Sourdough Discard Crackers

This is a great way to use discard. During the colder months when we were doing school from home these were a great snack to pop in the oven. I barely managed to get them off the pan before they were all eaten. Super easy, very tasty and definitely a keeper recipe.

Sourdough Discard Crackers

2 tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 cup starter
2 tablespoons seasoning of your choice
salt

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Melt the butter and mix with the starter, then incorporate your seasonings.

2. Pour your batter out onto a parchment lined baking sheet and spread it thin.

3. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven. Immediately score into the shapes you desire. Return to the oven for an additional 40 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

Sourdough Country Loaf

This rustic loaf recipe has worked beautifully pretty much every time. My two pieces of advice are these: 1. Know your starter. Make sure you know that your starter is in the active phase. If it is not active this recipe will be dense, and you will have to use it for croutons. 2. Be patient. This recipe needs to sit around all day. It is great to do on a day when you will be around the house for a while. Learn how to incorporate it into your daily rythms. Don't try to rush it or take shortcuts. It won't work. Also, if you have a big family like mine, and you want to make two loaves at once, make two separate recipes in two bowls. Doubling this recipe was not successful for me, the dough is too massive and heavy and does not rise properly.

Sourdough Country Loaf

Ingredients:

200g sourdough starter, active
400g water
650g flour
20g salt

Directions:

1. Using a scale and medium sized mixing bowl, incorporate all ingredients using your hands. The dough will be sticky, that's OK. Cover the bowl with a damp towel for 4 hours stretching and folding 4-5 times.

2. The stretch and fold technique: Grab one side of the dough and stretch a small handful up about 6 inches then fold into the middle. Give the bowl a quarter turn and continue that motion three more times until all sides have been folded into the middle. Repeat this 4-5 times over the 4 hour resting period.

3. Shaping your loaf: After 4 hours your dough should be smooth and springy. Shape your loaf and turn it into a banatin or bowl with a well floured towel to rest for 45 minutes. While your loaf is resting heat your oven to 450 degrees and place a covered dutch oven in to preheat. For more information on how to shape a country loaf please see HERE

4. After your loaf has rested and the dutch oven preheated, turn your loaf out onto a piece of parchment. Score the breat to allow for a good rise. Place the loaf and parchment carefully into the dutch oven and bake: 35 minutes with the top on, and 16 minutes with the top off. Ramove from the oven and cool for at least ten minutes before cutting.

Sourdough Cobbler

COVID season has given us more time. Some of that time I have given to re-visiting my sourdough starter. Last year I attempted a starter, and somehow I managed to let it turn into something that smelled like diaper. Thankfully, this time was a bit more successful. We have created so many excellent recipes with our starter. I am also obsessed with not throwing any away, so I have some great sourdough discard recipes as well that I am going to add soon.

This one was an amazing surprise. It was born out of necessity. I had a lot of starter that needed to be used, and it was too hot to make bread. Plus, I had some fruit that had ripened quickly and needed to be eaten. This recipe gets four points for awesome...1. it uses brown sugar with the fruit, this was excellent. 2. The butter is cut into the butter like a biscuit mix, so the crust is light and fluffy. 3. There is a butter and sugar topping that provides a bit of sweetness and a crispy top. It went over really well in our house.

Sourdough Cobbler

Ingredients:

filling:

• 2 1/2 lbs of fruit
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar 
• 1 tsp cinnamon 

dough:

• 3/4 cup of flour 
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 6 tbsp butter
• 1 cup sourdough starter 

topping:

• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 3 tsp sugar

Directions:

1. Cut up your fruit and mix with the brown sugar and cinnamon. Set aside while you create the dough.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium mixing bowl. Using a pastry blender, blend in the butter until it is in pea sized pieces, then mix in the sourdough starter.

3. Spoon the fruit evenly over the bottom of a 10 cup baking dish, then cover the fruit with the prepared cobbler dough.

4. Melt the 2 tablespoons of butter, and combine with 3 tablespoons of sugar. Brush or drizzle the topping over the cobbler dough.

5. Bake at 375 degrees for 40-50 minutes or until the fruit is bubbling and the cobbler crust is lightly browned. 

Quarantine Recipe #5: Churros

As we explored Mexico this week we absolutely had to make Churros. I have never made churros before, and it was super fun! They turned out great, and disappeared fast!

