Jim Hayden

Twice-baked Sourdough Almond Croissants

First attempt at making twice-baked Almond Croissants. I got the idea, recipe (below) and method from my All About Croissant book. It’s the croissant featured at the very top of the cover. Mine looked similar. I didn’t have enough almond flour (powder) to make the full almond cream recipe (nor did I have enough croissants!).Continue reading “Twice-baked Sourdough Almond Croissants”

Sourdough Croutons

A warm oven and week old sourdough is a perfect opportunity for making croutons! Simply cut them up, toss in olive oil and seasoning and pop into oven to dry out after baking the bread for this week. Actually turned oven on a bit to make sure they got nice and crispy. Really a greatContinue reading “Sourdough Croutons”

Whoa! Something is Wrong!!

Yikes!! Something is off horribly! These are sad, sad loaves!! These loaves had limited, if any blooming at all. I suspected that this might be the case because when I put the dough into bulk ferment on Friday evening it just didn’t feel right. Possible issues: Weak Starter Poor strength in shaping Slash was incorrect/tooContinue reading “Whoa! Something is Wrong!!”

Sourdough Danishes

After my last attempt at danishes I thought I’d try some different varieties. I used fresh fruit with the same cream cheese filling. I also used Nutella and almonds for the others. I’m pleased with results! I’ll have to continue experimenting (and biking more on the Peloton)!

Sourdough Cherry-Cream Cheese Danishes

Oh these are sooooo sinful!! Lately I’ve been thinking about what other pastries I can make with my laminated dough. I decided I’d try to make danishes. The only difference in the dough is that I laminated with two letter folds as opposed to a book fold and a letter fold (9 layers of butterContinue reading “Sourdough Cherry-Cream Cheese Danishes”

Using Leftover Laminated Dough

“Heaven forbid there should ever be such things!” you cry! For the record I did too. I hated going to all this effort making laminated dough only to cut my croissants and have some scrap. Aggghhh! Total foul!! I’d think. Well, my solution of late is to roll the scrap pieces together and put themContinue reading “Using Leftover Laminated Dough”

(Inadvertent) Sourdough Proving Experiment

Ok … yet another (inadvertent) experiment on my sourdough bread proving method. The experiment was prompted by my company having an all-weekend virtual offsite (aka Zoom marathon) I followed my normal method and had my bread going into a cold bulk ferment Friday evening. Saturday was a full day and not my normal pattern. IContinue reading “(Inadvertent) Sourdough Proving Experiment”

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

Thought I’d make some Sourdough Cinnamon rolls today doing a riff off the King Arthur Cinnamon Roll recipe. We had some friends coming over after church and I thought I’d make some to share. That way I’d not have too many left and eat them all myself! My riff was adding 35g of my sourdoughContinue reading “Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls”

Bi-Color Croissants – 1st Attempt

Thought I’d try making bi-color croissants. I saw this recipe and method from @booksforchefsofficial book “All About Croissants”. This recipe / method is yeast-based, not sourdough. it is also something that looked like it could be completed in a day. Let them prove about 2 hours and change. The yeasts dough proved faster (apparently) thanContinue reading “Bi-Color Croissants – 1st Attempt”

Sourdough – Trying Different Bulk Prove Method

Tried a new experimental with my bulk prove. Instead of my normal cold bulk for 24 hours I decided to bulk prove at 79°F in my proving box, shape then pick up my normal process again (e.g. cold retard in fridge overnight and bake the next morning) It was an experiment… Here is how theContinue reading “Sourdough – Trying Different Bulk Prove Method”