Sourdough Discard Crackers

 Managing the lifecycle of sourdough is something I am working on understanding. I am trying to master a feeding and fermenting cycle that doesn't waste anything. I think my favorite discard recipe is this cracker recipe. The last time I used sourdough, when we were all home during the pandemic. I would feed my starter in the morning when the boys had just started virtual school, and pop these discard crackers in the oven. Fourty minutes later we would have a tray of fresh, crispy crackers in the kitchen. I have never had to store these crackers. With three boys, the batch always gets eaten off the tray before the end of the day. (this is also why I don't have any photos of my crackers)

On lieu of crackers, let's remember virtual school. 😬

Below, I have included the original recipe, and two others that I have used successfully. You can add whatever seasoning you have on hand, or that your family likes. We are huge fans of everything bagel seasoning, and 90% of the time, that is what goes on our crackers. 

This recipe uses 1 cup of discard. I don't always have a full cup of discard when I feed my starter. If that is the case, I put the discard in a container and store it in the refrigerator until I accumulate enough.

Sourdough Discard Crackers

Ingredients:

1 cup discard

2 tbsp of melted butter or oil

salt to taste

chosen seasoning

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix one cup of discard with your melted butter and salt. 

2. Spread your mix thinly on a parchment-lined baking sheet. The thinner the mix, the crispier the crackers. Sprinkle any seasoning on top of your crackers. Everything bagel works great, smoked flake salt or elote are good too.

3. Bake your crackers in a preheated oven for 10 minutes. After 10 mniutes, remove the pan and using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut the crackers into your desired shape and size. 

4. Return the crackers to the oven for 20-30 minutes (depending on the thickness of your dough) until the crackers are crispy and slightly browning on the edges. 

Variations:

Flax & Nutritional Yeast: Add 1 tbsp of flax meal and 1 tbsp of nutritional yeast to the batter with the oil and salt. These crackers are a little more hearty and have a great nutty and savory flavor.

Cheese: Add 1/3 cup of finely shredded cheese to the batter with the oil and salt. Be sure to spread these really thin. The cheese can make the dough thicker, and then they don't really crips up well.

Sourdough (discard) Cranberry Muffins

 It's January 2025! With the beginning of the new year it is a great time for reflection, to look back at the previous year and dream forward. A time to collect what worked, and release things that didn't serve. Every year our family has a New Year's Eve ritual of an Ebaneezer (collection of stones of remberance). We take time during the day to reflect on the year individually and we pick up rocks to remember and share things we want to celebrate or acknowledge. When we are in New England, we go to a beach and gather the smooth soft beach stones. This year our stones were sparkling and rough South Carolina mountain stones. We had the privelage to share our ritual with our extended South Carolina family. It is a refreshing and beautiful time to remember and hear from each other. It also makes room in my heart for a new year, a new start and a kind of reset. 

2024's Ebaneezer

This year, I decided to incorporate some creative and accessable activities for myself. 2024 was hard. The word that describes 2024 is "reorient." Living with chronic hip pain completely upended my life. All my normal routines were changed, my responsibilities in my family changed, most of the hobbies and activities that brought me joy were inaccessable. BUT, in the midst of the frustrations of the reorienting process, I got to see my husband blossom as a top-notch chef and avid gardner. My kids grew up into young adults testing out more independence and responsibility. My time with my boys was much more precious, and with no responsibilities, I have had some fantastic conversations with them and learned so much more about who they are, and what they love. I read a LOT of books in 2024, and played a lot of games on my phone...but it got a little boring. 

In 2025, I am adding some creative activities that I can do with minimal pain but that will bring me joy and scratch my creative itch that cooking, gardening, canning etc... used to satisfy. So I fed the sourdough starter Joe brought home from the restaurant. I discovered that sourdough is just the right pace for me. I feed it, I leave it...we both rest. I do something else...we both rest again. And then, a while later, I put it in the oven...wait and rest, and then there is something beautiful and delicious to enjoy and share. There will be quite a few sourdough recipes on the blog soon...look out!

Sourdough Cranberry Muffins is a recipe I like because it uses sourdough discard, (I hate throwing things away) and it incorporated the cranberries which were the only produce to make it in the refrigerator while we were gone over the holidays. I like how the cranberries are prepped in the microwave with brown sugar before they go into the muffins. You can do this step ahead of time and keep the cranberries in the refrigerator until you are ready.

Sourdough (discard) Cranberry Muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups cranberries

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup sourdough discard

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup buttermilk*

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Zest of one orange (or lemon)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 cups flour

Sanding sugar or raw sugar for the tops

Directions:

1. In a small, microwave safe bowl, mix your cranberries and brown sugar. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes. Give the cranberries a stir, they should be softening, bursting and releasing their juices. Set them aside to cool. While they cool, the sugar will soften and break them down more.

