Life in the Time of COVID-19: Im Officially a U of C Student!

U of C entrance (grabbed from Google)

So I'm officially returning to graduate school this fall! I won't be seeing the maple leaves turn yellow or red or brown though since all classes will be web-based.  Instead, I will be a night owl, attending classes at midnight until the wee hours of the morning. 

The application and acceptance process was pretty straightforward. It was COVID that was not. Just like any other aspect of our lives that was affected by COVID, my return to grad school became precarious because of lockdowns.  Universities and government offices were closed so I could not process the documents that I need.  Fortunately, the University of Calgary is very accommodating so they allowed me to enroll even without receiving my transcript straight from UP yet. 

So today, finally, I'm officially enrolled! 4 modules, 4 days of classes, 14-hour time difference and 8,000+ miles apart. 

Next, work on that student visa. 

Life in the time of COVID-19: Focaccia Sourdough

I made focaccia for James' friend today and since I was in an experimental mood, I tried using my starter instead of commercial yeast. Ok, I also baked because Im so frustrated with what's happening back home. Maria Ressa was convicted of cyber libel. WTF. I channeled my anger into something more productive.

I used a scaled down version of the recipe I found online. Mine was:

• 200g BF
• 100g APF
• 240g water
• 30g starter (1:1:1)
• 2% salt 

I usually do autolyse in my sourdough breads so I used it also for the focaccia. Here's what I did.

905am. Autolyse. I mixed all the flour with about 220g of water and let it rest for 45 minutes. The dough is a bit dry but it's ok. We'll introduce more hydration with the levain later. 

I saved about 20g of water for the starter later. 

950am.  I combined the starter, water, and salt. I mixed them together before combining it with the autolyzed dough. This is the most tiring part since it's quite difficult to remove the lumps from the dough. Imagine mixing a dry dough and a soupy-like starter. 

1030am Stretch and fold 1. There were still sump lumpy dough here so I did a bit of kneading. Just a bit. 

1135am Stretch and fold 2

1205nn Stretch and fold 3

115pm  Split and fold 

115-335  Bulk rise. Do not touch the dough at this point. Wait until it doubles in size. It was quite warm this afternoon so it rose fast. the original recipe required 4 hours for the dough to double in size so you have to account for this when you are in a colder climate

340pm I drizzled some oil in the dough here and transferred it to my baking tray.  I know this is focaccia and doesnt require shaping but I like the technique used in making sourdough so I just did it :)

4pm. I preheated my oven at 220C and left the tray that I will be using inside. I was trying to apply the theory behind oven spring here - the hotter the surface of the tray/stone/DO/skillet, the higher the oven spring will be. 

At this point, I also dimpled my focaccia and inserted slices of garlic into those dimples.

430pm. Bake the dough for 30 mins at 220C.  Every oven is different so observe how your bread looks like so that it doesnt burn or undercook.

Ahhh it looks so good!

Look at those dimples!

And those crumbs! 

Life in the time of COVID-19: Another take at Sourdough bread (13 June 2020)

I haven't baked for quite some time and being in a new FB group of sourdough bakers pushed me to give it another go. I also learned that some people used sizzling plate as a substitute for cast iron skillet or dutch oven. My sister has one so I borrowed it. 

I used Foodgeek's sourdough recipe and scaled it down using baker's percentages which my husband helped me understand.  So here it goes.

• 70% bread flour
• 30% whole wheat flour
• 70% hydration 

70% BF, 30% WWF

840pm. Autolyze.
Dough seems drier than my usual doughs but considering that I still have to add the starter, this actually looks like it's going to work. 

950pm. Add salt and Starter
It looked like my pretzel dough accident. I thought of adding water but stopped myself from doing so. The dough, after resting, will become softer anyway. 
Also, when I did the float test, my starter sank to the bottom of the glass but floated after some time. It also looked like flour soup. It smelled well but not too many bubbles. It's something that I've noticed after changing my starter feed from Bob's Red Mill APF to the regular Redman BF. 

1022pm. S& F 1 (before)
Not as easy as the other ones because it's drier. Tempted to knead it but managed to stop myself from doing so.

S & F 1 (after)

1056pm. S & F 2 (before)
It looked like a regular dough at this point. It's very tight so Im not sure if it is going to puff. It didn't look like it has a lot of air/bubbles in it. 

S & F 2 (after)

12mn S & F 3 
Dough seems to be a bit more wet and soft than when we started but still no air. I don't see any bubbles. I stopped using the wet towel as cover. Just used cling wrap.
 

1240am S&F 4 (before)

S & F 4 (after)

110am pre-shape (before)
I thought of doing another S & F but it was too late so I went 
ahead to pre-shape it.

Pre-shape (after)
Another indication that this may be working.  Managed to shape them into a ball without deflating and even incorporated a bit of tension into them!

Final shaping

I was already happy when I reached this stage. The dough didn't stick to my hands and I shaped them the way I wanted to.  1 batard and 1 boule

8am Pre-heat oven, tray, and sizzling plate for 30 minutes at 240C. The sizzling plate has a  bit of rust on it so I put several layers of baking paper. Now Im worried that the heat from the sizzling plate will be insulated by the baking paper and wont benefit the dough.

I also took out the batard from the fridge.  The dough spread sideways I guess because the bowl was not oval shaped to begin with. The dough was supposed to be oval but the bowl was round.

835am Scored the bread and sprinkled some water.  When I placed it inside the oven, I saw some steam coming out from the dough. Yay!
Baked it covered for 20 minutes at 240C. I used 2 deep cookie pans, one on top of each other

 

855am. First 20 minutes is done and I had a good oven spring!!! It also looks like I will have an ear. This one looks very promising!  I removed the cover for the next 15 minutes of cooking and reduced the temperature to 220C

910am. Batard sourdough done! Woohoo! It looks so good! And it has a nice hollow sound when you knock the bottom part of the bread. It also has a tiny ear :)

Top view of batard sourdough

Side view 

915am. Now for the boule sourdough. I scored it straight out from the fridge. Since it's my sister's birthday tonight, I scored her name on it.  I might have sprinkled more water than the dough needs. You can see that the dough is very wet. I also cut it deeper as I wanted it to rise higher. I didn't see any steam when I placed it inside the oven. But let's see. 
Again, 20 minutes at 240C, covered.

940am.  This is after the first 20 minutes of baking. It looks good but it didn't have an ear. Time to put it back in the oven. Baked it for 20 more minutes, uncovered at 220C.  At 10am, I checked it and saw an ear developing! So even if the baking time is up, I left it inside the oven for 5 more minutes. 

1005am. The finished product! :)  It was a success! With a burn on my right arm. 

another angle 

On the left side is my frozen sourdough from my 2nd try. On the right is from my 4th try

My two beauties

Cut cross-wise. I got some pretty decent crumbs 

Sourdough toasties with avocado and scrambled eggs