Applesauce Sourdough Cake

 On this recipe, I put the original on and then my notes to how I changed the recipe for me. I have made this cake a few times and love the lightness of it. It is a good fall recipe, and the spices make it wonderful!  Comes from Sourdough Cookery book, by HP Books. It is out of print, so if you see it and into sourdough, buy it! Try it with slices of fresh peaches or apples. This comes from page 138 of book 'Sourdough Cookery' by Rita Davenport.

APPLESAUCE CAKE (sourdough)

½ cup shortening* (see note)
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sourdough starter
½ teaspoon imitation rum extract*
½ teaspoon imitation butter flavoring*
1 ½ cups applesauce
1 ¾ cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon cloves, ground
½ teaspoon allspice
1 cup raisins*
1 cup chopped nuts*
Powdered sugar for decoration
Generously grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan or tube pan; set aside. Preheat oven to 350˚. In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs until blended. Add sourdough starter, rum extract, butter flavoring and applesauce. Beat with electric mixer on high speed 2 minutes; set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Stir into sourdough mixture. Fold in raisins and nuts. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 1 ¼ hours or until surface springs back when touched with your fingers. Turn out of pan. Cool on rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Makes 10 to 12 servings.

*Notes: I didn’t use the flavorings (the butter or rum extracts) instead I used ¼ cup shortening and ¼ cup real butter.
I used 1 ¼ cup unbleached white flour and ½ cup wheat flour. Also I didn’t have on hand raisins or nuts and it turned out just fine. If you do add the raisins and nuts, let me know what you think. I think that this recipe would taste great with them! I do like mixing flours and added the wheat just to give foods a different texture.

Sent it to Week # 16, http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/2011/05/sweets-for-saturday-16.html

 

Sourdough Half and Half Bread

Sourdough Half & Half Bread

By Rita Davenport

2/3 cup powder milk

2 cups warm water

1 package active dry yeast

3 cups whole wheat flour

3-4 cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup starter

¼ cup molasses

1 tablespoon salt

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 teaspoon baking soda

In a large bowl, combine milk powder and water. Stir in yeast. Set aside to soften 5 minutes. Stir until yeast dissolves. Stir in whole-wheat flour, 1 cup all-purpose flour and sourdough starter. Beat until thoroughly combined. Cover with a cloth and set in a warm place free from drafts. Let rise 1 to 2 hours or until doubled in size. Stir down dough. Stir in molasses, salt and butter; set aside. Add baking soda to 1 cup remaining flour. Stir into whole-wheat mixture. Gradually stir in enough remaining all-purpose flour to form a medium-stiff dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Clean and grease bowl; set aside. Knead dough 8 to 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place kneaded dough in greased bowl, turning to grease all sides. Cover with a cloth and set in a warm place fee from drafts. Let rise 1 to 2 hours or until doubled in size. Generously grease two 9”x5” loaf pans; set aside. Punch down dough. Shape into 2 loaves and place in prepared pans. Cover with a cloth and set in a warm place free from drafts. Let rise about 2 hours or until doubled in size. Preheat oven to 375˚. Bake 45 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped with your fingers. After 30 minutes, if loaves are golden brown, cover with a tent of foil to prevent further browning. Turn out of pans. Cool top side up on a rack. Makes 2 loaves. *Glenda’s note: I use only 1 teaspoon salt instead of 1 tablespoon. Also I make into 2 round loaves and bake on cookie sheet that has been greased with cornmeal sprinkled on.

Sourdough Sam's - donut's

Ok, here it is the best donuts, I have ever made! This recipe comes from my Sourdough Cookbook, by Don and Myrtle Holm. I have been making these since the 80's.. Enjoy!!!!

Sourdough Sam's
1/2 cup sourdough stater
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons oil
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking power
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 egg yolks or 1 whole egg
1/3 cup buttermilk
Sift dry ingredients, stir into liquid, roll out, and cut, with donut cutter. Then heat some oil to 390 degrees and fry. Makes 17 donuts and holes. Dust with granulated sugar or a mixture of cinnamon and sugar, or powered sugar in a paper bag.

