During these past few months I've taken a break from recipe writing to enhance my culinary repertoire. I've been experimenting with new ingredients, techniques and food sourcing practices. Now I'm ready to continue sharing my kitchen adventures. Here I will continue to publish my favorite recipes and kitchen anecdotes.
Let's start with sourdough. I, like many others during this crisis, have started my own sourdough culture a maple sourdough culture to be exact. My culture consists of one part whole wheat flour, one part 00 flour and a bit of maple. After a few hours the combined ingredients began to show signs of life. Quite quickly I realized that my starter was a bit larger than the starters of my blogging counterparts (others started with a few ounces of culture, I had 2 quarts). However, I didn't have the heart to downsize my new creation.
During the first weeks of life I was a slave to the culture. She required daily feeding which meant daily discard. My two person household could not keep up with the amount of sourdough products being made everyday. I had discard popping out of plastic containers and a freezer stuffed with sourdough bread, muffins, pretzels etc.
So, I put an ad on Craigslist entitled "Free Baked Goods"; but it is difficult to get people to accept free food on the internet during a health crisis. Once eighty percent of my fridge was filled with containers of discard I did decided to downsize. "Start small' was the first of many lessons I learned during my sourdough adventure. The starter culture recipe included in this article is the downsized version.
I've made many recipes which utilize my maple sourdough starter. In this article, I will share my two favorite sourdough recipes: sourdough brioche buns and sourdough tonic bread. The brioche buns I used for burgers and pulled pork sandwiches. The Tonic Bread was served with gravlax and dill cream cheese.
The only aspect that separates my bread recipe from most other on the internet is the smoking. I did find that bread absorbs smoke wonderfully and it is very simple to use my smoker for bread baking. As with smoking any food, temperature maintenance is the most important.
Maple Sourdough Starter
to make starter:
1 cup 00 flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 cup warm water
to feed starter:
1 cup 00 flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 cup warm water
Day 1: combine 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup 00 flour , 1 tbsp maple syrup and 1 cup water in a non-reactive container large enough to hold a quart. Stir until ingredients are thoroughly mixed together (the mixture should have a paste like consistency). Cover and leave at room temperature for 24 hours
Day 2: Discard half of the start. Add 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup 00 flour, 1 tbsp maple syrup and 1 cup water to the starter. Stir until the starter resembles as paste. Cover and leave at room temperature for 24 hours.
Day 3: Discard half of the start. Add 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup 00 flour, 1 tbsp maple syrup and 1 cup water to the starter. Stir until the starter resembles as paste. Cover and leave at room temperature for 24 hours.
Day 4: Discard half of the start. Add 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup 00 flour, 1 tbsp maple syrup and 1 cup water to the starter. Stir until the starter resembles as paste. Cover and leave at room temperature for 24 hours.
Day 5: Repeat the feeding process. 6 hours after the Day 5 feeding your starter will be ready to use. Now you may store the starter in the refrigerator and decrease the feeding to every 3 days.
Sourdough Brioche
1 cup maple sourdough starter
1 egg
3/4 cup of heavy cream
3 cups 00 flour
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, cold
2 tbsp sesame seed
Set up a KitchenAid mixer with a dough hook attachment. In a mixing bowl add egg, starter, heavy cream and brown sugar. In a second bowl combine salt and flour.
Using your KitchenAid, mix wet ingredients on speed 1. Slowly begin to add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl. Turn the mixers speed up to 2 and let the mixer knead for 4 minutes (no longer or you may overheat your KitchenAid).
Put the dough onto a floured surface and knead it for 8 additional minutes. Cut the butter into small chunks.
Return the dough to the mixing bowl. Turn your KitchenAid (fitted with the dough hook) on to speed 2. Add the pieces of butter to the dough one at a time until all of the butter is incorporated.
Place dough into an oiled bowl, cover and refrigerate for 12 hours (allowing it to rise)
Roll the dough into 6 uniform balls. Sprinkle sesame seeds onto the tops on the buns.
Preheat your smoker to 375 F. Put the dough onto a greased baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until the bread reaches an internal temp of 205 F.
Smoked Pain Champagne
1 cup of sourdough starter
2 cups 00 flour
1 1/2 cup rye flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup water, lukewarm
Fit a KitchenAid mixer with a dough hook attachment. Put sourdough starter into a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl stir together salt, rye flour and 00 flour.
Turn mixer on at speed 1. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the starter, after the dry ingredients are throughly incorporated begin to add the water.
Once a dough ball has formed increase your KitchenAid's speed to 2 and let it knead for 4 minutes. Place dough onto a floured surface and knead it for an additional 8 minutes.
Put the dough into an oiled bowl, cover and refrigerate for 12 hours (allowing the dough to expand).
Preheat smoker to 400 F. Place dough onto a greased baking sheet and smoke for 25 minutes or until the dough reaches an internal temperature of 210 F.
The bread, in the end, will have a great sour & smokey flavor. Use with your favorite fresh-made jam!