Sourdough Popovers

Another WIN from the sourdough starter! Today's discard from feeding the starter had enough for another batch of crackers (this time with herbs) AND a batch of Popovers. 

Oh. My. Goodness.

I have always been afraid to make popovers because they seem so scary and fragile...

These were SO EASY. And SO DELICIOUS!!

Yep, you guessed it. This was another winning recipe from King Arthur Flour. Have you checked out their site yet? 

Ingredients

1 cup milk

3 large eggs

1/2 cup sourdough starter

3/4 tsp salt

1 cup all purpose flour

Instructions

Put a muffin or popover pan in the oven while it preheats to 450 degrees.

Heat the milk until just warm to the touch. (I did 30 seconds in microwave, stir, 30 seconds)

Mix milk, eggs, starter, and salt. 

Add flour and mix until JUST combined (lumps ok)

Carefully remove pan from oven and spray with oil (or brush with oil or butter)

Fill the cups (to the top if a muffin tin), leaving empty cups among them so they can expand

Bake for 15 minutes at 450

Turn down heat to 375 and bake for 15 more minutes

Remove from oven and serve immediately.

I ate mine with just a touch of butter and salt, but they would be amazing with honey, jam, or anything else you can think of!

Sourdough "Starter Discard" Crackers

If you remember from my Sourdough Starter post, you have to discard some of it every time you feed it. Well.... I do NOT like to waste food! 

So, each time I feed my starter.... I bake! The King Arthur Flour site has lots of great recipes that you can use with this "discard" sourdough starter!

The first recipe I tried was Sourdough Crackers. You can add all kinds of things, like herbs, to the dough to make it different flavors, but we did it plain... in hopes that my picky eater would like them. (Spoiler alert... she didn't. But the rest of us SURE DID!! SO YUMMY!)

This recipe is based on King Arthur, but the following instructions are tweaked to be exactly what I did.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sourdough starter (discard/unfed)
2 Tbsp butter, room temperature

Olive Oil for brushing
Coarse Sea Salt for sprinkling

Instructions:

-Mix together the flour, salt, sourdough starter, and butter to make a smooth dough
-Shape into a rectangular slab and wrap with plastic
-Put in refrigerator for 30 minutes (or up to 2 hours) until dough is firm

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
-Lightly flour a piece of parchment, your rolling pin, and the top of the dough
-Roll the dough to about 1/16" thick
-Brush oil over entire sheet of dough
-Use pizza cutter to cut sheet into small squares (about 1-1 1/2 inch)
-Sprinkle with course salt
-Transfer dough (with the parchment) to a baking sheet
-Prick each square with the tines of a fork
-Bake 20-25 minutes, turning sheet around halfway through
-Remove from oven and transfer parchment to a cooling rack
-Store airtight up to a week

It really is super EASY! I can't wait to try it with some rosemary or thyme from the garden!

                                                  

Sourdough Starter

Well, since we are all quarantined for the next month or so, I figured "hey, I'll go back to that blog that I forgot about ages ago!" (Yeah, sorry about disappearing for about 7 years.... life got... busy).

With all of the extra time I have from NOT running kids to and from school, music lessons, social activities, theater, etc. right now, I have been spending a LOT of time in the kitchen. Plus, by making things from scratch (like I used to), I can avoid the germ filled store AND teach my kids some much needed life skills. (Not that I didn't teach them useful things before.... we just have WAY MORE time to spend doing it now).

Where to start...

Thanks to my love of baking, I always have flour on hand, so the HOARDING that people are doing didn't affect me in that sense. (I AM running dangerously low on TP, though, so hopefully the stores get stocked up soon.... or I will be writing a VERY different blog entry in a few weeks).

Back to baking...

We have been baking banana bread like CRAZY, as well as my famous Cinnamon Swirl Bread (I will write those posts separately for you later). We have also been baking my Everyday Bread and my favorite 5 Minute Bread often. I have ALWAYS wanted to make my own Sourdough Starter from scratch, but it's kind of intimidating! Having to feed it daily, or more, and keep a close eye on it to make sure it doesn't get contaminated. My schedule has been a little to crazy to commit to such a project. 

Not Any More! Time to give it a go!

I did a bit of research, since there are many opinions on the RIGHT way to make a starter. After comparing about a dozen blogs, recipes, and websites, I narrowed it down to the advice from King Arthur Flour. I mean, they do MAKE flour and all, so they probably know what they are talking about. Also, their website was much easier to follow than many others. I suggest you go there and check it out! They also have recipes for using the starter once you get that far! (AND they have recipes for using the discarded starter.... you will know what I am talking about soon.)

Here's the basic gist of how to make your own sourdough starter!

Day 1: Mix 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup lukewarm water. 

            Cover and let sit for 24 hours at 70 degrees.

-Whole wheat flour is more likely to have natural yeast in it.

-You can use tap water as long as you can't smell any chemicals. Otherwise, use filtered water.

