ACarroll Wellness Blog

Honey Oatmeal Sourdough

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oats

2 T coconut oil

1/4 cup honey

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sourdough starter

1 tsp salt

1 cup water

 

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Let rise overnight covered with a damp towel.  In the morning, remove it from the bowl and knead it several times and place in a greased bread pan to rise.  It is ready to bake when the dough is fluffy and has risen above the edge of the pan.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 30-40 minutes.  (I bake mine until the internal temperature is 200 degrees.) 

More Bread!

I have a friend who is having some trouble with her sourdough baking and she asked me if I would show her pictures of all the steps. So, here it is for her and for you, too, if you are a 'visual' person!  I used this recipe with a slight change in flours.  For the below loaf, the flour mixture was 3/4 cup fresh milled soft wheat, 1/2 cup oat flour, and 1 3/4 cup AP. I've labeled the pictures to make it easier.

Wonderful Sourdough Loaf

Today I tried a new sourdough recipe that Elizabeth Hoyt (thanks for letting me share it, Elizabeth!) posted on the Vintage Remedies sourdough facebook page.  It is FABULOUS!  Great texture, not overly sour.  The only strange thing is that it fell a bit during baking- and this is an issue I have with almost every loaf and I have no idea why.

I ate three pieces today. I had to force myself to stop because I didn't want any gastroparesis issues cropping up!

 

The recipe:

1 cup active starter
3 cups flour ( I used half white wheat and half AP)
1 t salt
1 1/2 Tbs honey (I didn't really measure this.....)
2 Tbs melted coconut oil
1 cups water
Method: mix starter thru oil until combined, add water to the consistency of bread dough (amount will vary depending upon hydration of starter, type of flour) Knead in mixer 8-10 minutes, until windowpane is visible. (I just let it knead for 10 minutes, not sure if it was actually at the windowpane stage.....) Let rise in a warm place 5-6 hours, until doubled. (I let it rise overnight - about 12 hours and it was fine). Pat onto countertop, shape into loaf, set in greased loaf pan, and let rise an additional 2-3 hours until doubled again. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes.  (I bake my bread until the internal temperature is just over 200 degrees.) 

I thought my dough was a bit wet actually.  I had used the full cup of water plus another teaspoon or so, but since it turned out so wonderfully, I guess it was okay!!!

I'm looking forward to eating some more tomorrow and baking another loaf in a couple of days!! 

Sourdough Donuts - YUM

This recipe comes from the book The Vintage Remedies Guide to Bread by Jessie Hawkins (you can click the link to the right to order it).  Jessie posted the recipe on her blog.  (Note:  I added the milk at the beginning.  I think she forgot to mention the milk in the instructions).  This recipe needs to be started 24 hours before you want to make the donuts  (I keep hearing that guy say "Time to make the donuts", in my head!).  I do not own a donut cutter (anyone know where I can find one?) so I simply cut them in small squares.  I made beignets instead!  :)  These are VERY good!  I know that my oil was a little too hot and they were cooking too fast and got just a tad bit more brown than they should have been. I will be trying the recipe again with a gluten free flour when my younger son gets home from college.  He's told me  that donuts are the one thing he really misses!

My weekend: Sourdough Pretzels and Apple filling

My boys came home from college for the weekend.  I didn't have any pressing activities, so the weekend was free to do things that we enjoy doing.  I've wanted to try this sourdough pretzel recipe.  This is a very time consuming recipe, but the pretzels turned out very good!  If I ever make them again, I won't bother 'shaping' them into pretzel shapes, as that was the most time consuming! 

Then the boys both helped me make apple pie filling.  I still have quite a few apples from our apple picking trip a couple of weeks ago and need to get them processed (although apples do last a long time refrigerated).  I made a cinnamon simple syrup first:

2 1/2 cups white sugar

2 cups sucanat

10 cups water

1 tsp salt

1 cup tapioca or potato starch (I don't use cornstarch for anything!)

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

3 Tb lemon juice (I used the juice of one lemon)

Put everything except the lemon juice into a large pot and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until thick and bubbly - stir in the lemon juice.    I took my sliced and peeled apples and put them into quart jars and poured the syrup over the apples, leaving about an inch of room in the jar.  Put the lids on and into the freezer!  I had a lot of syrup left over, so I'll probably be making some apple pies and cobblers with the fresh apples still in the fridge.  I guess my husband will just have to suffer!    The next time I make this, I will use all sucanat and skip the white sugar altogether.

