that you get more layering.

Overall, would definitely keep making babkas, and laminate with different flavors, potentially:

cinnamon sugar

pesto and sundried tomato

garlic and chives

** **

Verdict: 8/10

Not bad, but not quite there yet. The sauce and wontons are still lacking flavorwise, and I would prefer a different kind of noodles.

The char siew:

Recipe for Char Siew from Rasa Malaysia

Verdict: 12/10

This was legit and tasted like home, if not better, since it wasn’t dry at all. The meat came out tender and moist, and the flavors were simply devine. I did wish for a crispier crust and more burnt ends, but I guess that might have to come from more charring with the torch. Definitely a safe option to make and serve to friends in the future.

Adaptations:

I used Boston Butt, aka pork shoulder instead of pork belly. I felt that using pork belly, as the recipe calls, would simply be too fat for my liking, and pork shoulder is the traditional choice anyway. That said, even with the boston butt, I found it a little too fatty for my liking, but it kept the meat moist and tender, as opposed to using a tenderloin.

Recipe by Artisan Bryan – https://www.artisanbryan.com/post/how-to-make-pan-de-coco-sourdough-bread-recipe

Raved by Debby, I had to try making this. I was initially in the mood for Kaya buns, or cocktail buns, but ended up trying this instead because I was all about sourdough and not so much into yeast, which seemed like a shortcut cheat.

Verdict: 7/10 I really wanted to love this. Based on the videos, I was honestly expecting a soft, moist, and light bun that I was familiar with growing up. Asian style buns, no TangZhong or yeast usage. Sadly, this wasn’t it. 

That said, I was so excited by the smell when this was in the oven. It smelled absolutely heavenly and I was hoping my neighbors could smell it and be jealous of my kitchen. The usage of coconut milk also made me think that the fragrance of coconut would permeate through the dough but that didn’t happen. 

The rolls have a surprising crust for how soft and pillowy the raw dough was before it went into the oven. I was afraid it was going to be hard and dry on the inside, but it was surprisingly moist. I was expecting the moistness, fluffiness and sweetness of the Asian coconut buns I grew up with so I was a tad disappointed with the outcome. Nonetheless, great texture, wished it had more flavor, but this was meant to be enjoyed sopping up sauces with meals so it makes sense. This might pair well with a heartier, thicker curry than the picadillo stew I made this with. This is definitely a great dinner roll.

It also remained soft and bouncy and retained freshness for 2 weeks while I ate my way through the rolls and it’s heft left me pretty full for a good awhile, which honestly, few breads can do.

Another huge plus is that you're supposed to enjoy this fresh and hot, out of the oven, unlike the normal sourdough boules which require resting. Recipe is also less tedious than sourdough boules and required less baby-sitting,  shaping and meticulousness. That said, I did screw up the recipe cos i'm severely lacking in my Asian math genes. I forgot to half my water volume and ended up with a super wet and sticky dough and had to add more flour to compensate. Glad it was salvageable, though I'm unsure if the taste and texture is as intended since hydration levels have been changed. 

Baked using Tartine’s Country Loaf base recipe

Verdict: 12/10!! A winner!

These were amazingly PERFECT, in flavor, in texture, in crumb size. A little greasy from the cheese, but not too bad. The bread was also extremely soft and moist. The loaf n the right had bacon fat incorporated into it, but I couldn’t tell a difference between either loaves. 

Technique wise, they were missing the oven spring, as indicated by the lack of ear development and the bread was not even crackling as it rested out of the oven. 

Not much rise/spring development, the exterior does not look as pretty.

The Technique

The Flour: I had accidentally used AP flour instead of bread flour and it didn’t occur to me until my container was empty. This was made with a mix of 50g whole wheat, 225g AP and 225g Bread flour. 

Volume of ingredients: Prior experiments of using just 2 oz of cheese left the flavors invisible. Turns out, you do need an overkill for it to be present in looks and flavor. For this bake, I used 5 jalapeno peppers, an 8oz bag of coarsely shredded cheddar and 4 oz finely shredded cheddar between the 2 loaves. The coarse shred ensured chunks of cheddar were visibly present and there was cheddar flavor present throughout. I could potentially use 2-3 more jalapeno peppers though it was still a pretty good amount throughout each slice.

