Bread newsletter no.6

sourdough chocolate chip cookies 🍪

Jun 13, 2022

Dear bread friends,

I know those of you in the US and Europe will probably laugh when I say it’s cold in Australia right now - but really, it is!

It’s now the third (wow!) winter that I’m baking through and I’m really welcoming the slowness that comes with the cold weather. The first year that I was baking sourdough, the changing of the seasons terrified me. It’s my first winter in my current house and it gets really cold in our kitchen. My partner described it as being ‘like camping’ and I think that’s pretty accurate.

a few of my winter loaves feat. beautiful flowers by my friend Casey.

I have a few tips for you for making the starter and the dough happy during the colder months (make note of these for the future if you’re somewhere where it’s summer right now!).

I’ve been using my oven as a kind of proofing box. I turn the oven on for about 30 seconds, just enough that it warms up a little. Then I turn it off and put the starter or dough inside. It’s amazing how long it stays warm in there for! I’ve been using the ‘backwards bread’ method, which is my favourite because it’s so hands off - so I mix the dough around 10pm, do one fold and then leave it in the oven overnight. Then shape and bake it in the morning.
Another thing I’ve found helpful is using lukewarm water - so the dough starts out at a nice neutral temperature because the cold water from my tap at the moment is so cold!

Lots of you have been writing to me on Instagram about starter and asking for help with troubleshooting your loaves, so I thought I would put some of the most common questions together as a little resource on a page called ‘Troubleshooting’ on my website. This page has the answers to questions about all the stuff that happens with starter: water on top, not rising, mould :’( , as well as more generally with your loaves: proofing, loaves not rising, trying to get an ear. And I’ve made another page called ‘Tools and Equipment’ with info about the things I use in my kitchen too - including bannetons and my oven.

Yeast based sandwich bread on the left and 100% freshly milled spelt on the right. Both are good, just different!

The last month or so I’ve been having a lot of fun baking with two extremes: I worked on a recipe for a yeast-based Sandwich loaf for ABC Everyday - and I’ve been playing around with using 100% freshly milled flour - both forms of bread I very much enjoy (although you can probably guess which one is my favourite…!). The 100% fresh flour recipe is still in the works and recipes with fresh flour will definitely be a feature in my second book, which is also in the works!

Last week I was officially awarded the title of ‘doctor’ following the acceptance of my PhD thesis and this felt like a really big, but somehow also anti-climatic moment - partly maybe because everything happened via email including the thesis submission! To everyone who wrote me a message or a comment saying ‘Congratulations Dr Mary Grace’ - thank you, literally every one of these made me smile! I made this little video about my thoughts on finishing a degree and perhaps not using it directly for its intended purpose. It seemed to resonate with a lot of people, so I’m really glad to be able to share that idea/way of seeing study. And I wouldn’t do anything differently, because then I wouldn’t be where I am :)

I get so much inspiration for what to bake and new things to try / new methods of making sourdough from the accounts that I follow, so I want to share a few of my faves with you each newsletter:

@galst_bageri - everything baked on this account is my absolute baking goal! The baked goods just look so amazing, and I love seeing so much dough! And all the scrolls!
@siamesesourdough - I’m sure I’ve mentioned Anna’s account before but I just love it so much - bread and cats! It makes me happy and she has some excellent recipes and tips as well as the cutest cats!
@piclunch - I feel very inspired by all the different bakes I see on this account - every time I’m like wow, I need to try that. And always such neat photography with really helpful details included about the bake.
@huangshiyun44 - The most beautiful and inspirational bread art! And cute cats too!
@kittytaitbaker - The sweetest baker baking the most impressive bakes! Everything looks so delish and when you read her story you’ll be even more inspired to bake bread!

And now for the real reason that you’re probably all reading this newsletter (hehe): I’ve been very focused lately on baking the perfect sourdough chocolate chip cookie and I have finally made some (they were all pretty delish to be fair) that I believe are very near perfect - so I’m really excited to finally share this recipe with you.

Sourdough chocolate chip cookies

I have a memory of making cookies as a kid and just throwing everything into the bowl and mixing it with a wooden spoon and they turned out really well. So I’ve been determined to replicate that no-method-method approach I had from when I was little. Being honest, this is what I do with the bread too! For this recipe, you dget all the ingredients, chuck them into the bowl and mix with your spoon! These cookies are soft, chewy and caramelly, a great way to use up any sourdough discard you might have shoved at the back of your fridge. And they’re the perfect accompaniment to a sourdough loaf gifted to a friend. I’ve been learning soo much about cookies from @cloudykitchen and this sourdough cookie recipe was inspired by this delish regular choc chip cookie recipe 💜

Makes approx. 15 cookies

Ingredients

50g sourdough discard
120g margarine (I used Nuttelex original, and you can substitute for 100g of room temp butter but I found the result was softer and chewier with Nuttelex)
120g brown sugar
50g white sugar
1 egg yolk (or leave it out if you want to make a vegan version)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla paste
1/2 tsp salt
150g sifted freshly milled wheat flour (or plain flour will also be fine)
150g chocolate chips

Method

Mix everything together in a large mixing bowl using a spoon. If you’re worried about the order to add ingredients, add them in the order that I’ve written them, but honestly don’t worry, just mix!
Keep mixing (you can use your hands to help it come together) until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are well combined. If you’re using the freshly milled flour, the mixture will come together quite nicely and should be relatively easy to handle. If you’re using plain flour it’ll be a little sticker but that’s okay. You can use wet hands for the next step to stop the dough from sticking.
Roll into balls about 45-55g and place onto a plate. Once you’ve made balls out of all the cookie dough, put the plate into the fridge for at least 1 hour, but up to 24 hours. You can also freeze them once they’ve hardened up in the fridge and save them to bake at a later date.
When you’re ready to bake them, preheat the oven to 190C. Once the oven is ready, put the cookies onto a tray and make sure they’re not too close together (ideally six per tray but I’ve also gotten away with nine). Add some extra chocolate chips on top of each cookie.
Bake with fan on for approx. 13-15 minutes (it will depend a little on your oven so keep an eye on them).
Don’t stress if they spread a bit. When they come out of the oven, use a cookie cutter (I used a crumpet ring) to coax them back into a really nice neat round shape. Then let them rest on the oven tray for about 10 minutes. Then once they’ve cooled a little you can transfer them to a cooling rack and enjoy them!