Having Fun with Spelt Flour!

   Sally Lunn bread 
The last couple of days, I made some bread and was pleased with the results!

I enjoy reading 'Life's a Feast', blog.  Jamie has a great recipe for these bread sticks, called 'Grissini',  http://lifesafeast.blogspot.com/2009/05/grissini.html. They looked so good I had to make them.  I changed them just a bit and added some wheat and spelt flours to the recipe.  I also loved how she used different flavorings, so I just added all three at once and it still tasted great! Thanks Jamie, we all love them!

The picture of the loaf is the 'Sally Lunn' recipe again mixing different flours. I am finding out by adding the spelt flour, my loaves seem a little lighter.  

         Grissini, bread sticks.

Sally Lunn (recipe from Sourdough Cookery)

1 cup milk

1 package active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1/2 cup butter 

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups sourdough starter

3 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon salt

4 1/2 cups flour (calls for all-purpose, but I have mixed in different kinds, as long as it equals the 4 1/2 cups)

In a small saucepan, heat milk almost to a boil over medium heat.  Do not boil.  Set aside to cool 10 minutes.  Sprinkle yeast over water.  Set aside to soften 5 minutes.  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth.  Stir in sourdough starter and softened yeast mixture until combined. Stir in cooled milk and eggs; set aside.  Stir salt into flour.  Add to sourdough mixture; beat until smooth.  Cover with a cloth and set in a warm place free from drafts.  Let rise 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size. Generously grease two 8-inch square baking pans, or one 9"x5" loaf pan and one 7 1/2 "x4" loaf pan.  Stir down batter.  Pour into prepared pans until each is half full.  cover lightly with waxed paper and set in a warm place free from drafts.  Let rise 1 to 1/2 hours or until just to tops of pans.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake 45 minutes or until golden brown and sruface springs back when touched with your fingers.  After 30 minutes, if loaves are golden brown, cover with a tent of foil to prevent further browning.  Serve hot or cold.  Cut in wedges or slices.  Makes 2 loaves.

BBD #17,Sourdough Potato Bread, (rolls or hamburger buns)

Had some leftover mashed potatoes from lunch, extra canned milk, (that I didn’t use in the potatoes) and the starter was sitting out to make some bread, so I thought why not go ahead and make my potato bread for this month’s BBD #17 on potatoes, from http://notitievanlien.blogspot.com/2009/02/announcement-bread-baking-day-17.html . Gotta love Bread Baking Day. 

As I was looking for a good recipe, I found lots of them. So, I decided to create one. The reason behind this was that every recipe I looked at had good ingredients, so I chose what I wanted from different recipes and came up with a pretty good roll recipe. I liked the idea of sour cream, but didn’t have any, yet I just made some yogurt, needed to use up the canned milk, didn’t want to put extra butter in, as there was some in the potatoes and woo – la, (I am sure I misspelled this saying wrong, but hopefully you get the idea.) the recipe came together.  As you can see from the pictures, I made one loaf of bread, some rolls and hamburger buns. We made hamburgers for dinner and the buns were great!!!

Sourdough Potato Bread, Rolls or Hamburger Buns

1 cup sourdough, freshly feed

1 package dry yeast

½ cup warm water

2 tablespoons sugar (added at the last minute, as I didn’t think the dough tasted right without it)

½ cup yogurt

2 cups mashed potatoes, leftovers is good (mine had salt, pepper, milk and butter already in them)

¾ cup canned milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

6 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

 

In a small bowl, put the water and sprinkle in the yeast. Let set and proof for 5 minutes.

Put into a large bowl and mix the sourdough, sugar, yogurt and yeast together.

Next add the potatoes, milk and oil.

Start adding the flour one cup at a time and when it starts to where the dough comes and forms a ball, take out of bowl and put on lightly dusted with flour.