Incorporation of ingredients: Like the sun-dried tomato loaves, I’ve incorporated them in phases throughout Round 2-6 of stretch and folds. The smaller sized fillings made for easier stretch and folds. I was able to achieve more surface tension with the stretch and folds by further tucking it under the loaf with each stretch, layering the ingredients at each stretch & fold until the dough felt too taut for another stretch.

Shaping: The prior pull and pinch method from Jack the Baker didn’t really work so well on the sundried tomato loaves. Since these were easier to handle with the smaller, less bulky fillings, I went with the envelope method this time. I did not flour the surface on the first shaping, prior to the bench proof, but I did do so on the second, and dusted my hands with flour as well, which helped improved the handling of the dough since it was starting to stick.

Bake time: My prior loaves seemed a little under baked on the base, so this time, I did without the baking sheet and increased the first bake time to 25 minutes instead of 20 minutes. Since my sun-dried tomato loaves came out too dark, I also shortened the caramelization to just 10-15 minutes instead of 20. I would set an alarm for 10 minutes, and if the crust wasn’t dark enough, I would let it go a little bit more before pulling it out of the oven.

The loaf did cook through and none of it seemed gummy, but the photo above also looks like the base is burnt/darker than usual. Perhaps I should bring the baking sheet back, and just keep the increased bake time.

Cheese on the Exterior: On one hand, cheese on the exterior meant delicious, caramelized cheese, but it also meant the cheese burnt faster, which was what happened on my first loaf. As such, I left it out on the second loaf, and I think I preferred it without the cheese on the exterior.

Overall takeaways

Go ham on the fillings for flavor.

Going to research more on oven spring and crumb development to understand what is going on. 

Iteration 2 of the sun-dried tomato, parmesan bread.

Using the exact same recipe from the Tartine’s Country loaf, except I used bread flour this time. 

Changes & adjustments from previous bake:

Flavor experimentation with dry-packed sun-dried tomatoes vs oil packed sun-dried tomatoes.

Using bread flour instead of AP flour, as dictated in the recipe, which I did not get previously

Incorporating the ingredients during the stretch & folds vs during lamination.

Increasing the volume of flavorings

Using the pinch and fold shaping technique, versus the envelope/package fold.

The Verdict: 9/10 – The oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes came out the winner. 

The oils from the oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes permeated the entire loaf, as evidenced by the colors. Not only was the bread moister and softer, the crust was also more flavorful from a deeper caramelization. Slices were even better toasted because of the oils.

That said, apart from the parmesan on the crust, the flavors of parmesan cheese was not noticeably present in the loaf itself.

The Methods

Oil packed vs dry packed

On the left is the dry-packed sundried tomatoes. I used a whole bag, which weighed 3 oz. I had initially planned on using an equal volume of sundried tomatoes, but after scooping out 3 oz of oil packed, the volume was simply incomparable, so I ended up using 6 oz of oil packed (a full jar). 

Smelling the oils inspired me to use it to flavor the dough. I didn’t want it to be too greasy and was afraid of going overboard, so I simply used the residual oil that was on the tomatoes that I scooped out, and whatever was in the bowl (roughly 1 tsp).

Bread flour vs AP flour Using bread flour resulted in higher gluten development which made for easier handling for stretch and folds. It also resulted in a softer bread and crumb in both the oil-packed and dry packed sun-dried tomato loaves.

Incorporating during stretch & folds vs lamination Folding the ingredients in during multiple successions of stretch & folds resulted in a better distribution of the ingredients. Most of what I’ve read recommended folding the ingredients in all at once, but with the bulk of the ingredients and limited stretchability of the dough, that didn’t seem possible. Instead, i added ingredients after each fold to laminate the ingredients between layers during each round of folding. Not going to lie, but the bulkiness of the ingredients made the dough harder to handle and it kept tearing the gluten strands.

Increasing the volume of ingredients I used about 3x what I used from the last time 

3 oz dry packed sundried tomato / 6 oz oil packed

2 oz shredded parmesan cheese per loaf, incorporated on the interior of the loafs, and a handful for the exterior. Oddly enough, there’s no traces of parmesan on the interiors at all. 

