A Sourdough Story Of Sweet Friendship During Covid

I'm back!  Sorry for my prolonged absence but I've been suffering from lack of motivation lately.  Is anyone else having the same problem?  I'm also trying to spend as much time outdoors as I can as it  keeps me from thinking about the problems facing us now.  My priorities are being with our small, immediate family, working in my garden, golfing with my husband and baking when it's raining.

Speaking of baking, I wanted to tell you about a wonderful and very kind baking story that happening during the time we were in lock-down this past spring.  I've met so many wonderful bloggers over the years and one of them is Kitty from Kitty's Kozy Kitchen. We share a loving of baking and being with our grandchildren. Kitty loves tea cups and having tea parties with her granddaughters! About 20 years ago, Kitty was given a live sourdough starter from someone she knew who had brought it back from Arkansas in a cooler.  It was called a Civil War Starter. Kitty has kept it alive all these years and continues to use it to this day. 

At some point, Kitty mentioned her starter in one of her blog posts.  I asked her if she would consider sharing her starter with me.  She said she would be happy to share it but she didn't think a live starter would survive being sent from Texas to Wisconsin. I remembered reading about a way to save sourdough starters for future use by drying it out and found a great tutorial on how to do it at King Arthur Baking Company's website.  I asked Kitty if she would be interested in trying it.  Of course, she did and, within a very short time, I received Kitty's dried starter!  When I opened the zipper bag of dried starter, it smelled so fresh and good!

The same King Arthur tutorial on how to dry the starter also gave instructions on how to revive the dried starter and soon I was on my way into the world of COVID sourdough bread baking (along with countless other bakers in the world who weren't able to find dried yeast on the grocery shelves for so long).

Kitty's starter and recipe from Arkansas were different from the usual starters you might find online in that none of the starter is ever discarded.  After feeding, it is divided in half.  One half to use for baking bread and the other half returns to the refrigerator for next time.  It's also different in that sugar is added to maintain the starter and in the bread recipe.

Here is Kitty's sourdough starter after a feeding.  As you can see, it makes a lot of starter! At it's peak, it contains five to six full cups of starter. I have to tell that you Kitty was so patient with me because I had so many questions about the starter and recipe. ♥  She is such a kind person!

These were the first loaves I made with Kitty's starter!  The starter makes three full-size loaves of bread. If you look closely, you can see that I added walnuts and cranberries to the loaf in the center.  All were delicious and smelled and tasted wonderful!

I was able to bake 2 or 3 times more times with this beautiful starter and, then, I decided to try to decrease the amount of starter.  I started by trying to decrease the recipe by one-third. I didn't want to make so many loaves at one time as it's just my husband and I at home and I was going through a lot of flour.

That was when things started to go wrong.  The starter seemed okay at first.  The first rise would be fine but after the loaves were formed they did not rise very well.  I tried twice to revive the starter but it still didn't do well and I had two baking failures.  When I performed the starter 'float' test, it wasn't floating.  Perhaps this starter likes it better in the south :)

Back to square one!  I did have more of Kitty's dried starter so I started over from scratch.  This time, I decided feed the starter in the conventional way and in the proportions of the King Arthur starter instructions.  I decided to keep some with a much smaller amount of added sugar, and created another starter without any sugar at all as an experiment.

The first bread I made with my newly revived starter from Kitty was this whole wheat loaf from, who else, King Arthur.  I had asked a friend's daughter who bakes a lot of sourdough bread for her family what recipe she was using and she pointed me to this one. It is delicious too! And now, my new "Kitty" starter makes one loaf, which is perfect for us.  

"Kitty" on the left has no sugar.  "Kitty" on the right has just 1 tablespoon of added sugar when it's fed. The one with the sugar in it seems to perform slightly better than the one without the sugar.  Perhaps that's because it was used to having sugar in it for 20 years!

Now that I have a more conventional starter made from Kitty's original starter,  I now also have the flexibility to use the discard when I feed it.  There are some great recipes that use discarded sourdough starter!

The first thing I tried were popovers.  Oh my, these are so good!  A little butter and preserves on a Sunday morning make having discard so appreciated. I've made Sourdough Parmesan Popovers...

 and plain Sourdough Popovers. 

The plain popovers are so delicious with a little butter and preserves and make a special weekend breakfast treat. 