Knead for about 10 minutes, adding flour as necessary.

You might add up to a cup more, but don’t let the dough become thick and dense. (I like my dough a little sticky as it seems to be lighter when baked.)  

Put all of this into a large greased or oiled bowl and let rise about an hour.

Take out of bowl and put onto lightly dusted floured counter or table top and punch some of the air bubbles out.

Shape into 2 large loaves, 3 smaller ones or make into rolls or hamburger buns.

Bake in preheated oven at 350˚.

Loaves baked for about 35-40 minutes.

Rolls for about 20-25 minutes.

Hamburger buns for about 25-30 minutes.

We really enjoyed the rolls and hamburger buns the best.

This makes a lot of dough, the picture only shows some of the rolls. I baked 1 loaf, 10 rolls and 6 hamburger buns.

Czech Christmas Braid

This is another good recipe!! Is light and flavorful! I could have eaten by myself, but I did share with the family, what a treat. Wouldn't it be nice to find out where the orginal recipe came from, I mean who started the recipe and what date? Even I have changed this one, as to the closest ingredients that I had. Doesn't that just get you upset when you go to make something and don't have exactly what is needed. But that is how we become creative, with what's on hand!

Ok, this is what I changed, but please look up the one from Daniel Leader.

I changed the 2 egg yolks, to a whole egg, as I just can't throw away the whites.

I added about 1/2 cup whole-wheat sourdough starter.

Instead of slice almonds, I took whole almonds and toasted them with a little sugar and a little cinnamon and then crushed them. I think they look better than the sliced ones.

I did a 6-braid instead of 3-braid, just wanted to give it a try. It was fun to make.

Anyway, we all love this bread, even though it is not Christmas time.

Czech Christmas Braid
Svátečni vánočka

Ingredients for bread dough:

1/2 cup sourdough starter
¾ cup warm milk (75 to 85 degrees)
4 tablespoons butter

1 whole egg
¼ cup sugar
1 ¼ teaspoon dry yeast
2 cups bread flour, unbleached
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup raisins

(This is before I added the egg wash and nut mixture.)

Egg Wash:
1 egg
½ teaspoon sugar

Topping:
¼ cup almonds, roasted and sprinkled with a little sugar and cinnamon.

Follow the instructions in the book,’Local Breads’ by Daniel Leader, page 315 or do as I did:
Put the dough ingredients in order and mix in a stand mixer for 5 minutes. The dough will be sticky, (don’t add extra flour). Keep mixing until the dough forms a ball and then add the raisins a little at a time until they evenly get distributed. Let the dough rise in an oiled 2-quart bowl for about 1-1 ½ hours. Shape the dough into a 3 or 6 strand braid bread and put on a greased baking sheet, or one lined with parchment paper. Let rise for about 30 minutes. Just before you put in the oven, brush with the egg wash and put the almonds on top.
There is a good video on this web site for the 6 strand braids: http://www.expertvillage.com/video/20046_challah-bread-six-strands.htm

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350˚, for 30-40 minutes. Use the toothpick method to make sure the dough is cooked in the middle before you take it out of the oven. Enjoy!

The Leaf Plate

Found this plate at Wal-Mart during Thanksgiving and waited and waited until it would go on clearance. It didn't so I bought it for the $5 and finally got around to using it. It has ridges and I thought I could make a nice loaf of sourdough bread with it. (I can't afford a bannton yet, so I thought this might work.)

I made the French Country Boule from the book, "Local Breads", by Danile Leader. The ingredients I changed were the whole wheat and rye flours, I used some spelt. I didn't want to take the time and grind up some more wheat and the spelt was already done. 

With a bannton, you use a linen tea cloth and dust with flour, so I did with the plate. Problem was that the ridges didn't show through, so next time I will just grease the leaf plate and put the dough on to see if I get the design I want. It is such a pretty plate. I had extra dough so just made a long slim rope and let it bake. The two doughs were too close on the baking pan, so they fused together. End results was still delicous bread! Crust was hard on the outside and soft on the inside, just the way I like it. Another thing is that I didn't put the doughs on a baking stone, as I just finished baking the cheese and date bread, so by letting them bake on a baking sheet the bottoms baked a little browner than usual.

