Sourdough Update and Sourdough Dinner Roll Recipe

The sourdough starter continues to do well.  I feed it every other day.

At this point I am keeping on the kitchen counter instead of in the fridge. 

My second recipe with left over starter was to make sourdough rolls.

 

I have scoured the Internet looking for sourdough recipes. 

 

This Sourdough Dinner Roll Recipe was just what I was looking for.

We ate some with our dinner and the rest were frozen for a later date.

They turned out beautifully, soft, light and excellent!

 

Ciao! Amy

Sour Dough Starter (Experiment 1)

I enjoy making bread and sour dough is one of my favorites.

As my bread making skills improved over the years I have had a

desire to make authentic sour dough bread. But, I (let's be honest here)

have been intimidated by (yes, snicker if you must) flour, water and yeast.

I have read a lot of sour dough gone wrong stories.  Well, today this evening at

7:30pm EST I bit the bullet.  I created my first sour dough starter you see above.

I read, re-read, scoured the Internet for tips, etc.

Took a deep breath and bit the sour dough bullet. 

I hope you will follow my journey down the sour dough path

as I update my blog periodically on the sour dough experiment

growing in my kitchen as you read this.

My Sourdough Starter Recipe

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups warm water

2 1/4 t of bread yeast

2 t orange blossom honey

Place all ingredients in a large glass or plastic container and cover loosely.

Leave on counter for approximately 5 days.

Stir daily, add 1/4 cup flour and water every other day.

*Yellow "hooch" liquid may appear on top as the alcohol is released. 

Stir this back in the mixture.



Freezer Cooking Sunday

It's been crazy around here with Brad and I working extra hours.

I haven't had a lot of time to do any extra cooking.

But, I have been thankful for the freezer dinners in my freezer for those nights

when there is no time to cook.

 I took a couple of hours

today to put up a bit of produce and make some bread. 

So we will call this a 2 hour cooking session.

Colby Jack Cheese Bread

makes 2 small loaves

 1 1/4 cup of milk

2 T butter, cut up

1 t honey or sugar (I used orange blossom honey)

1 1/2 t salt

1 1/4 cups Colby jack cheese shredded. Reserve 1/4 cup.

1/4 t black pepper

1/8 t garlic powder

3 3/4 cups bread flour

2 1/4 t of bread yeast

1. Add ingredients to your bread machine in order recommended.

2. Run dough on dough cycle.

3. Once cycle is complete, turn dough onto a floured surface.

4. Divide dough into 2 pieces

5. Shape into loaves and place on greased, cornmeal sprinkled pan.

6. Cover with damp cloth.

7. Let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in size. In a warm draft free area.

8. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

9. Slash dough length wise and sprinkle with reserved 1/4 cup cheese.

10. *Optional* Sprinkle with basil, oregano or parsley.  I used parsley for color.

11. Bake 25-35 minutes or until done. 

Shelled field peas to freeze.

Froze whole tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. 

I wash them, dry them and throw them in a freezer bag for soups & stews in the winter.

How easy is that?

I also had Brad's help cooking 2 pounds of center cut bacon for breakfasts.

Ciao! Amy

Country White Dinner Rolls Recipe

We were out of sandwich rolls and the Country White Dinner Rolls Recipe was in my to try pile.

I threw everything in the bread machine, let it do all the hard work. 

Once the dough cycle was complete I took these out and baked them in the oven.

Our only complaint, I used my 2.5 inch round cutter for these rolls and they came out huge. 

I will use a size small to cut them out next time. I got 14 extremely large, softball, size rolls.

Very tasty, easy and a keeper.

Ciao! Amy   

Summer Squash Chocolate Cake

We had a ton of yellow squash.  I made squash this and squash that.

My mother use to make a yellow squash cake that was always a hit.

Below is her recipe.  This turned out very good.

It was moist, very chocolaty and we have both enjoyed it this week.

Summer Squash Cake

4 oz unsweetened chocolate

1/2 cup cooking oil

1/2 butter, room temp

2 cups sugar (I adjusted this to 1.5 cups, my chocolate was lightly sweetened)

3 eggs, beaten

1 T vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa

2 t baking soda

2 t baking powder

1 t salt

1/3 cup buttermilk or sour cream

3 cups coarsely grated yellow squash or zucchini

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Melt the chocolate and oil in a small pan, over very low heat

3. Cream the butter until light

4. Add sugar, eggs and vanilla to butter, Beat well

5. Add the melted chocolate and mix well

6. Sift the dry ingredients and stir into the batter with the buttermilk

7. Mix the squash and nuts into the batter.

8. Grease and flour two (9 inch) cake pans

9. Divide the batter between the pans.

10. Bake on middle shelf of oven for 40 mins or until tester comes out clean

11. Cool completely before frosting.

* I used some canned chocolate frosting I had in the pantry.

Ciao! Amy



Rich Chocolate Pound Cake

In honor of National Junk Food Day I made a Rich Chocolate Pound Cake  .

What better way to celebrate then with Chocolate and Cake?

Brad and I both enjoyed a slice and deemed it a keeper.

Ciao! Amy

Farmhouse Bread (Bread Machine)

One of my favorite things to make is homemade bread.  I have and still make a lot of my bread by hand.  However, my bread machine is one of favorite kitchen toys.  I use it weekly.

We were out of bread today and I threw this together in the bread machine.  I am not a big fan of how bread baked in the bread machine turns out so I let the bread machine do the mixing, kneading and the rising and generally bake the bread in the oven.

Farmhouse Bread (Bread Machine)

1 loaf 1 3/4 pound

1 1/4 milk

1 egg

2 T butter (melted)

2/3 t salt

2 T honey or sugar

3 1/2 cups of bread flour (I used 3 cups of regular bread flour & 1/2 cup red wheat)

2 t of bread machine yeast

2 T sesame seeds (optional)

1. Place ingredients in bread machine in recommended order

2. Use dough cycle to mix up ingredients, mix in seeds at appropriate beep

3. After the dough cycle is complete, remove dough

4. Place dough in lightly oiled bread pan (I used cooking spray)

5. Cover dough with damp dish towel and let rise in warm area for approx 30 minutes

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

7. Bake for 22-26 minutes or until golden brown and has a hollow sound when tapped on bottom.

Ciao~ Amy