2. Using a mixer, cream together the butter and granulated sugar. When they are light and fluffy add the 2 eggs, one at a time until incorporated. Scrape your bowl down, and add the discard and vanilla. 

3. In a small bowl combine: baking soda, baking powder, salt, zest, cinnamon and flour. 

4. Starting and ending with your dry mixture, alternately add the dry mixture and buttermilk. Mix only until just combined. 

5. Fold in the cranberries and let it ferment. You should let the batter sit for at least an hour, but it works best if you can leave it overnight. If you live where it is very warm,  overnight the dough covered in the refrigerator. Here in Boston, I just left mine out on the counter. 

6. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and line a 12 count muffin tin. Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffins and sprinkle with sanding sugar. 

7. Place the muffins in the preheated oven, then reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and bake for 20-25 minutes.

*You can buy buttermilk from the store, but you can also use any kind milk and add a tablespoon of vinegar, then let it sit for about 5 minutes.

The last sunset of 2024. I took a tiny walk. Next year I hope I can take a nice long hike.

Lebkuchen: German Christmas Cookies

 

The 2024 Riddle/Rice Christmas gathering

Christmas for us is all about being together with family. That usually translates into a lot of games and eating and laughter. As our family grows, we add more people and more traditions get added to the never-ending treat buffet that the kitchen counter becomes at Christmas time. One of the best additions to our family, (in my opinion) has been my sister-in-love Heike. Heike makes sure that we always have some German treats at Christmas. Her favorite German Christmas treat is Lebkuchen. Usually, we buy an obscene amount of Lebkuchen when they come out in Aldi or Lidl in December, so there are always a few bags around for the holidays. This year, we all dropped the ball. Hoping for a Christmas miracle, Heike and I headed over to Lidl after Christmas-Eve service (I know...super late) and were distressed to find that they only had two sad little packages of Lebkuchen that looked like they had been sat upon. Emergency!

Christmas family game time and puppy snuggling

 I came across this recipe a while ago, and thought it would be fun to try making my own Lebkuchen at some point. This year, it was a matter of necessity! I pulled together the ingredients and tried Lebkuchen at home...and we will NEVER go back. The homemade Lebkuchen were delicious and I am excited to try them again.

Everyone got elf ears from Uncle David 😄

For the uniniciated: Lebkuchen is a spiced German Christmas cookie, traditionally covered in icing or chocolate. The dough is very soft and includes almond meal, warm spices and sharp lemon and orange rind. The dough needs to sit for a while, so it is a recipe you can make at the beginning of the day, forget and come back to later. The other unique thing about Lebkuchen is that they taste better the longer they age. They should be stored in a closed container, I have seen it suggested that you place an orange peel in the container to enhance flavor. I don't know too much about that...the cookies did not last more than 5 days here. BUT, the last cookie we at last night (5 days later) was way tastier than the first day, and those were pretty tasty by themselves. We may try another batch  and try to keep them longer to see how it goes. My brother-in-law, Doug said that he heard that Lebkuchen taste the best after they are aged for 6 months!! I am willing to give that experiment a go...for the sake of Science of course.

My little elf-helper

A few tips:

-the dough is VERY soft. It should be rolled out in small batches on flour-dusted parchment. I found that pushing together the floury scraps from my first roll-out with another scoop of fresh dough helped keep it from sticking, and helped keep the dough from getting over-floured in the roll-out process. It is also helpful to have a little pile of flour on your work surface to dust your cookie cutters between cuts to avoid sticking.

-Don't roll it too thin. Lebkuchen should be about an inch thick. They are not going to spread on the pan, but if you roll them too thin, you will loose the traditional moist cake texture you are looking for.

-Be patient and don't rush. This recipe takes time, and takes breaks. Embrace it! Take some rest with your dough. Play a game with your family while your icing cools on your cookies. Let the process remind you to slow down a bit during this busy season and find joy in some restful moments.

-Dairy free substitutions work well with this recipe. We tried vegan sour cream in place of the butter. 

Glazing the Lebkuchen

Lebkuchen

Cookie Ingredients:

1/2 cup honey

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

1 egg

1 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp orange zest

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 3/4 cup flour

1 cup ground almonds

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Glaze Ingredients:

1 cup icing sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp vanilla extract or rum

Directions:

1. In a mixer, combine honey dark brown sugar, and butter until well combined. Add egg, zest, spices, baking powder, baking soda and vanilla. When ingredients are well combined, mix in the flour and almonds. When the ingredients are well combined, cover the dough with a tea towel and let it rest in the bowl for at least an hour and up to overnight.  *rest time*

2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your cookie sheets with parchment or silicone mats. 