The other recipe I've made with the discard is this Sourdough Coffee Cake. Both my husband and I loved it!

Rather than bake it in a square pan as the recipe indicates, I decided to make 4 mini loaves so that I keep one out and put the rest in the freezer.  The crumble topping is delicious.  The coffee cake would be wonderful with homemade blueberry sauce.  Another great weekend treat!  There are many more sourdough discard recipes that I look forward to trying.  

So, my adventure in sourdough baking continues, thanks, in whole, to the kindness of Kitty going out of her way to dry her starter and send it to me.  My starters are doing very well in their new format and I feel confident I can keep Kitty's Civil War Starter alive and well for a very long time to come!  

The timing with the Pandemic stay-at-home order could not have been better as we couldn't see our family and friends and, even now, we are still are not able to resume our former social activities.  It really does help the mind and soul to be able to have fun in the kitchen creating with Kitty's sourdough starter.   

The recipe for the Whole Wheat Bread and links to the sourdough discard popovers and coffee cake below.  

If you have any questions, or would enjoy receiving a packet of Kitty's starter, please let me know, as I still have 5 vacuum-sealed packets to share.  I prefer to ship within the United States due to shipping costs.  I would also be happy to try drying some of my current starter for anyone who would like to try sourdough baking.  Happy Baking!

Click on links to find recipes for Sourdough Popovers and  Sourdough Coffee Cake 

Honey Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

Printable Recipe with my Tips and Edits

Makes 1 loaf

1 cup (227g) fed and risen sourdough starter

1 cup + 2 tablespoons (255g) lukewarm water

2 cups (226g) Whole Wheat Flour

1 cup (113g) AP Flour

2 tablespoons (14g) honey

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon instant yeast

2 tablespoons (25g) neutral vegetable oil (I like using Avocado oil)

In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients, and mix until a loose dough forms.

Cover the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes. Turn out of a lightly floured surface and knead until fairly smooth.  It should be slightly sticky. Depending on how wet your starter is, or the humidity in your kitchen, you may need to add 1/3-1/2 cup more flour.  Only add enough flour to be able to form a cohesive, somewhat sticky ball of dough.   

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover it with a tea towel, and let it rise until almost doubled, about 60 minutes or so. I like to turn my oven on to preheat for one minute, and then turn the oven off. This will make a warm but not too hot environment perfect for the dough to rise. Place the bowl inside the oven. It usually only takes 60 minutes for my dough to double in size with this method.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and fold the dough onto itself pulling from the outside and folding toward the center.  Do this several times. Turn it over and shape it into an 8" log, and place it in a lightly greased 9" x 5" loaf pan.  I use an oven safe glass loaf pan. 

Cover the loaf with a tea towel and let it rise until it has risen about 1" over the rim of the pan, (using the 1 minute preheated oven tip above, for about 60 minutes). Towards the end of the rising time, carefully take the loaf out of the oven without jarring it,  and preheat the oven to 350°F

Bake the bread for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown and a digital thermometer inserted into the center registers 205°F to 210°F.

Remove the bread from the oven.  Let it rest in the for about 5 minutes, then turn it out onto a rack to cool. I have taken the bread out of the baking pan and placed it back in the oven for about 5 minutes to get more browning on the sides and bottom. 

Adapted from King Arthur Baking Company

Fig, Walnut and Crystallized Ginger Sourdough Bread

I love fall and all of the beautiful changes that it brings...golden and red leaves, the smell of the leaves drying on the ground, watching the squirrels hiding nuts for winter, and the cooler days perfect for a long walk or working in yard.  I love the changes that fall brings in the kitchen too, warm soups, stews and chili, slowly braised meats, harvest vegetables, and....baking!  

I understand that I may be speaking to a very small minority who have sourdough starters or who may be interesting in starting one.  It was always something I had wanted to try and it has been very rewarding for me.  Don't think you must use a sourdough starter to make a dried fruit and nut bread either.  You could make this bread with any of the 'No Knead' bread recipes out there, such as Jim Lahey's, or use a Cheater's Sourdough recipe that uses Greek Yogurt instead of sourdough.  You can do a web search and find lots of ideas using the key words "No Knead Bread" or "Cheaters Sourdough". 

I am happy to report that the sourdough starter that I began last year (I shared my first sourdough loaf, on the blog here), is still alive and well in my refrigerator.  Sometimes I neglect to 'feed' it for almost two weeks and it always bubbles back to life without a problem.  