Did love the bread and I love baking from this book, as you can tell.

Also because of so much baking, my neighbors got the rewards and said they loved the different breads. Yeah!!!

Enough baking for 2 days, but still want to try my new friend, Elizabeth's date bread and cheese crackers. Then I will decide what recipe will go on to the BBD#16. 

BBD#15 Glenda's Christmas Bread

I know this recipe is in here, but I have revised it to put into the BBD #15: Festive Breads by http://annarasaessenceoffood.blogspot.com.   I am glad I added the walnuts as I think it makes a better tasting bread. Here is the recipe!

Glenda’s Christmas Bread

Sprinkle these two ingredients in a large bowl and let proof for 5 minutes:

1 package of yeast

¼ cup warm water (105˚)

Slowly start adding the following ingredients and stir as you go:

1 ½ cups sourdough starter – freshly fed

1/3 cup sugar

½ cup butter, melted and cooled

3 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup pomegranate juice (I used POM® brand)

1 cup whole-wheat flour or whole spelt flour

1 cup shredded zucchini

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup walnuts - chopped

Now start adding the flour:

5 cups bread flour (up to a cup more for dusting and kneading)

Pour this out from bowl onto flour dusted counter top or table and knead for about 5-10 minutes, adding a little flour at a time until the dough is not sticky to the touch.

Grease a large bowl with a little oil and put the dough into this bowl. Cover and let rise about 1-1 /2 hours, free from drafts.

Take dough out of bowl onto lightly flour dusted counter top or table and start to form the dough into the shape you want, a tree, a wreath or can put into*2 large loaf pans. Cover and let rise about 1 hour.

Bake in preheated oven, 350˚ for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and surface springs back when touched with your fingers.

Made 1 tree and 1 wreath, can use loaf pans, makes *2-3 loaves (depending on your size pan). Decorate as you wish. The other main difference between this bread and the one on Nov 21, is that I didn't had red food coloring, so when baked this just looks as if it is all wheat bread. We really enjoy this recipe.

Glenda's Christmas Bread 1st Time

I wanted to create a nice bread for Christmas time with the colors red and green. What food could I use to get the colors I wanted? I knew I wanted the shape of a tree. I was going to do cranberries, but didn't know if I could get the bread red enough and I didn’t want the seeds. I was watching the 'Martha' show and there they had the pomegranates. I love pomegranates; my Aunt Mary had trees in her front yard in California. When I was a little girl we would go and visit and pick and eat them to our heart desire, yes we stain our clothes, but ooooh they were so good! So, I knew the red I wanted, now for the green. I wanted it to look like pine needles, so I thought of zucchini. Why not, there is good zucchini bread out there, why couldn't I make my version of yeast bread. I knew I didn’t want raisins, think, think….
Ok, so now I have my colors, what other ingredients do I want? I went to the store for some ideas: I bought one pomegranate, one zucchini and a small package of dried cranberries, enough to make 1 cup. Came home and juiced the pomegranate and let it set over night. They are light in color when you first juice them and darker over night, something I didn’t know, it also separated into 2 shades of pink or red. Today I got my starter out and fed it, so that by noon it would be ready. Alright here goes. You really need 2 pomegranates to get 1 cup of juice. So, what I did was to add water to make the cup with ½ teaspoon of red food coloring, which I said I wouldn’t do, but did. Next time I will buy the Pom® brand of juice and then I won’t need to juice. The bread came out nicely and tasted super good!



