Friday, March 21, 2014

Sourdough Pretzel Bites with Honey Mustard


Sourdough Pretzel Bites with Honey Mustard

From Whole Food Family Favorites

 

Makes 120-150 pretzel bites

 

1 ½ cups sourdough starter, active and recently fed

1 cup hot water

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons unrefined cane sugar or honey

2 teaspoons unrefined sea salt

5 cups all purpose, whole wheat, or spelt flour

coarse unrefined sea salt

 

Method:

Add the butter, sugar, and salt to the cup of hot water and stir to dissolve.  Cool to lukewarm.

Put the starter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook.  Add the lukewarm water mixture.  Add flour, ½ cup at a time.  The dough will be very, very stiff.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, turn to coat, and cover.  Let sit for 2-4 hours.

When you’re ready to bake, bring a pot of salted water to a rapid boil, then reduce to a steady simmer.  Preheat the oven to 375° F.

Bread off pieces of the dough about the size of a large egg.  Roll each piece into a rope about 1 inch in diameter, then cut the rope into 1-inch sections.  Drop as many pretzel bites as will fit without touching into the water and cook about 30 seconds after they have risen to the top. (Or longer for a chewier pretzel.)

Remove with a slotted spoon to a baking sheet and sprinkle with coarse salt.  When the baking sheet is full, bake for 15-17 minutes until golden brown.  Remove and cool on wire racks.

 

Honey Mustard

 5 tablespoons raw honey

3 tablespoons smooth Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon kombucha

OR

5 tablespoons raw honey

3 tablespoons smooth Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons fresh whey

 

Method:

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk thoroughly to combine.  Enjoy immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

If you’re using whey instead of apple cider vinegar and kombucha, whisk all ingredients together and set aside at room temperature for 2-3 days before serving.
 
Happy Baking!!!

Friday, March 14, 2014


Tortilla

Original recipe from Gnowfglins

 

3 cups of organic whole wheat flour (I used soft white wheat-aka-pastry flour), freshly ground is best!

¾ cup water

¾ cup sourdough starter

¼ cup olive oil

Pinch of salt

 

Step One:  Combine the water, flour, salt, and sourdough starter in your mixer or food processor.  Keep adding flour, slowly, until the dough forms a nice ball without sticking too much to the sides of the mixer.  Once you get the dough to a soft ball form, allow the mixer to knead the dough for 2-3 minutes (if you don’t have a mixer, just do this by hand!).  Transfer the dough to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let this hang out on your counter for 12-24 hours.

 

Step Two:  When you’re ready to cook up your tortillas, heat up a griddle, cast iron skillet, or cooking pan of choice to medium-high heat.  I don’t bother with greasing or spraying my griddle.  I like to use my large griddle so that I can have multiple tortillas going at the same time-it helps to speed up the process.

 

Step Three:  Remove the dough from the bowl and transfer onto a greased surface.  Gently divide the dough into walnut sized balls (this recipe will yield a dozen or so, depending on size).

 

Step Four:  Grease your hands with a little olive oil and working with one ball of dough at a time, use your fingers to smooth the dough out into a tortilla.  I suppose you could use a greased rolling pin, but I find that using my fingers alone works fine.  Sure, the shape isn’t a perfect circle-but that’s okay!  It’s homemade, remember?

 

Step Five:  After rolling out the tortilla, gently and carefully move it to the hot skillet.  Cook it for about 30 seconds per side, until a little golden and bubbly.

 

Step Six:  You can either eat these immediately, or cool them off and store them in the fridge or freezer for later use.  I have found that they reheat very easily and even stay soft.  Yay!

Friday, March 7, 2014

Sourdough Grissini

 
Sourdough Grissini (yields 3 x 16)
Dough:
2 ½ cups bread flour (350 g)
1 cup water (225 g)
1 ½ tsp. salt
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 cup (250 g) active sourdough starter
Seasoning:
Mix of coarsely ground salt, black pepper, and chopped fennel seeds or rosemary
Method:
1.      Combine dough ingredients in a bowl and briefly mix by hand or with mixer.
2.      Turn dough onto counter (if kneading by hand), add water or flour to create a medium-soft dough; continue kneading or mixing for about 5 minutes.
3.      Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 2 hours.
4.      Divide dough into three equal pieces.
5.      On a well-floured counter or wooden pizza board, pat dough into a rectangle about 12 x 4 inches (30 x 10 cm).
6.      Brush dough with olive oil, sprinkle with seasoning, lightly press seasoning into dough.
7.      Cut the dough into 16 strips (pizza cutter works well).
8.      Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
9.      Pick up each dough strip at its ends and slowly stretch it to the width of the baking sheet.
10.  Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C).
11.  Bake 25-30 minutes until nicely brown and very crisp.
12.  Cool on a wire rack.