Sourdough Communion Bread

It appears to be my turn to make communion bread.  I always delay it as long as possible, hence.... December is usually the month I am pulling it together.  This year, I want to try a Sourdough Communion Bread, more like a cracker than we usually have.  The recipe that I ended up with:

Sponge:

1 cup starter

1 cup flour

let sit overnight 

(I always have a sponge going.  I just pulled two cups out and went from there)

Dough:

2 cups sponge

approximately 1 cup flour 

(1/2 white, 1/2 fresh ground wheat/barley)

2 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp honey

1/3 cup butter

1/4 tsp salt

(you could also add about 1/4 tsp baking soda, if desired)

This came together in the mixer with the dough hook until it had the consistence of pie crust.  I then let it rest for a couple of hours before working it into crackers.

Cracker Formation:

Work in small batches.  First, separate the dough into 4 equal chunks.

Roll out very thin

sprinkle a little salt on top and press in, if desired

pierce all over with a fork

use a pizza cutter or something like that to score

 bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes

This recipe made approximately 300 pieces of communion bread.

Cindy

April's Bread and suggestions

Our family moved into the full speed ahead garden/work/fencing/concrete mode over the past few weeks.  Additionally, our daughter and son in law moved back to help us with our farm and business.  These are some wonderful, exciting changes in our lives.  

Every year at this time, my hubby and I go through a lot of shifting gears as the weather warms up and the demands on our time grow exponentially.  Sorry I haven't been on visiting with all of you, my blog community, very much, but in the interim..... my friend April has been cooking up a storm.  She is a wonderful baker and cook and has been applying the principals of nutrient dense cooking to some of her favorite recipes.  What a joy it is to see so many families come up with their "own" recipe from the springboard of someone else's recipe! 

(here is a non-nutrient dense cake she did for their son's birthday.... it is way too cool to not share it with all of you :)

Thanks April for sharing these tips and ideas with us.  

Recipe for that awesome sourdough

(or.... April's sourdough recipe!)

1 cup sourdough starter
2 cups water
1 Tbsp. sea salt or kosher salt
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp raw honey
1 cup organic white flour
3 cups whole wheat flour

Mix all of the above on the lowest speed of your mixer for at least 6 minutes, to help develop the gluten. If you just bring them together quickly and leave it to rise, the dough has no elasticity. After mixing, place into your bowl, cover and let rise a minimum of 24 hours. Any less than that, and the yeast flavor takes over, and it doesn't taste like sourdough.

After the 24 hour rise, dissolve one teaspoon rapid rise yeast in about 2T water, and add a pinch of honey or sugar to the yeast. Pour this over the sponge, and work it in with a wooden spoon. Then work in one cup of whole wheat flour and turn the dough out onto the counter. Knead in another cup of WW flour. Place dough ball into a 5 quart cast iron dutch oven, and allow to rise for one hour. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut two slits in the top of the loaf, cover with the dutch oven lid, and bake at 400 for one hour. Remove lid, and bake an additional 10 minutes. Yum!

Meat Pies

Use some of the sourdough from the above recipe and roll it out.

Add taco meat and sour cream....

Fold over....

Seal it up all pretty!

Ready to go in 350 oven for about 30 minutes. One sourdough recipe and one pound of ground beef makes 12 meat pies!

Cinnamon Rolls

(hey... how come I didn't get one of these?)

Butter the pan generously. This is a 10x15 inch pan.

First, lots of cinnamon.

Then brown sugar and drizzle melted butter.

Roll it up!

Cut in slices about 1 1/2 inches wide.

After a 45 minute rise.

Bake at about 30 minutes in a 350 oven.

Sourdough Pasta

Every Monday, I am gently reminded by Kim to make a menu and check for ingredients.  Every week I am determined!  So far, haven't gotten there.  So.... over the Easter holiday, we have relatives visiting.  This is not a surprise and I planned to have pasta today.  Our oldest son is playing Judas in a play.  We are going to the play - pasta seemed like a great idea.  There has been a big pot of pasta sauce simmering in the crock pot all day. 

• Grass Fed Hamburger - lightly sauteed
• Organic Pasta Sauce in a glass Jar
• Cultured tomato paste from last summer
• Sauted onions, spices, sesame seeds and vegetables

When I went to the cupboard to get the pasta, I suddenly remembered I had taken every bit of pasta I had to a church pot luck and apparently neglected to replace it.  We live 30 minutes from town. I have a big bunch of sourdough sponge bubbling by the fire.....   hmmmm

Although I have never in my life made pasta - or even contemplated it before about a month ago, this then seemed like a good time to give it a whirl.  If it is terrible, we can just put the pasta sauce over some sourdough bread, add a bit of Parmesan cheese and ta-da - Sloppy Joes!

