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Fall Sourdoughs

Leaves are changing colors and frost is highlighting the lawn in the morning.  It is time to start baking.  Love the smell of sourdough bread cooking.  So many options for this time of the year.  Crackers, breadsticks, bread, pancakes, and the list goes on.  Check out our website for wonderful recipes and hints on sourdough.  www.sourdo.com

Dill Batter Bread

Dill Batter Bread

Makes 1 loaf

 

Sourdough batter from recipe below

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

½ cup chopped onions

2 teaspoons dill seed

 

Proof and Baking

Complete steps 1 and 2 to prepare sourdough batter.  Add cheese, onions, and dill seed to the batter and mix well.

Spoon the batter into a 4 ½ x 8 ½ inch loaf pan.

Proof, covered, at 85° for 1 to 2 hours, or until dough rises ½ inch above the edge of the pan.

Preheat oven to 350°.  Bake for 45 minutes.

Remove loaf from pan and cool on a wire rack.

 

 

 

 

Basic Sourdough Batter Bread

Makes 1 loaf

 

2 cups culture

2 tablespoons butter

½ cup milk

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

3 cups white bread flour

 

Proof and Baking

Measure the culture into a large mixing bowl.  Melt the butter over moderate heat, add the milk to the butter and warm (to 75° to 85°).  Add the salt and sugar and stir until dissolved.  Add this mixture to the culture and mix well.

Add the flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing vigorously for 1 minute or so between cups.  The yield is approximately 3 ½ cups of basic sourdough batter.

Grease a 4 ½ x 8 ½ inch loaf pan if not nonstick.  Spoon batter into the prepared pan.

Proof, covered, at 85° for 1 to 2 hours, or until dough rises ½ inch above the edge of the pan.

Preheat oven to 350°.  Bake for 45 minutes.

Remove loaf from pan and cool on a wire rack.

 

 

Sourdough Hamburger Buns

Summer is in full swing.  Picnics, BBQs, outdoor gaming events…  Perfect time to start making your own hamburger buns.  What a great surprise it will be for your family and friends when you place those perfect hamburgers straight off the grill onto a homemade sourdough hamburger bun. 

We are in a period that we want to know what goes into what we are putting into our mouths.  Making our own bread is a perfect solution.  We decide the flours and what kind we want to make.

I can’t wait to try these out on my guests.  I am wanting to try them with our wheat culture (Sourdoughs International South African) and our rye culture (Sourdoughs International Polish).  What a great variety of hamburger buns!

 

Hamburger Buns

Makes 8 Buns

2 cups sourdough culture

3 tablespoons butter

½ cup milk

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

 

Pour the culture into a mixing bowl.  Melt the butter and add the milk, eggs, salt, and sugar.  Beat with a fork to mix and add to the culture.  Add the flour a cup at a time until the dough is too stiff to mix by hand.  Turn out onto a floured board and knead in the remaining flour until the dough is smooth and satiny.

Roll the dough out to a ½ -inch thickness and cut with a 4-inch round cutter (a can with the top cut out works well).

Place the buns on a baking sheet and proof at 85°F in a proofing box for 2 to 4 hours, or until doubled in bulk.  Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F for 15 to 18 minutes, or until browned.  Let cool on a wire rack.

 

You could top with sesame seeds, or onion bits, whatever your taste buds might find desirable.  That is the wonderful thing about baking your own items, you can be as creative as you want to be.  Kids would love to help you with these also.  Happy baking.

A Simple Dessert Recipe

I don’t know about you, but when I am feeding and discarding my sourdough culture, I hate not using it. Here is a simple way to use up that little bit of culture instead of dumping it down the drain.

½ cup of sourdough starter
½ cup water, plus more when needed
½ tsp salt
1 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
Goat cheese of your choice
Dark chocolate of your choice
1 egg
...
Mix (knead) all the ingredients for a maximum of 20-25 minutes in the bread machine, until the dough is smooth and satiny. Watch the dough form for the first 3 or 4 minutes and adjust the consistency as needed with additional water or flour, added 1 tablespoon at a time.
Proof dough overnight (8 to 12 hours) at room temperature, about 70°F.
Roll dough out on a cutting board until it is about ¼ inch thick. Cut into squares of 5x5 (or bigger if you want. Put a spoonful of goat cheese in center of square and add a piece of dark chocolate. Fold over so that you make a triangle. Seal edges and cover edges with a little egg white.
Drop into a deep fryer and flip over several times until dough takes on a light brown color. Remove and let cool.

This is a quick and easy dessert that will surprise your friends. The combination with the cheese and chocolate is amazing. The fun thing with this is that you can go crazy with experimenting. Or if you just have a little dough left over this is where you can use it.

Happy Baking!

BBQ Sourdough Pizzas

This is the time of year that BBQs are fired up and ready to go. I know that I can't wait to try out some pizzas on the BBQ. Here are some hints that we have found that might come in handy for those first time pizza BBQers.

~prepare your pizza crust
~have your toppings on one plate and your cheeses on another
~heat your BBQ up as hot as you can
~when you are ready, oil your pizza pan generously..., spread out your dough, cover and let stand for around 10 minutes
~now we are ready to cook
~turn your burners down to low, place the pizza pan with dough on grill and lower lid
~cook for 2-3 minutes or until the bottom is starting to turn golden in color
~pull pizza pan with dough from grill and quickly generously oil the top of crust then flip crust over
~put on your favorite cheeses and toppings
~return pizza pan to BBQ and continue to cook until chees is bubbling and crust is golden brown, this may take 5 minutes give or take a few
~remove from BBQ and let stand for about 5 minutes

Enjoy BBQ pizzas!!!

Whole-Wheat Sourdough Bread

Whole-Wheat Sourdough Bread

Makes two 1 ½ pound loaves

Bob Linville, a good friend, calls this loaf one of his favorites. It has great flavor and texture. He uses our fast Russian culture to leaven this moderately heavy dough.

2 cups whole-wheat flour
2 ¾ cups white flour
2 cups sourdough culture
¾ cup water...
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup warm milk
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted

1.Combine the flours and mix well. Mix the sourdough culture with 1 cup of the flour and ¼ cup of the water in a large mixing bowl. This is the working culture. Proof 12 hours at room temperature (68° to 72°) or 6 hours in a proofing box at 85°.

2.Add 1 cup of the flour mixture and ½ cup of the water. Mix and knead until smooth. Proof 8 hours at room temperature or 4 hours in the proofing box. After proofing, this is the fully active culture.

3.Punch down. Dissolve the salt in the milk and mix in the sugar and butter. Add to the dough and mix well. Reserve 1 cup of the flour for flouring the board. Mix and spoon knead the remaining 1 ¾ cups flour into the dough 1 cup at a time. When too stiff to mix by hand, transfer to the floured board and knead in the remaining flour.

4.Form 2 pan loaves, and proof at the same temperature used above until the dough rises about 1 inch above the pan tops (2 ½ to 3 hours).

5.Start in a cold oven at 375° for 70 minutes. Remove from the pans and cool on wire racks.

He used Sourdough International's South African culture. This culture loves and thrives on whole wheat. In fact it is started with whole wheat. If you do your own whole wheat grains or anything along that line, you need this culture! In fact, I headed right home to start mine. All I could think on the way home is; I could add sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, cranberries and the list could be endless!
Here is his recipe.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have. Happy baking.