Pinch and Fold The pinch and fold seemed like a more logical way of approaching this loaf’s shaping since I wasn’t sure how one would pinch and fold with all the lumpy ingredients. That said, the dough still “melted” into a puddle over time, despite what Jack the baker promised. I baked the breads and they didn’t rise, so I thought I had baked a hockey puck, but the interiors were still good in the end. 

Not as pretty for photos, but interior were still delicious nonetheless. 

What’s Next

Recipe from Top with Cinnamon

I wanted to make these brownies for a friend’s birthday celebration and find more ways to use up my sourdough discard before I had a fridge entirely of just sourdough bread and discard. I found this simply by googling “sourdough discard brownies,” and these came up with lots of reviews. Since it seemed like a pretty tried and tested recipe with a very intriguing method of using meringue to create the chewy fudgey texture, I figured this was a good adventure to try. If all else fails, I would have a pack of Betty Crocker fudgey brownie mix as back up for the birthday gathering.

The Verdict: 8/10

Taste: I’m not sure if it was the dark chocolate, or that I burnt the brownies a wee bit because I was baking them in smaller volumes in a muffin tin vs a brownie pan, but it was too bitter for my preference. I had used 60% dark chocolate, which I didn’t think, would be too dark for my liking, but alas, it was for brownies, and dark/rich enough to trigger my chocolate-induced sneezes. I’d probably try milk chocolate for this recipe in the future.

Texture: 

The texture is what makes this recipe a win in my book. It’s looked nothing like the fudgey box brownies I’m used to with that weird layer of “skin”. I was surprised that they came out with a raised dome, like muffins, rather than flat, like a brownie. I was also surprised by how crusty it was on the top, like the crispy edges of a cornier piece. 

The interior seemed a little crumbly/dry/cakey when I cut into it, and I was a little dismayed, thinking it was a fail. However, it was a completely different story in my mouth. The crumbs came together into this dense, fudgey delight. 

Personally, these were better chilled, than hot, but I also prefer my fudge cold. 

Recipe Notes:

Using a meringue – I was extremely intrigued by the concept of using a meringue to create the fudgey, chewy texture, and thought that was pretty genius. However, the brownies did not really have the exterior, or interior texture of what I was expecting. I wondered if using the yolks had something to do with it, or that I had overmixed the meringue and deflated it in the process of trying to smoothen the batter. Or perhaps, I had to use almond flour? This is something to investigate further.

Stuck in the pan – Another problem encountered was the inability to remove them from the pan. I’m not sure what I did wrong, but despite greasing my pans extremely well, the brownies did not come out of the pan. A little under half of the batch held to its form when removed after hacking at the corners with a spoon to loosen them from the pan, but the other half had their tops separated from the bottom, completely destroying these as an option for the birthday party. Perhaps I should have let it cool before removing them, because that seemed to help them firm up and hold together better. That said, they were definitely harder to get out of the pan. I’ll try using a silicon muffin pan instead next time, removing half when hot, and the other half after chilled in the fridge.

What you don’t see on IG are the sad failures. Still had to photograph them nicely for the blog though. lol

Recipe from The Loopy Whisk

Made this as part of my current attempts to clear out my pantry. The victim – Tahini; sesame seed paste, the usage of Tahini in brownies and cookies piqued my interest, but I wanted to try something...purer, just tahini/sesame, to taste the richness of the flavors. 

Since this was an attempt to clear the pantry, the goal was to not purchase additional ingredients. Amongst the recipes I looked at, The Loopy Whisk fell into that category and seemed the lowest effort (no need to melt butter, or butter for that matter). I was also intrigued by the use of Almond flour, thinking the use of a nut flour might enhance the nutty flavors more. This recipe is vegan and gluten free.

I did not tweak the recipe at all. Please refer to the link for the recipe. 

Verdict

3/10

These were so unsatisfying. I guess that’s what you get for picking the lazy, basic cookies. I was hoping for something crumbly, buttery, nutty, rich and complex. Maybe something like the peanut butter cookies at chinese new year.

Instead, these were chewy in texture, similar to macarons. A trait of almond flour I suppose. (I’m a newbie baker and unfamiliar with baked goods.) They were soft out of the oven, and would tear/break apart like fragile egg white omelettes. I was worried they were never going to become cookies.

