Recipe tips: Damier (vanilla and chocolate checkerboard cookies)

Hello fork musketeers!

Today we'll be looking at damier. Or, if you played some SNES games, that square-pattern cookie from Yoshi's Cookie.

Apparently it has a name and now
I know it. Sweet.

But in all seriousness, here's the batch I made.

This actually a really simple recipe to make. All you need is some flour, a knife, maybe a ruler and a bit of technique.

Damier tips

So doing this cookie in the middle of bread month is slightly unusual. There's no yeast in it; instead it uses baking powder as a leavener. It's also made with the creaming method (cream butter and sugar together; add eggs; then flour) so it's more like a cake/biscuit. Given the copious amounts of bread we've been making, this was a nice change.

We made this using a "plain" batter and a chocolate batter. The chocolate batter we made was quite thick and a bit tough but you want this to be more on the "tougher" side. This is for shaping.

To shape

Shaping damier is pretty simple. The trick is your dough needs to be cold so it holds its shape.

On a floured surface roll out your plain dough first. Decide how thick you want them to be and whether you want a square or a rectangle shape. I find the square-shaped damiers better looking, so make sure to cut enough pieces for a 2x2, 3x3 or 4x4 cookie. 

Protip: If you used baking powder in your dough, super square pieces will puff up and your shape won't look as nice before going into the oven. Keep it a little rectangular. It's more important to choose a size and stick with it! If you omitted the baking powder you can make everything square

As you cut out these pieces, make sure they're as straight as possible before going into the fridge. They will hold its shape and you'll have a harder time putting them together if they're all wavy curly like. If you have a straight edge handy you can use it to straighten your pieces. When they're all cut, pop them into the fridge and wait for them to firm up.

Now for the fun part. Assembling them together! If you have some kids around, this would probably be the fun part to get them involved. I like to "pre-assemble" the cookie first to make sure I get the best fitting slices before committing. When you are ready to glue them together, wet your fingers and gently press them together. When you're done, put them back in the fridge.

Pre-assembly so I know which pieces
fit best with which.

You can just skip this step if you don't want to do it but I think they look nice with the chocolate/plain layers. If you choose to the outside layers, you'll need some leftover plain and chocolate dough. Just roll them out thinly and place your firm cookie log on top. Double check to make sure the dough is rolled out enough to wrap around your cookie log. Then commit by glueing your log onto your dough and cut off the excess. Gently wrap'n'roll, glueing the sides as you go and, when you get to the end, cut the extra dough off and... you guessed it, back into the fridge. Rinse and repeat for the second layer if you want.

Wet the next side and wrap!

Trim the last side so it all fits together.

When your cookies are firm, now's the time to cut. Cut them between 4-5mm and pop them in a 320˚F oven. They'll start to brown on the edges, so make sure to check and rotate them if you have to.

The reason why you want to cut them about 4-5mm is to prevent them from puffing too much. When the cookies are on the thinner side, the majority of the cookie is being directly cooked by the oven. This prevents the cookie from puffing too much. I only learned this after I baked them.

Protip: If you're having some trouble getting a flat cookie, let your cookies bake until there's a crust. Then put a layer of parchment paper and another tray on top to keep the surface flat.

Then tadaaaa! Cute little cookies!

I personally prefer the first layer to be the same colour as the "plus" squares. Otherwise the outer layer doesn't set a strong contrast from the squares.

How do you like to shape these cookies? Let me know in the comments below!

Sourdough Chronicles: The Intrigue

Hello fork musketeers!

I've decided to try making my own sourdough starter.

I've never made sourdough and I'm not very fond of it. However, my sister is a big fan and we recently played around with fermented apple water. It made our baguettes taste like apples. Seriously.

The pink/red tones are from the apple skins.
Nice colour, no?

This has intrigued me since we made fermented apple water. I kept thinking of different ways to flavour a bread and thought the "off" taste of sourdough with a sweeter, fruity note would be a nice contrast.

I've done some research and it seems a bit more involved than other breads. So I've decided to keep track of my baby steps into the world of sourdough.

What's in a sourdough?

