Adventures with Sourdough (Chapter 1)

[Winchester]

Oh my goodness. Sourdough pancakes! Delicious! We had them with some browned sausage. I also sliced a couple Granny Smith apples and made fried apples (like the fried apples at the Cracker Barrel, for those of you who are familiar with CB).  Rick had his with some fried apples and maple syrup. And I ate more than I should have. But so good. The batch made quite a few, so we stuck the leftovers in the freezer for later on.

I think the next time we shall make sourdough waffles and I will serve them with creamed chicken.

 

[denice]

I actually prefer waffles to pancakes.  I have never tried it but I know that the Pennsylvania Dutch version of Chicken and Waffles is made with creamed chicken.  

 

[Winchester]

Sunday was pizza day around here. Our choice was a sourdough pizza crust with browned sausage, caramelized onions, green peppers, mushrooms, and lots and lots of mozz and smoked provolone cheese.

So I took out my crock of starter and put one cup of UNFED starter in my bowl....

PizzaUnfedStarter.jpg

• Winchester
• Nov 18, 2015

Added the rest of the ingredients, gave the dough a good kneading and.....

PizzaDoughRising.jpg

• Winchester
• Nov 18, 2015

Covered the bowl with a clean dishtowel and it stayed on the counter, waiting and rising....

About six hours later, it looks beautiful. Ready for pizza!

PizzaReady.jpg

• Winchester
• Nov 18, 2015

My pizzas do not look pretty. I hand-form the crusts and, even though my pizza stone is quite large, I still have trouble keeping my crusts within a decent circle. I always end up with one side spilling out over the stone and have to push it back in. So my pizzas are always mis-shapen. I always shape on a sprayed piece of parchment. Here, it's ready for the pizza peel to grab it and stick it in the oven. The pizza stone has been heating for about 45 minutes at this point.

PC Ready for the Peel.jpg

• Winchester
• Nov 18, 2015

The crust is baked for about 4-5 minutes, then removed from the oven and filled. I use my own sauce. After the pizza is filled, then I take my pastry brush, dip it in extra virgin olive oil and brush around the edges of the crust....that helps to brown the edges a little bit. But I usually end up using way too much cheese, so I have all this white all over the pizza. But we dearly love cheese. And as Dear Richard says, "It's not what it looks like as much as it is what it tastes like." And this one was yummy. Because the dough is flopped onto the hot stone, the bottom of the crust gets a beautiful golden brown color....that happens while the empty crust is baking. Here it is on the pizza peel....I had just taken it out of the oven. 

It doesn't look the best....like I said, I start out with a fairly nice circle, but it goes downhill quickly...and that's because my crusts turn out larger than my pizza stone and I have to poke it back on the stone. It tasted wonderful! There's just something about that sourdough crust. Rick says I'm only allowed to use sourdough now for my pizzas. Nothing else. 

PizzaLunch.jpg

• Winchester
• Nov 18, 2015

 

[natalie_ca]

Looks and sounds yummy!

I've been making pizza crust from cauliflower lately. I mix it with some chickpea flour and a little whole wheat (chickpea isn't a great binder on its own).  Super yummy.

 

[Winchester]

I've been seeing a few recipes with a cauliflower crust (one with zucchini, too) and I'm curious to see how it would taste and act as a dough. I may have to give it a try one of these days.

 

[Kat0121]

 
I've been seeing a few recipes with a cauliflower crust (one with zucchini, too) and I'm curious to see how it would taste and act as a dough. I may have to give it a try one of these days.

here's a recipe I found on Youtube. I love Chef John. His recipes are featured on Allrecipes.com all the time. 

 

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Oh my merciful sweet heavens!  I know know where to get sourdough starter!  I had my grandmother's, and it was her grandmothers, but when I had to go out of town, the friend I asked to feed Ephraim forgot, and he died.  I was heartbroken!  I buried him in his crock in our backyard, along side other pets who had passed.

I'll be bookmarking King Arthur's, and going back after the first of the year when cash is in better supply.

Thanks for all the pics, btw.  It will help jog my memory after 45 years of no starter.

 

[Winchester]

 
Oh my merciful sweet heavens!  I know know where to get sourdough starter!  I had my grandmother's, and it was her grandmothers, but when I had to go out of town, the friend I asked to feed Ephraim forgot, and he died.  I was heartbroken!  I buried him in his crock in our backyard, along side other pets who had passed.

I'll be bookmarking King Arthur's, and going back after the first of the year when cash is in better supply.

Thanks for all the pics, btw.  It will help jog my memory after 45 years of no starter.

Poor Ephraim. 

 If you and I lived closer, I could give you some of my starter. But King Arthur has good starter; there are several of us here now who have bought their starter. My main thing is sourdough pizza crust, which rocks. But I also make a lot of different kinds of biscuits (caramelized onion biscuits are to-die-for), pancakes, and some awesome dinner rolls. We do pizza pretty much every Sunday now.

King Arthur has an awesome site....tons of recipes, not only sourdough things, but for pretty much anything. I've made their baked doughnuts and, they're really good. I don't think I've had trouble with any of their recipes. It's a great site.

Let us know when you get your starter and what you're going to make!

Kat0121, I really like Chef John, too. He seems to know what he's talking about and he has some good recipes! That pizza looks delicious!

 

[Kat0121]

 
Poor Ephraim. 

 If you and I lived closer, I could give you some of my starter. But King Arthur has good starter; there are several of us here now who have bought their starter. My main thing is sourdough pizza crust, which rocks. But I also make a lot of different kinds of biscuits (caramelized onion biscuits are to-die-for), pancakes, and some awesome dinner rolls. We do pizza pretty much every Sunday now.

King Arthur has an awesome site....tons of recipes, not only sourdough things, but for pretty much anything. I've made their baked doughnuts and, they're really good. I don't think I've had trouble with any of their recipes. It's a great site.

Let us know when you get your starter and what you're going to make!

Kat0121, I really like Chef John, too. He seems to know what he's talking about and he has some good recipes! That pizza looks delicious!

@Mamanyt1953  you are going to love the King Arthur Flour site. I could go broke there. I got the crock and sourdough starter and I love it too. They have great stuff and the get the orders out quickly which is nice. They also have tons of recipes and their staff is very helpful. They are even available to chat online if you have a question. They have high quality products. Their Vietnamese cinnamon and Fiori di Sicilia extract are amazing. I've never smelled cinnamon so intense before. It's intoxicating. When I opened it, I little bit poofed out onto my shirt. I smelled delicious. 

  The extract is an orange vanilla and on the reviews, someone said that she was tempted to dab some behind her ears. 

 

[Mamanyt1953]

 
Let us know when you get your starter and what you're going to make!

It will be after the first of the year, when Hekitty is "out of hock" (huge vet bill paid off)  I'll let you know.  Just as well I'll be ordering it, I don't  have a crock anymore, and finding one in my tiny town in North Carolina would be like herding cats.