Sourdough and such

So I again attempted and succeeded at making a sourdough starter. It worked so much better than last time. I used orange juice instead of water and rye flour instead of unbleached AP for the first three feedings. I read several different places that this was unnecessary, but it worked. Today I made my first loaf from it . . . and I burned it. I followed the directions, but it was fairly inedible. However, the inside showed definite promise. I think I like this starter. I found a second website that cited breadtopia's method, but called to bake at 50 degrees lower. I think I'll try that next time. I have also found other sourdough recipes to try in the next few weeks.

Sandwich bread
Sourdough Waffles
Sourdough loaf

I also used two cups of my Amish friendship starter to make banana bread last night. It was the moistest bread ever and everyone around here has enjoyed it.

Brioche

I made a brioche loaf last night. When I took it out of the oven, one half was a beautiful golden brown. Then there was a split and the other half was lighter and looked more like the dough. I double checked the directions and they did not suggest slashing the loaf. I have put in a question to the authors on their website, so we'll see if I get a response. All of that being said, I think it was the best bread Sonny has ever had. It was really good. The crust was soft and made for a great dinner bread. I will definitely try it again. I also think it would make a good dough for dinner rolls and I may try that with this batch.

Amish Friendship Bread

About a month ago, Dana gave me an Amish Friendship bread starter and a recipe for a really tasty almost cake-like bread. It is made with pudding and I've tried vanilla and chocolate so far. The vanilla was delicious, but the chocolate just didn't quite taste chocolate-y enough to me. I have two starters going right now, due to be done on Wednesday. Here's my plan.

-Thursday night dinner: Herman Pancakes
-Lemon poppyseed bread with lemon pudding
-A sourdough-ish bread - this makes 3 loaves. I might try to freeze one and see how it does (another site http://melissaringstaff.blogspot.com/2009/03/q-sweet-sourdough-tutorial.html)
-pizza crust - maybe

Other recipes to think about

I have really enjoyed this started but it is starting to take over. I really need to find some people to give starter to, I guess.

This Week's Bread Adventures

This week, Sonny asked me if we could have homemade rolls. I did a little research on the artisan bread in five minutes a day website http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=443 and found a recipe for "thanksgiving buns". I used the master starter for this, but they said that you could use any of their doughs. So I shaped 6 little mini loafs by their directions. When they came out, I put a little butter on the top to soften them up. They were delicious, and I should have made more than six. The kids loved them too. Maybe I need to start adding pictures, because they even looked good.

With the rest of the dough I made a couple loaves of artisan bread for a girls' night and left Sonny some too. I need to remember to post that recipe and video on Facebook. It really is too easy and cheap not to share.

This morning I made the brioche dough. I had been determined to do it all week and couldn't keep the kitchen clean long enough to get it done. Today was no different, but I pushed things out of the way. I had a plan - a New Orleans brunch. The Artisan Bread in Five cookbook gave a recipe for beignets that could be made with brioche. Dana's friend Zoe posted some FB pictures of some she made a few weeks ago and they looked heavenly. Plus, while I was buying Sonny's coffee this week I spotted Community Brand New Orleans Style coffee with chicory. That settled it. I spent nearly all morning, but in the end I had my beignets and cafe au lait. Some of the beignets were perfect, but several of them were hollow. Now I need to figure out what causes that to happen. Sonny thinks I need to do it purposefully and stuff them with something. I informed him that those would then be eclairs or profiteroles, not beignets. Still, they were good and he certainly enjoyed his share too. Need to keep a better eye on oil temperature in the future. Maybe that was an issue. I also noticed later that my dough had not fully risen. That could have been a factor as well.

Still thinking about making a loaf of brioche tonight for whatever we're having for dinner. Plus, I think it would make for wonderful french toast for a breakfast night. We'll see what gets done though. Now on to clean up the kitchen. Its even more of a wreck after the beignets.

Beginning

This is really for me to document different recipes tried and their results. So if you've stumbled upon this blog and find it interesting, that's a great bonus. If its really tired and boring, just know it wasn't intended for you. We keep talking about reformatting the computer or buying a new computer so an online format seemed to make the most sense for keeping track of recipes.