I let them cool to harden, as the recipe instructed, and they did firm up into sturdier cookies. However, by the next morning, they were soft again and would fall apart with its own weight, which was extremely surprising. 

Flavor wise, they tasted mainly of sesame, unsure whether it’s from the crust of seeds or the tahini, a decent level, but lacking the complexities and depth I was after. Using a recipe with butter would provide the flavors I was seeking I believe, and using flour would provide the texture I was going after.

Many of the recipes I’ve compared were pretty much identical to this, though some things stood out of this particular variant: 

1. Recommending the use of a higher temperature for crispier, less chewy cookies. 

2. Recommending generous amounts of honey and vanilla extract.

Recipes To Try Next:

I don’t think I want to pursue the improvements of this recipe as much as I would prefer to try other versions of tahini cookies because this wasn’t to my preference for cookies. Give me my rich, buttery, heart warming cookies please.

Bon Appetit / Epicurious (same recipe)

Martha Stewart’s Tahini Cookies

Base recipe tweaked from Food Network’s Ina Garten to use sourdough.

Recipe

Yields 8 muffins.

Wet Ingredients: 2/3 cup sourdough starter (unfed/discard) 1 egg 6 Tbsp unsalted butter (melted) 1/3 cup milk

Dry Ingredients: 2/3 cup flour 1/3 cup yellow cornmeal 2/3 Tbsp Baking powder 1 1/3 Tbsp sugar (would increase this) 2/3 tsp salt (would increase this)

Flavorings: 5 oz shredded extra sharp cheddar 1 diced jalapeno (or more if you please)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls, then combine and mix well. 

Grease a muffin pan so the muffins come out easily after baking. Fill muffin pan with batter. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and dry.

Let cool before serving.

 Verdict

7/10

The recipe smelt heavenly when baking. The aroma of butter was simply divine. 

Once done – The top was cracked, colors were browner/richer than normal; perhaps due to the sharp cheddar. There was also no rise in the muffins. Just a flat top. Despite baking for 5 minutes less than the recipe asked, the cornbread was done when a toothpick was inserted; a worrying sign that it was overdone and dry on the inside. 

Once cooled to eat, the cornbread had a nice crispy crust and the insides were surprisingly still moist, a nice textural contrast. I was relieved to find that the insides weren’t dry. Despite using (very ripe) sourdough discard, there was no hint of sourdough taste.

Sadly, the flavors I wanted were lacking. You could taste and smell the jalapeños, and there was a bit of heat, but I wanted more butteriness, more savoriness, more salt, more richness, some freshness. I wonder if my math was wrong, or perhaps cutting the volume of milk to account for the sourdough detracted away from the buttery richness, which has to be made up in seasoning in the future.

On Reheating Reheated in the microwave for 20s – The cornbread lost its crispy crust, and the crust became a little tougher and chewy, but it was still nice and moist on the insides. Notes of flavor are still the same as when fresh, though you can now taste a hint of the sourness from the sourdough.

Improvements to try:

I think sprinkling some coarse grains of salt on the top/throughout, pre-baking, would be good, and adding some kernels of sweet corn for pops of texture and sweetness would be utterly delightful as well, or some green onions.

I wonder how browned butter would alter the flavors as well since I loved it so much in the cookies.

Recipe to try next:

Test Recipe 01

The Inspiration

Base Recipe: King Arthur Flour Sourdough Discard Cracker Recipe

The original plan was to use chicken bouillon powder to make these sourdough crackers because I love savory, flavorful crunchy things. I miss these Petit Brunch chicken crackers from my childhood. They’re like Chicken in a Biskit, but way better because the layer of chicken seasoning is a layer INSIDE the crackers. 

Instead of just seasoning the exterior of the crackers that caused the seasoning to come off on your fingers (another one of my big peeves), I was inspired by these childhood crackers to season the dough instead.  

Much to my dismay, I no longer have chicken bouillon powder in my pantry, but I did find something far more intriguing – Tom Yam Bouillon. 

Knorr’s Tom Yam Bouillons Cubes – I bought this in Singapore, and haven’t seen this in the US (but then again, I haven’t sought it out in the US either). 

I expected the bouillon cubes to be pretty salty, so I only added half a seasoning cube to the dough and did not season it further with salt. The cube was grated with a microplane over the dough to break it up for a better distribution, then kneaded the dough to disperse it more. 

