Remember how I told you I’ve been cooking a bunch? I’m thinking that Foodie Friday could become a regular thing, just in time for the weekend. That way you (and I for that matter) can have inspiration to try new things over the weekend!
Last week I went crazy over bread. I went a bit crazy on the bread front.
I started by wanting to make really good pancakes. While surfing the internet I read about “overnight” pancakes, where you make the batter the night before and let it do the fermenting-sourdough kind of thing. Reading through some Google searches, it looked like there were a variety of opinions on how to make these. Some involved baking powder, baking soda, and yeast. Others said recipes with baking powder would work, and those with baking soda would not because the soda is used for a more immediate rise. I didn’t feel like going through the hassle of the powder or soda. I also didn’t have buttermilk. Or much milk at all. So what I did instead was take a standard pancake recipe and remove the egg and leavening agents and add yeast instead. It ended up more like a wet dough as opposed to a batter. I dutifully put it in the fridge, and in the morning I globbed the dough into a pan. It took some flipping to get it to a pancake shape, as I had to keep squishing it flat in order to cook it, but it was certainly delicious! I even have some in my freezer for when I’ve just eaten too much oatmeal. Or wake up late. The latter is more likely.
Sourdough bread has always been a favorite of mine, and it has eluded me for years. I tried twice to make a sourdough starter, three and two years ago, and both failed epically. So I was determined this time. I found this picture post on the Kitchn, as well as this post on Pinch My Salt which is in reality for the bread recipe, but has links to her starter adventure. I successfully made a starter, which I was super excited about, but did not make a successful loaf. There was a whole gob of uncooked dough at the center, which I scooped out. The rest of the bread seems destined for crouton/cracker-esque status. Now that there’s an enormous hole. But I’m trying again this weekend, so never fear!
But while I was waiting for the starter to work, I also made a half batch of the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day dough. It gave me two loaves. One was ugly and dense, since I didn’t know exactly how to shape a loaf. The other was pretty and still awfully dense. It didn’t rise much in the oven, and I’m not certain that I let it rise enough the first time anyway. Maybe its because I baked it on a normal baking sheet, and without the steam container. It was the first time I used the oven in this apartment, and I was just happy to make the bread itself, without the fancy bits. Maybe next time.
I’ve cooled off a bit on the bread since then, but weekly, I’ll be trying the sourdough until I get it right!