Sourdough Discard Chocolate Donuts!

I've been talking about wanting to make donuts with my sourdough for a while, so the Hubs gave me one of my Christmas gifts early: a 3-inch silicone donut mold!  I was pretty excited to try it out.  The original recipe I used was meant to make 24 donuts, so I cut it in half to make enough batter for 12... but then, when I started pouring, turns out it was just a little more than I needed to make six donuts. So either I was pouring heavy, or the original recipe was meant for a smaller diameter donut mold, or both.  I tinkered with this enough to be able to list it out as an original recipe (also, I did the conversions to grams so, you're welcome).

INGREDIENTS (makes 6-ish three-inch donuts):

• 75g AP flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 30g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp instant coffee or espresso powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 70g brown sugar
• 60g sourdough discard
• 120g milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 36g coconut oil, melted
• 50g mini chocolate chips (optional)

Glaze:

• 1 Tbsp powdered sugar
• splash of milk
• splash of vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Whisk together all the dry ingredients, then add in the brown sugar, sourdough discard, milk, oil, and vanilla.  Mix until well combined with no lumps, then add in the chocolate chips (if you like).

Transfer the batter into the donut mold (I opted to put a little cooking spray in mine, even though it's silicone, as a bit of insurance) using a ziploc bag as a piping bag. Put the mold on a cookie sheet for easier handling in and out of the oven.

Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Set the mold on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then flip and remove the donuts from the mold.  Once they've cooled for at least 30 minutes, you can make the glaze (the original poster melted chocolate chips to make a frosting, which would also be good) and add to the donuts.  Then eat!

Pre-glazing.

These had a very light, fluffy texture, less dense than cake donuts you would get from the donut shop or store. We saved back a couple to see if they would get more firm/less dense the next day. The glazed had definitely hardened them up a bit but the interior was still very fluffy.  I'm looking forward to trying out some other recipes with my donut mold! 

Next day donut.

Fail: Sourdough Cinnamon Cranberry Bread

 Spoiler: This week's sourdough adventure did not turn out well.  

A very tasty brick.

As you may already know, cinnamon has antibacterial properties.  Sourdough needs yeasties and bacteria in order to rise. This is why you so often see cinnamon swirl breads, where the cinnamon is introduced after fermentation and most of the rising has already occurred. Because adding cinnamon at the beginning will retard that bulk fermentation process.  

...but I'm lazy and don't like extra steps, and because my dough often tends to be wet, it doesn't lend well to rolling out and adding a "swirl" layer in, as first discovered when I was trying to make spent grain bread.  So I've generally just been trying to focus on finding recipes where the add-ins can be mixed directly into the dough.  I found this recipe from Lynn's Way of Life on Pinterest which incorporated everything in, so I tried that.  The only modification to the recipe was that I used dried cranberries instead of raisins, because that's what we had in the pantry.

The recipe clearly notes that because the cinnamon is mixed in early, fermentation may take longer than a normal loaf.  But a compounding issue here is that I was off on my timing with my starter.  Saturday is typically my baking day, so Friday night I pull my starter out of the fridge, let it get active overnight, use that fairly active "discard" in a recipe, then feed my starter and put it back in the fridge.  But I forgot to pull my starter out of the fridge on Friday.  So instead, at some point on Saturday (which had a lot of other things going on), I pulled my starter from the fridge, fed it, and then left it out on the counter, optimistically (and erroneously) thinking I would make my dough that evening once it was bubbly.  But by the time it was was ready, I was not. I was busy making gumbo and didn't feel like messing with it.  So I left the starter out on the counter overnight and planned to make my dough the next morning.

Somewhere in there, I'm pretty sure the starter had already reached it's peak. It was still very bubbly when I made my dough the next morning, so I figured all was well. But I think between the starter already being headed back towards hunger, and the cinnamon mix-in on top of that...she just didn't rise. Like, AT ALL.

Folded and in the pan.  I gave it some extra time to "rise" in the fridge overnight...which it did not.

Very dense crumb.

Even though it was super dense, the flavor was still really good, especially toasted and with butter. My husband called it "bagel bread".  So I would be willing to attempt this recipe again with my usual process. I've never used the float test to confirm my starter is ready, but this might be a good time to try that, just to make sure the dough has a fighting chance at rising in spite of the cinnamon.

