Sourdough Bread

I made some bread this week. I usually make my breads in the bread machine, but a sourdough requires more time that the machine does not afford you. There is so much information on sourdough out there, and I do mean a lot. I will not go into detail here, as I don't think I even fully comprehend it all anyway! Please take a look at the Sourdough Baker. This fine gentleman has so much to read on his website, and he offers advice via e-mail as well.

There are a few ways of making a sourdough starter. The Sourdough Baker website has helped me with many of these. I decided to make my sourdough starter naturally, that is, without the aid of a commercial yeast. I left my mixture of rye flour and warm water out to the open air, and a few days later, I had bubbles and a nice sour, beery smell. What happened was that my sponge made a tempting "home" for local yeasts (located in the air and in the husk of the rye particle). So they feasted and pooped, and voila - fermented flour.

I had read in a few places that in order to make a sourdough bread quite sour, there are many things to take into account. There were two that I felt applied to me. One is time - the dough needs lots of time to ferment. Sure, it will rise with time, but let it go (and go and go) after many rises and kneads, so that the yeasts have time to ferment the dough into a soury goodness. My fermentation time was approximately 48 hours. The second one was temperature - the process of taking the temperature of the dough down to 2 - 4 deg C and back up to warmer-than-room-temperature again is supposed to encourage the sour taste. So I did this twice! My dough took two cool trips to the fridge. It even rose a little in there!

The overall result was a bread that was chewy (thanks to all the kneading), light golden (higher oven temp. when baking), attractive, but unfortunately not very sour! This is my second attempt at making a good, sour bread with this starter. I thought I did all the right things to enhance the sour flavour. I guess I didn't! What I do love most about my bread, though, is the flavour. Even though it's not too sour, it is different! My local yeasts produce a very complex taste that is a little bit sweet, a touch bitter, and an almost musty (but pleasant) smell.

Overall, I am very pleased with the results. But I definitely have some more tweaking to do!

Burgers and Whole Wheat Buns

Since we have discovered that making your own burgers not only tastes better, but is less expensive and more fun than buying frozen ones, we haven't ever bought a "store" burger. Most people's complaints about homemade burgers is that they are too thick, or that they end up turning into baseball-shaped hunks of meat on the grill. I will tell you how to avoid that!

I am also including a recipe for whole wheat burger buns. They are delicious! Make sure you make these buns a few hours in advance; they need at least 1.5 hours to rise. Bun recipe adapted from Canadian Living.

These two recipes will make enough burgers and buns to feed a crowd, and they're also easy to freeze. Separate hamburger patties with waxed paper and throw them in a Ziplock baggie, and freeze. Put cooled buns in an old bread bag or a Ziplock bag and freeze them as well.

Hamburgers:
2.5 - 3 lb. lean ground beef
3 eggs
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp. worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
2 tsp. dried sage
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. onion powder
4 - 5 large cloves garlic, minced
Optional: 1 small onion, pureed
2 - 3 portobello caps, pureed

In a very large bowl, mix all of these ingredients together extremely well. Use your hands - it's more thorough. This recipe is very cohesive, yielding a burger patty consistency that you can really flatten out. The idea is to use lots of eggs and bread crumbs, and to make any additions very finely minced or pureed. Large chunks of diced onion or mushroom will literally act as "separators" and prevent the patty from sticking together. So grab a handful of your mixture, and make it as flat and as round as you prefer. Yields about 12 - 15 patties.

Cook on a griddle or skillet over medium heat until desired doneness. Or, flame-grill on your barbeque on medium heat. Everyone has a way of cooking their burgers - I prefer them flipped once only, done medium-rare.

Buns:
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 c. warm water (slightly warmer than room temp)
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (one envelope)
1 c. milk
2 Tbsp. butter
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 c. whole wheat bread flour
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour (approx)
Sesame seeds

In a large bowl, dissolve 1 tsp. of the sugar in the water. Sprinkle the yeast over top and let sit until frothy, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the remaining sugar, milk, salt and butter in a saucepan just until the butter is melted. Remove from heat and let it stand until lukewarm. Add this to the yeast mixture.

Using an electric mixer, add the whole wheat flour, one cup at a time, until the mixture is smooth. Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the all-purpose flour until you have a stiff dough. Turn this out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more flour if necessary, until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Place the dough ball in a greased bowl, turning the dough once to coat completely with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in a warm, draught-free area until doubled in size, about 60 - 90 minutes.

Punch down the dough, turn onto a lightly floured surface. Roll into a log and cut into 16 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball, pinching the bottoms and smoothing the tops until you have a bun-shaped ball. Place on a greased baking sheet and flatten slightly. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cover and let them rise in a warm, draught-free place for 30 - 60 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Bake in a 400 F oven for 20 - 25 minutes, on the centre rack or higher, until golden brown and buns sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. My last batch turned out crunchy on the bottom because I placed them on a lower rack level. Let buns cool on a rack, and enjoy them with your homemade hamburgers! Yields 16 buns.