I have been unable to find a sourdough pasta recipe, but took a recipe from my cousin and adapted it.  So, what is in the sponge that sat out overnight?

• 3 cups each whole wheat and barley flour
• 1/2 cup flax meal
• 1 cup starter
• 3 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• 1-1/2 tsp sea salt
• 2 Tbsp cultured sesame seeds (I keep them in a jar in the fridge w/kefir in the jar)
• 2 Tbsp Palm Sugar
• 3 Tbsp organic cocoa powder (thanks Evelyn Fields for the idea)
•  
 I think the blog on adding cocoa powder didn't ever get from point a to point b.  It does not taste like chocolate - it just gives the bread a rich taste and improves the texture.  It has been going into my sponge for about 10 days now and it is good.  It is totally an option... but it is good.

This sponge became the base for the pasta recipe.  I made the dough up in the morning and left it by the warm stove until this afternoon, then began working with it.  Here is the recipe... although I doubled this:

• 2 cups sponge
• 2 cups flour (I used organic white for the gluten)
• 2 Tbsp gluten
• 1/2 tsp salt (I left this out since it was already in the sponge)
• 2 eggs - beaten
• 1 Tsp olive oil (again, I left this out since it was in the sponge)
• 1/3 cup water

Using the Kitchenaid with the dough hook attachment, this all was combined into a very stiff dough.  The dough went into my bread rising bowl with a wet towel over it for several hours to continue culturing.  The dough is really beautiful and easy to work with.

Using a big wooden cutting board that my hubby unearthed from the shop after my purge of all plastic cutting boards   made the job go quickly and easily.  The dough was separated into baseball sized portions, rolled out with a rolling pin, cut up with a pizza roller, then laid out on the table to dry.

I cheated a little and snitched about 5 pieces of the first batch to boil up and try before it was served to everybody.  It surprised me how much the strips puffed up.  It took about 18 minutes and the results.... I am NEVER going back to that bland, tasteless pasta from the store again.  This was EASY!

Another processed food that can move off the shopping list.... this summer when the tomatoes come in the pasta sauce is moving off too!

Enjoy!
Cindy

The House Around the Corner - Tiramisu Rustica

 Tiramisu Rustica

My friend Katherine has been successfully using fresh goat's milk for quite a long time now.  She has been so encouraging to all of us to have nutritious and beautiful meals.  Thank you for sharing some of these wonderful dessert recipes with all of us!

Cindy

Tiramisu Rustica

(Pronounced tee-dah-mee-sύ)

This is inspired by a traditional Italian dessert,

 I’ve reworked it so you’re using great ingredients and methods.

2 cups flour whole wheat, spelt, Kamut, gluten free (I used Kamut)

-1 cup yogurt

 -1 cup water

Combine these and soak overnight.

½ cup butter

½ cup agave or honey

Cream butter and sweetener together with a beater.

4 beaten eggs

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

Combine all ingredients. Pour into two round cake pans, which are greased and floured.

Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes. Cool completely. The cakes will be thin.

Filling

2 cups homemade cream cheese (yogurt you’ve strained overnight through a cheese cloth)

½  whipping cream-whipped in a cold bowlJ

1/3 – ½ cup agave or honey

Add sweetener to room temperature cream cheese. Fold in ½ of whipped cream then fold in the rest.

So your filling is ready, your cakes are cooled, 2 more simple steps and you’re done!

You’ll need ½ cup of strong coffee or 2 shots of espresso - slightly sweetened

½ cup of cocoa powder

Place first cake on plate, saturate with one espresso shot, or ¼ cup coffee.

Spread ½ of the filling over your cake. Sift ¼ cup cocoa powder over the filling.

Add next layer and repeat. Enjoy!

I doubled my flour and liquid when I soaked them and used ½ for pancakes.

When I get more than one dish out of my efforts I feel so much more accomplished.

Also pictured is

Chocolate Mousse

½-1 cup raw whipped cream, whipped in a cold bowl

4 stiffly beaten egg whites (add a dash of salt or cream of tartar while beating)

6 oz semisweet chocolate

1 tbsp cream

Melt chocolate with tbsp of cream on low heat, cool. Slowly fold in to whipped cream.