The recipe :
Glenda’s Christmas Bread
Sprinkle these two ingredients in a large bowl and let proof for 5 minutes:
1 package of yeast
¼ cup warm water (105˚)
Slowly start adding the following ingredients and stir as you go:
1 ½ cups sourdough starter
1/3 cup sugar
½ cup butter, melted and cooled
3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup Pom brand pomegranate juice

1 cup whole-wheat flour
Now start adding the flour:
5-6 cups bread flour
Keep stirring until it starts to form the dough and is smooth then add:
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 cup dried cranberries
Pour this out from bowl onto flour dusted counter top or table and knead for about 5 minutes, adding a little flour at a time until the dough is not sticky to the touch.
Grease a large bowl with a little oil and put the dough into this bowl. Cover and let rise about 1-1 /2 hours, free from drafts.
Take dough out of bowl onto lightly flour dusted counter top or table and start to form the dough into the shape you want, a tree*, a wreath or can put into 2 large greased loaf pans. Cover and let rise about 1 hour.
Bake in preheated oven, 350˚ for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown and surface springs back when touched with your fingers.
Makes 2 loaves.




*The instructions I use to shape the tree:
Take one-quarter of dough and form the trunk, about 1 inch thick and 10 inces long, tapering it broader at the base. Place on a 12 by 18 inch baking sheet with parchment paper. With the side of your hand, press a dent about 2 ½ inches up from the base to indicate beginning of branches.
Divide the remainder of the dough in quarters. Roll one-quarter of dough between your floured hands to make a 1-inch-thick roll about 15 inches long. (If you roll all the dough at once, it may break.) Starting at the top of the tree, twist figure “8’s” down one side of trunk. Roll out another quarter of the dough, as you need it, into a 1-inch-thick roll. Repeat, using the other half of dough to make figure “8’s” on the opposite side of tree. Cross the ends of the dough over the dent in the trunk.

Ciabatta Rolls

This is an Italian type roll made with sourdough (biga), it looked good in the Daniel Leader's book, so I had to bake it along with the pumpernickel yesterday. They turned out great, will make this again. I wanted a nice sandwich roll that I could easily take for lunches and this just might be it. Who knows, I might find another variety. So many bread recipes, so little time.......

Pumpernickel Bread

This recipe originally comes from ‘The Frugal Gourmet On Our Immigrant Ancestors’ by Jeff Smith, 1990 page 148. I enjoyed reading this book a few years ago and forgot about it until Boaz was asking for German Rye Bread. It is interesting to note that all the cookbooks I have, this was I felt the most authentic recipe. I remember making this for my husband because he wanted a dark rye and likes caraway seeds. Well I have change it just a bit, I added rye sourdough. Here is my version of the recipe.

Pumpernickel Bread

Sprinkle into a large bowl 1 package of yeast and add 1 ¼ cups warm water (about 105˚) and let proof for 5 minutes.
Add: 1 cup rye flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup molasses (I used 2 tablespoons molasses and 2 tablespoons buckwheat honey)
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Mix in a mixer with a dough hook for about 5 minutes.

Then add into this 1 cup all-purpose bread flour and mix about 3 minutes.

(If mixing by hand, stir in 1 cup flour with a heavy spoon. Scrape the dough onto floured board. Knead, adding as little flour as possible, until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.)
Place the dough onto parchment paper and cover with a large glass bowl. (I have never done this step, but did it this time, interesting way to raise dough.) Let rise for about 1 hour or until double in bulk.

Put parchment paper on a baking sheet and sprinkle some cornmeal onto it, set aside.

After the dough has risen, take out of bowl onto a flour dusted counter top or board and knead the dough to into a shape of a 6 inch round. Place this onto the baking sheet and let rise about 30 minutes.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Use a water sprayer while baking. Simply spray a bit of water into the oven now and then as the bread is baking. (I put the round onto a preheated stone and baked about 40 minutes, it still needed a little more time. Also I put a cast iron skillet with ice cubes in the skillet and put it on the bottom rack of the oven for the steam.)

Notes: Next time I will bake just a little longer, maybe an extra 5-7 minutes. Some rye breads call for coffee to darken the bread. I like this recipe because it calls for cocoa, I don't care for coffee, so this works better for me. It does taste a little bitter than most breads, but has a good strong taste of rye. This bread would be great for Ruben sandwiches or a nice light soup that has cabbage in it.

