This is day 144 of the drought in my part of the country. The weatherman assured local viewers this morning that remnants of Hurricane Isaac would definitely bring us some much needed rain. We did get less than a tenth of an inch of rain this morning here at Patchwork Acres, but nothing since. The sun has popped out occasionally, but not for long.
I didn't go one of my farmers markets to sell soaps today because of the rain prediction; plus, I had sourdough bread rising and needed to get it in the oven past the time I should have been on the road. When we woke up this morning, it was so sticky, humid due to the tropical air moving into our area. I was going to wrap soaps for a custom order, but the soaps are too damp from the humidity. I decided it was too uncomfortable to make soap, as well. It's not so humid now and there is a nice breeze blowing, so it's bearable here in the house. We turned off the A/C several weeks ago when it cooled down a bit and the humidity dropped. I don't plan to turn it back on until next year, if possible. I like having the windows open to smell the fresh air. Plus, it saves on our electric bill if the air conditioner isn't running.
Because of the drought, my garden---which started out with so much promise---is rather sad looking right now. I have gotten enough tomatoes to can a few and have some to eat. Both the sweet and hot peppers aren't producing like normal and they are smaller than they should be. The habanaros haven't set any fruit at all yet. Some of my vegetables didn't even germinate. I have been watering as needed so everything doesn't completely die, but even so, rainwater would be much better for the plants. My plan is to do some cleaning (weeds still grow in a drought!) in my garden next week and start my Fall garden even though I'll have to water....unless we get that rain that's been predicted. I want to plant lettuce, spinach, squash, peas, and green beans.
Even though it's been so hot and dry, our goats are still producing a lot of milk, enough for my family and several customers. I made mozzarella cheese a week or so ago, and we quickly ate it. I like to make it and put it in the freezer for when I make home-made pizza. Anyway, our buck was checking out one of the does yesterday. And depending on when he does "his job", we could be expecting baby goats near the end of January or first part of February.
So I've had a bit of a lazy day, hoping for the rain to come, knitting with a new yarn, checking email and Facebook, and baking my sourdough bread. The computer control on my oven went out a while back, so I wasn't able to bake for a few months; but my husband installed a new one. The oven now bakes a little hotter than it did before, so my sourdough bread is a bit darker than I would usually bake it because I forgot to set the timer for a few less minutes than the recipe called for. I am sampling it right now and it still tastes good.
I mentioned that I was knitting today. I have a new yarn from Knit Picks called Chroma. I bought the fingering weight yarn in the color, "Prism." I love how the colors subtly change from one to another. I'm knitting myself a pair of socks with this yarn. I didn't pay attention when I bought it and didn't know until I started knitting that the yarn was a single ply, rather than a 2 or 3 ply sock yarn. But that's okay; it's knitting up just fine. I'm halfway finished with the first sock----working on the gusset, then on to the foot and toe.
First Friday is coming up next week at the art studio where I am a member. First Fridays are always fun. I get to see the other artists in our studio, plus the other studios in our building, and get to see all the folks who stop by the look at the artwork.
Well, it's time to get started on supper tonight. We are eating leftovers of one of my favorite dishes to make. It's called Chalupa Grande and it's basically pork cooked with pinto beans, spices, onions, garlic, onion, and green chilies. It can be served on rice or in a flour tortilla with cheese, salsa, and/or hot sauce made by one of our market vendors.
Maybe I won't take so long between posts. That's always been hard for me to do with our dial up internet, but broadband is supposed to be here soon!!! Until next time.
Showing posts with label sourdough bread recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sourdough bread recipe. Show all posts
Friday, August 31, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Monday - In the Kitchen with Sourdough
It's 9:32 a.m. as I sit down here at my computer. I have several sourdough "projects" in the works. After getting hubby and son off to work and school, and doing my outside morning chores, I spent some time in the kitchen with my sourdough. First of all, last night I mixed up some sourdough, water, and flour for bread and let set overnight. Then this morning I added more flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda; kneaded it, and now it is sitting another 2 - 4 hours. Later I will punch it down, form 2 long French bread-style loaves, and let it rise again before baking it. This bread is soft and tastes heavenly!!!! It's delicious fresh or toasted with butter and home-made jam or turned into French toast in a few more days....if it lasts that long. Makes great sandwich bread, too.
Hubby helped me butcher a rooster over the weekend. I put him in the slow cooker with water to cook this morning. After lunch I'll take the meat off of the bones and will make chicken enchiladas for supper tonight. Will probably let the bones and water continuing cooking for another few days to chicken broth. I also have brown rice soaking that I will cook for supper, too.
That brings me to the next sourdough item in the kitchen today.....sourdough tortillas. I used to buy tortillas in the store; but they have a bitter after-taste. I prefer to make as many foods as I can myself and thus avoid the pre-packaged, preservative-laden foods; and I know that anything I make myself will taste as good or better and will be healthier for me and my family. My sister gave me a Mexican cookbook one year and I always used the flour tortilla recipe in there. Tortillas are so easy to make. However, I recently found a sourdough tortilla recipe, so I'm making it for the first time today. These will be used in the chicken enchiladas for supper tonight.
And lastly, I "fed" my sourdough starter and it's bubbling away. There are three ways to start a sourdough starter: mix up flour, commercial yeast, and warm water; or mix up flour and water and "catch" your own yeast; or find someone to share some of their starter with you and all you have to do is feed and start using it. When you feed your starter, you can add as little flour and water or as much as you choose. All depends on how much baking you will be doing with the sourdough. Feel free to use white flour, whole wheat flour, or rye flour to feed your starter. The whole wheat and rye flour will produce a more "vigorous" and bubbly starter.
