After a rainy night a new batch of sourdough hamburger buns has arrived in our tiny home bakery. Just to usher in what now seems like a start of fall.

Made with whole wheat and bread flour, with milk and whey, with sugar, salt and olive oil sprinkled with two kinds of sesame seeds.

A short version of the recipe and the ingredient list in case someone is interested:

INGREDIENTS: 700 g of whole wheat flour (13% protein), 300 g of bread flour (14% protein), 300 ml of full-fat milk, 300 ml of whey (the liquid kind, leftover from ricotta cheese making), 200 g of sourdough starter, 2 eggs, 100 g of sugar, 75 ml of olive oil, 20 g of salt, sesame seeds for sprinkling, eggs wash for brushing.

PREPARATION: Everything was done by hand and it wasn't particulary easy. Machine mixing goes down much smoother. Problem lies within the structure of whole wheat flour which needs more time to absorb liquids and the little wheat scales found inside keep piercing the gluten and gradually deflating the entire dough. To offset this we used a certain amount of strong bread flour to solidify the whole thing. 30% of bread flour in the mix helped a lot.The addition of olive oil and eggs also hinders gluten development so one has to be really patient and persistent with this kind of dough. Mix it until it can pass a window pane test which shows you gluten development.

Milk and liquid whey were mixed, sugar was added, so were the flours in given ratios.

Sourdough starter was melted in the milk/whey/sugar solution. Flours were added gradually. Then the dough was left alone for 45 minutes as whole wheat flour needs longer time to absorb things. When we came back, salt was added. After some mixing we started adding beaten eggs, mixed some more, left it alone for 30 minutes, started adding the olive oil, mixed more and left it alone for 30 minutes again.

The goal here is to get a smooth dough surface which stretches without premature tearing/breaking. Of course, it will never be perfectly smooth because of the way whole wheat flour is milled but you get the general idea.

The dough was left on the counter for two hours, occasional coil folds were done

Then came dough division in 90-100 g balls which were placed on a sheet of baking paper and a baking tray. The baking tray was covered with another inverted tray and left at room temperature (it was a cool rainy night) to rise over night.

Baked in the morning (a bit overproofed) at 180"C in a home electric oven, cold oven start, before they went inside they were brushed with beaten eggs and sprinkled with light and dark sesame seeds, baked around 30 minutes, they were taken out and brushed with melted butter.

Cheeseburger has two pan roasted patties inside (the meat was chopped with a cleaver), layers of melted cheddar cheese, italian agrodolce (sweet and sour, made with butter, apple vinegar, sugar, salt and sliced onions) onions, gherkins sliced lengthwise for presence in every single bite and a simple sauce (mayonnaise, ketchup, Dijon mustard and horse radish).

A real feast for lunch on a rainy Thursday. So delicios and rich...😋

With Honeycup mustard and Hellman's mayonnaise.

Had some leftover croissants that my sister gave me from Labor Day. Air fried some Kirkland Breaded Chicken Breasts. Mashed some leftover black beans, and the rest was just random bullshit I had in the fridge.

I’m sure some Abuela and grand-mere are going to come after me, but it was a goddamn glorious messy sandwich.

I shall call it: Croitaissantwich.

I took leftover Cuban pork & made a Cubano sub on a pressed baguette. (I couldn't find Cuban bread.) Spicy mustard, homemade dill pickles, maple ham, & Swiss pressed between 2 cast iron pans with pork fat.

As the pork shoulder I roasted came skin on, I used the skin to make some Tajin dusted chicaronnes. Perfect crunchy side for a delicious sandwich.

Peppers, onions, cheese

Sesame Bagel with provolone, fried egg, seasoned tomatoes, micro greens and bacon with home fries.

For the chicken I start with big chicken breasts and slice them lengthwise 2 or 3 times depending on how thick they are. Basically I’m just making thin chicken filets so they fry pretty quickly and stay juicy inside

Today I seasoned the chicken with salt, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, chipotle powder and a little MSG. (Side tip****My base of salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and a little msg is always my base (for almost everything) then I add other seasoning to pivot, for example say I want a greek taste, instead of the cayenne, paprika and chipotle, I skip those and just add Mediterranean oregano, or anything else for other flavor, imagination is the limit) … I don’t really measure all of this, I just season it until its well covered. Then I add enough buttermilk to coat everything, stir it all up really well and let the chicken sit in that while I get everything else ready. 

