The preferment, rise and fall of Sourdough

I first started baking bread around two years ago, I enjoyed having a go at baking any type of loaf. However, I was always a tad hesitant when it came to sourdough, i saw the dedication it took and the added complexities of effectively creating and utilising your own rising agent.

So when i first had a go at it about a year ago, i was overwhelmed by how well it had worked and how straightforward it was (i made my own starter from scratch over a 5 day period and baked on the final day).

The first sourdough loaf I made

Although, as good as it tasted, there was something niggling at the back of my mind, “Is this….it?”, I had made a beautiful loaf that had taken the best part of a week to make. It tasted great, but….was this all it was?
I started to experiment, maybe i needed to use different flours, recipes, baking methods, etc. Everyone on the internet would rave about how great this creation was. But up to now, it didn’t seem worth the extra effort.
The problem with experimenting with sourdough is that it takes so much time. It took months and eventually sucked the fun out of my bread making. Over time, I would rarely make bread, and when i did it wasn’t as fun as it used to be.

So when the lockdown came in, I finally had time to experiment freely, I could feed my starter and use it when it was primed and ready, not just when I got home from work. I made loaf after loaf all coming out tasting great and looking fine. But I realised what i should of realised a long time ago. It just wasn’t worth it. I started to go back to using yeast, and quickly started baking more and more with added vigor.

There are so many types of bread to make, but i had lost sight of that whilst chasing the sourdough dragon. I think a lot of the hype around sourdough is the magic of cultivating your own yeast and maintaining your starter (usually given a pet name) which you can mobilise at your will, confounding your friends and family with this little jar of witchcraft.

For the forseeable future, my starter (affectionately named Audrey) is frozen in time in the bottom drawer of my freezer.
Sourdough has had its time for me and for now, I’m having a lot more fun baking Brioche, Country loaves and Rye bread.

The most recent country loaf bake

Pancakes, Kiki and food

Fluffy Honey Boys

While watching Kiki’s Delivery Service, and seeing how Kiki goes to the local supermarché to buy food. She then starts to worry that she will have to live off pancakes for a while. I then suddenly decided to make some fluffy pancakes.

This again is stolen from the bbc food website (which i scaled down, because even i can’t stomach 4 peoples servings off pancakes not long after breakfast). It made around 3 thick medium size pancakes.
The batter is thicker than normal thin pancake batter, so it dosen’t spread out when you put it in the pan, meaning thick fluffy goodness.

  1. For dry ingredents
    Mix
    70g flour
    1/2 tsp of baking powder
    pinch of salt
    2 tbsp caster sugar (i used brown muscovado sugar, use what you have)
    into a bowl.

    For wet
    Whisk together
    70ml milk
    1 small egg
    2 tbsp of melted butter
    into a measuring jug

    Honestly, don’t stress about the amounts too much, pancakes are pretty forgiving.
  2. Mix the Dry and wet ingredients bit by bit to avoid lumps, and whisk until smooth.
  3. Heat a small non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and add a knob of butter (not too much or it gets a bit greasy, you aren’t deep frying them, plus there’s already fat in the pancake mix (egg yolk and melted butter)
  4. When the butter is melted and hot, add a ladle of your mix. Wait until the top of the pancake begins to bubble, then turn it over with a spatula and cook until both sides are golden brown, (give it a wee flip if you fancy when both sides are cooked and you’re just topping up browning).
  5. Remove from the pan onto a plate, add more butter to the pan and do your next one, repeat.
  6. Top with whatever you fancy. I quite like set honey and some lemon juice.
    Ideas for toppings:
    Greek yoghurt, honey and nuts.
    Nutella and sliced banana.
    Raspberries/strawberries/blueberries and cream.

    Pancakes are really forgiving and you can tweak them however you fancy.
    (You can also add frozen berries to the mix before frying, they’ll defrost as you fry, the pancakes and the juices will seep into the batter).

    But seriously, as with most food, do what you want, bobs your uncle, etc, etc.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Roasted red pepper Hummus with a thin

The first thing I’ve decided to post is my favorite hummus recipe. After deciding to set up a blog, I then realised that i wasn’t sure what to post first, an elaborate Beef Bourguignon? A picture of me frying an egg in a flowery apron and a big thumbs up?

So this recipe is very much stolen from the BBC food site, unfortunately i haven’t got an entire catalogue of recipes made up by me….yet. So i usually take recipes, do them over and over whilst tweaking or incorporating tips picked up from elsewhere.

Ingredients

  • 3 large red peppers, seeds removed and sliced
  • 1 red chilli, seeds removed and halved
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 1/2 tsp ground coriander (if using seeds, use double the amount, toast and crush in a pestle and mortar, same goes for the cumin)
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 x 400g can chickpeas/125g dried chickpeas (soaked overnight and simmered if you’ve got the time, if not, tinned is fine).
  • ½ garlic clove
  • ½ lemon, juice and zest finely grated
  • 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses (optional)
  • sea salt
  • freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • olive oil

Method

  1. Preheat the grill to its hottest setting and line a grill pan with foil.
  2. Slice the sides off the peppers (you should get three slices from each pepper – watch this if you need some help), cut the chillis in half lengthways and remove all seeds and as much white from the flesh as possible. Place them flesh side down on the foil.
  3. Grill the peppers for 10-15 minutes or until the skins are black all over. With a pair of tongs, transfer the hot peppers to a bowl and cover with a plate. The steam will help finish cooking the peppers and loosen their skins. Leave to cool for 10 minutes or so.
  4. Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a small frying pan. Add the chopped onion and fry over a medium heat for five minutes, or until softened, stirring occasionally. Stir in the ground coriander and ground cumin for the last 30 seconds, then leave to cool.
  5. When the peppers are cool enough to handle, peel off their skins. There may be some little flecks of burnt pepper skin left on (don’t worry about this), do not rinse the peppers/chillis under any circumstances.
  6. Scoop the spiced onion mixture into the bowl of a food processor with the pepper/chilli flesh and any juices from the bottom of the bowl. Then add the chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice and zest and pomegranate molasses, if using. Blend until the mixture is smooth. Add a couple of spoonfuls of water to thin the hummus to a lighter consistency.
  7. Now, the key to good Hummus is the final step of seasoning. Add each ingredient below as needed, whizzing your food processor to mix, tasting and then adjusting seasoning until you’re happy.

    Sea salt – Add until you can taste a satisying “zing”
    Freshly grated pepper – to give it some heat at the back of your throat
    Lemon juice – Add until you’re happy, this should make the hummus taste lighter and fresher as well as balancing out other flavours
    Olive oil/butter – if it feels a bit stiff/dry/hollow – if you want to thin the consistency use olive oil, if not, use butter.
  8. Spoon the dip into a serving dish and serve as a dip for carrot sticks, cucumber, hot flatbreads, crackers, anything you fancy really.
    Store it in the fridge and eat within three days.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

  • Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
  • Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

  • Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
  • What topics do you think you’ll write about?
  • Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
  • If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.

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