Sourdough Bread: Successes and Failures

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I’ve had a love/hate relationship with sourdough bread. Back when I first began trying to make it 3 or 4 years ago, I never mastered it and it ended up being more hassle than it was worth. Last year, I tried making my own sourdough starter out of rye flour. It turned out great and I spent the next few months making all sorts of yummy sourdough breads, but still really couldn’t get the bread loaf down. My family went on a grain-free diet for awhile, so my sourdough starter was ruined.

A few weeks ago, I decided to try again. I started my sourdough from rye flour. Many instructions will tell you wheat or rye is fine, but I’ve found that rye is the easiest to get started. It bubbles up and ferments properly without a lot of worry. After about a week, when my culture was ready, I made some no-knead sourdough bread. I made two different recipes. One was a complete flop which some member of my family said needed cutting with a chainsaw. :-) The second turned out beautifully. Since then, I’ve made sourdough biscuits and crackers. Tonight, I have some sourdough rolls mixed up ready for finishing up in the morning for our midday meal.

I’ve made bread since I was nine years old, so I was already aware that bread making is an art and a skill. If you add sprouting grain and soaking flour to your bread making regime, then it is a new art form and skill that takes developing. Sourdough is the same way. It takes learning what the dough needs to feel like, how to handle it, what to add.

I’m slowly gaining new knowledge in the area of sourdough. Eventually, I hope to have some new recipes of my own to share. For now, I’m going to share a few I’ve made and we’ve enjoyed.

 

Sourdough Starter instructions:

I found Jenny, from Nourished Kitchen, to have the best instructions on sourdough starting. If you follow her instructions, using rye flour (or wheat if you don’t have access to rye), then you will be on your way to making wonderful sourdough products. Once the sourdough is ready to bake with, I switched to wheat flour. If I want to bake a big batch of something, I’ll feed it a cup of flour and 2/3 cup water for a couple days and then bake with it. Stirring vigorously is very key to the success of the starter. I found that stirring it for about a minute rapidly will make it nice and bubbly and foam up like a proper, active starter should.

sourdoughstarter

 

Sourdough Baked Goods:

Sourdough Crackers are probably our favorite baked item I’ve made with my starter. These crackers are super easy and delightfully crunchy. Don’t roll them very thin, because if you leave them slightly thicker than you would normally do for crackers, they will puff up and be beautiful, crunchy and delicious.

 

sourdoughcrackers

 

Sourdough No-Knead Bread is a very delicious, easy bread. It rises beautifully. I made mine with Kamut flour, but I think I’ll try Spelt next time. It has a very crunchy, artisan crust.

 

One of my personal favorites is Sourdough Biscuits. I tried this recipe last year. They are super easy to make and delightfully sourdoughy good. :-)

sourdoughbiscuits

 

 

Do you have any sourdough stories? What are your favorite recipes? What are some recipes that you would like to see me make and share from my sourdough starter?

Back to School: Corn Syrup

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Here is the other article I wrote that went down with our web server crash. :-)

 

This is bound to be one of the most controversial posts I will write here on this blog. (edit October 3, 2011: No, this isn’t going to be my most controversial post. My post controversial will be my post on sugar I plan to write in the near future. In it I will jump and down on a lot of people’s sweet teeth. :P) So, with fear and tremblin’, here is the spill on corn syrup. While most of these articles refer to “high fructose” corn syrup, I am also warning you of corn syrup in general. It is dangerous as well. Just clarifying as someone recently said, “but it isn’t high fructose corn syrup!” There’s really no difference in the long-lasting effects.

The Murky World of High Fructose Corn Syrup explains the process in which corn syrup is derived. Yew.

Soft Drinks, is a interesting and sobering article about one of the main corn syrup drinks Americans drink.

Interestingly, an article about High Fructose Corn Syrup by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Another Interesting article on Corn Syrup. And yet another one by the same other, 5 Reasons I Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup. And the last in the series.