If you do an internet search on sourdough, you'll find lots of information on the health benefits of sourdough. It's how our ancestors made their breads before there was commercial yeast. Sourdough breads also have a longer shelf life than breads made with commercial yeast. There are lots of sourdough recipes. Besides breads, sourdough can be used to make dinner rolls, sticky buns, cakes, muffins, biscuits, cookie bars, pretzels, pizza crusts. I like making sourdough foods for all of these reasons.
A few folks have asked for my sourdough bread recipe and here it is. It doesn't use commercial yeast to help with the rising, just the sourdough.
SOURDOUGH BREAD
1 cup sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups warm water
5 1/2 to 6 1/2 cups flour (I'm using bread flour this time. Will have to try whole wheat next time.)
1 T salt
1 T sugar (optional - I used it)
1 tsp baking soda
cornmeal to sprinkle on baking sheet
boiling water for oven
Put starter in a bowl; add warm water and 3 cups flour. Mix together well. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let it set for at least 2 hours, or can sit for as long as 24 hours.
When you're ready to continue, add salt, sugar, and 2 more cups of flour to the sourdough "sponge" and mix it until it's holding together. Use more flour as needed, and knead the dough for 3 or 4 minutes. Grease your bowl, knead dough another 3 or 4 minutes; then put dough into greased bowl. Cover and let it expand 2 - 4 hours.
After that time punch the dough down. Shape it into 2 French-style loaves and put the loaves on cornmeal-sprinked baking sheets. Let bread rise another 2 hours or so.
When it's time, pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F. Place a baking pan on the lowest rack in the oven. Place the other oven rack above it. Just before placing bread in oven, make diagonals slashes across the tops, about 1/4 inch deep. Brush bread with cold water. Put 2 - 3 cups hot water in bottom pan in the oven. Place bread on rack above water and bake about 25 minutes.
The bread crust will be hard when you take the bread out of the oven, but after cooling about 5 minutes, it will be soft and chewy. If you prefer a crispy crust, turn oven off, but leave bread in oven for 5 minutes.
If you want a darker crust, you can brush an egg wash on the bread and you can sprinkle seeds of your choice on your bread.
Hubby helped me butcher a rooster over the weekend. I put him in the slow cooker with water to cook this morning. After lunch I'll take the meat off of the bones and will make chicken enchiladas for supper tonight. Will probably let the bones and water continuing cooking for another few days to chicken broth. I also have brown rice soaking that I will cook for supper, too.
That brings me to the next sourdough item in the kitchen today.....sourdough tortillas. I used to buy tortillas in the store; but they have a bitter after-taste. I prefer to make as many foods as I can myself and thus avoid the pre-packaged, preservative-laden foods; and I know that anything I make myself will taste as good or better and will be healthier for me and my family. My sister gave me a Mexican cookbook one year and I always used the flour tortilla recipe in there. Tortillas are so easy to make. However, I recently found a sourdough tortilla recipe, so I'm making it for the first time today. These will be used in the chicken enchiladas for supper tonight.
And lastly, I "fed" my sourdough starter and it's bubbling away. There are three ways to start a sourdough starter: mix up flour, commercial yeast, and warm water; or mix up flour and water and "catch" your own yeast; or find someone to share some of their starter with you and all you have to do is feed and start using it. When you feed your starter, you can add as little flour and water or as much as you choose. All depends on how much baking you will be doing with the sourdough. Feel free to use white flour, whole wheat flour, or rye flour to feed your starter. The whole wheat and rye flour will produce a more "vigorous" and bubbly starter.
If you do an internet search on sourdough, you'll find lots of information on the health benefits of sourdough. It's how our ancestors made their breads before there was commercial yeast. Sourdough breads also have a longer shelf life than breads made with commercial yeast. There are lots of sourdough recipes. Besides breads, sourdough can be used to make dinner rolls, sticky buns, cakes, muffins, biscuits, cookie bars, pretzels, pizza crusts. I like making sourdough foods for all of these reasons.
A few folks have asked for my sourdough bread recipe and here it is. It doesn't use commercial yeast to help with the rising, just the sourdough.
SOURDOUGH BREAD
1 cup sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups warm water
5 1/2 to 6 1/2 cups flour (I'm using bread flour this time. Will have to try whole wheat next time.)
1 T salt
1 T sugar (optional - I used it)
1 tsp baking soda
cornmeal to sprinkle on baking sheet
boiling water for oven
Put starter in a bowl; add warm water and 3 cups flour. Mix together well. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let it set for at least 2 hours, or can sit for as long as 24 hours.
When you're ready to continue, add salt, sugar, and 2 more cups of flour to the sourdough "sponge" and mix it until it's holding together. Use more flour as needed, and knead the dough for 3 or 4 minutes. Grease your bowl, knead dough another 3 or 4 minutes; then put dough into greased bowl. Cover and let it expand 2 - 4 hours.
After that time punch the dough down. Shape it into 2 French-style loaves and put the loaves on cornmeal-sprinked baking sheets. Let bread rise another 2 hours or so.
When it's time, pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F. Place a baking pan on the lowest rack in the oven. Place the other oven rack above it. Just before placing bread in oven, make diagonals slashes across the tops, about 1/4 inch deep. Brush bread with cold water. Put 2 - 3 cups hot water in bottom pan in the oven. Place bread on rack above water and bake about 25 minutes.
The bread crust will be hard when you take the bread out of the oven, but after cooling about 5 minutes, it will be soft and chewy. If you prefer a crispy crust, turn oven off, but leave bread in oven for 5 minutes.
If you want a darker crust, you can brush an egg wash on the bread and you can sprinkle seeds of your choice on your bread.
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