Sourdough Bagels

 Bagels are one of my favorite breakfast options--who doesn't want delicious carbs first thing in the morning!  I had never tried making them before, sourdough or otherwise. I generally just pick them up on sale, buy a container of whipped cream cheese (salmon if buying plain or everything bagels).  With my last bagel purchase, we went through the bagels faster than the salmon cream cheese, so I decided it was time to try my hand!

I used Farmhouse on Boone's recipe, (no modifications, so click that link for the recipe) which makes 8--perfect for a week's worth of breakfasts. I opted to make plain bagels, no mix-ins, but decided to top them differently: two plain, two with cinnamon sugar, 3 with everything bagel seasoning, and one with za'atar spice, which I love on naan or flatbread, so it stood to reason it would also be excellent on a bagel. (I was not wrong.)

These are super easy. I don't know if I'd go as far as to say "I'm never buying bagels again!" because I'm not an extremist and don't believe in absolutes, but I can say I WILL make these again at some point, the next time I'm craving bagels. I might try some add-ins, but maybe not--it's really easy to make one batch of plain and then season them differently. 

I would recommend going ahead and slicing these while at room temp after they bake. We store our bread in the fridge and these are VERY difficult to slice while cold.  But we could pop them into the microwave for about 10-15 seconds and then they sliced easily.  

Sourdough Rye Bread & Homemade Reubens

The reuben sandwich holds a special place in our hearts and stomachs.  Our favorite pre-kid hangout had a killer Reuben on their menu, and it's something that if we're traveling and looking to split an entrée, Reuben is an easy "yes" from either of us. 

After my flaxseed bread from a few weeks ago turned out so well, I spent some time perusing the other recipes from that bloggers page, "Pants Down Aprons On" (bonus points for clever risque name).  I saw two other intriguing recipes:  A rye bread...and a traditional kvass beverage made WITH some of the rye bread (which appealed to my husband the homebrewer). That's a two-fer, and I'm sold.

I did not deviate from the OG poster's recipe, so hop on over to that link if you want to check out the ingredient list. Note: this will make two sandwich loaves.  We ended up freezing one for later.

Step 1 was to acquire all the extra crap I would need to make this, like whole coriander, caraway seeds, and molasses.  For the former I hit up the bulk section at our favorite local whole foods store (Mama Jeans FTW!). However MJ's price on molasses was too high, so I bought that at Wally-World.  Ideally, I would have loved to sub in some Steen's cane syrup but I don't have any on-hand.  Since I stopped working on the project that used to take me back down to Louisiana once a quarter, the Cajun section of our pantry is sparse. Guess I need to schedule me a visit...

Step 2:  Pre-ferment.  This is not a step I've done on other recipes, and honestly, it totally threw me off guard. I pulled my starter out of the fridge the night before I planned to bake, to let it get up to room temp and become nice & active...then woke up, ready to bake, and discovered I'd skipped a step.  Thankfully I was making this on a week while we were on stay-cation, so I ended up just postponing my bake by a day...but still, disappointing.

Step 2b: Rescue a dog.  This is not actually a required step, but did end up being the thing we did that day rather than baking bread.  There was a sweet puggle listed at our local Humane Society. It'd been about 6 years since our last pup passed away, Lil' Man is at a good age to help, and has finally gotten over his fear of dogs from getting bit when he was little...and there she was. It was fate. 

Step 2c: Have your life partner smoke a brisket.  Because you'll need that to make a Reuben. 

Step 3: MAKE THE DOUGH in your largest bowl, because this is two loaves.  Add the rest of the ingredients to the pre-ferment and mix, do some stretch & folds, then cover.  It should look a bit like brownie batter but smell nothing like it. This was a VERY wet and sticky dough, but the recipe noted as much so I did most of my mixing with a spatula.

Step 4: Go run some errands like taking your new dog to the vet and groomer, and then come back to see THIS MONSTER.  Divide into two greased loaf pans, add some extra caraway & coriander, cover and let proof overnight in the fridge.

Step 6: Bake, then remove from pans and let cool.  

Step 7: Find things to eat with rye bread.  I usually end up eating a lot of my sourdough slices toasted with some butter, but this bread has BIG flavor, and American butter is pretty tame in comparison.  Thus, the reubens, and the tub of salmon cream cheese spread in my fridge.  

