Is nothing sacred?

For the love of George...

Those of you who know me well will not be surprised when I tell you that the George mentioned in the title of this blog post is, in fact, a sourdough starter. The picture above is not actually George, though, as I am having laptop/photo loading issues. I was explaining the idea of a sourdough starter to the girls, and somehow the fact that the starter is a living thing that needs to be fed on a regular basis morphed into...well...
George.

I love the distinctive flavor that a sourdough gives baked goods. I will confess, right up front, that I made George the easy way, with water, flour and a bit of commercial yeast. The hard way involves essentially combining flour and water and hoping that the yeast in the fresh flour are built up to the point that they begin to ferment, creating lactic acid and the distinctive sour taste. Another way is to add some "old dough" or a bit of a stable, established starter to water and flour. I didn't have any previous starter, but I found a recipe for a starter in some of my old cook-books, and made my own.

I mixed 2 cups of flour, 2 cups of water and I pkg dry yeast in a plastic bowl. I let it is sit overnight in my pantry, and in the morning it was bubbly and frothy, with a clear fermented smell emanating from the bowl.

Once it was ready, I took 1/2 a cup of the starter and put it into a clean container. It's important not to use a metal container to keep a starter in. Glass or plastic is best. I used what was left of the starter to make biscuits. They were lovely.

I'm going to post the recipes for the biscuits and the bread. In coming posts, I will add pictures of George, instructions for making the bread in the bread machine, etc.

Sourdough Tea Biscuits
1 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c shortening (I used butter. Margarine would work, too)
1 c. sourdough starter

Sift dry ingredients, cut in shortening, add sourdough starter and mix with fork until blended. Turn out onto lightly floured counter and knead lightly, pat our and cut into biscuits, bake at 400F for 20 minutes (depending on large they are, start checking them at 15 minutes.)

Sourdough Bread

To the two cups of starter, add: 4 c. sifted flour
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. salt
2 tbsp fat (lard, shortening, margarine, oil or butter)

Sift dry ingredients in a bowl, making a well in the centre, add fat to the starter and mix well. Pour into well in flour, add enough extra flour to make a soft dough, knead on floured board for 10 - 15 minutes. Place in greased pans, let rise in a warm place for 2 hours until doubled. Bake at 375f for 50 - 60 minutes (my bread never takes this long. I would check it after 20 - 25 minutes).

To feed the starter, add 1/4 c. sugar, 1 c. milk and 1 c. flour. Many recipes just require a cup of water and a cup of flour. I've been adding less sugar than the 1/4 cup, and I've fed George water instead of milk a few times. The starter needs to be fed every time it is used, after which it needs to be left alone for 24 hours. I think even if it's not used, it still needs to be fed every 3- 4 days. But it's worth the effort to use it. Especially when the bread can be made in the bread maker. And believe me, the bread and biscuits will disappear so quickly, your starter won't get bored.

Next time, there will be pictures and approximate instructions on using the breadmaker to make sourdough bread. I say approximate, because each bread-maker is different, so you may have to do a bit of tweaking and experimenting on your own. I'm also in the process of working it all out. Do I add yeast, or not? (so far, yes, but how little can I get away with?) Will I need to add extra liquid? And if so, how much? (Again, I have had to, although I'm not sure how much I've been adding because I just splash it in until it looks doughy)

Stay tuned!

A Happy Mistake

One of the lovely things about cooking is that mistakes can lead us down an entirely new road of good things to eat. Sometimes they can even be better than what we intended to make.

A while ago, I mentioned wanting to make no-knead bread, and was sent a link to this page ~ http://steamykitchen.com/168-no-knead-bread-revisited.html~ from a dear friend. I made it once, loved it, and determined to make it repeatedly. Then it was Christmas and my baking skills were consumed with stollen and…well, basically stollen.

In January I decided to make the no-knead bread again, this time from memory as the ingredients are so simple. The bread didn’t turn out the same, though. It was a different texture, chewy and more moist with a less impressive crust than the original loaf had. It was still good, so I made it a few more times before I checked the original recipe and discovered that while I had the ingredients down, I wasn’t making the oven hot enough, and I wasn’t heating the cooking pot before dumping the dough in it to be baked. Ah, problem solved.

In the meantime, though, while eating a slice of the “mistake” bread, I was reminded of a coconut, white chocolate loaf that a bakery in one of our local grocery stores used to make. It had the same texture as the “mistake” loaves that I was making, and so one night while mixing the flour, salt, yeast and water, I added a cup of shredded coconut and half a cup of white chocolate chips to the batter. I baked it the way I had been doing it, in a 350 F oven. It was delicious.

Moist, coconutty, with just the right amount of sweetness from the white chocolate. It was especially good toasted with butter. It was a success.

So, now that I have discovered the error of my ways, my future loaves of no-knead bread will look more like those lovely, rich brown loaves on the recipe page. I’m going to make 2 loaves tonight, (one, plain no-knead and one coconut, white chocolate) and bake them tomorrow, so I will have pictures then.

In the meantime, the lesson is that sometimes mistakes can take you down a road that you never thought you’d find yourself on. I’m pretty sure that’s how snails came to be on the menu…