 

The weekend ended with me whipping up a quick loaf of gluten-free pumpkin bread for the boys to take back to school with them.  I use this recipe for my gf pumpkin bread and you would never know it was gluten free!

Breakfast

As many of you know, I don't like to 'discard' any sourdough starter.  By keeping my starter in the fridge, I'm able to feed it every other day (or even every three days), but eventually, the jar starts to get full and you need to bake with it!  I'm always looking for recipes that use starter other than bread.  So I tried these sourdough muffins.  The recipe is for blueberry muffins, but I put shredded apple in mine instead.  The recipe comes from this website.

 

 

Ingredients:

1 C “discarded” sourdough starter
1 C whole wheat flour (sift flour prior to measuring)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon (optional) and/or other spices
1/4 C melted coconut oil or melted butter
1/2 C honey
1 tsp baking soda
~1/2 C blueberries 

Method:

Combine sourdough starter and whole wheat flour. Once the two are thoroughly combined, cover the dough with plastic wrap ensuring that none of it is exposed to the air. Let sit at room temperature for at least seven hours.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a muffin pan with papers or grease the cups.

In a separate bowl, mix together all other ingredients except for blueberries and baking soda. Add those ingredients to the dough in the mixer’s bowl and mix together. Once all the ingredients are mixed and have come together as a batter, sprinkle the baking soda in the bowl and mix batter again briefly to incorporate. Fold in blueberries and scoop batter into prepared muffin pan.

Bake for 20 min. Makes 8-12 muffins.

 

The muffins were good, I thought they were a bit on the 'oily' side. So if I make them again, I will reduce the oil.  You do need to remember to start these the night before you want to make them (as is typical with most sourdough recipes).  I also made some yummy juice to go with my muffins:  peach, apple, cucumber and spinach juice!  (I typically just juice whatever is in the fridge!)

Sourdough Banana Bread

I found this recipe on the internet......... I found it several places, so I think it's okay to post it:

 

1/3 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup mashed banana
1 cup sourdough starter
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp vanilla or 1 tsp grated orange rind

Cream together the shortening and sugar, add egg, and mix until blended. Stir in bananas and sourdough starter. Add orange rind or vanilla. Sift flour, measure again with salt, baking powder, and soda. Add flour mixture and walnuts to the first mixture, stirring just until blended. Pour into greased 9x5" loaf pan. Bake in moderate or 350 oven for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool before slicing.

 

 

This is some of the best banana bread I've eaten, and I'll be making it again............soon!  I modified it slightly, I used butter instead of shortening and I would have liked to have used sucanat instead of sugar, but I'm out until my co-op order goes in. So, I subbed 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup honey and I didn't use nuts because those aren't gastroparesis friendly!  I think this might work well with a gluten free flour mix, too!  If you try it, let me know how you like it!

Sourdough Gingerbread

I feed my sourdough starter every day or every other day....... and after a few days, if I don't bake with it, the jar gets too full.  Normally, you would dump some of the starter before feeding again, but that seems like such a waste!  So, I found this recipe here for gingerbread made with sourdough starter.  It uses an entire cup of starter so I didn't have throw away any as my jar got full.  Try some, it's quite yummy!

Let's talk sourdough!

Several months ago, after reading the book The Vintage Remedies Guide to Bread, I ordered a French sourdough starter on ebay.  Did you know that the TYPE of grain you use in bread is not as important as the process you use to make it?  A long-rise fermented bread made with white flour actually has more bio-available nutrients, lower gluten content, and a lower glycemic index than a yeast made whole wheat loaf!  Making a good loaf of sourdough is a bit more labor intensive, but so worth the health benefits!  I killed my first starter........ I forgot to feed it (much like I forget to water my plants)!  This time, I will remember to keep a 'spare' in the fridge!  This is my first loaf with the new starter........ it's not light and fluffly like I'd prefer.  I need to keep experimenting with my technique and I'll be sharing my sourdough journey on this blog.  This one was made with half AP flour and half spelt flour.  The good news is that it tastes really good and will most likely be gone tomorrow as my eldest son has taken a liking to it (as evidenced by the big chunk that I noticed missing this afternoon)!