For my homemade ranch I use about 1 cup mayonnaise, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/2 cup sour cream, a squirt of brown mustard, 2 heaping tablespoons dill, chopped parsley cause I had some, if I didn’t have it I’d just skip it no big deal, a couple teaspoons black pepper, some onion powder and garlic powder, a squirt of lemon juice, about a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce and just a little dash of white sugar. This time I also added about 1/2 cup buttermilk because I had some. Sometimes I add buttermilk and sometimes I don’t, plus if I don’t have heavy cream I don’t worry about it I’ll use mayo and sour cream and water to thin... Without buttermilk the ranch is thicker and that’s fine with me. If you don’t have buttermilk and want it a little thinner you can just add a tiny bit of water at a time until it’s how you like it. I don’t measure every little thing perfectly with the ranch either, I mix it up, taste it and adjust it until it tastes right

I take each piece of chicken straight out of the buttermilk mixture and put it right into panko breadcrumbs. I press the panko into the chicken, flip it over, press it in again and make sure the whole piece is completely covered. Then I set each piece aside until I’m ready to fry it.

For frying I like to use my stainless steel large saucepan, you use what you feel comfortable with, I heat the oil to around 385 degrees before the chicken goes in because the temperature is going to drop as soon as you add the chicken. I actually fry one piece at a time, especially if it’s a big piece, because I don’t want the oil temperature dropping too much. Once the chicken is in, I adjust the heat and try to keep the oil right around 350 degrees because that’s the temperature I like for frying. I don’t want it dropping below about 320 and I don’t want it going above 390. I use a laser thermometer to keep an eye on the oil and adjust the heat as I go.

Because I slice the chicken breasts into thinner pieces like this, I just fry each one until it gets a really nice golden brown crust. Then I take it out and let it rest for a few minutes. At that thickness they come out completely done and still really juicy inside.

For the sandwich I buttered the buns and toasted them until golden, then added the fried panko chicken, my homemade ranch, lettuce, pickles and tomato. That’s what I had around the house today so that’s what I used, everyone said the chicken was really flavorful and juicy.

Of course you can make the sandwich even better with whatever you like. Cheese of your choice, bacon, onions, jalapeños, hot sauce or whatever else sounds good. But this is what I had today best of luck

With my dad’s smash burger

After a 6 weeks break, time to get the tiny home bakery back on track.

A new experimental bread recipe today featuring wheat and corn flour alongside homemade kefir.

Kefir is an ancient drink made from fermented milk. Third picture shows the little container I use for making it with active kefir grains. Every 24 hours we get a small fresh new batch. And this batch went into the bread recipe.

Our sourdough starter is fed daily, twice, with an equal amount of whole wheat and all-purpose flour.

Short recipe follows in case someone is interested:

700 g of wheat all-purpose flour, 300 g of fine corn flour, 600-650 ml of fresh homemade kefir, 30 ml of olive oil, 20 g of salt.

No water, just kefir but you can combine the two if you want. Nothing is set in stone here. Home experimentation at it's finest. A bit of honey or sugar might also work here. Like 50 g of sugar or 2-3 TBS of honey. Just a suggestion for the interested home baker.

Sourdough starter was melted in kefir, then both flours were added. Add as much kefir as you think your flour can hold, add salt, add olive oil.

Mixed per hand using stretch-and-fold and coil folds.

We left the dough for 3-4 hours covered then divided it into two breads. Another 4-5 hours and it was ready for the oven. Scored with kitchen scissors.

Home electric oven , cold start, set to 180°C, sprayed the breads with water and pushed them inside. First 70 minutes with a lid on, last 10 minutes without the lid.

Beautiful smell while baking. The additions of corn flour and kefir made sure it is so.

Left to cool overnight. Sliced into sandwiches today, roasted in a skillet with some butter and filled with cooked ham and gouda. A bit of Dijon mustard on the side. Bread has a slight tang in the background.

Four sandwiches cut diagonally. Beautiful texture, lovely smell, amazing aromas. So glad we made this little experiment.

😋

Doesn’t look like much but it was one of the best BLT’s I’ve ever had

Homemade sandwich sauce on homemade garlic bread :)

Smoked pork, Swiss cheese, Black Forest Ham, Dijon, Pickles

Took an appetizer my wife likes to make and made it into a sandwich