Ruebens also require Russian dressing and sauerkraut...links take you to the two recipes I used for those.  And if you're going to have sauerkraut around the house... might as well grill up some brats for your sis-in-law's birthday party.

Kvass recipe and results to come soon...

Seeded Sourdough Loaf

After the flaxseed loaf last week I wanted try using some other seeds in bread.  I found this recipe online and wanted to give it a whirl. We already had the sunflower and flax seeds on-hand, so I picked up some sesame & poppy seeds from the bulk section at Mama Jeans. 

The dough was fairly sticky, but I opted to not add extra flour and just see if the water would absorb over time.  

We let it rise while out running errands, and it had doubled by the time we got home.  For the last couple loaves, I've used active (room temp after sitting out of the fridge overnight) unfed starter with a little bit of rye flour (about 10g) replacing some of the recipe's bread flour. This seems to be enough to boost the activity though the dough does take a little longer to rise.

After doubling, I shaped it into an oblong loaf, put it in a rattan basket with floured tea towel, and let it cold ferment in the fridge overnight.  In the morning, it had puffed up nicely.

Transferred that onto parchment on a hot baking stone, along with a pan of boiling water on the lower rack to add some steam.  

Unfortunately, I didn't score the top as well as I should have, so the loaf....got it's own ideas on where to split & rise...

The Rated-G side...

The....not so Rated G side.

The crumb and flavor turned out well--not too crumbly, great for toast, garlic bread, and sandwiches on the river.

Flaxseed Sourdough Bread

This turned out REALLY well. I'm glad for that--I needed a win. The last couple attempts at making loaves had turned out really poorly:  on one, my dough was looking okay, but I accidentally turned the oven off after only 10 minutes in the oven....needless to say that was not a great bake.  Then I had some super active dough, doubled nicely, but then I got home late, put the bowl in the fridge without shaping it...and it deflated and didn't recover.  But this one... possibly the prettiest loaf I have made to date.

We have whole flaxseed in the cabinet to use in smoothies or baking. I wanted to see how it would do in sourdough!  Thankfully there was already a recipe out there, but it used only 60g of sourdough starter.  I had a BUNCH of discard this week.  (Note: I also got a new ring light to help with photos--not necessarily a planned purchase, but they were $10 in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby, which was cheaper than the clip-on version I'd been watching at Amazon, so...might as well.)

With the ring light.

Having learned my lesson from previous attempts at baking with cold, unfed discard, I pulled my starter out of the fridge the night before.  By morning, the volume had doubled and it was all very bubbly and happy with no hooch on the top, so I decided if I used 120g of unfed active discard, instead of 60g of fed active starter, maybe things would even out.  I also decided to mix up the flour recommendations a bit to help the discard. Rye flour is like a turbo-boost for starter yeast, so I reduced the amount of bread flour and added that in (in addition to reducing flour & water amounts to account for the extra starter).

INGREDIENTS:

• 120g sourdough starter, active
• 270g water (250g + 25g, as noted below)
• 400g bread flour
• 40g whole wheat flour
• 30g ground flax meal
• 10g rye flour
• 8g salt
• 10-20g additional AP flour as needed 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine 250g of water & the sourdough starter in a stand mixer bowl & mix well with a spoon until dissolved.
2. Add the rye flour, whole wheat flour, and flax meal to the bowl one at a time, mixing after each addition to incorporate thoroughly.
3. Add the bread flour to the bowl, then place in the stand mixer and use the dough hook to combine, just until water is absorbed.
4. Cover and let autolyze for 1 hour.
5. While that's going, combine the remaining 25g of water (boiling--use the microwave) and the 8g of salt to get the salt to dissolve. Let it cool during the autolyze step.
6. After the hour is up, add the saltwater mixture to the dough, and mix.  I found the dough with the original amount of flour was too sticky, so I added more flour while mixing.  Mix for a total of 10ish minutes or until it forms a nice ball and doesn't readily stick to the sides of the mixer or the dough hook.  This is in place of the more traditional "slap & folds" from the original recipe--I've found that 10ish minutes in the mixer is generally enough to build good gluten structure in the dough.
7. Once dough is mixed and smooth, cover and let bulk ferment.  I let this dough go for about 5 hours while we were out running errands--the original recipe was only 2ish hours with the folding (but again--I'm using unfed discard and figured it would need more time to bulk up). 
8. Once done with the bulk ferment, transfer onto a floured surface for shaping. I did a boule, and then used the basket of our salad spinner as my proofing bowl since has a lot of air flow to allow a skin to form on the dough. I placed the dough upside down onto a well-floured tea towel, then placed that inside the bowl and covered the whole thing with the shower cap, and put it in the fridge for a little shy of 24 hours.
9. Once ready to bake, I pulled the bowl out of the fridge and placed it on the counter while the oven was heating to 480F. I put my dutch oven in the stove as well so it would be hot.
10. When the oven reached temp, I flipped the boule out onto a piece of parchment paper, and then slashed the top with a razor that had been dipped in water (a tip from the original poster, which make the slash go MUCH easier than the last time I tried).  
    Using oven gloves, I removed the dutch oven, gently lowered the parchment into the pan, and then added an ice cube (for extra steam), quickly put the lid back on, and then put it back into the oven, reduced the oven temp to 430F, and baked for 35 minutes.
11. After 35 minutes, I removed the Dutch Oven and pulled the loaf out and placed it (and the parchment paper) directly on the oven rack for 7 minutes to allow the crust to brown.

And after all that....we have this!

Definitely the prettiest boule I've made to date.  Nice ear, nice oven spring...after those last few big whiffs, this was a reinvigorating boost.  Maybe I don't suck at making actual sourdough loaves!  Since we're doing the Mediterranean Diet, I incorporated a slice into my breakfast the other morning.

Cottage cheese = poor man's ricotta

Sourdough Pop-Tart Toaster Pastries

 I realize I just said in my last post that we needed to make fewer sweets with the sourdough discard...but I was craving pie crust, yet we didn't have enough eggs for a quiche or other savory option.  So...pop-tarts* it is. 

*I don't think I can get sued by Kellogg's, right?  Fine..."toaster pastries".  

I used Little Spoon Farm's recipe, with minor modifications:

• we made a double batch because I needed to use up a lot of discard 
• I used lemon juice in place of the vinegar (because we apparently don't own white vinegar)
• No icing--I was running out of time so we just put cinnamon sugar on top after the egg wash
• Filling: the double batch made 8 pastries, so we put strawberry jam in 2, peach jam in 3, and a mix of brown sugar & mini chocolate chips in the last 3.  The chocolate ones were the only pastries that didn't leak and weren't messy to eat, so if I did these again, I might make them all chocolate, possibly with marshmallow bits too.

Heads up--because the dough needs time to chill, DO NOT wake up at 7am and think you'll be able to make this in time before church at 9am.  I should have read the instructions better and made the dough the night before.  Learn from my mistakes. 

"S" for strawberry.

 These reheat in the toaster really well, though a few of them were almost too big--they wouldn't fit on their side and when put in the toaster vertically, the top inch or so still stuck out.  Aside from that minor issue, this was a pretty easy recipe and a good way to use up some discard, especially if you're craving pie crust. The original recipe calls for 25-30 minutes, but I found that 35-40 minutes in our oven got the best amount of crisp bottom and edges (had to bake them in two batches). I also recommend lining your cookie sheet with foil or parchment because the jam DOES leak out the edges.

Sourdough Pita Bread & Dehydrated Starter

This week's mission: pita bread!

The Hubs & I recently got back from an anniversary trip down to the Yucatan Peninsula.  After a week of drinking and eating as much as we want, we decided we probably needed to make some healthier choices once we got home. After some brief discussions of keto and a 21 day Daniel Fast, we landed on the more sensible, sustainable choice of The Mediterranean Diet.  More fresh fruits & vegetables, simple ingredients, more fish, less red meat. 

This much deliciousness, 3 times a day, for 7 days: time for a reset.

 But then, the question came up: what do we do with the sourdough starter?  We both acknowledged that we'd been eating a lot more bread since I started making sourdough--which has been delicious, but probably also needs to be moderated as well. Bread definitely isn't forbidden with the Mediterranean Diet, and homemade sourdough bread which has been slow fermented and is more easily digestible makes more sense than store-bought bread with more processed ingredients.  But all of the sweet discard recipes we've been making for breakfasts and desserts? That should probably be ratcheted back.  I also had been meaning to dry out some of my starter for safe keeping, just in case something happened to it.