Sourdough's name gives you a hint at what it's about. As described by my sister, sourdough "tastes a little off... but in a good way." The reason why it tastes off is because of the starter/pre-ferment used in sourdough. In general, pre-ferment is a 1:1 ratio of water:flour plus yeast to get the fermentation process going.  Sourdough pre-ferment still follows the 1:1 formula, however you don't add yeast. Bacteria, including several strains of yeast, is everywhere and what you've just done is created an open house for the bacteria in your flour to grow. So you leave it outside, preferably in a warm place.

I'm still pretty new to this so I'm reading a lot of articles about making your own starter. So far it seems to follow a certain formula but some of the details are kind of hazy for me.

1. Start with organic flour; whole wheat flour or rye flour. These flours have more micro-organisms that will help you in your bread adventures. If you don't, I started mine with all-purpose.
2. Do a 1:1 ratio of flour and water and whisk well. Incorporating air will help the bacteria grow.
3. Leave for 8-24 hours and "feed" it again. All this means is add more flour and water in equal amounts. So if you started with 1/4 cup of flour, add another 1/4 cup.
4. Repeat step 2 over and over again until your starter is stable.

Mine showed activity within 24 hours. Depending on your conditions, there might only be signs between the 24-36 hour mark.

AAHHH IT'S ALIVE!!

It also smelled really fucking stinking awful. Did I mention stinking awful? Because it was really awful. I was worried I got my ratios wrong but I marched on and fed it again. It was simultaneously an exciting but disgusting moment.

I've read tutorials where parts of the starter is discarded. When you're first starting a sourdough starter, the bacteria in the starter is not very stable. I've read one article where the author high advised against using a week-old starter. So apparently it can take at least a week before things get in order.

Second, when you have a stable starter it needs to be fed in equal parts, therefore increases exponentially (basically doubling at each feeding). So unless you have a lot of empty swimming pools, you'll either use it in pancakes/muffins/whatever or chuck it. When it's first starting, the amounts people suggest varies...

So far my feedings have been all-purpose flour and whole wheat. I've been doing more research and some tutorials suggested 12 hour feedings and others have done 24 hour feedings. My guess is your schedule will depend on the weather. If you're in a warmer area, you'll most likely experience faster bacteria growth so a 12hr feeding is probably best. If it's more cold, you can probably get away with 24hr feeding.

Honestly guys, I have no clue what I'm doing and I'm just winging it.  It's been relatively cool (yeast likes warmer temperatures of 27-35˚C) so I'm going to wait 24hrs today and see if it changes anything.

Smells pleasantly sour. I must be
doing something right!... Right?

 So we'll see how much George grows and stabilizes.

Yes, I've named my starter George. He's my new bacterial tamagotchi pet that I will love, hug (through the container), feed and tuck in at night.

Good thing it isn't a real tamagotchi pet 'cause mine always died on me. Yeah...

Bread deep dive: the intro

Hello fork musketeers!

After I posted the bread basics, I was pretty unsatisfied with the quality of the post. Breads, in general, are pretty much the same: flour; water; salt; yeast and maybe some sugar. And yet it's all so, so different!

As I mentioned before, bread making is more of an art than blindly following the recipe. Breads are particularly sensitive to the weather, humidity and temperature will affect your bread. Rather than blindly following the amounts in your recipe, making bread is more about looking for a consistency and being aware of what you're doing and why.

That being said, the base of all breads is flour; water; salt; and yeast. Bread is ridiculously cheap to make but the process can seem rather off-putting, or confusing, to some. Aside from getting flour in places you never knew flour could get into, there's all the kneading and the proofing and the temperature and gosh darn sticky doughs and the kneading and tldr too complicated brb gonna buy my bread at Metro/IGA/Provigo. kthxbai.

Obviously if you prefer to buy your own bread, go ahead. Nobody's judgin' ya. Making your own bread, however, can be rewarding. Since the recipe is so simple, you can really tailor it to your personal tastes; case-in-point, the bagels I made. Once you understand the underlying principles of bread, the sky is the limit.

Over this mini-series, the tentative parts are:

1. Basic anatomy of bread and bread making
2. Fermentation/Proofing
3. Fat vs. fat-free doughs
4. Designs on breads

It should be informative and help make your breads better!