Sourdough Cookies!

The other day I was craving cookies, and it was a day to rotate my sourdough starter so I decided to make my standby recipe of Sourdough Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. I measured my sour dough starter went to the pantry and discovered I was out of Raisins! Oh no-what to do?
Well, I decided to try and tweak the recipe to make chocolate chip cookies instead, and let me tell you the tang of the sourdough melded perfectly with the sweetness of the chocolate chips! I now have a new sourdough cookie favorite!




Sourdough Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter or margarine (softened)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup fed sourdough starter
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. maple flavoring
1 1/2 cup unbleached white flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups oats
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together shortening, butter and sugars. Stir in eggs, starter and maple flavoring until well blended. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt together. Stir into wet ingredients. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. I use a medium size scoop to form my cookies, but if you do not have one use a soup spoon to scoop them. Place them about two inches apart. Bake for 12-14 minutes. I like mine to be slightly brown on the edges and soft in the center. Now my kids are grown and gone, I like big cookies. If you make smaller ones you will need to watch your cooking time.

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
 
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter or margarine (softened)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup fed sourdough starter
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups oats
1 12 oz. bag semi sweet chocolate chips

 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together shortening, butter and sugars. Stir in eggs, starter and maple flavoring until well blended. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt together. Stir into wet ingredients. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. I use a medium size scoop to form my cookies, but if you do not have one use a soup spoon to scoop them. Place them about two inches apart. Bake for 12-14 minutes.

Sloppy Jakes (a Dutch Oven Variation of Sloppy Joes)

I am Back! After almost two weeks without a computer I am so happy to be back on line and I have a few new recipes to share in the next few days!
A few years ago we canceled our cable TV. We don't miss it. My husband and I are both avid readers and if we want to watch something we will just pop in a movie. We are also big movie fans, so we enjoy watching movies without the commercials. Being without the computer is another story. I was unable to look up recipes and patterns and Hubby was unable to do genealogy, which is his hobby.  When we finally gave up on having the old one fixed and bought a new computer it took several days to get everything set back up the way we like it. It sure is nice to have it back...
The recipe I am going to share with you today is for my version of Sloppy Joes. Now, I love Sloppy Joes, but I hate commercial buns, they get soggy and then fall apart. So this is how I like to make them. I make them with biscuits...almost like dumplings or an easy pot pie. I call them Sloppy Jakes after my son Jacob, not because he is sloppy, but, because he LOVES biscuits.
Any kind of biscuits can do, you can even use canned biscuits if you are in a pinch. Biscuits are so easy to make, why would anyone want to use canned?

Cheese & Onion Baking Powder Biscuits

2 c. flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. shortening

1 cup grated Cheddar Cheese

2 Tbls. finely chopped onion

1 Tbls chopped parsley

3/4 c. milk
 

Sift flour, salt, and baking powder into bowl. Add shortening and cut into flour with fork or pastry cutter. Stir in cheese, onion and parsley. Pour in milk and stir lightly until dough holds together. Turn dough out on lightly floured board. Pat dough out until 1/2 inch thick and cut with biscuit cutter or cup rim. Bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes. This recipe makes about 10  2 1/2 inch biscuits.

 

Sloppy Jakes

3 lbs. ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped bell pepper
2  15 oz. cans of Sloppy Joe sauce
1 cup water
Cheese and Onion Biscuit dough

               In a 12" Dutch Oven, brown the ground beef with the onions and peppers. Drain off the fat. Mix the ground beef mixture, Sloppy Joe sauce and water together. Heat till bubbly. While meat mixture is heating, roll dough to about 1/2 inch thick and cut with any size biscuit cutter. when mixture is bubbly drop cut biscuits on top.  Cook in the Dutch oven for 20-30 minutes with 8 coals on bottom and 14-16 on top. Rotate lid about every10 minutes to brown evenly.

This is a super easy meal for camping. Any biscuit recipe will do, but I like Baking Powder Biscuits best.