 

Here is a cute ‘commercial’ on High Fructose Corn Syrup that about sums everything up:

 

Here is the other article I wrote that went down with our web server crash. :-)

 

This is bound to be one of the most controversial posts I will write here on this blog. (edit October 3, 2011: No, this isn’t going to be my most controversial post. My post controversial will be my post on sugar I plan to write in the near future. In it I will jump and down on a lot of people’s sweet teeth. :P) So, with fear and tremblin’, here is the spill on corn syrup. While most of these articles refer to “high fructose” corn syrup, I am also warning you of corn syrup in general. It is dangerous as well. Just clarifying as someone recently said, “but it isn’t high fructose corn syrup!” There’s really no difference in the long-lasting effects.

The Murky World of High Fructose Corn Syrup explains the process in which corn syrup is derived. Yew.

Soft Drinks, is a interesting and sobering article about one of the main corn syrup drinks Americans drink.

Interestingly, an article about High Fructose Corn Syrup by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Another Interesting article on Corn Syrup. And yet another one by the same other, 5 Reasons I Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup. And the last in the series.

 

 

 

Back to School: GMO

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I posted this awhile back and then our web server crashed. So, here it is again. :-)

 

Introduction: ;-)

I’m going to be sharing about a couple things that our family has learned a lot about within the last few months and have encouraged us to be much more health-conscious about what we put in our mouth. I’m going to be posting link to articles on GMOs and corn syrup and the harmful effects of both. The facts are somewhat overwhelming and the solution seems…well, rather depressing.

For us, our solution is we’re trying to grow our own food. God has blessed us with property and so we are studying, planning and preparing to provide our own food.

A question I have to remind myself of is “is this temporary delicious thing (drink, snack, dessert) worth the poison that is in it?” Yeah, I am that hard on myself. I’m hard on myself because the consequences and effects of the corn syrup and GMOs are sobering as you will see for yourself in the videos and articles. It took something hard to get me to stop drinking McDonald’s coffee and certain soft drinks and I already did that so rarely because it is expensive. :-) And Braum’s eggnog? Wow, that was hard to give up this last holiday season (Thanksgiving through Christmas is eggnog time in our family), because I love their eggnog. But after reading the label and seeing it was full of high fructose corn syrup and regular corn syrup, I decided I could do without. I’m saying that because I want you to know it isn’t me just trying to preach something I don’t live. It’s hard to resist a “just every once an awhile” sweet something. :-) I’m learning that homemade goodies with wholesome sweeteners such as honey and sugar usually are better, tastier…and I can eat them without feelin’ guilty. ;-)

Two things that really got me to change and reform my thoughts on GMOs and Corn Syrup:

1. Both have been proven to contribute significantly to infertility and impotence. Ouch. Since I want to be able to have children some day, this piece of information highly motivated me to change.

2. Once these are in your system, they are there. To stay. These harmful, damaging substances which cause all kinds of disease, food allergies, etc. remain in my body for the rest of my life? Um, no thanks. :-)

With that here is the spill on GMOs. I hope you’ll take the time to read and at least watch the video down below. Be sure to check out the GMO shopping guide!

Here is “just” 50 harmful effects of GMOs on humans, land and animals. Rather shocking. Scroll down to see the list.

Everything You HAVE TO KNOW about Dangerous Genetically Modified Foods from Jeffrey Smith on Vimeo.

You heard about Monsanto from the video. Here is a brief article about them.

Here is a list of 3 approved GMOs that have been linked to organ damage.

Seeds of Deception is run by Jeffrey Smith (he also has written a book with the same name!). There is loads of information on his website, but here is an article on The Health Risks of GMO. And why the FDA is not protecting us.

So, now that you’re shocked, dismayed, paranoid and clueless as to what to do…here is some hope. :-)

Here is a non GMO shopping guide for free.

 

And here is an article of practical ways to fight GMOs.

 

I didn’t mean to make anyone scared. I’m merely trying to inform people as I was informed so we can change some things!

Feel free to question/comment! Your thoughts are welcomed! :)