Reviving a Sourdough Starter (from the freezer)

A couple of weeks ago I made the decision to take my sourdough starter out of the freezer.

What I didn't fully realize was that in doing so, I was basically adding a part-time job onto my already quite busy schedule.  (It actually takes a bit of work to revive a starter!)  I followed the directions from this post from King Arthur Flour: Putting Your Sourdough Starter on Hold (which also covers "Bringing Your Sourdough Back to Life"  :))

It sat in my oven with the light on for days looking like this:

As I watched it carefully for signs of life (read: bubbles), like this:

So that I could get to do this,

(Helpful resource: this video called How to Make Sourdough Bread, and using the recipe found within the video.)

I've been paying pretty close attention to my starter, trying to study it and figure out the best feeding/rising/baking schedule and system for our lifestyle.  I've baked sourdough three times (6 loaves total) within the past two weeks.  We all LOVE it. 

However, now my starter is in the fridge on an I'll-feed-it-weekly (and maybe bake once a week or once every-other week) schedule, because I don't really have time to babysit it each day.  ;)

I am still bummed that while the sourdough tastes delicious and I think it looks right, it doesn't have the same rise as the other breads I've baked.  I keep tweaking it trying to change my feeding/rise times in order to get a nice rounded loaf top, but... all to no avail.  I intend to perfect it, though.  And I'm open to any tips for those of you who have any!  :)


Other posts on bread and bread-making:
Adventures in Sourdough Bread-Baking (from two years ago)
Fall Deliciousness

Fall Deliciousness

One the of the grand things Mark and I decided for this school year is that when he gets a day off, he's going to sub in for me, following our normal school routine, and I get the day off.  As in, off.  While the kids are still getting school done.

I can't even describe to you how delightful this is.

This morning--- wait, let's go ahead and begin with last night, because I think you should all know that I single handedly ate an entire pint of Ben and Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream.  But that's not all.  I also ate approximately half a bag of Kettle Honey-Dijon chips.  You may think I'm exaggerating but I'm not.  Also a lime+coconut+rum blended drink Mark made me.

It's been that kind of week.  PMS hits hard and fast these days and on Sunday night I was bawling and feeling like this life of mine was impossibly overwhelming, was suddenly exasperated and irritated about all the mess everywhere, all the noise, everything that had to be done, anything on our calendar, any and all questions and all the interruptions.

So last night was absolutely necessary.

Oh.  And yes, I'm still counting calories.  I think I'd saved about 800 calories for last night's snacking, but we all know I went over by about 4000.  I figure that's just fine to do once a month.

Anyway, all that to say that today is a much-needed day off.  I woke up at 7:30 (that's sleeping in for me!).  Mark was already up with Adelia, reading books on the couch.  I went for a jog, came home, showered, got ready-- all while Mark was busy with the kids in their getting-ready-for-the-day, chores, and breakfasting routines, and now I'm at Starbucks with an iced latte and my Bible, journal, colored pencils and the laptop.  George Winston's December CD is playing happily in my ears.  It's my favorite soothing music.  I chose a sunny table by the window where I have a view of the fireplace but also get to sprawl out all my stuff.

This post is titled Fall Deliciousness because this may be my favorite time of year for cooking, baking and perusing cookbooks.  I've tried out some new recipes lately and wanted to share them with you.  Sorry for the long and winding intro.

First up: bread.  Is there anything better than freshly baked bread this time of year?  NO there is not.  So I've been baking bread.  Lots of it.  Our favorites are my grandma's white bread recipe, because it makes four loaves and because it's pure comfort to me to read her instructions in the recipe and to think of her baking it.  And the smell of it and-- it's the perfect bread for sandwiches.

I also have another whole-wheat bread recipe that I alternate with for sandwiches.  And this recipe for Honey-Oat bread that I bake to use for dinnertime.

