Happy Cinco De Mayo! This is a very grown-up ice cream with a nice strong amaretto kick topped with toasted almonds…heaven! Because it is a rich ice cream with the added egg yolks, half a cup really feels like a completely satisfying treat.
Another wonderful use for homemade sourdough starter. This is actually easier than homemade pizza dough (if you already have a starter in your fridge), because you don’t have proof the yeast. The sourdough yeasts are already active and ready to make a great pizza.
Pizza dough made from baker’s yeast or dry yeast can rise pizza dough in an hour, but sourdough yeast are slower growing and need at least three hours to leaven the pizza dough. Account for this rising time so you can plan your meal appropriately. Start at 8 am in you want to eat your homemade sourdough pizza at noon or start at 4 pm if you want it at 8 pm.
This recipe makes two pizzas, but if you only want one, there are instructions
This was a great revelation to find out that the no-knead method for bread works wonderfully for homemade sourdough too. Sourdough can often be harder to knead because it is a softer, sticker dough so avoiding this step makes it oh-so-easy.
When you don’t knead the bread, you use long rising times to do the work for you. The long rise time is exactly what sourdough yeasts needs to leaven the bread fully. This also gives the beneficial bacteria in the sourdough culture time to develop their full sour flavor. However, you need to start this bread the day before you want to eat it!
Finally (and then I promise to stop gushing), something about this baking method in the hot dutch oven also prevents the sourdough loaf from splitting on the sides like so many of my other attempts. You don’t even need to slash the top! It just rises into a beautiful loaf with a crackled top, a thick crust and a chewy interior. You will feel really proud of yourself!
During strawberry season you can usually get a flat of ripe organic strawberries for cheap ($20-$25). A “flat” is 6 pounds or 4 three-packs. I like to buy a flat and keep a three pack to eat fresh and can the rest as strawberry jam. This recipe makes enough strawberry jam to fill your canning pot perfectly full with maybe a little left over to top ice cream while it is still hot!
If you have never made bread before, try this recipe! If you have made bread before and not been happy with the results, try this recipe to rekindle the magic of bread making!
This makes a jumbo sized country style loaf with a beautiful crust that you don’t have to knead. It produces very consistent results that makes it hard to mess it up. Continue reading “No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread” »
I love that thin bun-shaped sandwich bread that you can buy. Turns out that you can make it from scratch too! A thin bread really allows the contents of a sandwich to be the star of the meal. It also cuts down on calories.
Once you get the basic recipe down, add as many healthy goodies as you like to the batter to customize your sandwich bread.
Continue reading “Sandwich Thins” »
Here is another rewarding way to use your homemade sourdough starter: whole grain buttermilk waffles. They are a homesteading feast! The mild sourness of the sourdough batter, nicely compliments maple syrup and sweet berries.
You start these the night before so the sourdough starter can culture the rest of the flour. Add a few ingredients in the morning while you warm to waffle iron and you are ready for breakfast.
If you have never made homemade ranch dressing, prepare to be amazed! This is so incredibly simple and better than any bottled or powdered ranch mix you will ever buy. It was one of the first recipes my mother passed on to me, and it continues to be the one thing that impresses other people the most of all the things I make from scratch.
If you happen to make your own beer and your own sourdough starter, this would a very big homesteading triumph. Because this is a same-day sourdough bread recipe, it requires a larger amount of sourdough starter, so make sure you have enough before beginning.
This method is the old fashioned way of making sourdough starter with just whole wheat flour and water. There are naturally present yeast in the flour and the air that begin to feed off the flour. This produces the active yeast product know as “starter” that will naturally leaven breads and give them a wonderfully sour taste.