-You can cover it with a tea towel or loose plastic. I used one of those elastic plastic covers (like a shower cap). See picture below.

-The BEST place to keep your starter is in the oven with the LIGHT on. JUST THE LIT BULB makes it nice and warm and helps the yeast become active. Don't turn the oven on... you will cook your yeast.

Day 2: Remove 1/2 cup of starter and discard it 

           (or use in one of the "discard" recipes on the King Arthur Flour website... I made crackers).

           Add 1 cup ALL PURPOSE flour and 1/2 cup lukewarm water.

           Cover and let sit for 24 hours at 70 degrees.

           This is my starter after Day 2 feeding and resting in the oven for 12 hours...

Day 3: Keep ONLY 4 oz (1/2 cup) of starter and remove/discard the rest (or make something with it!)

            Add 1 cup all purpose flour and 1/2 cup water.

            Cover and let sit 12 hours.

            Keep 4 oz and remove the rest, and add another 1 cup flour and 1/2 cup water.

            As you can see, you feed TWICE a day for day 3, 4, and 5!

Day 4: REPEAT Day 3 (feed twice, 12 hours apart)

Day 5: REPEAT Day 4 (feed twice, 12 hours apart)

After Day 5, if your starter is nice and bubbly, it is ready! 

(if it is not bubbly yet, continue for a few more days. Cold weather can take longer)

To USE your starter, first feed it and let it sit for 6-8 hours (yes, you discard all but 4 oz again)

Remove what you need for the recipe (no more than 1 cup) and feed remaining 4 oz starter again, letting it rest at room temperature for a few hours to activate. After it rests this time, keep this remaining starter in a jar or other covered container in the fridge (loosely covered), feeding it once a week and using as needed.

     

Good Luck! 

Pumpkin Puppy Treats

Hurray for fall! I love the changing colors of the trees and the cool, crisp mornings. But most of all, I love baking with PUMPKIN! (And drinking pumpkin spice lattes, of course). There is just something about pumpkin flavor that makes it feel like fall. 

I came across a recipe for Pumpkin Pie Snickerdoodles on Pinterest that looked delicious, so I had to give them a try. (I forgot to take pictures). They were SOOOOO good. I will be making them again. Check out the recipe I used HERE.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), I only had a giant can of pumpkin in my pantry and was left with extra after making the cookies. I couldn't just throw it away, of course, so I had to think of another use.

I had read somewhere that pumpkin was good for dogs, and since we recently got a puppy,

I decided to whip up some yummy treats for him too. Isn't he adorable?

I found a recipe for Pumpkin Dog Treats on THIS blog that sounded pretty easy. And I had all of the ingredients in my pantry already, which was a huge bonus. 

15 oz pumpkin puree

2 eggs

1/2 cup oats

3 cups whole wheat flour

2 Tbls peanut butter

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix it up, roll it out to 1/2 inch thick, cut out the "cookies," and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. 

A half hour later........ Voila!

Peanut Butter Pumpkin Puppy Treats!

I couldn't find my bone shaped cookie cutter, so we made diamonds instead. I don't think Benson (the dog) minded at all. He gobbled them up like crazy! I think he might like pumpkin flavor as much as I do. Good dog!

Mystery Vine

A few weeks ago, a plant popped up in my garden. I didn't put it there, and I didn't know what it was. But I was intrigued, so I watered it and let it grow. 

After a short time I could tell that it was a vine of some sort. Judging by the leaves and tendrils, I guessed it was some kind of gourd or melon, but I really couldn't tell for sure until the flowers came out. 

Finally, it bloomed!

As much as I liked the flowers, I was really hoping that it produced something that I could eat or use. After a quick internet search I determined that it was a Bottle Gourd vine. Yay! You can eat the gourds, drink the gourd juice, or let them mature and use them as bowls or noise makers (when they are dried up). How fun! I've never grown a gourd before, so I'm really looking forward to watching this one grow. You just never know what's going to pop up in your garden!

(I have not always been successful with my "experiments." Once I let a plant grow that ended up having super poisonous berries! That one gets ripped out as soon as I see it now. And just recently I let one grow that turned out to be a very aggressive weed! I'll be cutting it down today before it goes to seed.)

Blackberry Milkshakes

Blackberry bushes are a real pain. Literally! 

Every time I try to cut them back I am left with scrapes and scratches all over my arms and legs. Ouch!

Living where we do, we've got berry bushes popping up EVERYWHERE. It's a full time job just to keep them from taking over. This year, I noticed a ton of flowers on one set of bushes, so I decided to let them go for the summer before cutting them back. Boy was I rewarded! Every week my kids and I have been able to pick a large tub of big, sweet, juicy berries. For free! (Actually, I've decided that they are probably being watered by the leak in our pool, so I'm really paying to water them...... but it feels like free. Haha!)