I wanted to add some fresh, bright notes to the crackers next – Kaffir lime leaves! Alas, I did not have that on hand. I did however, have curry leaves in my freezer, so I grabbed those instead. I chiffonaded the leaves, rolled out the dough, scattered some on a third, folded the dough over, scattered another layer, folded the dough etc, then kneaded it in so the leaves were layered throughout, then rolled the dough, scored it and threw it in the oven to bake. 

The Verdict

Flavor: 7/10

The Tom Yam flavors weren’t noticeable at all other than a wee bit of heat on the tongue. That said, the crackers weren’t bland. My guess is that the MSG in the bouillon provided sufficient seasoning despite the absence of anything distinctly Tom Yam.

The curry leaves on the other hand, brought a great flavor profile and that left me yearning for more. It triggered some memories of an indian fritter/cracker (??? a pakora perhaps? a papadom? some other fritter?). At some points, it also triggered memories of my favorite dish from back home that utilizes curry leaves – oatmeal prawns – a oatmeal crusted shrimp stir fry that’s popular in zi char stores back in Singapore. Which then leads me down the path of salted egg stir fries as well, which was an evolution of the oatmeal prawns dish when the salted egg craze came around.

Next Iterations

1) Indian Flavor Profile The flavors of the indian profiles were most inspiring after this test batch, so I would like to pursue that more. Perhaps along the lines of some of this flavor profile/recipe – Indian Pakoras by Saveur Magazine. I can already imagine the depth of rich warm flavors dancing on my tongue, off-set by the cool, sweet, refreshing chutneys that I think in itself, would require more experimentation to figure out how to incorporate that element into the crackers.

My gut tells me it’s just Cumin seeds i’m missing so that’s prob the first thing I’d try.

2) Stronger Tom Yam

3) Oatmeal Prawns flavor profile I’m thinking it’s missing the buttery-ness and sweetness. Would probably try using butter instead of coconut oil this time as the fat source for this recipe.

Test Recipe 01

Sun-dried tomato, parmesan boule (front)  // Roasted garlic & Rosemary boule (back)

Overall Outcomes

Bread Score: 7/10

Would have preferred larger, open crumbs. Bread was denser than I would like, but I was happy to see an even distribution in crumbs overall, a good sign of better shaping. Nice oven-spring and rise on the loafs. Beautiful coloring on crust. Much better compared to my first foray into breadmaking. See section on bread to see what I tried this time round that made it better.

Flavor Score: 2/10 The low score wasn’t because it tasted bad. Rather, it was simply the lack of flavor that was disappointing. It just tasted like plain sourdough. I ended up eating it with some whipped cream cheese. Whenever there were bites that contained the flavor bombs, it was great. 

On the Roasted Garlic, Rosemary loaf:

Best enjoyed toasted. Cream cheese complemented the herbaceous flavors really well, kinda reminiscent of Boursin’s garlic chives cream cheese. 

The Good

The sticky, mushy garlic helped the herbs clump together, which ensured those flavors always lived together, rather than separate.

The Bad

Mushy clumps of roasted garlic ruined the texture of bread. It was also unevenly and scarcely distributed throughout the loaf. 

The Techniques

Roasted a head of garlic in the oven for 45 minutes till caramelized and mushy. Cut cloves into chunks, not tiny because I thought I wanted bites of flavor. This was a terrible experience. It was mushy, sticky and hard to handle. it caused all the rosemary to clump together and I could not get the incorporated into much of the dough because of the low volume.

Flavor bombs were introduced in final shaping stage as well, incorporated with every fold in the Tartine book’s packaging fold technique.

There must be a better way to infuse garlic flavors into the loaf. 

Things to potentially try next time:

Definitely MORE VOLUME of garlic & rosemary. I used 1 head of garlic. There wasn’t much garlic from it after roasting. Might need 3-4 heads of garlic next time for a half-sized boule.

Incorporate smaller bits of roasted garlic instead of chunks

Mash into a butter with olive oil and chopped herbs and incorporate into a loaf through a lamination method, like a cinnamon roll/babka or croissant instead.

