Video: Back in the Swing with Sourdough & 2 Recipes
Hello, dear reader! I hope that you are well on this March Friday. The weather is still chilly here and a bit rainy lately. I am hoping the warm breeze returns and all of this rain brings about beautiful daffodils and tulips! I do thoroughly enjoy rainy days; they remind me of traveling in the pacific northwest while I was pregnant with my first son, Tad.
How have you been spending your winter months? I apologize if you feel like all I have been sharing lately are food recipes. It’s because that is what I have been having the most fun experimenting with! This spring I’ll be sure to get back into my normal content, but for now, if you are enjoying all of the food recipes… I have another TWO for you! I recently got back into the swing with making sourdough, and it has been so amazing.
Susan of Hillside Sourdough reached out to me on Instagram a few weeks ago asking if I would be interested in trying some of her dry sourdough starter. I had never heard of this before. The only way I knew how to make sourdough was from scratch, which can seemingly take forever to get the cultures right.
how I feed my sourdough starter:
Discard all of the starter except one half cup.
Feed with 1 cup all purpose flour and 1/2 cup warm water.
Mix well and cover with an airtight seal. It should be ready for baking in about 1-2 hours after it has risen and become bubbly.
The consistency should be thick and not runny. Sometimes I have to add more or less water depending on how the starter is looking.
NOTE: I have recently begun adding spelt flour that I’ve milled myself to feed my starter, and wow! It makes the starter so much more active than all purpose flour. I am not quite ready to begin writing about this yet, as I need more experience, but you can certainly try feeding different types of flours to your starter to see how it reacts.
making sourdough crackers:
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup sourdough starter discard/unfed
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp lard, room temperature
olive oil and flaky sea salt for topping
DIRECTIONS:
In a large bowl, combine the sourdough starter, flour, salt, and lard. With your hands, form into a nearly smooth dough.
Divide the dough into two pieces and wrap with plastic wrap or bees wrap. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 350* F.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Roll out each half into a 12x12 square, or until it is thinner than 1/8-inch thick. Prick the dough all over with the tines of a fork.
Cut into squares or circles, about 1-inch diameter. Brush with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown and no longer moist. Allow to cool on the baking sheet and move to a wire cooling rack when cool enough to handle.
Store in a container with an airtight seal for about 1-2 weeks.
making no-knead sourdough bread:
RECIPE VIA HILLSIDE SOURDOUGH:
1 1/4 cups warm water
1/2 cup sourdough starter, active/fed
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
directions:
In a large bowl, combine the starter and water with a fork.
Add the flour and salt. Mix together with a fork until a dough ball has formed. Continue to knead with your hands until the dough has become a semi-smooth and a bit shaggy ball. It is no-knead, so it does not have to be completely smooth.
Cover the bowl and allow to rest 30 minutes.
After the resting period, stretch and fold the dough to form it into a ball. Cover the dough with a clean dish cloth or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place overnight or 8-10 hours. *I tend to make mine in the late afternoon and leave it until the next morning.
In the morning, turn the dough out onto your counter. Fold into a neat ball, cover, and let rest 15 minutes.
Place the dough into a bowl or banneton (bread basket) and cover, allowing to rise for another 1-2 hours.
Turn out onto the counter. Dust the top of the bread with flour and score with a serrated knife or lame.
Preheat your oven to 425* F. Place a dutch oven inside and preheat it for 30 minutes (you can also use any type of oven safe dish with a lid). When it has finished preheating, place the bread inside. Bake covered for 35 minutes. Remove the lid and continue to bake, uncovered, for another 15 minutes.
The bread is finished when it sounds a bit hollow when tapped. Remove from oven and allow to cool before slicing.
I hope that you enjoyed learning a bit more about making sourdough bread and crackers! These recipes are incredibly simple and perfect for a beginner! If this is your first time baking with sourdough, it is good to note that no-knead style breads need a much longer rising time than a loaf with instant yeast. You will want to watch and follow the signs of your bread. If you have never made any sort of bread before, I would suggest you take a look at my other bread tutorials to get an idea of how the process works!
Please be sure to check out and subscribe to our new YouTube Channel @underatinroof! We just got started and would love if you followed along with us there.
Thank you Hillside Sourdough for the wonderful bag of dry San Francisco Starter!
My dress and apron are curtesy of Little Women Atelier. I am wearing the Beth Dress with Long Sleeves in Rust and the Half Apron in White.
xoxo Kayla
