Sweet Sourdough Bread

Years ago, I used to make a bread using a starter given to me by my wonderful mother-in-law. It is a fermented bread like sour dough only it is fed with sugar and instant potato flakes. This bread is also more forgiving that sour dough. 

 

I recently ran across my recipe to make my own starter. It was a success. As the starter ages, it will develop a stronger fermented flavor just like the one I used to use. Unlike sour dough bread, this bread is sweet. 

I just fed the starter. It reacts quickly and bubbles away.

Now it's ready to make bread.

1 cup of starter is all it takes.

And the dough goes wild.

Once formed into loaves, it bolts again.

Even in the oven, this dough continues to grow.

It's amazing what one cup of starter can do.

To make the starter:

1 Pk instant yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)

3 Tablespoons instant mashed potatoes

3 Tablespoons white sugar

1 Cup warm water

Directions:

Mix dry ingredients in a glass bowel or jar. Add warm water. Mix until dissolved. Cover loosely with a cloth and rubber band or an unsealed lid. (It will explode if sealed) Let sit on the counter for 5 days. Stir mixture every day. 

On day five, feed the starter: (Feed the starter every 5 days)

3 Tbs instant mashed potatoes

3 Tbs white sugar

1 Cup warm water

Let sit loosely covered on counter for 6 to 8 hours. I do this step in the morning. After that time, stir the starter and remove once cup of the starter to make bread with and store the rest of the starter in the refrigerator. In the evening, I make the dough and let it rise overnight.

To make the dough:

1 C active sourdough starter

1 1/2 C lukewarm water

1/2 C vegetable oil

1/2 C white sugar

1 1/2 Tsp sea salt or kosher salt

6 C all-purpose flour or bread flour

In a large glass bowl, add warm water, starter and oil. Mix well. Add sugar and salt. Mix well. Add flour 1 cup at a time mixing well after each cup. This can be done in a stand mixer. Once all of the flour is incorporated, pour dough out onto a floured surface and knead until a smooth dough ball forms. The dough will be slightly sticky. Place the dough into a lightly oiled glass bowl. Lightly oil the top. Cover and let rise 4 to 8 hours. I let my dough rise overnight. 

Punch dough down and knead for 3 minutes, Divide dough into 2 parts. Form dough into loaves and place in oiled bread pans. Oil the tops and cover. Let rise until doubled in size. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350* for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown. Remove from pans and let cool on a rack completely before slicing.

 

Notes:

Do not use metal utensils or bowels.  Just like in all fermenting processes all bowls and utensils must be meticulously clean. 

I use a quart size wide mouth canning jar to make and store the starter in. Canning jars are easily sterilized and are an easy option to store and mix the ingredients in. 

Let the dough work overnight while you sleep. No late-night baking stealing from my precious sleep.

It's not just for bread! Starter can be used in pancakes, muffins, rolls, cinnamon rolls or discarded after the feeding process. 

Plan ahead! It's worth it...

Enjoy,

Mrs. Smith

 

High Protein Rotis - Duck Pond - Happenings

We received some much-needed moisture over the weekend. It filled up the duck pond. I found this little rubber duckie while metal detecting a few weeks ago. I found this and a couple of tennis balls down by the river. None of which are metal. 

The duck floated probably over 75+ miles with all the twists and turns in the river from a town that has a duck race. This little duckie got away. It is numbered on the bottom, so I know that is where it traveled from. I would say that it may not have been the fastest, but it certainly floated the furthest. I'm certain that the tennis balls were lost by dogs. People stop there and walk their dogs along the river. 

I found tools and metal cans at a park down a dirt road. It's a nice little park. It has the sturdiest of playground equipment. Fun and whimsical with bright colors for the kids along with a small horse arena and stalls. Unfortunately, it is rarely used. 

I'm still recovering, but I hope to do some baking tomorrow now that the Feast of Unleavened Bread is over. We ate the last of our Rotis made with yogurt, flour and salt. They are really good flatbreads and simple to make. Use a high protein yogurt such as Greek yogurt for a high protein bread.  

1 cup plain yogurt

1/2 Tsp salt

All-purpose flour, 3+ cups

Use enough all-purpose flour to form a soft dough. Knead for about 5 minutes. Let rest 30 minutes. Divide dough into 8 balls and roll out on a flour dusted surface. Cook in a pre-heated griddle or skillet on med-high heat until bubbles form and then then flip. Flip again after it begins to bubble again. Press bubbled areas lightly with a spatula until the roti puffs up. Remove from heat and wrap in a towel until all rotis are cooked. Serve warm. 

I made roasted garlic butter and brushed it on both sides. They were soft, pliable and easy to re-heat. These make a nice snack, a great addition to any meal or use to make your favorite wrap. 

Mrs. Smith

Baking Day...

It was supposed to be the perfect baking day. I checked the weather forecast, and it was going to be sunny all day. We should have had plenty of solar power to use the oven without running the generator, however it is now snowing. Crazy! 

If we are careful, we should make it through the nighttime hours without needing to supplement our power. It turns very cold as soon as the sun sets. In the single digits actually. We are running both the fireplace and the supplemental heater. 

Potato bread sandwich loaves.