Slowly fold in beaten egg whites. You can add a little coffee or espresso to bring out the chocolate flavor. Cool in refrigerator at least an hour.

Now that was easy! And yummy!

Katherine

The House Around the Corner - Jamie's Kefir Bread

Here is another great recipe from Jamie.  It reminded me of a quote which was in a previous article on raw milk found here.  The quote was:

Left to its own devices, fresh milk sours naturally. This is not due to the enzymes in the mix, but to naturally-occurring lacto-fermenting bacteria found in raw milk. Those bacteria produce lactic acid that sours the milk by reducing its pH., i.e., making it more acid. While the uninitiated might think this is milk to be thrown out, the wise know this acid condition actually preserves the milk against spoilage. In days gone by, the Irish housewife typically soured fresh milk overnight by the dying fireplace in preparation for making soda bread the next morning..

It looks like a great recipe.  I will probably use soaked grains to make it, but plan to give it a try.  Thanks Jamie!

While we are in that part of the world.... here is a link to The Good Scots Diet which also talks about Soda Bread.  It is a great article, very extensive and covers a lot of ground.  I really enjoyed reading it.

Quick Kefir Soda Bread

3 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup kefir
1 egg
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Heat the oven to 375 and lightly grease a cookie sheet

Mix all the dry ingredients together and then add the kefir and egg. Mix very well.

Turn out on a floured surface and knead for a minute or two, you're really just trying to shape the bread.

Form dough into a round and put it on the cookie sheet.

Cut a shallow "x" into the top of the loaf and brush with the melted butter.

Bake for 45 - 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Start peeking at the bread about 30 minutes into the baking time, every oven is different.

If you'd like you can continue to baste the top of the bread with the melted butter during baking.

New (old) Bread Pans

Repurposing

My sister, who loves to shop at thrift stores, found me three glass bread pans.  It was pretty exciting.  Shopping is one of my least favorite things, but I sure wanted to try some of these cool bread recipes in glass pans.  Thanks much.

Using a tip from Mountain Home Quilts worked well.  The tip was to let the bread rise in a cooler place.

The idea of always shifting your bread process in small, managable chores has also been working in our overbusy household.  This tip comes from an old, old recipe and is probably how pioneer women functioned.

So..... step one - the sponge goes into the Kitchenaid along with the rest of the ingredients... step two -  form up the loaves... step three - rub the insides of the pans with olive oil and coat the top with more olive oil....  step four - cover with a damp cloth (this one is from Evelyn Fields).   These four steps took about ten minutes for all three loaves.  (no dishes yet)


Right after that it was time for remaking the sponge for the next batch of bread and making up some tortilla dough.  (Tortilla dough recipe here)  Again, this step took only about 10 minutes for each process, then nothing more to be done until time to bake.  (after making new sponge and tortilla dough... now wash the dishes and counter and put everything away - ONCE)

I did this on Saturday and today (Wednesday) I plan to take the sponge which is quite sour now and redo this entire process.  I did put the sponge in a cool place.  If it is too sour, I will just add a little more flour and water.  This is how I am coping with too many cultures going on in one house. 

Current Bread Recipe at our house

subject to change as soon as I read the bread book I swiped from my sister :)

 

Community Sourdough Bread

(Community means none of these ideas are mine... just a gathering)

The Sponge

1 cup sourdough starter

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups barley flour

2 cups white flour

1/2 cup flax meal

2 Tbsp. sesame seeds

1 cup kefir

Water to make it a slurry

Just bring this together, it is not necessary to knead it.  Put it into a bowl, cover with a wet towel and let rise until double in volumne (probably about 10-12 hours - longer is OK)

The Dough

The sponge from before

any tortilla dough left over

2 tsp. sea salt

3 Tbsp. Olive oil

2 Tbsp. sweetner (Palm Sugar)

Flour to make a slightly sticky dough

Form into your loaf and let rise again.  I put my loaf glass pans with olive oil in them and rubbed oil on the top.  This makes the crust nicer.  The dough should double in volume.  It often takes several hours.

Baking

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  

I like to either spritz water in or put a small pan of water in.
It gives your crust a nice feel.  

A stone is nice, but it is not necessary.

Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes, then turn down the over to 325 degrees for approximately 15-25 minutes.  The times will vary depending on your loaf size and density.