I had dried figs, walnuts and some crystallized ginger on hand and thought the three would make a delicious, fall combination for bread.  And, it was!

The thing to remember about baking bread with a sourdough starter is that you need to start the process the day before you want to bake the bread - that's the hardest part.  But the taste is unbeatable and the satisfaction of pulling a beautiful loaf of bread out of the oven is very satisfying.

The dough is allowed to rise overnight in the refrigerator in a container about the size you would like for your loaf or loaves, lined with a well-floured tea towel.  I used two rectangular loaf pans. This recipe made two, nice-sized loaves. Don't worry if they don't look too puffy after you take them out of the refrigerator, they rise beautifully in the oven.

After the loaves have had their overnight rise, I like to place them on the back side of a cookie sheet on top of a large piece of parchment paper.  This way,  I can slide the loaves, parchment and all, onto my baking stone.  No worries if you don't have a baking stone, you can always use the preheated dutch oven method used in many other recipes, such as this one.

Slathered in good, fresh butter or jam, or toasted the next day it's delicious!

Walnut, Fig and Crystallized Ginger Sourdough Bread

Printable Recipe

Supplies you will need:

You need to have an active sourdough starter. If you look on Etsy there are lots of sellers - I used World Sourdough. Amazon sells one by Breadtopia that is live and not dried here. King Arthur also sells an already "active" sourdough starter here.

A bread stone for your oven is also preferred but you can also use a cast iron Dutch oven with lid.

Spray bottle filled with water

Ingredients:

1-1/4 cups recently fed and active sourdough starter

1 cup water

3 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon instant yeast (not necessary but helps obtain a good rise)

3/4 cup diced dried figs, dried cherries or cranberries

1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

1/4 cup crystallized ginger, chopped into small pieces.

Directions:

In the bowl of a mixer with dough hook, combine the starter, water, and flour. Stir together until smooth. Cover the bowl and let the mixture sit for 1 hour. Then, mix in the salt and yeast and knead the dough with your mixer's dough hook on medium speed for about 6 minutes. Just before the kneading is done, mix in the dried fruit. If you don't have a dough hook you can knead by hand on a lightly floured surface. Add the walnuts and fold them gently into the dough. Cover the bowl and allow the dough rise at room temperature for 40 to 60 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased surface. If you wish to make two smaller loaves instead of one large one, divide the dough in half. With a scraper, scoop up one side of the dough bring it into the center, pressing down. Turn the dough a quarter turn, and repeat four more times. Repeat with other loaf, if necessary.

Flour a tea towel or banetton (a bread proofing basket). If using a tea towel, place it inside of a bowl or pan with a shape you find pleasing, bottom side up. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, preheat the oven to 450°F for 30 minutes with a baking stone placed in the lower third of the oven (or a Dutch oven with Lid). When the oven is preheated, put 1" of water into a small skillet that can go into the oven and bring it to a simmer. Take your breads out of the refrigerator. Don't worry if they have not risen a lot, it's okay.

Place the simmering water skillet into the bottom of the oven. Place a piece of parchment on a baker's peel or the back (flat) side of a baking sheet. Turn the refrigerated loaves out onto the parchment. Slash the top of the loaves, and slide the bread, paper and all, onto the stone in the oven. Spray the inside of the oven generously with water from a spray bottle. In 5 minutes, spray once more and bake for another 35 minutes, or until the center of the loaf reads 200°F with a digital thermometer.

Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

Note: If using a cast iron Dutch oven, when the oven has preheated for 30 minutes, remove the lid. Slide the slashed loaf into the Dutch oven and bake, with cover on for 20-25 minutes. Remove lid, and bake until bread reaches 200F, about another 15 minutes, watching carefully. Times vary depending on the size of the loaf, and how hot your oven gets.

This recipe is adapted from King Arthur Flour

Sourdough Waffles to Start the New Year

Happy New Year, my friends! I hope this post finds you all well and as excited about the start of a new year as I am. 

What better way to start 2017 than to begin with a special breakfast, which is what my husband and I did on January 1st! If any of you were inspired to make a sourdough starter after my sourdough bread post here, or may be interested in starting one in the future,  you will love this recipe.  I'm happy to report that the sourdough starter that I began last October is still alive and well!

