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Healthier Pie Crust With Sourdough
I love pie… and its an indulgence for me. All of that flour, extra carbs, wrapped up in layers of butter — and we haven’t even got to the sugar in the filling. Sourdough is the answer. I figured out a way to make pie crust with sourdough. Why is that such a breakthrough? Sourdough is “fermented,” and contains Lactobacillus culture, which increases lactic acid, which breaks down phytates. (Read more about why you want that to happen in your bread here). The soudough pre-digests the starches in the grain, and the longer rising times breaks the protein gluten down to make it more digestible. More importantly, a study showed that after…
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The Non-Food Fight Sourdough Pizza Pin Wheels
The text came through around 2:30 in the afternoon, that panicky time, when I’m trying to get the last round of edits in for a client, before the kids come in and break my concentraion. “Can I have the group over for dinner tonight at 6:30?” Sometimes this group can be extraordinarily rambunctious, pushing the edge of a typical food fight to include syrup to make the crumbs stick better. But most nights, they’re a bit more mellow and introspective. They meet at restaurants with their group leader, sharing a meal, opening their Bibles in these very public places, and they try to figure out what it all means, and coming…
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Sourdough Buns
I stand behind the counter at bedtime, and shout out equations to my kids, with flour all over my hands, not wanting to touch the calculator on my phone for fear of covering it with sourdough starter. The buns I’m trying to make take a lot of math into account. First, swapping out the sourdough for yeast cuts the four and the water, but not in equal amounts. And then, I have to triple everything… because 8 buns are just not enough for this family. There is an amazing recipe on the King Arthur Flour website for hamburger buns that is simple, and so tasty. The recipe calls for yeast,…
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Sourdough Lavender Herb Bread
I didn’t think he was ever going to stop eating it. Under the knife, the bread gently gave way to a dozen or more long, thick slices. Steam was still rising, as he picked up two big slices at a time — devouring it plain, without the olive oil, butter and cheese placed beside it. Before I turned around, two more slices were in his hands — and now his brother had them two, imitating his style of stuffing two slices of this incredibly soft bread into his mouth. This bread was a meal all by itself.So much for savoring. I had heard that lavender was edible, and so many…
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Why I’m Still Feeding Sourdough Starter: English Muffins
I remember the rare times my mom brought home those sourdough muffins from the store — in the long sleeve package that we kept in the refrigerator. They were so good, with melted butter. But there were only six in the carton, and before you knew it, they were GONE! It would have been better if she hadn’t bought them! Because now I ached for more. So, just before summer, in the late spring, I thought I would try to make English Muffins out of the sourdough starter. I was worried that English Muffins would be too fussy, too hard, and that my muffins would end up tasting like rocks.…
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Crinkly Sourdough
The process of drying sourdough has been, in a few words — aromatic (what is that smell, that is somehow — appealing?!) interesting, easy and fascinating. It all started by smearing some of my vibrantly healthy French sourdough starter on parchment paper,and just letting it sit and literallydry- out until all moisture was gone, and I was able to crumble it up into little ziplock bags (quite fun) and send out to those who want a fresh start. It was that simple! I saved a small batch for myself — just in case something would ever happen to mine. (Store it in the freezer in a well-labled jar). The rest…
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Sourdough Flax/Chia Waffles
The great thing about a waffle iron is that the hot iron squishes and hides a multitude of healthy stuff. Inside each of those little squares are hidden flax and chia seeds — and you would never know it. Why flax seed? Flax seed is high in most of the B vitamins, magnesium, and manganese, but also, most of the oil in flax seeds is alpha linolenic acid (ALA), an Omega-3 which is a precursor to the fatty acids found in salmon and other fatty cold-water fish (called EPA and DHA). Plus flax contains soluble and insoluble fiber that helps to stabilize blood sugar, and, of course, promotes proper functioning of the intestines.…
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Food. It’s All About the Food
It may have looked as if I was trying to win him over through his stomach, those few days before Thanksgiving, when I was buying ready-made foods (like Bosco sticks and frozen chicken won tons, sourdough frozen pretzels, chunky applesauce (cinnamon)) but I wasn’t. I was just thinking, and worried about standing in the kitchen all day preparing meals that just couldn’t come out of the oven fast enough, while my son, who hasn’t been home in maybe 6 weeks, would be hungry. So, I was just trying to be prepared. But of course, his brothers teased me and said, so, I see how it is. He comes home, starts…
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How An Artisan Bakery In New York Inspired me to Bake Bread Again
In March, I put my own sourdough starter into hibernation — inside of the refrigerator. Iphone Photo taken from a page in the latest bread manual, Orwashers Artisan Bread: 100 Years of Techniques and Recipes I promised myself I would not pull out the starter and start feeding it under any circumstances…. I had a graduation party to plan, and there was no time for daily feedings. Plus, I didn’t know how the tears from that time would affect my starter. It was difficult, to say the least, for everyone in the family to go without those crispy sourdough flatbreads, smothered in tomato sauce and melted mozzarella cheese, the food…
Susiej
Writer