Sourdough Insurance.

Like most Americans, when I think about Mediterranean breads, pita is the first thing that comes to mind.  And it also seems pretty simple: make some dough, let it rise, then roll it out in to some flat tortilla-like rounds and toss in the oven to puff up.  We used Farmhouse on Boone's recipe. Ingredient-wise we didn't vary from this so you can click over there if you want to try it.

Unfortunately, my dough ended up very wet and sticky--likely because of high humidity here since it's summer.  I added a fair bit of flour when I was rolling these out into rounds...but then I also ran out of space to be able to flatten them out to 1/4 inch as in the recipe.  

When I went to try to get them off the cutting board after a 30 minute rest, they were all stuck solid.  After much scraping and cursing, what ended up on the pizza stone were irregular, oblong flatbreads, rather than pita.

Many choice words were flying around this kitchen...

After fighting with the first three, I balled all the remaining rounds up together with a little extra flour, kneaded, and then started pulling off smaller dough balls. With the main mass of dough over on one side of the board, I then had space to flour the surface and roll them out to 1/4 inch.  So I ended up baking these one at a time.  Not really ideal, but with the reworking & additional flour, they did finally start puffing up like beautiful little pita breads.

Final result was a little dry (probably because of adding so much flour on the back end just to keep them from sticking) but good flavor. Some were a little too thin and crumbly to use for pita pockets--they broke easily and leaked, but all in all, not terrible for a first attempt.  Will I try again??? TBD.  As you know, I like trying new recipes, and as it turns out, there's a TON of Mediterranean breads that aren't pita.  In the meantime, it was delicious with hummus and worked fairly well as a pita pocket for these deviled egg salad sandwiches inspired by my friend Jo. (Basically, regular egg salad but with less mayo, more mustard, and diced homemade dill pickles in it.)

Apple Crumb Cake with Sour Cream & Sourdough Discard

We were headed to a potluck with one of The Hubs' Homebrew Groups, and I needed something to use this week's sourdough discard in. We also had a container of sour cream that needed to get used up, and some of last year's apples from our backyard tree hanging out in the freezer.  When I searched the interwebz for a "sourdough sour cream apple cake"...I got a lot of "sourdough apple cakes" and "sour cream apple cakes"...but no crossover.  So--I found a couple different recipes I liked, mixed & matched, and this was the end result.

Note: This results in some of the measurements below being in grams, and some in dry measurements--this is because the sourdough substitution is based on weight, rather than volume--I removed 75g of flour and 75g of sour cream from the cake layer to make up for the addition of the 150g of sourdough discard.

INGREDIENTS:

Apple Layer:

• 3 cups frozen or fresh sliced apples, peeled (sliced thin or cubed)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1.5 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Cake Layer:

• 1.5 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 170g sour cream (about 2/3 cup)
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 150g sourdough discard
• 240g all-purpose flour (should be a little shy of 2 cups)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Crumb Topping:

• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup quick oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar 
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup pecans, crushed

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the APPLE LAYER ingredients and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and let simmer until apples are very soft, around 20 minutes.  Remove from heat--it will continue to thicken as it cools.
3. In a separate medium bowl, melt the butter for the CRUMB TOPPING, then add the remaining ingredients and mix with a fork until crumbly.  Set aside.
4. Using a large bowl and hand mixer, or a stand mixer, combine the room temp butter and sugar and beat until fluffy. Then add the eggs, sour cream, vanilla, and sourdough discard and mix until smooth.
5. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and weigh the flour into the bowl, then add the salt, baking powder and baking soda. Place back on the mixer and blend until combined.
6. Pour CAKE LAYER into a buttered 9x13 pan and smooth out.  Then add the APPLE LAYER onto the cake batter, and use a butter knife to swirl the mixture evenly into the CAKE LAYER.
7. Add the CRUMB TOPPING layer evenly across the top of the pan, and bake for 40-45 minutes.

Cake Layer.

Apple Layer added & swirled in.

Crumb Topping added.

This works well as a dessert, or as a coffee cake for breakfast!