New to me but equally satisfying is this recipe for crusty bread.  (Thank you, Sarah E!) I have ALWAYS wanted to make this type of bread but don't have a dutch oven so I figured it was out of the question.  But a couple of weeks ago I decided to try to use an old Corningware dish I have that has a glass lid, and I'm so thrilled because it totally worked!  I made two loaves and they were perfect:

Secondly: soup.  Please do yourself a favor and make this recipe for Slow Cooker Butternut Squash soup.  (Another thank you to my friend Sarah).  I've made butternut squash soup before but this recipe is by far the best.  I think it's the coconut milk you add at the end.  Plus, you chop everything up and throw it in the crock pot and then your house smells like pure fall goodness all day long.  I think those are the best kind of meals.  [Just a couple of my notes on this recipe: I used sweet potatoes instead of the carrots and will do it again.  Because we just love sweet potatoes at our house.  Also, I peeled my apples.  I don't own an immersion blender so I just poured it into my food processor and pureed it in small batches.]  We all loved this soup!

A terrible picture, but here it is--ready to cook all day!

Serve the soup with some of that crusty bread and it's a perfect fall meal.  Or make up some quick Yogurt Biscuits but add something savory like parmesan and sage or whatever you have on hand.

Last but not least, please make this recipe for Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies from Ashley Rodriguez.  Just... yum.  It's the variety of sugars and the salt on the top.  I keep making them.  Double the recipe, for sure.  And I know she says to refrigerate the dough but who wants to wait for that?  Plus, then you have hard dough that's tough to work with so just ignore that part.  And use whatever chocolate you have and like.  I use milk and semi-sweet. 

(Recent) favorite cookbooks to pore over: Date Night In (which is where the cookie recipe comes from) and The Forest Feast (which is just pretty and inspiring.  I love her dressings and salads and her photos and illustrations throughout.)




Please share any of your favorite fall recipes in the comments.  We love to try new recipes at our house!


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Adventures in sourdough bread-baking

When I was in the eighth grade, we traveled through Europe as a family.  My dad had been invited by some missionary friends to speak about Jesus to the university students there.  In addition to his speaking engagements, we got a Eurail pass and visited every possible museum, church and castle my dad could get us to.  (In the eighth grade, I was not particularly excited about all of that.  I was looking forward to Paris and was hunting for a new pair of shoes.  Truly.)  But in college I did end up studying art, and art history classes were my absolute favorite.  Perhaps all those museum trips ignited a love of art in me after all.

One of the other things I remember about Europe is the bread.  My fondest memory is a trip we took along with two missionary families up to a little guest house in the Austrian Alps.  Each morning during our stay there, our hosts hung a drawstring bag full of fresh rolls on the outside of our door.  Maybe it was the luxury of freshly baked bread- still warm- delivered right to our door, or maybe it was simply the result of sleeping atop a downy feather bed, but it was my favorite place in all of Europe- that little inn in the mountains with the homemade rolls. 

In December I read Stones for Bread, and in the book the main character is an artisan baker.  The book was full of recipes and a narrative of the history of bread.  I finished the book and wanted to bake.  So I checked out several books at the library and started perusing them, to learn how.  I was contemplating beginning my own wild yeast starter.  The more I read, the more I realized just how MUCH there is to learn, and what a science the art of bread-making is, and it just all seemed a little overwhelming to add to my already-full plate.  So I announced to Mark that someday, maybe when the kids are older, maybe when we're old, I will learn to bake bread.  I think I'd really love it.

When I miscarried last month, a friend of mine brought us a meal, and with it a loaf of homemade sourdough bread.  It was so delicious, that bread- and so generous of her to share it.  I asked her for the recipe and when she emailed it to me she said she'd drop off some starter the next time she was in town.  And she did.  So then I had this unfamiliar liquid in a jar and no idea what to do with it, except for her recipe and instructions. 

So I followed her instructions and fed my starter daily and tried my first loaves.  They over-rose, if there is such a term, and went flat.  I baked them anyway and the bread was delicious.  And I learned that the next time I would use three pans, not the two.

The photo below is from my second batch of bread.  This time I mixed in a bit of wheat flour with the white, and folded parmesan cheese into the round loaf.

 

Take three: (photos taken pre-baking)

Isaac and I added feta, garlic and dill to this loaf.  It has been our favorite loaf so far.

We made two loaves with chocolate chunks and peanut butter swirls.

I still don't know what I'm doing.  (I want to figure out how to make my bread more porous, for instance, and I have no idea what I'd need to do to make that happen.)  Someday maybe I'll have time to figure that out, or maybe I'll accidentally happen upon that as I experiment.  But for now, I am doing what I know to do, and changing things up a bit as I go, and happily surprised every time my bread turns out!  (Oh, and we're all probably getting chubby, too.)  ;)

This morning's loaves.