English Muffins, Take 2

I made the sourdough English muffins again this morning. I doubled the recipe and it made 25. They look prettier than last time, I think, and also got the thumbs up from my husband.

They froze well last time, so I'll repeat that as well. This is definitely going to become a staple around here.



So far its been a great weekend. Even though we've lived here for a year and a half, I'm just now heading out to explore the local farmer's market for the very first time.

And tomorrow I'm putting together a small workshop for beginning sewers on making market bags from old (or new) sheets. Very much looking forward to it =)

-- Posted From My iPhone

Thoughts on Bread

As I munched my breakfast of PB&J this morning I thought about the bread I've been making. So far it's OK, but not excellent, and I still want to improve the texture.

When the loaf rises, it gets easily to a good plump size, and then I bake it. But it's still fairly dense inside. I'm sure there are other things I could do to work towards a lighter loaf, but one thought is that it's possible the recipe could make more than just one loaf. (The recipe actually says to put it on a flat surface to make a round, but I'm the one that is changing it to a loaf shape

So I think I'll try getting a second pan (then I can experiment with metal vs. glass also) and let the dough rise longer, to see if that helps. Perhaps confining it to too small of a space is the problem.

Maybe it's like people: If you put yourself in too small of a box, you limit yourself and can't realize your full potential.

Also, hello 100th post!

English Muffins

This weekend I made sourdough bread and realized that my starter is getting pretty big. I also decided that since it's going to be around awhile, it needs a name. Betty. Thrifty and useful, just like my starter. Betty has a large home, but I don't like to have the starter get out of hand. I didn't bake last week, and I didn't throw any out, so she was getting a little uppity.

I thought I'd be adventurous, and made sourdough English muffins last night/this morning.

There must be a reason this recipe came up #3 on a Google search: YUM

They were easy to make, too. I don't have a biscuit cutter, but a plastic cup (thin edge) worked just fine. I was worried that I rolled mine too thin, but they turned out just fine. I think if they were too thick they wouldn't cook evenly.

Also, the second side cooked much faster than the first. I was going by the timer and almost burned them!

Straight off the griddle they needed no toasting, but when I snacked on one later they only improved with toasting. Definitely going to hang on to that recipe.

They're partially whole wheat, and I've also started feeding Betty whole wheat to mix it up a little bit (also I was out of white flour at the time.) I don't know if that's by-the-sourdough-book, but then it wasn't that way from Betty's Amish-bread beginnings...

Tonight I started something else new: ginger ale! I can't wait to try it =)

Sourdough English Muffins
Makes about 12

• 1/2 C starter
• 1 C milk
• 2-3/4 C flour - adjust as needed for consistency of your starter
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• Semolina or cornmeal, for dusting

Combine starter, 2 cups of flour, and milk in a large bowl. Stir to combine, cover with plastic wrap, and leave out for 8 hours or overnight.

After the overnight rest, add remaining flour, sugar, salt and baking soda and mix well. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 4-5 minutes. Roll out to 3/4" and cut with a biscuit cutter into rounds. You can reroll the scraps, but you may need to let the dough rest before cutting more muffins from them. Place muffins on a piece of parchment dusted with semolina or cornmeal and let rest for 45 minutes.

Spray griddle or skillet lightly with spray oil. Heat to medium and cook muffins for about 6-8 minutes on each side, or until browned on the top and bottom and cooked through. These have great griddle spring and rise quite a bit during the "baking".

Split with a fork and enjoy!

Bread and Apple Pie

I've been a little under the weather for the last few days with a cold, so I've felt like I'm running at half-power. Needless to say I didn't get all my projects done this weekend (do I ever?) but we did sit down with the seed catalog and pick out some vegetables to order. I also made more of the newspaper seed pots, but we're going to need a LOT more... The pattern is from eHow, and I cut down the layers by only using one sheet of our smaller local paper, and also I don't have to cut anything off.

Last week was a co-worker's birthday, and so I thought I'd make an apple pie for her. Cook's had a recipe that intrigued me, with a crust included. I used shortening instead of lard, and it turned out lovely. For the filling I did the variation at the bottom, and lowered the sugar (by request) and I think it turned out well. I used mostly Granny Smith, with Braeburn, Honeycrisp, and one I think Fuji. Definitely a recipe to keep on my shelf.

I usually do lattice tops on apple pies, but this time I decided to do something different- Stars!

I made sourdough bread today, with mostly white flour, but added 1/2 cup oatmeal and about 3/4 cup ground brown rice. The rice isn't super-fine, so it actually adds a bit of crunch to the bread. I thought I'd have to grind up the oatmeal, but it turned out just fine (I used what I had on hand, quick oats.)

The risings had some help from our wi-fi station. I've started putting the bread in my husband's office to rise, since it's so warm with his computer. Then I realized that the airport box was really the warmest, and so we put a few spacers on it and set the bowl right on top! Brilliant!

It got the thumbs up, can-I-have-another-slice from my husband, which is a pretty high rating. I think this is the best loaf so far, definitely lighter than the others.

Now I'm finishing up my last project for the weekend, which is cataloging the contents of our pantry. I get so frustrated when I can't keep track of the expiration dates and end up throwing food out.

So I'm making a spread sheet with all the items on it, and I'll print out one copy sorted by expiration date, and the other sorted by type. I'll keep notes in the margin, and revise it as needed. We'll see how it goes... I'm optimistic =)

The Continuing Sourdough Saga

Here's where I stop counting the loaves... That last one was very tasty by the way. It was a tad under done, but made a fabulous toast.

Now I want to start making it more than white bread, but not ready for whole wheat starter yet (maybe someday.) The coarse ground mini-loaf was ok but not perfect. It was tasty when cut into cubes and served with artichoke dip.

Now I'm trying a loaf with only 1/4 cup ww, ground in the blender again, but to a finer texture. So far it's a lovely dough, and seems to be rising well.

Maybe some day I'll be able to replace our $4.50/loaf grocery store multi-grain.

Since I'll be baking nearly weekly, there are a couple more thing I want to try.

- Sprouted wheat / other grains
- Multi-grain flour (look into a mill!)
- A small amount of grape nuts, soaked in milk first (I like muffins made this way)
- Brown rice ground into flour?


-- Posted From My iPhone