muffins-- finally good

2 c. white flour
1 t. soda
1/2 t. salt
3/4 c. sugar

10 T. melted, cooled butter
2 eggs

1 c. yogurt
1 c. beaten-down starter (~1 c. flour, 1/2 c. water)

1 c. filling (berries, nuts, fruit, whatever)


Butter a muffin tin and preheat the oven to 375.
Mix together dry ingredients, beat eggs into butter, stir together. Add yogurt and starter and fold together, then scoop into tin. Bake 25-30 minutes, turning once.

pizza dough

1 full cup beaten-down stiff whole-wheat sourdough starter
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon kosher salt
~1 cup white flour
1 Tablespoon olive oil

Knead everything together for ten minutes, then divide into two (for medium-smallish pizzas, what I think of as homemade standard size). Put them under plastic wrap in the fridge until you're ready to use them; then gently stretch out on a floured board, top, and bake at the highest heat your oven can manage (here, that's 550 degrees F, with a preheated pizza stone on the middle shelf, and it takes about 12-15 minutes per pizza).

bagels

(makes 8 good-size)

The night before, mix together:

1 1/2 c. beaten-down ripe whole-wheat sourdough starter
3/4 c. warm water
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
2 1/2 c. white flour
1 Tablespoon kosher salt

Knead 10 minutes. Divide into 8 even lumps, roll into balls, and rest 5 minutes. Roll into 6-inch straight (untapered) ropes and form rings, moistening one end, overlapping 2 inches, and sealing tightly. Place rings on cornmeal-dusted sheet pan, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.

Next morning, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F, with a baking stone if you have one, taking the bagel dough out of the refrigerator as soon as you start preheating. Boil 4 inches of water in a big saucepan. When the oven is ready, drop the bagels 4 at a time into the boiling water, stir for a minute or so, turning and submerging with a slotted spoon, then bring them out to drain on a wire rack and boil the next 4. Pour a few toppings in saucers or shallow bowls-- sesame, caraway, poppy. Press the boiled bagels top-down into the seeds, which will stick to the damp surface. When all the bagels are out of the water bath and topped as you like, slide them onto the baking stone (or put them on an oiled or parchment-papered pan) and bake at least 15 minutes, until nice and brown.

sticky buns

The night before baking, mix together and knead for a few minutes:

1 cup active sourdough starter
1/2 cup milk
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
2 cups all-purpose flour

Flour lightly and set aside, then mix:

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 Tablespoon kosher salt

Melt 4 Tablespoons butter and spread in a baking pan, then sprinkle half of the sugar mixture over. Soften another 4 Tablespoons of butter.

Roll out the dough into a rectangular sheet about 1/2 inch thick. Spread the softened butter over it, sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture, and roll the dough up into a cylinder. Cut into disks and place them, cut end up, into the prepared baking pan, leaving enough room for them to expand. Cover and set aside to rise overnight.

In the morning, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake for 20 minutes, reduce the heat to 350, and bake for another 15, or until browned and firm. Place a serving tray over the baking sheet and carefully turn the buns out.

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My mother would use about a quarter the sugar and about half the butter, and they'd still come out too sweet for her; they're a little too sweet for me in this recipe.

Sourdough Hearth Loaf- on YouTube

Last week I made a good loaf of sourdough, using the pizza stone that Kate's parents gave me for Christmas. I also video-recorded (most of) the process, and Kate was kind enough to edit the resulting mess into something more or less watchable for the Mad River Valley Localvores.

Mix together:

1/2 cup mixed grain cereal
1/2 cup cold water

Set aside to soak.

Mix together:

2 1/2 cups active whole-wheat sourdough starter
3/4 cup lukewarm water
1 T maple syrup
3 cups white all-purpose flour

Let sit for twenty minutes or so, then mix in

1 Tablespoon kosher salt

Knead for 10-12 minutes, adding an additional

1/4 cup water

Put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover lightly, and let it rise overnight. In the morning, knead in the soaked mixed grains and shape the dough into a round loaf. Flour a cotton towel-- it's fun to use one with a coarse texture that will leave a print on the crust-- and use it to line a medium, shallow basket or bowl. Place the loaf upside-down on the floured towel, cover it lightly (fold the corners over, adding flour if necessary so they won't stick) and leave in a warm place to rise for four or five hours-- I use the oven with the pilot light on.

When the loaf has doubled in volume, take it out of the oven (if that's where it's been rising), put a baking stone on the oven's center rack, and preheat to 500 degrees. Prepare a peel-- a rimless baking sheet, or the bottom side of a cookie sheet-- by sprinkling it thoroughly with cornmeal. When the oven is hot, gently turn the loaf out of the floured towel onto the cornmeal on the peel. Take a razorblade or very sharp knife and score the top of the loaf. With a spray-bottle full of water, open the oven door and spray the walls and floor of the oven to create steam, then quickly slide the scored loaf off of the peel directly onto the preheated bakind stone. The cornmeal should allow the dough to slide easily, all in one piece.

Close the oven door, turn down the heat to 425 degrees, wait 3 minutes and repeat spraying water on the walls and floor of the oven. Close the door, wait another 3 minutes and spray once more. In 45 minutes, check the loaf by tapping the bottom (it should sound hollow). If it's not done give it another ten minutes. When you think it's done, take it out and let it cool, wrapped in a clean cotton towel, on a wire rack.

Sourdough Pancakes

Didn't post this recipe before, I think-- just referenced Sandor Katz, whose recipe it is. But I've eaten enough now that I consider it my recipe too.

This makes enough pancakes for two people (if those people are Kate and me).

Mix together and rest overnight:
1/2 cup sourdough starter
1 cup lukewarm water, or half water, half milk
1 Tablespoon sweetener (syrup? barley malt?)
1 1/4 cups white flour

In the morning, melt
1 Tablespoon butter

and beat in
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a separate bowl, beat the egg white until stiff, mix it into the butter and yolk, and fold everything into the sourdough until just combined. Scoop the batter by quarter-cups into a well-seasoned, hot pan and cook two minutes or so on each side. If you like, sprinkle blueberries into the batter just after pouring it into the pan. Serve hot, with butter and maple syrup.

Better Muffins: "Healthy"

Yesterday's batch came out much better. Kate was guinea pig, and said something like "Well, they taste healthy-- there's not much sugar...." But I thought they were all right: they rose fairly well, came out of the pan easily, and if they weren't very sweet, well, there's always jam. The texture was still a problem-- much more chewy than crumbly-- and the cinnamon needs another boost. I wonder if our cinnamon might be too old. To fix the texture problem next time I'm going to try a little less flour, and make the sourdough mixture less cohesive by thinning it out with beaten eggwhites. They were also small, so I'm boosting everything just a touch.

I think the main problem with the first batch was less the proportions than mixing; I was rushing and didn't follow my own directions. With the second batch I gave myself plenty of time to do all of the labor-intensifying separate mixes that I love so much, the ones that produce piles of extra mixing bowls to wash... yippee! Here are the instructions for next time:

Mix together and let sit overnight:

1 1/4 cup sourdough starter
1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cup milk
4 Tablespoons maple syrup

In the morning, preheat oven to 400, and butter a muffin tin. Cream together:

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar

Thoroughly beat two egg yolks into the butter mixture. Beat the whites separately, until they're nice and fluffy, and fold them into the bubbly sourdough mixture.

Sift together:

2 cups white flour
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt

Mix the flour and the sourdough by turns into the butter mixture, starting and ending with the flour, and adding milk or flour as necessary to produce a sticky, cohesive batter. Scrape into the muffin tin and bake 20-25 minutes, until brown on top.