3. Roll out and cut the cookies: start with about a third of the dough. The dough will be very sticky. It is helpful to use floured parchemnt to avoid sticking. Roll the dough to about 1-inch thickness. Cut with a well-foured cookie cutter and move the cut dough to the prepared sheet. Round-ish shapes work best: heart, star, bell etc... Cookies can be placed about an inch apart, they will not spread much when baked.

4. Bake 12 minutes

5. While cookies bake, make your glaze. Whisk together the sugar, lemon juice and vanilla or rum. 

6. Remove the cookies from the oven. Allow them to cool for about 5 minutes, then glaze them while they are still warm. You can decorate with sliced almonds or colored sugar while the glaze is still wet. Allow the glaze to dry and enjoy. If you like more glaze you can glaze them twice.

7. Store dried cookies in a sealed container or tin. Store with an orage peel to enhance flavor. Cookies can be stored for quite a long time and apparently they get better with age. It does seem like Lebkuchen have a lot to teach us.

Fig Custard Cake

 

Two years ago I ordered two fig trees from Baker Creek. They came as little sticks in dirt. I was not sure if they would grow here in Boston. As an experiment, I planted one in the yard and one in the greenhouse. Both have grown huge, and year 3....WE HAVE FIGS! They are so tasty! We inevitably end up eating the first few right off the tree because we are greedy. They are fantastic with some goat cheese. But the thing with figs is that you really need to eat them right away if you want to experience the magic, and once you pick them they need to be used. So on days when there are a lot of figs that ripen all at once we bake fun things.

This is our second crop of figs of 2024 coming in...I am waiting so patiently!!

This cake is made in a springform pan. It is a moist, dense cake punctuated by bursts of fig. We liked it a lot.

Yard garden haul for the day: figs for the cake, jalapenos, banana peppers, black cherry tomatoes and a chrysanthemum melon

Fig Custard Cake

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons melted butter, cooled

1 cup flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 large eggs

1 egg yolk

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/4 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons dark rum

2 teaspoons vanilla

8 figs, halved

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8-inch springform pan.

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. 

3. With a mixer, whip the eggs and sugar until they are light and frothy. With the mixer on low, combine the sour cream, butter, rum and vanilla until completely incorporated. Add the flour mixture a few tablespoons at a time with mixer on low until just incorporated. Do not over-mix.

4. Add the batter to the prepared pan and chill in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. 

5. Arrange the fig halves on top of the chilled batter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake 55-60 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

6. Cool for 10 minutes then remove from the pan and finish cooling on a cooling rack. 

Sweet & Spicy Zucchini Relish

 I kept the name of this recipe because most people will be familiar with zucchini as the main ingredient. We didn't grow traditional zucchini this year or use it in this relish, we grew trombonchino!! 

Meet trombonchino!

Trombonchino is an Italian zuchini variety that grows a super long seedless fruit with a smaller bulbus end that contains seeds. I love this variety. It grows prolificly on our garden trellises all summer and into the fall. I find it is heartier and less prone to diseases than the traditional zucchini. It is all the best parts of the zucchini without the tendancy to get hard skin and hard seeds in a day if you forget to pick it. If you leave them on the vine for a very long time, they can get brown skinned and hard like a butternut squash, but that takes a lot more waiting than we can handle. Like I already said, it is super prolific so we have come up with a TON of ways to prepare it. We love it grilled, it does great in veggie lasagna, sauces, stir fries, and bakes. Basically, any way that you would use zucchini, you can use trombonchino. That being said, it makes a great sweet and spicy relish. You can use zucchini...if you want, but a trombonchino is pretty much always better.

Sweet & Spicy Trombonchino Relish

Ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds trombonchino squash

3 purple onions

2 yellow bell pepper

1 red bell pepper

3 jalapeno peppers

3 tbsp salt

6 cups apple cider vinegar

3 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ground mustard

1 sachets of pickling spice (1-2 tablespoons)

Directions:

1. Using a food processor or grater finely chop the zucchini, onions, and peppers. Mix them together in a larg bowl and toss with 3 tablsepoons of salt. Let the veggie mixture sit while you prepare the brine. 

2. In a large, heavy bottomed stock pot, combine the vinegar, sugar and spices. For the pickling spice, you want the falvor, but you don't want the seeds and bay leaf pieces in your relish. You can use a sachet bag, or a tea strainer to infuse the flavors. I have a mana-tea, which floated hapily in the brine to infuse our relish. 😄

3. Bring the brine to a boil, then add the veggies. Bring the whole mixture back up to a boil, then reduce and simmer for 45 minutes to cook the veggies. After 45 minutes, check the consistency. Continue to reduce until the relish has the solid/liquid ratio that you desire. 

