Notes from my kitchen, in which I bake bread and raise a few other matters
In these sticky buns, the traditional raisins and pecans are replaced with dried apricots and pistachios. Shelled pistachios can be a bit hard to find, but I came away from my last flour run to Costco with a big bag, roasted and salted. Of course, just about any nuts and dried fruit will work. Just remember to get a big package of napkins at Costco, too; they’re not called sticky buns for nothing!
According to Elle, who chose soft pretzels as the bread of the month for our little band of twisted sisters known as the Bread Baking Babes, the traditional pretzel shape is meant to resemble folded hands, and they were schoolboys’ rewards from the monks for learning their prayers. This is fitting, because after the first batch I made, which called to mind Winnie-the-Pooh falling head-first into the honey pot, I was certainly praying for a better outcome the second time around.
Praying hands? Not so much.
Praying hands? Hmmm …. looks more like like a pretzel to me.
I came up with this sourdough quick bread by heavily tweaking one of my favorite “regular” banana bread recipes. Why the adaptation? It could be that I believe that my changes — incorporating a hefty amount of sourdough starter, significantly reducing the amount of sweetener and fat, and replacing the butter with olive oil — transform what is essentially cake into something falling somewhere between turnip greens and quinoa on the healthy food scale. Or it could be that sourdough just makes everything better, and that’s reason enough.
The idea in adaptations like this is to substitute all or a portion of the flour in the original recipe with the flour in the sourdough starter. But one challenge in adapting pastry recipes is that the starter must be fairly liquid (around 100% or more hydration) in order to incorporate easily with the other ingredients without having to work it very much, which would produce gluten development that is generally undesirable in pastries. How can you bring all that water along without making the batter too wet?
If the original recipe calls for water as an ingredient, the amount can be reduced to account for the water in the starter. Otherwise, it’s a little tricker. If there are other liquids, such as milk or egg whites, you might substitute a powdered form of that ingredient, such as milk powder, and let the starter water stand in for the liquid component of the ingredient. Reducing the amount of sweetener can also help make a batter less “wet” (as well as, of course, less sweet, which I generally find to be a good thing).
This is Norwich Sourdough. It was the first sourdough recipe I posted on this blog, and is still one of my most popular recipes. Many people have written to tell me that it was the first sourdough recipe they had success with. This feedback has been wonderfully rewarding for me, but now I am asking for a little bit more in return.
Norwich Sourdough was named in honor of Norwich, Vermont, a lovely small town I had the pleasure of calling home for several years before settling in California. Norwich is also the home of King Arthur Flour, whose Vermont Sourdough bread was the inspiration for Norwich Sourdough.
Now my heart is aching for the people of Vermont, where the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Irene has left thousands of people without their homes and/or their livelihoods. Although the town of Norwich seems to have come through without devastating damage, it will take years for much of the rest of the state to recover, and it makes me cry.
If you have enjoyed Norwich Sourdough, or have learned from or been inspired by anything you have found here on Wild Yeast, I ask you to consider thanking me by making a donation to one of the following organizations assisting in the relief effort in this beautiful state:
Made any French bread lately? I’m not talking about a baguette, but about the original French bread — the huge, heavy, country sourdough round known as a miche. With its dense crumb, tangy flavor, and thick, dark, chewy crust, a miche is about as far from a baguette as you can get, and it was the staple bread in France long before the white-flour interloper arrived from Vienna in the mid-19th century.
I like this blog to be informative. Looking at the search terms that land people here helps me know what information they are looking for. Sometimes, though, I think they’re let down because I haven’t really addressed the topic in the way they probably expected.
I don’t like to disappoint, so allow me to address a few of those search terms now:
firmament baking stone — It’s not hot enough in the firmament for a baking stone. Try going in the other direction.
potatoe bread — I only do potato bread, but Dan Quayle may be able to help you out.
does putting bread yeast in my septic do any good? — I’m not sure, but I put my yeast in the refrigerator, and that works fine.
how to make a miche slip cover — I don’t slipcover my miches unless I’m having company, and then I usually just get one of those cheapo ones from Target and add a few beads for that personalized touch.
my eclair cannot pop up — I’m always getting spam about remedies for this. I’d be happy to forward some of it on if you send me your email address.