There are two ways to check and see if it done....
a thermometer inserted - 210 degrees

.... or turn the loaf over and tap the bottom...
if it sounds hollow, it is done.

When I take it out I either immediately run the loaf under water or put butter on the top.  

This makes it a lot easier to cut.

Enjoy,

If I missed any tips, someone let me know.  Right now it is all about making this process work in our lives.

Cindy

The House Around the Corner - Bread Tip

Tip on getting your bread higher.... not flatter

Awesome idea from my friend April on sourdough bread.  She has been trying to eliminate the "flatbread" thing that is no fun for anyone.  Here is her discovery...

I've hit upon a genius idea...surround the rising loaf with the sides of a springform pan! Ha!...... April

Thanks April for sharing that very good idea.  I am going to try it out.

Cindy

The House Around the Corner - Spelt Bread

Jenny's Spelt Sourdough Bread 
You can read this entire story at Jenny's blog....here

several of us in the our house have been suffering from a gluten sensitivity and i am on another mission to provide healthy food we can eat on a budget. i asked around about spelt flour, did a little internet searching, and decided that since spelt is supposed to be easier to digest than wheat and when made into sourdough bread should be even better for your body, i decided to give it a try. i wanted to buy the spelt whole grain and grind it myself, but i'm just not there yet, so i bought pre-ground flour. i also wish one day to soak the flour before baking with it, but again, i only have so many hours in the day. for now i just use it dry. baby steps, right?

anyway, i was asked to share "my" recipe by my friend cindy who is trying out any and every recipe she can find and taking tidbits from each of us and adding them to her own way of making bread. my recipe is pretty basic and not much different from the others except for the flour. 

i add these ingredients, in this order, to a warm bowl.

3/4 c starter
5 c spelt flour
about 1/4 c sweetener of choice. i'm trying to use up some sucanat. i have used honey too.
2 tsp sea salt
at this point i gently mix, by hand, the dry ingredients on top of starter before adding the water
1 1/2 c warm water
2 TBS oil

mix with your hands or a rubber spatula. the dough comes together rather quickly and i gently knead it a few times to make sure everything is mixed well, then put a damp towel over the bowl and place it in a warm place to rise. i put mine in the oven because it has a pilot light. depending on how much time i have, i let it double in size. i have also just let it rest an hour or two and then proceeded, the bread just turns out more dense. before transferring it to the baking pan, i knead it a few more times, but not too much. i read that if you overwork spelt dough your bread will be crumbly. after kneading, rub oil of your choice over the dough (i'm not sure why i do this, but i do!) and place in a baking dish. i bake my bread in a large loaf pan in an effort to have sandwich size bread for the days that my kids attend tutoring group. i let the dough rest or rise as long as my time allows. sometimes it's a few hours and sometimes it's 30 min. i'm all for making it work for me. after it's risen, place it in a 400* oven and bake until golden brown and the crust feels thick and somewhat hard to the touch. 3o min or so.

and that's it... please keep in mind all amounts and times are approximate. i just kind of add this and do that. i did jot things down as i made this loaf so i could write about it, but i like to cook more like my grandma, with a handful of this and a scoop of that. 

i'm still playing with new ideas every time i make bread, and noticing that every loaf gets easier. good luck to you!

The House Around the Corner - Success Stories

Some Stories Shared

We had a great day yesterday with the sourdough class.  Sampling lots of different kinds of bread as everyone develops their recipes is something to look forward to.  It is so fun to see each bread recipe "tweeked" to fit the house that it is being made in.

Really, what is sourdough bread?  Starter, flour, salt, oil and a little sweetner.  You can add other things, change the process, shape it to suit you, sour it to suit your families taste and learn to appreciate an art from yesteryear. 

Ultimately, we are a community, sharing ideas.  Our community is comprised of strangers and friends, old and young, and every spectrum of world views you could ever hope to find.  I love it :)  The stories, ideas and tips on sourdough bread that have been coming in are helpful, encouraging and all sound so good.  This page is listing out some of the stories. 

I have lost the wonderful sourdough cinnamon roll recipe Becky sent me, but she is sweet and will probably just send it again.  The rolls were a lot better than my first try.  Mine had the consistency of... I don't know... a brick?  They were OK dipped in coffee.  One of Becky's got hidden to have with a cup of coffee at choir practice.  So good Becky.