One big quart for the refrigerator and a small jar that wasn't quite full. the small jar was eaten on the firsd day. 

4. At this point you can put your relish into cans and put them in the refrigerator to make refrigerator relish, or you can hot water process them. This relish processes for 15 minutes.  For more information on hot water bath canning check HERE. The recipe makes about 20 cups of relish.

Tofu Gnocchi

 

Recently we have been experimenting with adding more non-meat protien to our diet. I saw this recipe for tofu gnocchi, which uses tofu, chickpea flour & nutritional yeast, all great sources of protien, and thought we would try it. My expectations were low. I love gnocchi and I doubted that this recipe could replicate the texture of the original potato gnocchi. So I was SUPER surprised when these tofu gnocchi turned out fantastic!! The texture is spot on. They are tasty, and easier to make than boiling and ricing potatoes like the traditional version. (plus, way more protien)

We used the tofu gnocchi in a veggie pesto sauce with ricotta, and broied it to brown the ricotta. (also a great source of non-meat protien) You could use any of your favorite pasta sauces. The recipe makes a lot of gnocchi! We used about 2/3 of the recipe and froze the rest for later. Just a note...frozen gnocchi can be put directly into the pot of boiling water and cooked as normal.

This recipe was tried by my budding professional chef. Keep an eye out...you may see this recipe on the menu of a local restaurant soon!

Tofu Gnocchi

Ingredients:

330 gr firm tofu

170 gr chickpea flour

3 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tbsp olive oil

pinch of salt

Directions:

1. In a blender or food processor fitted with the blade attachement, process the tofu until it forms a smooth paste. 

3. In a medium bowl, combine the tofu paste, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, olive oil and salt. Start incorporating  with a fork. When the dough is coming together, turn the dough out onto a floured surface andknead  gently until the dough comes together and is smooth.

4. Shape your gnocchi. Shaping gnicchi isn't hard, it just takes practice. It really helps to have someone show you and explain it step by step. Please check out this VIDEO with all the info you need.

5. While you are shaping your dough, bring a large stockpot of water to boil. Also, have your sauce prepared before you start cooking your gnocchi. You will want to put the cooked gnocchi directly into the pan of sauce. Cooked gnocchi will stick together into a large gluey mess if they don't go directly into a sauce. 

6. Cook your gnocchi. When your dough is shaped, and your water is boiling and your sauce is ready, gently drop a handful of gnocchi into biling water. You will know the gnocchi are cooked when they rise up to the surface. This usually only takes about 1 minute. Using a slotted spoon, remove cooked, floating gnocchi and place them in the awaiting sauce. Cook whatever gnocchi you need and freeze the rest. Enjoy!

Stuffed Mogogo Squash

 This year we grew something new...Mogogo squash!! Mogogo is a Guatamalan zucchini variety. It is best picked when it is the size of a softball. Similar to zucchini, mogogos have thin outer flesh when they are small, but get harder and have larger seeds the longer they stay on the vine. Mogogos are sweeter than zucchini and have a creamier texture. We love them grilled. We had a couple that got too big while we were away on vacation, so we stuffed them. Stuffing is always a good idea when squash get too big, you scoop out all the hard seeds, and the long cooking process softens the harder flesh and skin. Just like making soup, stuffed veggies can be a vehicle for eating pretty much anything you have in your kitchen. Below is a recipe that reflects what was in our kitchen, but you can taylor the method to the ingredients at your disposal.

One of our first mogogo squash (just the right size)

Stuffed Mogogo Squash

Ingredients:

2 Large mogogo squash

1lb ground turkey

1 cup rice cooked

1 lb spinach

2 tomatoes chopped

1 onion chopped

1 bell pepper chopped

3 garlic cloves chopped

2 tablespoons fresh oregono

1 small chili pepper diced

1 egg

Salt & Pepper

Olive oil

1 cup shredded mozzarella

Directions:

1. Cut the stem tops off of your squash and scoop out the seeds and soft flesh then put the prepared squash in a baking pan. Season the empty squash with salt & pepper. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, combine ground turkey, rice, spinach tomatoes, onion, pepper garlic oregono, chili & egg. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Stuff the two squash with the filling, drizzle with olive oil, cover with foil and put it in the oven. Bake for 60-70 minutes. After 60-70 minutes, check that the squash is thoroughly cooked by piercing it with a sharp knife. If it goes in like butter, your squash is done. 

4. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and return to the oven uncovered for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.