One of the more important steps of maintaining a sourdough starter is feeding it about once a week with flour and water.  Knowing that, if you don't get rid of some of it occasionally, you will have far too much starter to store in your refrigerator and it will become too cumbersome to manage.  So, in order to maintain a happy sourdough starter, you need to remove some of it  before  you feed the rest. This is called 'unfed' starter.

Instead of tossing that excess starter down the sink, you can make these delicious sourdough waffles (or pancakes).  Honestly, these are the most delicious, lightest and crispiest waffles I've ever made with just a hint of sourdough flavor.  My husband proclaimed them the best waffles he's ever had. 

My favorite waffle topping is applesauce or pure maple syrup, but I decided to make something a little more festive to start the new year and pureed a cup of frozen strawberries and raspberries along with a small splash (1-2 tablespoons) of orange juice, a squeeze of honey for sweetness and a 1-2 teaspoons of chia seeds for thickness. Next time I'm going to try a blend of berries and applesauce!

As with most sourdough recipes, you do need to plan ahead.  The evening before, the starter gets mixed with buttermilk, flour and light brown sugar and is covered and left on the kitchen counter overnight.  In the morning,  egg, vanilla and melted butter (or oil) is added to complete the batter.  Now you're ready to make some of the most wonderfully tasty waffles or pancakes you've ever eaten! If you don't have a sourdough starter to use, you could substitute plain, Greek yogurt with active yogurt culture (such as Fage, Chobani, etc) for the starter in the recipe below.

Here's to a great start to 2017!  

Sourdough Waffles or Pancakes

Printable Recipe

Serves 4

Note: This recipe can be halved for 2 people...Half of one large egg is 1/8 cup of beaten egg

For the overnight sponge:

1 cup (240 grams) unfed sourdough starter (or substitute plain, Greek yogurt)
1 cup (224 grams) buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, just add 1 tablespoon white vinegar or fresh lemon juice to a 1 cup measure and then fill with milk)
1 cup (120 grams) all-purpose flour or a mixture of AP and whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon (about 13 grams) light brown sugar

For the morning batter:

1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons melted butter or neutral oil (coconut oil would be a great choice)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon (3 grams)salt
1 teaspoon (6 grams) baking soda

Pour the sourdough starter into a large bowl and add the buttermilk, flour and sugar, then stir to combine. Cover the bowl and allow it to rest overnight on the kitchen counter.

The next morning, preheat a waffle iron or large frying pan. Whisk the egg, melted butter (or oil) and the vanilla extract together in a medium bowl, then add the rested sponge. Add the salt and the baking soda to the batter and mix to combine.

Spray the waffle iron or frying pan lightly with nonstick cooking oil.

Pour some batter onto the preheated waffle iron and cook until the waffle is brown and crisp and repeat with remaining batter. For pancakes, pour a small ladle-full of batter on a preheated pan or griddle, flipping them when they are well browned on the bottom. Serve immediately.

Adapted from King Arthur Flour and the New York Times

Real Sourdough Bread made with Sourdough Starter

I have finally overcome my fear of sourdough starter and making sourdough bread!  This past summer, I ordered a sourdough starter from a seller on Etsy. The starter arrived in dried form, ready to have water and flour added to begin the activation process.  Then, a broken wrist aborted my sourdough plans.  A few weeks ago I found the envelope with the starter packet and decided to see if it was still good.  I've been feeding it according to the excellent directions that I received from the seller plus finding other tips online to keep it healthy and active.  And healthy it is!

Now I was finally ready to bake sourdough bread, but what recipe to use? I viewed countless recipes online and those included with my starter.  Then, I found one that used a spin on the the no-knead format and I knew that would be a great recipe for a beginner to use.

The starter was prepped and mixed with flour and salt, covered and left on the counter overnight.  The next morning, I was amazed to find a beautiful rise had occurred in my dough - without any yeast, just the magic of the live sourdough starter doing its thing.

After tucking the dough under and giving it two letter folds with oiled hands, I plopped it into my small enameled cast iron oval dutch oven and covered it for another two hour rise. 

Using the standard no-knead instructions that you may already know, the dutch oven was heated in a hot oven, the dough placed in the heated pot, parchment and all, and later, out came this gorgeous loaf of bread...