My friend Sherri has sent in not just a recipe, but a history of sourdough starter and some of her memories.  It can be found on her blog.  She has lots of other ideas from another era.  She loves to study how things were done in another age.  I think you will enjoy her story.  It is refreshing to go visit her "keeping room"

Sherri Ann's Keeping Room

Vanessa made her first batch of sourdough bread, and some butter with it.  What is so fun is that she used Bobbi's recipe and pictures as her guide.  I still need to try the egg wash.

Vanessa's Bread and Butter 

Bobbi Jo's Heavenly Loaf 

Melissa is now an old hand at sprouting wheat, making bread and coming up with clever, non-plastic storage ideas.  She is also trying the butter.  She shared her pictures and knowledge here recently.  She is in the middle of the butter adventure.  

Evelyn Fields Cultured Butter 

The House Around the Corner - Melissa's Sourdough sprouted wheat bread 

Finally, Jamie has been sending in a lot of good ideas, pictures and clear directions.  She is a wonderful researcher and writer and has been trying so many ideas, writing about them and getting them to me.  Hopefully she will just fire up her own blog soon.  Gotta do it Jamie! (Why don't you already have one?)

The House Around the Corner - Jamie's Bread 

Our church community has been trying hard to change a lot of our old habits.  Pot lucks now have a lot of nutrient dense foods there.  We are doing a meal tonight for the young couple's group of a very dense soup (chicken, rice, quinoa, veggies and broth), salad and sourdough bread...oh, and latte's made with some really good milk.  I will take pictures and post them soon.  It should be another fun evening.

Be blessed and healthy.  Make wise choices for your family.  Is there one change you can make today?

Cindy

Tortilla Dough

When we began to make sourdough bread on a regular basis and finally decided... no more buying bread except in emergencies... we struggled with having bread around when needed.  The loaf might not turn out, the bread might not be at the right place at the right time.... whatever happened, I needed a quick bread that could be used in place of sourdough.

This dough can be easily pulled together and used in thirty minutes.  You need that long for the protein in the flour to unwind.  It is better if it has 8-12 hours of soak time.

While this might not be perfect,  it worked in our household and helped transition.  Hope you enjoy the recipe. 

Tortilla Dough

3 cups flour

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp olive oil

1 cup warm water

2 Tbsp sourdough starter

Bring this together into a nice dough.  A dough hook works well with this.  This dough needs to rest for at least 30 minutes.  It is just about perfect at 8-12 hours.  If it goes much beyond this, throw the rest into your current batch of bread.

Generously flour the counter.  Pull your dough into sections and roll into a ball.  You will just have to figure out how big, but a little bigger than a golf ball, smaller than a tennis ball.  Roll them all into smooth balls.


Heat your cast iron frying pan or griddle.  Medium heat.  Begin to flatten out your balls.  It works best to flatten them all, then go back and begin rolling them with a rolling pin.  Roll out, the put in the pan.  We like to use coconut oil, but you can also use an ungreased pan.  Cook about 45 seconds on each side and flip three times.

When you are ready to pull one off, just put it between two plates to hold the moisture and heat in.  Then, keep stacking them between the plates as you finish them. 

Enjoy
Cindy

The Sourdough Bread Class

Today's Recipe

So... anyone that knows me knows that I am constantly messing with recipes.  I just can't help myself.  After getting so many good recipes from friends, the old recipe underwent some changes.

It started with a cousin's old family recipe (not listed yet... still to come) which starts with a "sponge", made the dough less stiff (thanks Melissa), added flax meal (thanks Bobbi Jo), added kefir  and a longer "rise" (thanks Jamie).  Still to be added to my routine is an egg wash (the egg whites are sitting there from making mayonnaise).  So, from the class today, here is the bread that I am pretty sure we made.

Community Sourdough Bread

The Sponge

1 cup sourdough starter

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups barley flour

2 cups white flour

1/2 cup flax meal

2 Tbsp. sesame seeds

1 cup kefir

Water to make it a slurry

Just bring this together, it is not necessary to knead it.  Put it into a bowl, cover with a wet towel and let rise until double in volumne (probably about 10-12 hours)

The Dough

The sponge from before

2 tsp. sea salt

3 Tbsp. Olive oil

2 Tbsp. sweetner (I used Palm Sugar today)

Flour to make a slightly sticky dough

Form into your loaf and let rise again.  I put my loaf on parchment paper, then onto a plate.  This makes it easier to move around.  The dough should double in volume.  It often takes several hours, but this morning my loaf took only 1-1/2 hours to rise.  I had to knead it down and try again since I wanted to bake it at the class.

