Sourdough Pretzels

I baked bread for the first time last week, and it miraculously turned out very well. So, I decided to take my daring a step further and attempt sourdough pretzels. BOY did these turn out well. I especially like my onion-topped pretzels, with just a dash of garlic salt. They're exactly how pretzels should be, though a bit smaller than I'm used to seeing. The original recipe makes 20 pretzels, so I cut all amounts in half since that seemed a bit much for two people. My boyfriend has requested I make these the next time he throws a football party, and that is testament to how good they are. --AnglophileLV

Sourdough pretzels

makes 10 pretzels, about 4 to 5 inches across, hard crust, soft center.

Ingredients:

3/4 cups proofed starter

1/2 cup hot water

1 tablespoons butter

1.5 tablespoons sugar (1/2 Tb = 1 and ½ tsp)

1 teaspoons salt

1/2 packet yeast

2 3/4ths cups all purpose flour

Toppings could include:

Kosher or sea salt

garlic salt

chopped onions

Directions:

1. Let all ingredients and utensils come to room temperature

2. Add the 1 tablespoon butter, the 1.5 tablespoons sugar, and the 1 tsp salt to the cup of hot water. Cool to lukewarm.

3. Put the proofed starter and 1/2 packet yeast into a bowl. Add the warm water mixture. Make sure the water is not hot because that will kill the yeast.

4. Add 2 cups of flour, 1/4 cup at a time, stirring after each addition.

5. Turn out onto a floured board and knead in approximately 3/4 cups more of the flour.

The dough will be very stiff.

6. Place the dough in a greased bowl, turn over, and cover with a damp paper towel and a dish towel - you don't want the dough to dry out. Let rise for 2 hours. It helps if you put the dough in a warm place. I preheat the oven and place the bowl on top of the stove which seems to work well.

7. Break off pieces of the dough about the size of a large egg. Roll each piece out with the palm of your hands until it is about 18 inches long and about 1/2 inch in diameter. Twist into the shape of a pretzel.

8. Bring a pot of water to a rapid boil. Drop as many pretzels as will fit without touching into the water and cook about 30 seconds after they have risen to the top. (Or longer, if you like a chewier pretzel.)

9. Remove to a baking sheet and sprinkle with coarse salt.

10. Bake in a preheated 425*F oven for 15 minutes, until golden brown. Remove and cool on wire racks.

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Imagine Toll House, but lighter and fluffier - that's what these turned out to be. I don't know whether it was the shortening or the sourdough starter, but one or both of them made these into a melt-in-your-mouth consistancy. I highly recommend this recipe. My mom swears she can taste a slight sour kick to the cookie, but I sure can't. --AnglophileLV
***On consideration, these cookies could have used more chocolate chips. So throw in 1 and 1/2 bags if you are making a half-batch like I did.

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies (Recipe makes 70 cookies, cut in half for smaller batches)

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour -- unsifted
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter -- softened
1 cup shortening -- softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar -- packed
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup sourdough starter
4 eggs
1 3/4 cups walnuts -- chopped
2 12 oz pkgs chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine butter, shortening, sugars and mix well. Add eggs and beat until all are blended. Add vanilla and sourdough starter. Beat in flour, soda, salt and mix well. Stir in walnuts and chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes.

Sourdough Pancakes

I found another use for my sourdough starter: supermodel! And it makes a darn good pancake too. It's very important to serve these rugged Alaskan pancakes with really good jam, fresh fruit, and real maple syrup. And a little whipped cream. --AnglophileLV

Sourdough Pancakes

Ingredients:
1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 large egg, well beaten
2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar

1. The night before: Mix 1 cup starter with the flour and milk in a large bowl (not metal). Place the bowl in a warm place, cover and let it stand until morning.

2. The next day: add beaten egg, oil, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar to sour dough mixture; mix well.

3. Heat a lightly greased skillet over medium heat. The pan is ready when a few drops of water bubble and skitter rapidly around.

4. Cook pancakes until surface is covered with bubbles. Turn and cook other side until golden brown.
Makes about 7 to 14 pancakes.

