1/7, Strawberry
The large batch was very strong tea but was weak on the fermentation side. It was on the sweet side so we added 1/2 tablespoon sugar to 1/3 cup pureed strawberry.
The medium batch was strong so we did 1/2 tablespoon of sugar.
12/30, Tangerine dream
We did another batch of tangerine dream w store bought tangerine juice as the citrus at the market was kinda small. Am hoping for some Cara Cara oranges soon. The grapefruit from the other week was not as sweet but still turned out. From the large batch we did 1/3 cup of tangerine juice, 1 tablespoon of sugar as the batch was not very sweet.
The medium batch we did plain w 1/2 tablespoon of sugar as that was not very sweet either.
We pulled at 5 days and it was fine.
12/21, Grape Ape
It’s been a while since we have done a grape ape using 100% organic concord grape juice. The large batch was little weakish so we are going to have to go with a longer second fermentation. We used 1/3 cup of grape juice and 1/2 tablespoon of sugar.
The medium batch was perfect we used 1/2 tablespoon of sugar (but not too full). Was torn between a teaspoon of sugar and 1/2 tablespoon, would like one in between.
12/13, Greyhound(grapefruit)
This batch of kombucha additional tea was added to the first fermentation and tasted really good.
Found some nice grapefruit at the market. The large batch we made 15 bottles with 1/3 cup grapefruit juice, 1 tablespoon of sugar.
With the medium batch we made 9 bottles of plain with 1/2 tablespoon of sugar.
We pulled the grapefruit at 5 days which is normally fine but the new narrow bottle was explosive. The old bottles had a healthy pop. Greg thought it could be sweeter as it was very dry.
12/5, Tangerine Dream
This batch of kombucha was weak but better than the 11/27 batch. We could taste the oolong tea this time and that odd lemon taste was gone. The medium batch was a bit stronger but still weak.
From the large batch we made 13 bottles of tangerine dream with 1/3 cup of tangerine juice and 1/2 Tablespoon of sugar. The medium batch we made 8 bottles adding 1 teaspoon of sugar.
We removed the tangerine 5 days later.
11/27 Orange kombucha
This batch of kombucha tea lacked the oolong flavor, was sour and almost lemon like in flavor. We are not sure if it was the tea is different (it smells different – more grassy) or human error. Both the large and medium batch that was brewed last week tasted watery with a lemon flavor. We could not taste the usual nutty oolong tea.
From the large batch, we made 8 bottles of orange kombucha using 1/3 cup of orange juice and 1 tablespoon of sugar. We made 4 bottles of rootbeer kombucha as well, using an organic rootbeer syrup. 
Two bottles contained 4 tablespoons of syrup and 1/2 tablespoon sugar (old caps) and two bottles contained 5 tablespoons of syrup and 1/2 tablespoon sugar (new caps).
The medium batch also tasted off but we made 8 bottles with 1/2 tablespoon of sugar and will see how this turns out.
Update: We pulled the orange after 5 days. It has that odd lemony flavor but works okay with the orange – still not up to usual quality. The rootbeer was gross and we dumped it. That will not happen again.
11/21 Chocolate Chip and House Sourdough bread
Today we made some more house bread (2 rounds) and a chocolate chip machine loaf. Here’s our Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bread recipe. It’s one of our favorites. I want to try a quick bread with banana and chocolate soon, or maybe just add some banana to this recipe.
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bread
(from the Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus Recipe Book Chocolate Bread recipe)
- 320 g milk
- 1 large egg (beaten)
- 2 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 545 g bread flour
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp Rapid Rise yeast
Extra Ingredients:
- 90g (9 tbsp) chocolate chips (I used 115 g or 2/3 cup this time)
I did he Homemade Cycle with a 30 minute Rest, a 30 minute Knead, adding the chips slowly between 15 and 10 minutes remaining, let it rise 3 times (0:35, 0:20, 0:40) and baked it for 1:10.
Update: Hmmm, it just finished baking and it cracked on top. It also looks a little overdone on the sides. It didn’t seem to rise enough before starting to bake. I think with the extra kneading, chocolate and sugar it needs longer rise times, even with the Rapid Rise yeast. I think next time we’ll use ASF (Active Dry or the slower rising instant) yeast and do a 1 hr Rise 1 and a 2 hr Rise 2. We’ll see when we slice it if the 1:10 baking time was right. … ugh, we just sliced it and it pretty much sucks. First of all it tastes salty so I need to be more careful measuring. Next it has no chocolate chips. That’s right, by adding them early I beat them into non-existence. I continue to struggle with the additional ingredients. Especially with the chocolate chips, it’s less important that they be evenly mixed in than left intact. It was also overdone. So this was an epic fail in just about every way. Next time we’ll go back to the original recipe, using the Course 1 White setting, adding the chips at the beep, etc.
11/20 Apple Cinnamon Pecan and House Sourdough breads
Today we made some house sourdough with the usual 320g starter, 420g water, 600g bread flour, 200g wheat flour, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tsp salt. We let one round rest for a couple hours, punched it down and it’s been rising for about 3 hours now. Will bake that at 425 degrees, covered for 20 minutes with an additional 10 minutes uncovered. The other half of the dough went back in the machine for some sandwich bread or toast. I’m eating that now, toasted with some butter and raspberry/strawberry jelly. Good stuff!!
We’re also doing an Apple-Cinnamon-Pecan loaf in the machine with the following ingredients:
- 1 cup milk
- 1⁄4 cup vegetable oil (will try butter next time)
- 3 tablespoons sugar (recipe called for 2)
- 1 tbsp cinnamon (oops, recipe called for 1/2 tsp)
- 1 tsp salt (recipe called for 1/2 tsp)
- 3 cups bread flour
- 2 1⁄2 teaspoons yeast (one packet Red Star Active Dry)
- 1 2⁄3 cups peeled and diced apples (recipe calls for 1 1/3)
- 1/3 cup chopped pecans (this was my own addition)
Bread machine Homemade Cycle settings: Rest: 20:00 (30:00 next time), Knead: 20:00, Shape: ON, Rise 1: 1:00, Rise 2: 1:00, Rise 3: 0:00, Bake: 1:20, Warm: ON
11/19 Apple Pie Kombucha
We still have dozens of apples so we made more apple pie this week. The tea for next weeks batch will be strong and next week we’ll use less (adjusted in “How we do it”). So we used 1/3 cup of apple-cinnamon-lemon puree with 1 tbsp sugar for the apple and 1 tsp of sugar for the plain.
The apple pie was pulled at 6 days which was about right. The lemon cut the sweetness. The plain was pulled and refrigerated on 12/5. We tried to pull them earlier but they were too sweet. So 16 days is about right for the plain.
11/19 Thanksgiving Bread!
This week we show our gratitude to our friends and neighbors by heaping loaves of bread on them 🙂
We’ve kneaded 2 batches (4 loaves), 2 House Wheat (320/420/800) and 2 Olive (320/380/800/1.25 cups). For the olives we set the machine for 25 minutes of kneading and after 10-15 minutes started folding in the olives. The olives contain a lot of oil so they seem to get beat up less when added early before the dough gets too glutenous. We’ll do all four as rounds, baking the plain 30 minutes (first 20 minutes covered) and the olive 35 minutes (first 25 minutes covered) at 425 F.
We’re also making more dessert breads today. The cranberry-orange-pecan quick bread came out great, maybe a little sweet but otherwise awesome. I’ll do that one again with less sugar. I also want to do a chocolate bread and another apple.
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