Thursday, October 23, 2014

Harvest Apple Sourdough Bread

This sourdough bread is my husbands favorite. He likes it fresh out of the oven, or toasted. He will eat it for breakfast or dessert! It is loaded with fruit and nuts.

Harvest Apple Sourdough Bread
Stir together:
1 cup chopped apple
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pieces
Add:
1 cup fed sourdough starter
1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons yeast (optional for a quick rise)
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon maple flavor
5 cups flour (more or less depending on wetness of starter)
Directions:
Knead to form a smooth dough, let the dough raise until it is doubled in size. divide dough into halves and gently form into tow loaves. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Raise again until double. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray loaves with warm water and slash bread with a serrated knife. Bake bread for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool.


Saturday, October 11, 2014

Chocolate Sour Dough Bundt Cake with Pumpkin Ice Cream

Oh yea, Fall is here and that means pumpkin time (although I must confess I eat pumpkin all year long. Yesterday I felt like baking something chocolatey! So I made a variation on King Arthur Flour sour dough chocolate cake...


Sourdough Chocolate Cake
1 cup "fed" sourdough starter
1 cup milk
2 cups  All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa (not Dutch process)
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
3 large eggs

Directions

1) Combine the "fed" starter, milk, and flour in a large mixing bowl. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours. It won't necessarily bubble, but it may have expanded a bit.
2) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Thoroughly grease and flour a bundt pan.
3) In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar, oil, vanilla, salt, baking soda, cocoa. The mixture will be grainy.
4) Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5) Gently combine the chocolate mixture with the starter-flour-milk mixture, stirring till smooth. This will be a gloppy process at first, but the batter will smooth out as you continue to beat gently. Fold in the Chocolate Chips.
6) Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
7) Bake the cake for 55minutes, until it springs back when lightly pressed in the center, and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
8) Remove the cake from the oven, and set it on a rack to cool
Rich Chocolate Glaze for Bundt Cake

 
1can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1) In a small sauce pan slowly heat sweetened condensed milk. Add 1/4 of the chocolate chips. Drizzle a small amount of glaze on top of cooled bundt cake.

2) Return to heat and add 1/2 of the remaining chips, drizzle a small amount of this on top of bundt cake.

3) Return to heat and add remaining chocolate chips, once again drizzle a small amount on top of the cake. This will give you 3 different shades of brown on your cake.

4) OPTIONAL: I like to also melt a few white chocolate chips and drizzle on top to and another layer.

5) Now, if you have remaining chocolate sauce add a few tablespoons of milk and a touch of vanilla to make a wonderful chocolate sauce to pour on you pumpkin ice cream...or whatever ice cream you serve with your cake!


PUMPKIN ICE CREAM                                                   
1 cup cooked pumpkin                                                                                                          
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar                                                                                  
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon                                                                                 
1/4 teaspoon ground  nutmeg                                                       
1 quart (4 cups) vanilla ice cream, slightly softened

       Stir together all ingredients except ice cream in large bowl. Add ice cream in large spoonful's, stirring until well mixed. Spoon mixture into ungreased 8-inch square pan. Cover; freeze at least 3 hours.

 



 

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

French Onion Sourdough Bread











This delicious bread is wonderful for sandwiches or served with soup. It takes time to caramelize the onion and is well worth the effort.









Thinly slice 2 onions, I also like mine quartered to make them smaller so they can spread out further in the dough.

Melt butter in heavy skillet, then add onions.



Cook over medium-low heat for 30 minutes stirring every 5 minutes.



When nice and brown and transparent, remove from heat and cool completely.




French Onion Sourdough Bread
2 Tbls. Butter
2 Medium onions, thinly sliced then quartered
1 cup fed sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 1/2 tsp. salt
5 cups unbleached white flour
2 tsp. yeast (optional for faster rise)
 
 
Melt butter in a heavy skillet add onions. Cook on medium low for about twenty minutes stirring every five minutes. When nice and brown remove from heat and cool completely.

 
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
 
Stir  onions into starter. Stir in warm water. Add remaining ingredients. Knead until smooth, 7-10 minutes. Allow dough to rise about 90 minutes until doubled in size.
 
Divide dough in half, gently shape into two loaves. Cover and let rise once again until double.
 
Bake the bread for 25-30 minutes until golden brown, cool on a rack.