Sourdough Pizza Crust

I have a pot of sourdough starter sitting in my kitchen. His name is Beauregard, and that reminds me, I need to feed him. He had his first outing last night when I made sourdough pizza dough. The thing to remember about sourdough is that it’s not actually that sour. Commercial sourdough has god-knows-what added to make it overly sour, but if you’re making bread from a starter, you can sweeten it easily (using salt!), but making it more sour is actually a little tricky. So banish from your minds the sourdough from the stores; this is completely different. --AnglophileLV

For the sauce, I used around ½ cup of my homemade tomato sauce, 1 can tomato paste, a few dashes of dried oregano, a little garlic powder, and 3 teaspoons sugar (tomato tends to be acidic and tart so always taste your sauce to see if it needs sugar).

Note: If you pre-bake the shells, they will tend to stay fluffier. If you just top them and bake them, they will tend to be flatter.

Ingredients: (recipe source: Sourdough Home)

1 1/2 c mature Sourdough starter

1 T olive oil

1 t Salt

1 1/2 c Flour

Place your pizza stone in the oven if you have one and preheat oven to 450F. (Try 550F if your oven will take you there.)

Mix ingredients, working in the flour until you have a soft dough. If the dough gets too dry, add some more starter. If you've used all the starter, add a bit of water.

Once you've kneaded the dough, cover it with a damp paper towel and let rest for 1/2 hour. This lets the dough relax, so forming the pizza is easier. This recipe does not require the rising capabilities of sourdough, it just uses the taste of the starter.

Once the dough has rested, roll out into a flat round pie-like shape. I rolled my dough out on some kind of silicone parchment paper type thing, but non-stick aluminum foil would be my next best bet. Don’t use parchment if you plan to broil – I did that once, it burned to a crisp. Flames leapt. It was not good.

Once you have a nice round pie shell, you may pre-bake it or top it and bake it. To pre-bake it, bake about 5 minutes. It doesn't take long, so watch carefully.

After I prebaked the shell, I noticed that it wasn’t browning very nicely, so I brushed egg around the outer edge to make a pretty golden crust. Unfortunately, this made the crust a little crunchier, but it was still good. Then I dusted the egg covered portion with garlic salt.

When you're ready to top the pizza, rub a bit of olive oil on the surface, as this helps keep the crust from getting soggy. Then top with your ingredients. I went with mozzarella, parmesan (to help the cheese brown better), pepperoni, onions and green bell pepper. Then bake for 5 minutes and check – continue checking until the cheese is browned and bubbly on the edges. To get the veggies fully cooked, I had to put the broiler on for 40 seconds in addition to the baking time.

Sourdough Scones

Meet Beauregard. Originally from San Francisco, Beauregard ventured to Alaska in 1905 with the J.P. Morgan Company when the company cook (also named Beauregard – confusing in a British novel sort of way, I know) brought it with him to help feed the men building the railroad into the Kennicott copper mine.

Beauregard is a 104 year old sour dough starter.

It has been passed down through miners and restaurant owners to the owners of Sourdough Sunrise Bed & Breakfast in Seward, Alaska. And now, thanks to my boyfriend’s mother who stayed at the B&B and brought some of old Beau back with her, Beauregard has reached the sunny shores of Southern California.

I'll go into the Care and Feeding of sourdough starters later, but for now, check out this scone recipe for the best scones any of us have ever tasted - as stated this morning by everyone at the breakfast table. --AnglophileLV

Sourdough Scones (from Simply Sourdough - The Alaska Way - by Kathy Doogan)

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
2 Tb sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4th tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cold, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup currants or dried cranberries
1 egg
3/4 cup sourdough starter
1 Tb milk
2 Tb raw sugar (for topping)

In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Cut in the butter with 2 knives (or a pastry blender- so much easier) until the mix looks like coarse meal. Stir in currants (or cranberries).

Break egg into a 1-cup measure, beat lightly with a fork, then fill the cup with sourdough starter until all of it measures 1 cup. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix lightly until just combined (do NOT overmix). Turn out onto lightly floured board and gently knead 8-10 times. Dough should be very soft. You can use more flour - but use as little as possible since it's better for the dough to be too wet than too dry (too much flour creates a brick).

Gently pat dough into an 8" diameter circle and cut into 8 wedges. Brush the tops wtih milk and sprinkle with the raw sugar. Transfer wedges to a lightly greased baking sheet - seperating them from eachother by at least 2 inches.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15-18 minutes until golden.