Stephen, my sourdough starter, is being difficult. Seems he doesn’t want to float, despite looking bubbly and smelling sour. Darn you Stephen. So, I emptied most of the starter out and am starting(ish) over. Which meant I had a whole lot of discard to play with. I guess it is finally time to make sourdough discard crackers. I’ve read about them, but OH MY GOSH I HAD NO IDEA HOW TASTY THEY WOULD BE. And easy.
Easy, easy, easy. HWMMS is seriously addicted too. I consider this recipe a HUGE win.
I did find it sort of funny that as a child when I would put water and flour together, I used it as paste. Now, here I am 40 years later spreading “paste” on a silpat mat and baking in the oven to make sourdough crackers. Ha.
Next on the baking list – sandwich bread. I’ve been making bread for years and years, no-knead, sourdough, banana, etc.., but I really want to get a perfect sandwich loaf under my belt. So I decided to try this American Sandwich Bread recipe from the Splendid Table.
The first batch attempt, a few weeks ago, I had old yeast. Oops.
The second time, last night, the bread puffed up properly! But I left it rising overnight and when I woke up this morning, it deflated. I baked it anyhow, because I am the MASTER OF HALF RISE LOAVES OF BREAD. (Gma Baker must be looking down in me shaking her head…)
I shall not be defeated!
I tried again.
And as SOON as those loaves started to inch above the pan, I put them in the oven.
SUCCESS! WHAT A GORGEOUS GOLDEN LOAF!
ASIDE –If you’re out there baking bread and you DON’T HAVE A FANCY BREAD KNIFE. You’re doing it, well, not as good as you could be. This knife is everything. My woodworking friend from The Foundry, Bill W. makes these super sharp bread knives handmade. I cannot recommend more. CLICK HERE TO GET ONE! (And support local small businesses!)
At this point in the late afternoon, HWMMS actually said (without a trace of irony…)
“The only thing I’ve eaten all day, is bread.” #quarantinelife
While I was waiting for the 2nd rise of the sandwich bread, I decided to make a few batches of pizza dough. Nothing fancy. I just added a whole bunch of dried chives. My intent was to freeze the balls for later use but HWMMS requested a pizza, so I made calzones instead. (Haha,)
I had dandelion greens and so many shiitake mushrooms harvested from earlier in the week to use. I sauteed them up with garlic and onions and added sausage.
And cheese. And believe it or not, there’s a small can of red tomato sauce somewhere in this mixture.
Despite the fact that only two of us live at Weber Wonderland, I never seem to be able to cook only for two.
YUM! My six giant calzones turned out maybe a little bit ugly, but puffy and delicious.
Mmmm. Sausage. Three of them went straight to the freezer. One of them went straight into our bellies (we split one and still it was huge!)
And then I took the loaf of half size bread and cut it into cubes for croutons.
So. Much. Bread.
And that my friends, is how I spent my day.
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