Over the week-end I did some baking:

Coconut Cake with Strawberry Filling
I made the white cake from the King Arthur cookbook page 353. I didn't have enough egg whites so tried the Deb El - Just Whites®. It worked! The cake was light and fluffy. We all enjoy it. Sometimes it amazes me when there isn't enough of something and you try what you have on hand and it works. I also didn't have enough strawberries, so I mixed them with some of the frosting for the filling of the cake. It tasted great.
Isn't it fun to make something new?

Sally Lunn Sourdough

Sprinkle:
1 package yeast over:
¼ cup warm water (105˚)
Let set about 5 minutes to proof

Put in a large bowl and mix together:
¼ cup cooled, melted butter
1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs

Next put in the yeast mixture and add:
1 ½ cups sourdough starter

Start adding:
4 ½-5 cups flour and knead all of this together with:
1 teaspoon salt
This dough will be sticky, but knead for about 7-8 minutes adding a dusting of flour on the counter top as you knead.

Take this dough and put into a large greased bowl and let rise for 1 to 1 ½ hours, covered.
While this is rising go ahead and greased two loaf pans.
After the rise, take out of bowl and knead just a bit, then divide the dough in half.
Roll out and make two loaves, put into prepared loaf pans, let rise until to the top of the pan, covered and free from drafts for about one hour.
Preheat oven to 350˚. Bake for about 40-45 minutes, check to make sure the tops are not over browning. If so, then put a piece of foil on top to prevent burning and use the toothpick method to check and see if the bread is done. When done, take out of oven and cool on wire rack.
Makes: 2 loaves


Mostly what I tried new with this batch of bread was instead of rolling the dough out, I stretched it out and folded it into 3rds, then stretching it out again and folding, then took the loaves and put them into the pans. Usually I rolled out the dough and then roll it back again and put into the pans. I liked this method and will use it again. I saw this method on a web and I tried looking for it but can't remember what web page, sorry.

Polish Cottage Rye Bread

Today I made some rye bread, again from the book, "Local Breads" by Daniel Leader page 327.

I enjoy reading his little stories of how he came by the recipes.

Luckily I had two rye starters going, as the one I had for this recipe didn't rise, but I put it in anyway and added some of my other rye starter. The only major difference is that I used one teaspoonful of vital gluten, as this recipe calls for unbleached bread flour that is high in gluten. I didn't have that so I just used my regular flour and added the gluten. I wanted to make sure this dough did rise, so I added 1 package of dry yeast, no extra water.

The recipe said the dough would be sticky, as you can see in the first picture, it was. The fermention of the dough turned out great, in second picture. It is rising in a colander, I don't have a banneton. (Maybe as a Christmas gift, from one of my children??? HINT) But I was surprised because I thought it turned out great, as you can see from the picture where the bread is in the oven.

I baked the bread for 40 minutes and did the thumping because a toothpick wouldn't go through. It sounded done, but I think Daniel is correct on adding 5 more minutes in the oven, as the bread wasn't quite done as I would have liked. I think you can notice that from the last picture. But the finished bread was beautiful and tasted great! (Croc, you're right, it does taste like the rye crackers) I enjoyed it with butter and my daughter with some honey.

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

My daughter and I made these rolls. I made up extra sourdough in the morning to make these and got busy making the Autumn Time Bread, I forgot I needed to get these going. I made up the dough and had to go to a meeting and so my daughter finished up for me. She made the rolls bigger than I would have, but they were great!

I got the recipe from northwestsourgh.com, thanks Robin L. of CA, we really enjoyed them. I really like the carmel at the bottom, so I turned over the pan to show the gooey side. Yum!

Pumpkin Yeast Bread

Because I added pumpkin to the Autumn Time Bread, it made too much for the rope and so I took some off and made a big roll.
Baked it in a 6" round cake pan and 20 minutes later......delicious pumpkin bread!!!