Perfect Pancakes

This is my own recipe. It is better than Bisquick, I promise! Plus it's very easy, never chewy, always fluffy - the perfect pancake! The purpose of the spelt or buckwheat flour is to prevent the pancakes from going chewy if you happen to stir the batter too much. Spelt and buckwheat have very little gluten, and gluten is what is responsible for the chewiness of bread. You can use any gluten-free flour in place of the spelt or buckwheat in this recipe.

Preheat a non-stick griddle to medium heat. Make sure your griddle is completely heated before you pour your pancakes.

Combine in a large bowl:
1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c. spelt or buckwheat flour
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 tsp. salt
4 tsp. baking powder

Combine in a large measuring glass:
2 eggs, whisked
2 c. milk + 2 tsp. vinegar (or just use buttermilk)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 Tbsp. oil

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix with a fork until just combined (but not if there are still large lumps of dry flour throughout the batter - stir the batter till the bigger lumps have broken up). Spray the griddle with oil, and pour 1/4 cup portions of pancake batter onto the hot griddle. Fry them until you see lots of bubbles surfacing on top and are a deep golden brown, and then flip them over. Cook the other side until it is also a deep golden brown. Serve the pancakes immediately with butter, syrup, jam, or whatever tickles your fancy. They can also be kept warm on a stoneware plate in the oven set on the coolest temperature.

I like to make large batches of pancakes. This recipe yields about 20 - 25 pancakes. Halve the recipe if you desire. I like to eat the morning's cold pancakes for lunch with cheese and lunchmeat on them, popped in the microwave for a few seconds. Not sure why. I just like them that way.

Whole Wheat Yogourt Bread

This is a bread machine recipe. It is straight out of the little book that came with my bread machine (West Bend brand)! And it is wonderful. The proportion of whole wheat to regular bread flour is greater than half-and-half, so you must use a "Whole Wheat" setting on your bread machine, if it exists. If you don't have that setting, feel free to reduce the amount of whole wheat flour and increase the amount of bread flour till you get a 1:1 ratio.

Please remember that bread-making is a science, even when you leave all of the work to the machine. Always remember to measure your ingredients perfectly, and don't leave anything out. Be exact. Don't add less sugar, the yeast feeds on it. Don't add less salt, it prevents the yeast from going out of control. Don't add more yeast, or your loaf might fall. Just stick to the recipe, folks, and you'll have a perfect loaf of bread!

Yields a 1.5 pound loaf.

1 c. water, 80 degrees F (a little warmer than room-temperature)
1/2 c. plain non-fat yogourt (also warm)
2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1 1/3 c. bread flour
2 c. whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp. dry milk (I leave this ingredient out completely, because it is very hard to find, and the bread still turns out perfectly)
2 Tbsp. brown sugar, packed
1 1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. active dry yeast OR 1 1/2 tsp. quick rise yeast

Add all of the ingredients into your bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Set it, forget it, and enjoy it when the machine beeps! Yum!

Cornbread

This one's an old favourite. Like biscuits, cornbread makes an excellent accompaniment, or is great as a snack just warmed up with butter. This recipe is easy to vegan-ify, and tastes exactly the same. My cornbread is moist, tender, slightly sweet, and very fluffy! Vegan verson in (brackets). Adapted from Molly Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook.

1 c. corn meal
1 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. buttermilk or yogourt (soymilk + 1 Tbsp. vinegar)
1 egg (1 portion egg substitute)
1/4 c. white sugar (Redpath sugar)
1/4 c. vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a loaf pan with butter, margarine, or spray oil. I usually grease a muffin tin for portion-sized cornbreads. Combine dry ingredients together. Whisk wet ingredients together in a separate bowl or ewer. Add wet to dry, stir just until combined, and fill loaf pan or muffin tin. Bake for about 12 minutes for muffins, or 20 minutes or longer for loaf. Remove from the oven when a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Easy Biscuits

I love biscuits, particularly fresh from the oven at breakfast. This is a simple recipe, and can be used to accompany any meal, including chili, sausage gravy, or strawberry jam or compote.

2 c. flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. cold butter (or margarine)
1 c. milk

Preheat oven to 450 F. Combine all of the dry ingredients, and cut the butter into the dry. Another way to do this, is to freeze the butter and grate it into the dry with a cheese grater. Do not overwork this step. Then, stir in the milk until everything is just combined. Flour a flat surface, and knead 8 to 10 times only. Roll the dough out to 3/4 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters, or into squares with a knife. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet (or plop squares into a muffin tin - this method works great). Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, or until very puffy and just golden on top. Serve hot and fresh!