Churros

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter cut into pieces
1 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
dash of salt
1 cup flour
1 egg

coating:
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan heat the butter, water, sugar and salt. Bring them to a boil. Add the flour, reduce the temperature to low and stir until just combined. Set aside in the bowl of a mixer to cool for 5 minutes.

2. When the dough has cooled beat in the egg. Be careful to make sure the dough has cooled enough, if it is too hot the eggs can scramble and cook.

3. Heat oil to fry the churros in a medium pot. When the oil reached 350 degrees it is ready. Move the dough into a pastry bag fitted with an extra large star tip.  Pipe 4 inch sections of dough into the hot oil. Cook the churros 4 minutes.

Remove cooked churros to a paper towel and allow to cool for 30 seconds. Roll the churros in the cinnamon and sugar topping and enjoy! You can enjoy your churros straight up or dip them in chocolate sauce.

Quarantine Recipe #4: Mole Sauce

This spring break we cant actually go anywhere, so we have decided to take a virtual world tour. The boys chose a country from each continent, then we learn about that country, listen to their music and make a recipe. Today was Mexico! Joseph made tostadas huevos for breakfast which were amazing. Then we decided to try Mole enchaladas for dinner. The mole sauce turned out amazing and I wanted to make sure I put it in the blog for later use. I hope you try it and enjoy it too.

Mole Sauce

Ingredients:
1 - 14 oz. can of tomatoes
3 oz. Chilis
5 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 garlic cloves
1 small onion
2 teaspoons cumin
1 cup cilantro
2 Saizon packets 
Dash of Salt & Pepper

Directions:

1. Combine all the ingredients in a blender or food processor. Process on high until smooth. 

2. You can warm the sauce in a pan or pour it on enchaladas before you bake them.

Quarantine Recipe #3: Tim's Marvelous Waffles

Today is the first official day of spring break 2020. It's snowing, and we have been home for 5 weeks, but it is the beginning of a week without the schedule of school-at-home, and that is exciting. So in attempts to brighten the morning we decided to make waffles. There were a few considerations, I did not have any boxed mix to work with, and I only had two eggs I could use to make 5 waffles. We turned to the internet and found one that would work. Timmy took charge, tweaked the recipe to his liking, and we came away with the most fluffy, spectacular waffle recipe we have ever eaten. We warmed up some frozen berries to go on the waffles, but you can use whatever toppings you are feeling: yogurt, syrup, ice cream etc.. Here it is...Tim's Marvelous Waffles!

Tim's Marvelous Waffles

Ingredients:

2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 3/4 cup of milk or almond milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Whip up the eggs with a whisk until fluffy. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine.

2. Let the batter rest while you heat up your waffle iron. Grease your waffle iron using either non-stick cooking spray or an oiled paper towel. When the iron is hot, place mix in the iron and cook until golden brown. We have a 6" waffle maker and ours took about 1/3 a cup of waffle mix.

Quarantine Recipe #2: Lemon & Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Oh friends! This one is probably one of my favorite cookies ever! They are sweet, buttery, crumbly, tart and have a lavender floral note. Perfect with a cup of tea, and bonus...when you bake them it makes your house smell amazing. (which is very helpful when you have three boys and a dog on quarantine)

Note: There is a lot of lavender in this recipe. I love it that way, but Keith, who is not a huge lavender fan noted that he could do with a few less flowers in his cookies. So if you love flowers in your food carry on. If you just like a small reminder that you are eating flowers, reduce the dried lavender flowers to your liking.

Lemon & Levender Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

14 tablespoons of butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons lemon juice (or the juice of one lemon)

2 tablespoons lemon zest

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup corn starch

1/4 cup dried lavender flowers

pinch of coarse salt

Directions:

1. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the egg yolk, lemon juice and lemon zest.

2. Slowly add the flour, corn starch lavender and salt. Mix until dough comes together.

3. Cut a large piece of parchment paper. Turn the dough out onto the paper and form into a long log about two inches wide and an inch thick. Wrap the log tightly with the parchment paper and twist the ends to seal. Place the parchment wrapped dough log in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, and up to a week.

4. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Remove the gough log from the freezer. Slice the dough into 1/4 inch rounds. Place sliced cookies on a parchment lined baking tray. For a traditional look you can pierce each cookie with a fork to create a line of holes in the middle. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Check the cookies at 25 minutes. You want to take the cookies out when they are just beginning to get golden on the edges. Remove to cool on a cookie rack.