 You can't really tell from this picture, but this is more than 5 cups of berries! This would cost about 20 bucks at the store!

We've been eating some of the berries straight off the vine, but I've been freezing most of them to use over the winter. I've also made peach blackberry crisp (SO YUMMY) and blackberry bran muffins (they were a little too dense so I need to tweak the recipe a little). And last night, we made blackberry milkshakes! Wow, were they delicious!

Aren't they a beautiful shade of purple? You'd think I added food coloring to get this color!

They were super easy to make, too. Put a few scoops of vanilla ice cream in your blender. Add a few handfuls of berries and some milk (a little at a time until you get a good consistency). That's it! I don't really like fruity ice cream, so I was surprised at how delicious they were. I will be making these again before blackberry season is over!

So Many Plums!

I don't have any fruit trees..... yet. But I know people that do. And I've always heard that one tree can produce so much fruit that you can't possibly eat it all. And they are all ripe at the same time, forcing you to either give them away to friends and family, or can them. I was one of those lucky recipients this year. My mom gave me more than 20 pounds of plums. What am I going to do with 20 POUNDS of plums!?! 

Here are some of the things I made.

Plum Chipotle Jam 
If I'm going to eat jam, it's not going to be your average sweet sticky stuff. And my hubby is addicted to spice, so this recipe pleased him too. You can adjust the amount of chipotle to your taste. I got the basic plum jam recipe here and just added chipotle. They give you great instructions if you are not familiar with canning jam, so check it out. Here's my recipe:

3 pounds plums: washed, pitted, and quartered (leave the skins on for great flavor)
3 cups sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
3-4 chipotle peppers: diced
2-3 Tbsp adobo sauce from canned chipotle peppers

Put all of the ingredients in a stock over high heat and mash gently. Bring to a boil, skimming off the "scum" as needed. (Prepare you canning jars in boiling water).

Stir frequently until bubbles slow down and the mixture sticks to the spoon in clumps (The recipe says about 10-15 minutes, but it always take me more than 40 minutes).

You can remove the skins at this point if you want to, but I prefer to leave them in. They are so tender at this point that you almost don't notice them. Turn off the heat and divide jam among your hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe rims and finger tighten lids. Process jars in a hot water bath for 10 minutes (for 1/2 pint size jars). 

Spiced Plum Chutney
We used this chutney with pork and also at Thanksgiving with turkey. It was a hit! I found the recipe here, but I added more garlic and used dried cherries instead of currants (because that is what I had on hand). The process is pretty much the same as for the jam above, but it needs to cook longer to reduce the added liquids. Here is my recipe:

3+ lbs of plums (8 cups chopped): washed, pitted, and chopped
2 red onions, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
1/2 cup cider vinegar
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 Tbsp mustard seeds
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper chili flakes

Makes about 4 pints (or 8 half pints)

1. Prepare jars.
2. Put all ingredients in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, reduce to a  
    steady simmer, and cook (stirring occasionally) until the mixture is reduced by a third 
    (30-40 minutes or longer).
3. Put chutney in jars and seal with lids. Process jars in hot water canner for 10 minutes. 
    Store for at least 6 weeks before serving for best flavor. Refrigerate after opening.

Plum fruit leather
This was a fantastic way to use the plums. Even my picky eater (who wouldn't touch a plum with a ten foot pole) gobbled it down. I'll be making them again, despite the long cooking time, because it may be the only way I get her to eat fruit! I found the basic instructions for fruit leather here. I used plums and peaches together and it was DELICIOUS!

This recipe is easily doubled, and I would suggest it because they are devoured in seconds!
All you need is fruit, water, sugar, lemon juice, and spices like cinnamon and nutmeg.

4 cups chopped fruit (I did 2 cups plums and 2 cups peaches) 
1/2 cup water

Bring to a simmer and cook over low heat for 10-15 minutes, until fruit is cooked through.
Taste mixture to determine sugar needed. Depending on the ripeness of the fruit, you will need to add more or less sugar. Add sugar 1 Tbsp at a time. I didn't add much because I like my leather to be a little on the tart side.  Add 1 tsp lemon juice to enhance the fruit flavor and add tartness. Add a few pinches of spices. I added cinnamon and nutmeg.

Continue cooking until thickened (10-15 minutes or more). Puree the mixture to make it smooth. I used a stick blender to do this. Adjust sugar and spices if necessary. 

Pour puree onto a lined baking sheet (using microwave safe plastic wrap or parchment). Make sure the lining hangs over the edge, but does not fold back over the puree. The mixture should be 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Bake at 140 degree Fahrenheit (or the lowest setting on your oven) for 8-10 hours. (Mine took much longer, but I think it was because my pan was warped that there was a spot that was too thick). The fruit leather is ready when the surface is smooth and no longer sticky. It will peel off the plastic quite easily.

To store fruit leather (if you have any left over after the kids and husband devour it), wrap it in plastic wrap and keep it in the refrigerator.