A Treat

This morning I baked up a batch of delicious pumpkin waffles! I found this recipe online and thank you for whoever it was I got it from. I am catching myself reading a lot of blogs, so I don't remember who had this recipe. I realize this is somewhat like my other waffle picture, but it really is different.

Enjoy!!!!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Waffles w/ Sourdough

Mix these ingredients together:
½ cup whole-wheat flour
½ cup oats, old-fashioned
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly ground
½ teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon salt (opt)
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

Add in and mix well:
½ cup sourdough, freshly fed
1 cup pumpkin, puree
1 egg
1 tablespoon corn oil or melted butter
¼ - 1/3 cup milk, as needed
¼ cup chopped pecans, (opt)
Make sure all ingredients are well moistened, will be lumpy.
Bake on preheated waffle iron as per manufacturer’s suggestion.
Serve with your favorite syrup.

3 Starters

Just wanted to put on pictures of my three starters. It is hard to keep up with them, but has been fun making the different breads. The starters in the bowl are being refreshed and the starters in the jars is how I save them for the next time. I like them in the glassware, as to me it looks prettier. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Genzano Country Bread

This bread is great!!! I have been baking and searching for a good crunchy bread on the outside and delicious and soft on the inside. So far, this is it. I am so glad these loaves turned out, yummy!

The recipe comes from the book, “Local Breads”, by Daniel Leader. I love this book and have made about 4 of the recipes. I wish I could print the recipes on the blog but it would take too long. If you get a chance, check it out from your local library and see what you think!
Here are some of the pictures:
Picture 1 is the 'Biga Naturale', see the netting of the dough?
Picture 2 is the underneath side of the bowl, see the air pockets?
Picture 3 is the fermenting stage, with tiny bubbles on the top.
Picture 4 and 5 are the finished product, one round and one loaf style.

Yeast vs Starter

I had a good question asked, that being if one was to use just starter and not yeast, would the flavor be affected.

What are your thoughts? Has anyone tried experimenting?

Mine is that it probably wouldn't and that you might get more flavor from the flour or more grain taste. If the bread turns out well, why not. I think on most sweet breads or rolls, I would still go with some yeast, as it seems to mix with the sugar and tastes better. This would be a great thing to try, some with a natural starter, some with just yeast or even both (half and half type).

Sourdough thoughts

I have started up again baking with sourdough. Bought a book about a year and finally decided to read it. I usually read cookbooks as books besides just look up recipes. The book is 'Local Breads' by Daniel Leader.

Do have 3 starters going:

1. Old stand by made with yogurt, milk and flour.

2. Rye starter made with rye flour and water.

3. Levain made with whole wheat flour and water.

Yogurt starter I have made many times since the 1970's. I have made differents breads, English muffins and cakes with it. Our family favorite use to be the English muffins, now it is North Dakota Farmer Bread. When we first moved to the mid-west states, I couldn't get the starter to go, I guess because of the humidity. So, this past summer, I tried again and it is working great.

As I have read the 'Local Breads' book, I feel we don't make bread as it should be made. I think we add too many ingredients and chemicals. I like the idea of just flour, water and salt. I do like adding milk, eggs, oil, etc for softer loaves but now am enjoying the Artisan style.

This is my first time attempting to use 'levain' starter and really enjoying it. By reading the Local Breads book, I have also looked at my other books sitting on the shelves and re-reading them. Now I am using more books, more recipes and the 3 starters. I bought some spelt flour, both white and whole spelt. It is suggested to use a rye starter with spelt to help the gluten and rise the spelt flour better. It made a lighter bread and was good to the taste. I shared a loaf with friends and they love it too!

I am now making baguettes, something else I haven't tried until now, wow! Are they delicious!!!

Hope you enjoy some of my pictures and try some new bread recipes soon!

The bread picture is of Spelt bread made with rye starter, the other picture is levain starter (a stiffer sourdough) made with wheat flour and water.