Baking

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  

I like to either spritz water in or put a small pan of water in.
It gives your crust a nice feel.  

A stone is nice, but it is not necessary.

Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes, then turn down the over to 325 degrees for approximately 15-25 minutes.  The times will vary depending on your loaf size and density.

There are two ways to check and see if it done....
a thermometer inserted - 210 degrees

.... or turn the loaf over and tap the bottom...
if it sounds hollow, it is done.

When I take it out I either immediately run the loaf under water or put butter on the top.  

This makes it a lot easier to cut.

Serving Suggestions

Two of our favorite ways to eat fresh sourdough bread

1)  Spread with butter and lemon curd (recipe to follow)

2)  Spread with butter and sauerkraut

Enjoy
Cindy

The House Around the Corner - Jamie's Bread

Jamie's Sourdough Bread

My recipe is pretty darn basic, it can easily be modified to suit anyone’s tastes. A few things you should know beforehand, sourdough starters come in all sorts of different consistencies and aromas, ranging in color from a creamy white to deep yellow. Mine is a wild yeast starter that I’ve had for quite awhile now. It works great but I prefer a slow rise to my bread, for someone who doesn’t have the time to take a couple days to make bread you would probably want to use a starter that began with commercial yeast.

Here’s what you need:

• Five to six cups of flour, any combination as long as there is two cups of white flour in the equation. For this batch I used white, oat and rye.

• One to two tbs salt, depends upon your preferences.
• Two to three tbs of oil, I use lard, it is just my preference, use whatever you prefer.
• One cup starter or for regular bread you would want to dissolve 1 tbs commercial yeast in ¼ cup warm water.
• Two cups plain kefir. After you pour the kefir in the bowl fill the same cup with cold water, you’ll probably need it.

If you have a stand mixer, put everything in the bowl and using the dough hook and lowest speed, mix it up. As the dough starts to come together you may have to add a little of the cold water. You don’t want it too wet but you don’t want it crumbly either, just watch the bowl and when the dough starts clinging to the hook and the sides of the bowl are clean, no signs of flour or liquid, turn it off and grease a large bowl. You can use whatever you’d like, I use either butter or lard. Plop the dough in the bowl and flip it at least once, you want to coat the ball of dough, cover it with a dishtowel and walk away.

If you are making this bread by hand you want to put all the dry ingredients in the bowl and mix them all together. Make a well in the center and add all the wet ingredients (except the two cups of water). Start mixing, you can use your hands, a spoon, a rice paddle, whatever it takes to get the job done. Add the cold water as necessary to get the dough to hold together without it being too wet. Once it gets to the right consistency, or when you get sick and tired of mixing, whichever comes first, follow the same directions as above, plop that dough into a greased bowl, cover it and walk away.

 

Here it is, all ready to be tucked away in the corner to rise.

Now, if you used a commercial yeast or if you have a “fast” starter it will only take a couple hours for the dough to double in size, if you’re like me and you have a slow starter it’s going to be somewhere between 12 to 18 hours for the first rise, the batch in the photo took 18 hours. I can see the looks on your faces now, SHE CAN’T BE SERIOUS, 18 HOURS? Yep, I’m serious, when I say a couple days to make bread, I’m not kidding. Think of it as culturing the dough.

 Once the dough is through the first rise and is double in size you want to punch it down, pull it all together into a ball an plop it out onto a floured surface. Now you start kneading (push, pull, quarter turn) keep at it until you have this wonderful mass of silky, soft dough. Cover it with a dishtowel and take a break, give the dough 15 to 20 minutes to rest.

 

Once the dough has rested, divide it and shape it, you can use bread pans, or make long loaves, round loaves, individual rolls, whatever you prefer, it’s your bread. Cover the shaped dough with a dishtowel and once again, walk away.

Again, if you have a fast starter, it will only take a couple hours at the most for the second rise, for this batch of bread the second rise took seven hours.




Here it is, seven hours later, ready to go in the oven.











You want to bake the loaves at approximately 350 degrees for 30 - 35 minutes. I say approximately because my stove is ancient and most of the numbers are worn off the dial, but I’m almost positive it’s set at 350 degrees.



Fresh out of the oven! 

This recipe passed the husband taste test, it has a wonderful texture and just a little hint of tanginess from the kefir.