Try diced, raw garlic. Maybe it’ll roast and caramelized during the baking period to get the same effect and you won’t have to deal with messy, mushy garlic that stuck everywhere.

Would garlic oil work? How would fat incorporated into a dough affect proofing and rise? Would it still become bread?

Tips from the FB sourdough community:

I roast the garlic in foil in the oven just to the point where it is roasted and the cloves are still holding together so I can dice it. I don't roast it until I can just squeeze it into a paste. Once it is minced I will put it in a little bowl with just 10-15grams of EVO just to keep the garlic from clumping and to help it distribute through the dough a bit. 

I add it at my 2nd turn. I will autolyze and then start my turns and at the 2nd one I will add the garlic and EVO mix to the dough and squeeze through until the extra liquid is absorbed and the garlic is distributed through. At most reduce your water amount by a few grams if you are worried about the hydration level. 

~ Stephen Blanchard from https://stephensbreads.com/

On the Sun-dried Tomato, Parmesan loaf:

“oh what a beautiful crumb”

The Good

The loaf smelled AMAZING while in the oven. You could smell the gorgeous scent of Parmesan and sun-dried tomatoes. I was expecting it to be very rich in flavor.

The Bad

I was nervous any cheese on the surface was going to burn real badly during the bake, but I was wrong. Not only did it not burn, it gave the crust a glorious golden brown.

I wished there was more cheese on the surface, and in the interior of course.

Since I had used shredded cheese, the flavors were really mild, if not, undetectable. 

The sun-dried tomatoes on the other hand, burned to a bitter, charcoal crisp on the exterior of the bread. Next time, make sure any sun-dried tomatoes are on the interior of the bread. Thankfully, those on the surface were easy to pick off without any visible damage to the boule. 

The Technique

I used 1.5 oz shredded cheese and opted for 2 oz dry-packed sun-dried tomatoes instead of the oil-packed variation for fear of what the excess oil would do to my dough. 

Flavor bombs were introduced in final shaping stage as well, incorporated with every fold in the Tartine book’s packaging fold technique. Even after chopping the sun-dried tomatoes, they were still bulky and made folding and shaping difficult. Building surface tension on the dough was a little trickier with this. 

Things to potentially try next time:

Soak sun-dried tomatoes in water, then use that water for the doughChop sun-dried tomatoes smallerUse more cheese, both on interior and exterior of loaf.

On the bread making:

Base Recipe: I used the recipe for the Basic Country Loaf from the Tartine Bread book. 

(img credit: Tartine Bakery)

I halved the recipe, so my boules are only half-sized boules, perfect for portion control for me.

For my Levain: I made 120g of levain even though recipe only needed 100g, so that I would have 20g remaining to keep as the mother starter.

20g starter 

50g flour (25g All Purpose flour, 25g Whole Wheat)

50g water

For the 2 half-sized boules (about 6in in diameter):

350g water

100g levain

450g AP flour (would prefer to use bread flour next time)

50g Whole Wheat flour

10g salt, dissolved with 25g water

Thoughts on Technique

Dissolving levain in water first then mixing in flour for autolyse, incorporating salt dissolved in water after dough has rested for 1 hr. I really liked this technique. Joshua Weissman uses this as well. I felt that the levain and salt water were better, and more evenly, incorporated into the dough this way, versus the finger poking, stretch and fold method from Mike Greenfield from Pro Home Cooks.

Using a clear, transparent tupperware for bulk proofing/stretch & folds. This allowed me to measure and track how much the dough was growing as a better indication of proofing stages, versus when it was in a stainless steel bowl. I did not see very much bubbles, like in a starter, but I could see the change in volume. Dough also felt lighter and aerated over time, become more fluid in the container, but not in a gloopy, sticky dough sense. It detached cleanly from the container. It still wasn’t clear to me whether or not dough was perfectly proofed though. Is this over? under? No idea. Note: I proofed for 4 hrs with 6 sets of stretch & folds ever 30 minutes in a ~78F environment.

Dip your hand in (unchlorinated/boiled and cooled) water before handling dough. This creates a magical glove that prevents the dough from sticking to your hand. Did not realize dough was hydrophobic(?), but that was cool. Not entirely sure if using normal tap water was fine, but since chlorine could kill the bacteria and yeast in your starters, I didn’t want to risk killing it when I needed them to proof the dough.

