as in with strawberries! Yes, in spite of the fact that we got three inches of snow this morning, even though most of it is melted by now, it is getting damn near the season of strawberries. And though I can’t find local strawberries here in Kansas for the life of me, I’m moving ahead with some shortcake with strawberries from California (well, Costco). So… get ready!
I found this quick and easy recipe on the web:
INGREDIENTS 2 cups (240 gr) all-purpose flour 1 TBSP (14 gr) baking powder 1 TBSP (14 gr) Cane sugar 1 1/4 tsp kosher salt 1/2 cup (1 stick, 113 grams) Earth Balance Buttery Sticks 3/4 cup-1 cup (175-240 ml) almond milk
Rice the buttery sticks into the combined dry ingredients. Moisten with the almond milk till it holds together. Add a tablespoon of lemon juice for “butter-almond-milk”. Drop into cast iron skillet. Bake in preheated 450° oven for 20 minutes until golden brown.
And here is what that mess (described in an earlier post) turned out to be. I used a pair of inexpensive common scissors to “score” the top. It opens up the top to allow for expansion and is so much easier to do in a cast iron dutch oven.
I ran into some unexpected issues today. The dough was very sticky. I’m not terribly concerned. The loaf has a reasonable heft so I expect it’ll be just fine.
I probably picked the wrong color tablecloth for the display… lots to learn about color, I have…
I know. What a mess. But this is what a preferment looks like. It is the beginning of all successful bread-making projects.
Last night I was a bit restless and finally decided a fresh loaf of something yeasty might be good on a Sunday. Well, any day. And I hadn’t started my preferment. Not really wanting to stir from my comfortable slumber, I had to let that idea sink in for a while before I got up to mix together this combination of flour, water, and yeast. Here it is, roughly seven hours later, as I sip my first cup of coffee. I’m not sure what I’ll be making today. But this will make it better.
Part of the process of maintaining a lively sourdough starter is to feed it, by adding more flour and water to the original culture. This should be done about once a day. Unless you’re making bread every day, before too long, your carefully nurtured bubbly mass will be consuming all available space. What most of us do is discard a sizeable portion before the feeding process. Just dump a cup of it in the trash, and get over it.
Here is another idea. It’s already bubbly. And somewhat acidic. So, if you add a few secret ingredients, you will have a pancake batter!
Today I began with maybe two cups of starter. It was pretty thick. So, I added some water, some almond milk, a couple of tablespoons of EVOO, and maybe another cup of flour until it was pretty much pourable. You know, like pancake batter. Before adding the flour, I mixed in a teaspoon of baking soda, two or three tablespoons of cane sugar, and a teaspoon of salt. In other words, I pretty much recreated a standard pancake recipe with two exceptions: No eggs. And no baking powder.
Somehow or other, the eggs weren’t necessary, probably because the gluten from the sourdough culture had formed sufficient structure to keep things together. Baking powder has an acid added to it causing it to rise. Baking soda requires acid, but there’s enough of that from the sourdough.
I used a nonstick electric griddle to make four at a time, each about 2 1/2 inches in diameter, and ended up with about 16. Served with warm maple syrup and Earth Balance. Four of them are now zip-locked in the freezer for another day.
With the COVID-19 virus still rampant in the US, people are reluctant to leave the house. All the more reason to create your own loaves of bread. This morning I started a batch of no-knead-fold bread using methods espoused by many, but especially following the guidance of Jeffery Hamelman. I’ve been following him for years, and have a number of his books. (Maybe all of them. FYI: New book coming soon). As a matter of full disclosure, he is a friend of my sister’s husband. (But I knew him first – through his books! Ha!)
I started the batch around 0530. I used a KitchenAid mixer to incorporate all the ingredients to reduce the stress on my increasingly arthritic joints. But it could certainly be done by hand. OK. I had the mixer. So, I used it.
I don’t know why more people, even bakers that are trying to explain measurements, don’t use the baker’s percentage method. Yes. It’s math. But not all that difficult. I’ve explained it somewhere else in this blog, but you can find it elsewhere… like on YouTube. Of course.
In my formulation, I used 73% hydration and 2.2% salt. I might go with 2% next time. The amount of yeast I use is so very small, like a dusting. I use the Instant Yeast variety, so often billed as Bread Machine Yeast. I usually just sprinkle a few grain on top of the flour until it looks like dirty snow… It’s not very precise, but it works for me. In my own defense, of all the books I’ve read on how much yeast to use, it varies by orders of magnitude.
So, after a half dozen folds at half-hour increments, more or less, I was ready to divide. Less than an hour later, shape. About two hours later, after a nap, I placed them into a steamed 480° F oven, reduced to 460° after 5 minutes. Baked for 38 minutes.
Great results! (Jeffrey, be gentle… Feedback welcome.)
I found this video to be informative. I can’t attest to its veracity, but it does make some sense. I do know that yeast is getting hard to come by in these covid-19 times. You might think about sourdough as a replacement for your regular bread baking activities., not to mention the great flavor. I’ll be contacting my gluten-free friends to see what they think about digestability.
Jalapeño, (oven roasted sweet) corn bread freshly baked in a well seasoned 10.25″ Lodge cast iron skillet. Moist, delicious, spicy warm, and sweet, with or without NY State Maple syrup. Get it while it’s hot or before I eat the rest. I’ll definitely make this again. Recipe follows.
The basic recipe came off the Quaker Yellow Corn Meal Box (Easy Corn Bread). I added roasted corn kernels (from three ears of corn – I’d go for 4 next time) and Jalapeño peppers and made it vegan (why not?!)
The equivalent of two eggs (Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer)
Three ears of corn roasted (high broil in husk until caramelized) – rotate every 8-10 minutes until husk is well charred- approximately 35 minutes. Husk corn and slice off the kernels when sufficiently cooled.
Three finely diced Jalapeño peppers, adjust to taste; I removed the seeds. For more heat, keep the seeds.Mix dry ingredients together. Separately, mix prepared egg replacer with the oil and almond milk, roasted corn, and Jalapeño peppers. Add the wet and dry ingredients together and mix well. The batter should be like a thick pancake batter. If too wet, add flour and/or corn meal. If too thick, add almond milk. Pour into pan.Bake in greased 10-1/4 inch cast iron pan at 400°F for 27 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and top is beginning to split. Golden brown.Let it rest in pan for about 20 minutes until cast iron isn’t too hot to touch (or until you can’t possibly avoid it any longer!)Serve warm. Add Earth Balance and/or NY State Maple syrup to taste.
Martin Philip, the head baker at King Arthur Flour has released a new book. It has a wonderful combination of stories and recipes (including baker’s percentages!),
