A dissertation on sourdough

If you are not a bread nerd, this may be a boring post. I am mainly posting it to keep track of what I did, to help improve my baking.

This was my second attempt at Wild Yeast's Norwich Sourdough. This time, I replaced part of the white flour with whole wheat, but kept the amount of rye the same as in the original recipe. (I am not the most scientific baker: I didn't keep track of how much whole wheat I used. I guess about 1 part WW to 3 or 4 parts AP.)

I divided the dough into 4 roughly 500 gram loaves. Two were baked after 2 hours in the fridge, the other two were baked after about 12 hours in the fridge. (They were baked straight out of the fridge.) None of the loaves got much oven spring, but the ones with the longer fridge time were noticeably flatter than the others. Given the mix of flours I used, I probably should have added a little vital wheat gluten (since I was using AP flour and not bread flour).

I increased the baking times a little, because the recipe is written for 400 gram loaves. The bottoms of the loaves got pretty badly burnt. (I've been having this happen a lot with my baking stone recently. I have a hunch that it has something to do with my new habit of sliding things in on parchment paper and leaving it there for part of the baking time. I've also been meaning to get an oven thermometer.)

The bread's texture was great, but the flavour wasn't as sour as I would like. (I've only tasted one of the short-rise loaves so far.) This may have to do with my starter, which I had only taken out of the fridge and fed the day before. Next time I might increase the out-of-fridge proofing times somewhat, to make up for my wimpy starter. Too-warm temperatures can decrease sourness, but I don't think that was the problem.

You don't have to tell me twice

I have done as you commanded. They're still cooling down as I write this. I know they're going to be great because I had a few tastes of the dough before I cooked them. (It tasted inexplicably like malt to me. And I love malt.) I had no black sesame seeds, so doubled up on the regular ones. (Sesame in cookies? Genius.) And the dried fruit is cranberries. Has it been 10 minutes yet?

Hawks and Flutes and Hipsters in Chucks

That's right.  It's the monthly vegan potluck.  I overheard some seriously bizarre conversations, but under the big sky of BRUNCH, I also ate some fantastic scramble.  Ecchem.  (Honesty enters.)  Scrambles.

I made quesadillas stuffed with scramble and a tofu cheez sauce.  I wanted them to stay dry-ish, so I didn't stuff them with black beans.  I brought  them in a pot on the side.   No sense of color here in the photo OR in person.  (Says she with a big bag of parsley in her fridge.)  

Next month: Green foods.  PS: I learned that cashews have been used to treat depression (high levels of niacin.)  AND Nola has a new restaurant, "Bamboo," which takes its name AND its menu from the NYC establishment, Red Bamboo.  The South rises again.  

Stop Everything and Make THIS Cookie

Preheat oven to 375.  In a medium bowl, mix: 1/4c w/w pastry flour (spoon and level), 1/4c oats, 1/4c light brown sugar (I've cut this a bit), 1/8t soda, generous pinch sea salt, 1T black sesame seeds, 1T brown sesame seeds, 2T dried fruit (I've been using golden raisins).

In a small bowl, whisk 1T (generous) tahini, 1/2T canola, 1T (generous) unsweetened "milk", 1/2t vanilla.

Combine wet and dry ingredients, divide dough in 4 equal portions, and bake 9 minutes.  Leave them on the baking sheet for at least (seriously) 10 minutes before cooling them on a rack.  

I cannot tell you how much I love these cookies.  Wow.  Seriously wow.  And Yum.  (PS: They freeze beautifully.)

Lunch - HM style

How lovely to have a proper lunch!  

Pan-braised kohlrabi (it has become my favorite vegetable) with carrots and turnips, something green, brown rice, and a small bowl of Smitten Kitchen's curried lentils and sweet potatoes.  Burnin' through the vegetable drawer in preparation for the farmer's market.   

I be knowin' the Muffin Man

Behold!  Yet another recipe from the Moosewood goes low-fat.  Cornmeal and spelt and APF (it's true)... but more importantly, prune puree.  My local Wholefoods doesn't sell it by the jar, so I bought a 1 cup package of them and whizzed them up with some orange juice concentrate after simmering the mix in 1/2 cup water for about 10 minutes.  Muffin baking has been part of my routine the past few weeks, and I have to say, it makes my lunches so much more appealing.   

The Whole Pie

I have a friend whose daughter is diabetic, and I've been curious about cookbooks with nutritional information as a result.   Turns out, I only own one: the Moosewood Low-Fat cookbook.  Apparently, I haven't used my copy in years, because there are event tickets and fliers from a whole other country marking the pages.  This is their pizza crust -- a mix of ground oats, APF, WW, and spelt (my own addition).  It wasn't that good.  I think next time I'll add some olive oil and oregano to the dough.  But whatever -- this week I have frozen slices of pizza to pack in my lunches!   (Plus, I'm proud to say I made the cilantro pesto and the roasted tomatoes on top.)