Use a bench scraper. It is your friend. This made shaping the dough so much easier, especially the turns & tucks. Make sure to wet your bench scraper prior to using to prevent the sticky undersides of your dough from sticking to it though.

Do the circumference pull and pinch dumpling method for first shaping to develop more dough surface tension first, before the turn and tuck. I only did the turn and tuck, as instructed by the book, but it didn’t feel like enough surface tension was built. Use this technique that Jack the Baker recommends instead to prevent your dough from spreading. I used this to tighten up the dough later when it was in its proofing bowls.

It’s fine to shape, shape and shape again. After a beautiful first shaping, the dough deflated and became a sticky mess in my second attempts of shaping after incorporating the flavor bombs. So defeated was I, that I had expected to get 2 flat, frisbee-like dense loafs the next morning. I had already placed the doughs in its final proofing bowls, dusted with rice flour, so I didn’t want to risk reshaping and incorporating rice flour into the doughs. After taking a break and leaving the doughs in the fridge for its overnight proof, I mustered up enough energy to try another Hail Mary pass to save it. I pulled the dough out of the fridge, pulling the edges of the dough and folding it into the center to create surface tension, then pinching the dough folds together until the seams were invisible. Not sure if it helped, but it created the (dis)illusion that I’ve incorporated more air into the boule for hopefully, a decent rise during the bake.

The next morning, I did the turn and tuck for one final time until it looked like a beautiful, round, and tall ball of dough before baking. This worked extremely well and the final boule came out looking very well shaped versus if I had just placed it into the oven as is, without shaping.

Proofing covered with a dish cloth instead of cling wrap/plastic Now my bowl is deep enough for my tiny boules, so I don’t have to worry about dough spilling out during proofing. I didn’t use plastic wrap this time when resting my doughs overnight in the fridge. I covered it in my dish cloth loosely. I did not dust my doughs of excess dough prior to baking either. Having it uncovered by plastic allowed the dough to try out abit more, resulting in a nicer, crackled crust this time round and I liked it better.

Baking withOUT a dutch oven Yes, it’s possible. The last time I did made bread, I baked it uncovered in my cast iron skillet with a tray of ice cubes in a tray underneath for steam, as suggested by Mike Greenfield from Pro Home Cooks. I didn’t think it was enough, and my bread came out with the ugliest crust (see pic below). Dissatisfied, I needed to find a better method. 

My first sourdough breads. SEE THAT UGLY OLD ASS CRUSTY TOP??? Looks like your grandma’s ashy butt. No. can. do. 

Research with various videos and the FB group of sourdough experts revealed it was an issue with insufficient steam during the bake. So this time, I provided a heavier source of steam, and trapping any steam generated from the dough during the bake by covering the top with another skillet. 

I had bought an official Easy Tiger sourdough loaf, placed it in my cast iron skillet to measure height. Turns out, having two cast iron skillets stacked on top of each other was tall enough, especially for a half boule. Here’s my setup:

2 cast iron skillets, a baking sheet, and a small cake pan.

The tray under cast iron was set to prevent the base of my boules from burning. Is it necessary? I’m unsure at this point. Would have to test it out next time round, but no harm no foul to be extra safe on these early, vulnerable babies.

The spouts on the cast irons meant that steam could escape, unlike an enclosed dutch oven or combo cooker. So, I went overboard by providing an additional source of steam underneath in the form of boiling water poured into the cake pan...just in case. 

Removing the top skillet during the bake revealed that it did provide some level of steaming with it’s paler, shiny crust, but there was still enough crust to indicate that it didn’t do a great job trapping steam inside the skillets, so having additional steam was beneficial after all. I can’t say this with confidence. Only changing things up and experimenting during my next bakes will confirm my hypothesis.

Next Iteration

I would definitely stick to this Tartine recipe for bread making. It was easy, seemed fool-proof, and the number of people using it as a guide meant you had lots of tips available on the youtube channels. 

Would definitely use bread flour instead of normal white flour next time round for a stronger gluten structure though. That might give me a more open crumb this time. 

Would also stick to majority of the techniques, with changes in:

incorporating flavor bombs during stretch & fold instead of final shaping stage

changing the shaping techniques to generate more surface tension and reduce spread of dough.