It did get a bit too brown on top but I followed the directions exactly instead of taking a peak into the oven a littler earlier.  Lesson learned. I was so excited to see how would it look inside that crusty exterior and most importantly, how would it taste?

After the first bite into the shattering, crisp crust and soft, sourdough-infused interior I was so amazed and delighted that I wanted to yell, "Look what I have created!", just like Tom Hanks in the movie "Cast Away" when he finally made a fire.

Yesterday, I made two more loaves.  Another regular sourdough loaf and a cranberry walnut sourdough, using a portion of starter that I had been feeding with rye flour. 

 

The latter didn't rise quite as well as the regular bread flour version but it was so delicious that I will be working on perfecting this recipe - perhaps with a whole wheat flour starter rather than rye. 

Even though it's too late to get a starter going and make this bread for Thanksgiving, if you love to bake bread as I do and want to try nurturing a sourdough starter, this is a great recipe and a fun project for the winter months.

In the meanwhile, I would like to wish all of your who celebrate Thanksgiving this week a very happy and safe holiday!  Coincidentally, this is what wandered through our yard early yesterday morning! This is only the second time we've seen turkeys in our yard and both times it was right before Thanksgiving. Are they trying to tell us something? 

No Knead Sourdough Bread

Printable Recipe

I bought a sourdough starter called Black Hills Gold Rush Sourdough Starter from WorldSourdoughs on Etsy.  This is not a paid promotion, I just recommend the product based on my experience. The shop offers several different varieties of sourdough starters.  

1 lb bread flour (use a digital scale to weigh the flour)

2-3 teaspoons salt

1/4 cup freshly fed sourdough starter

Luke warm or room temperature water

In the morning, remove your sourdough starter from the refrigerator (where I keep mine).  Remove 1/4 cup of starter and place in a small bowl or jar. Feed it with 1/4 cup of AP flour and 1/4 cup of room temperature water.  Stir and cover loosely with plastic wrap.  Keep on the kitchen counter until late afternoon.  Check to make sure it has bubbles and has increased in volume slightly (active). 

In the afternoon, weigh the flour and place in a large bowl with the salt.  Stir to combine.

Measure out 1/4 cup of starter into a 2 cup measure.  Add enough slightly warm or room temperature water to make 1-1/2 cups total liquid.  Stir together until blended. 

Pour the starter-water mixture over the flour and mix together with your hands or a large spoon, until no trace of dry flour remains.  You may need to add another tablespoon or so of water if your kitchen is dry.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then a kitchen towel and allow to rest and rise overnight on the kitchen counter, about 12 to 18 hours. 

The next morning, prepare the dutch oven by placing a large piece of parchment paper over the non-handle sides and then pushing down along the bottom sides and folding back over the top sides, created creases where needed.  This will be your 'lifter' and also create a non-stick surface in your pot when baking.  I use a small, 3-1/2 quart Le Creuset oval Dutch oven but any small enameled cast iron Dutch oven will work.

By now, you should have a good rise, hopefully doubled in volume.  With lightly oiled hands, fold the edges of the dough into the center, all around.  Then, pick up the dough and pull it into a rough rectangle and fold one end over the other (an envelope fold) and then repeat with the opposite sides.  Tuck any rough edges under and place the dough into the prepared parchment-lined dutch oven.  Cover again and allow to rest for two more hours.

30 minutes before the 2 hours is up, remove the dough from the dutch oven and place it into another container temporary. (I used a rectangular plastic storage container but you could also use a casserole dish or glass bowl) Place the dutch oven with the cover on in the oven and preheat to 450F.  

When the oven has preheated for 30 minutes, very carefully remove the Dutch oven and take off the top with oven mitts. Place dough in it's parchment carrier into the hot dutch oven. Your may slash the top of the dough with a sharp knife if you wish but it is not necessary. (I've done it with slashing and without). Put the lid back on (it's HOT), and place the dutch oven back into the oven and bake for 30 minutes, covered. 

After 30 minutes, remove the lid and continue to bake for another 20-30 minutes, or until dark brown on the top.  Watch carefully during the last 10 minutes making sure the crust doesn't burn. When bread is done, it should be about 190 degrees F if you have an instant read thermometer.  

Remove pot from oven and carefully remove bread by lifting it out with the parchment paper.  Allow to cool completely before slicing. 

Adapted from Duonyte's No Knead Sourdough Bread