We ate most of the cookies and a few Bierocks before I took pictures.

These are the last two Oatmeal Date cookies. I froze the rest of the cookie dough. 

Bierocks

The loaves turned out beautifully.

Now that the dishes are done, and the kitchen is clean it's time to take a break. Once the baked goods have cooled, I will put them all away. I'm not sure what is on the menu for tomorrow. I probably just need to defrost something and take it from there. 

I pulled out some butter beans and chicken breasts. I will add bread and coleslaw, and we will have a very simple meal. The butter beans have been screaming "pick me" every time I open up the freezer. 
 I put them on top when I cleaned out the freezer a few weeks ago. 

Shalom,

Mrs. Smith

Greek Yogurt Turkish Flat Bread - Bazlama

I have been wanting to make a Turkish flat bread called Bazlama for a long time now. I usually think about it when I am out of yogurt. I made a fresh batch of yogurt yesterday, so I decided I would make the delicious flat bread before I used the yogurt for anything else. 

I used a recipe from here: Turkish Flat Bread . However, I watched several videos online to learn the technique before trying this recipe out. It is a simple recipe, but the videos helped a lot. I definitely suggest watching a few videos to get the basics down. Get ready, they will make you really hungry for this soft and tasty bread.  

Divided dough rolled into balls.

I used my griddle to cook two at a time.

I started rolling out the dough.

Time to flip.

Pile of rolled dough.

I buttered the tops and the
bottoms of the flat bread. 

There is a pocket inside that can be stuffed with
your favorite filling.

Serve with hummus or make a sandwich wrap
out of this soft and pliable bread.

Remember the chicken thigh bones?

Number One Husband is feeling under the weather, so I made a chicken barley soup out of the chicken thigh bones that I have been saving up to help boost his immune system. I cooked the bones in my electric pressure cooker along with a splash of vinegar to aid in drawing out the nutrients. I served the soup with the warm flat bread on the side. 

My small kitchen was a giant mess. I had a lot going on all at once. It's all cleaned up and I now have a big pot of soup with a nice stack of Turkish Flat bread. It was worth it!

Enjoy!

Mrs. Smith

Meal Prep For Two - Freezer Meals - Baking Day - Day 1

It has been a hot minute since I have prepared freezer meals, but I am tired of cooking, clean up and repeat three times a day or just grabbing whatever until we are out of whatever. So, I donned my apron and enlisted Number One for help. 

We did our baking today that included biscuits, bread and granola. It was a great sunny day for off-grid baking. Our oven uses a lot of power to power the heating element even though we have a propane stove, so baking on a sunny day works best for us. 

Let's start with the biscuits. We tripled the recipe.

Biscuits (makes10 biscuits)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 

Wisk together in a large bowl:

2 C flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbs sugar

1/2 tsp salt

Drop in:

5 to 6 tbs cold butter

Cut in butter with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

Add 3/4 C milk. Mix until the dry ingredients are moistened. Do not over mix. Form into a loose ball and press on a lightly floured surface until the dough is about 3/4 inch thick. Cut into 10 biscuits. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a pie pan or cast-iron skillet in the preheated oven. Place the biscuits in the melted butter coating both sides of the biscuits. Bake for 12-14 minutes until golden brown. Serve hot. 

For best results, keep up with the dishes as you go. That way you can move right into the next order of business. 

Sorry about my dirty oven. I had a large spillover and have not deep cleaned it yet. I don't want to do it while we are inside during the cold winter months with no open windows.

I was cooking the turkey bacon and gravy while making the biscuits. 

These are the ugly biscuits that you get after pressing out the dough scraps. They are great for biscuits and gravy. I am missing several pictures, like the pretty pan of biscuits, that I took after baking. I should have checked.

Breakfast is served. 

I made bacon and cheese biscuits out of the pretty biscuits.

I wrapped them in plastic wrap, bagged them up and froze them.

We froze the raw biscuits on a cookie sheet. 

Once frozen we placed them in a baggie with the baking instructions written on the bag.

More clean-up happened before moving on to baking the granola.

Granola: Follow the link below for the recipe. 

Homemade Granola

Granola is Number One's department. We tripled the recipe.

Syrup mixture

Oats and nuts

Mixed all together until oats and nuts are coated.

Ready for the oven

While Number One was taking care of the granola, I was making the bread dough.

A triple recipe almost makes a gallon of granola.

Homemade Bread:

Number One slices the bread. I am not good at it at all.

I am putting together buttered cheese bread for grilled cheese sandwiches.

I wrapped them in plastic wrap.

In between, I made a grilled cheese sandwich with bacon for Number One's dinner.

I ate the ends of the fresh bread for my dinner.

I made up six sandwiches.

I bagged up the un-grilled grilled cheese sandwiches and put them in the freezer. 

This is what we accomplished on our baking day. Tomorrow is a new day, and we have more meal preps planned. I will continue to blog as we go. Thanks for coming along...

Things To Be Happy About:

Cleaving unto one another

Bedtime after a long baking day

Plastic wrap

Saving and re-using bread bags because I can't find bags to fit my homemade loaves of bread.

Remembering to water my houseplants before they perish for good.

A helping hand

Goodnight,

Mrs. Smith