Category: recipes

Sourdough Saturday: Pizza!

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We’ve been making pizza dough with the gluten-free sourdough starter for months, but I’ve never posted the recipe. The sourdough starter changed the game for our gluten-free pizza crust.

  • 1 tablespoon psyllium husk powder
  • 1 cup warm water
  • 1 cup gluten-free sourdough starter discard
  • 1 cup room temperature water
  • 2 1/2 cups gluten-free flour blend
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil

In a small bowl, whisk the psyllium husk powder into the warm water and let it set until congealed.

In a mixing bowl, dissolve the sourdough starter in the room temperature water. Add the rest of the ingredients, including the psyllium mixture, and mix until blended. Turn the dough into a bowl greased with olive oil. Cover lightly and let set in a warm place for 2-3 hours. The dough will almost double.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat pizza stone or pan in oven. Prepare pizza toppings. When oven is to temperature and you are ready to assemble pizza, remove pan from oven and prep (cornmeal for stone, olive oil for metal pans). Press dough onto pan until size, shape, and thickness desired. Add sauce and toppings. Bake for 30 minutes. Makes 2 thin pizza crusts.

We top our pizzas with basil pesto and veggies, or Bob’s homemade tomato sauce. Bob likes vegan cheese while I prefer goat mozzarella. We mix it up with toppings.

I’d like to try a thick crust in a cast iron skillet with Margherita toppings next time.

Sourdough Sunday: Waffles!

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Bob and I used to struggle with gluten-free waffles, especially if we were trying to make them vegan. This sourdough starter recipe with eggs is a keeper though. I’ve made them a few times, and it is my own recipe based on decades of waffle making experience.

  • 3 cups gluten-free blend flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/3 cup canola oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup sourdough starter discard
  • 1 1/4 cups oat milk

Blend the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Add the wet ingredients and mix until it is the consistency of cake batter. Heat the waffle iron and brush with canola oil before adding the batter. Cook until golden brown, using your waffle iron manufacturer’s directions.

I use a Belgian waffle maker and scoop 1 cup of batter for each waffle. That means I only get five waffles per recipe, but they are big, so Bob and I share one. We like them with butter, maple syrup, soy yogurt, and fresh blueberries. I add chocolate chips for Freya’s and freeze them so she has a quick breakfast ready on school days.

I also like a waffle for lunch topped with chicken sautéed with onions and celery in a chicken broth gravy, kind of like a pot pie on top of a waffle.

I post these recipes here for my own use. Someday I will print my recipes into a booklet. Maybe I’ll self-publish it, for myself.

Sourdough Sunday: Coffee Cake

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Today I baked gluten-free sourdough coffee cake based on this recipe. I cut the sugar in half, as most recipes are too sweet for our tastebuds. I also added sunflower seeds to the crumble topping.

The results:

  1. It could use more sugar. Next time I’ll only cut the sugar by 1/4.
  2. It was a little over baked because it needed an extra 15 minutes to ensure the center was done. I think this is too much recipe for an 8X8 pan.
  3. It is very crumbly, but might have been better if I hadn’t cut it right out of the oven. (I couldn’t wait. I was hungry!)
  4. I also think this recipe makes too much crumble topping. I thought that at first, but then told myself the crumble topping is the best part and surely you can never have too much. I was wrong. I would cut it down to 3/4 of the recipe, unless I baked it in a 9X12 pan, then it might be the perfect amount.

I am still enjoying my coffee cake with a cup of chicory coffee.

I also made the annual May Wine since the Sweet Woodruff is starting to flower. Simply cut and wash a few sprigs and add them to your favorite white wine and refrigerate overnight. The herb imparts a distinctive sweet flavor. Sweet Woodruff is also used medicinally, but large quantities can be toxic. This recipe includes strawberries in the May Wine, though I’ve never tried it that way.

I hope you have a lovely Sunday planned. We are experiencing a cold snap, so it’s the perfect excuse to stay inside and get some knitting and sewing done!

Sourdough Saturday: Biscotti

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Burn Anne the amazing gluten-free sourdough starter continues to delight and amaze. This week I made biscotti, based on this recipe. I substituted gluten-free ingredients, increased the flour by 1/4 cup, decreased the sugar by 1/4 cup, and used sunflower seeds instead of almonds since I can’t have tree nuts. Next time I’ll record exactly what I do and post a recipe.

This has been delicious dipped in a brew of roasted dandelion and chicory root, which we drink as our coffee. I’m sure it would be delicious dipped in coffee as well. I wish I could drink coffee!

A “burn” is a watercourse, which I imagine as a bubbling stream. This is why I named my starter Burn Anne, because I have a Burn Anne Agate necklace I love (which is how I learned about the term burn), the starter bubbles and froths like a burn, and because Burn Anne is named after Saint Anne, the patron saint of motherhood and labor. She keeps birthing more starter and baked goods for us. It’s also a homophone for a silly way I sometimes say banana, “burnana”. My necklace has a hawthorn leaf on the back of the pendant, which is my Celtic tree zodiac sign. This is how I found the necklace in the first place.

Do you name your sourdough starter? Do you talk to it? I find it helps.

Saturday Sourdough: Biscuits!

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I’ve been experimenting with sourdough biscuits. Although I’ve made decent gluten-free biscuits for a few years, I wanted something big and tall for biscuit sandwiches — like Jimmy Dean sausage biscuits. I’ve finally landed on a good recipe.

Gluten-free Sourdough Starter Biscuits

  • 3 cups gluten-free flour blend
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 10 tablespoons Earth Balance buttery sticks, cold
  • 1 tablespoon psyllium powder
  • 1 cup oat milk, or other plant based milk
  • 2 cups sourdough starter
  • 1 egg and oat milk for brushing (omit egg if vegan)

Warm the oat milk in the microwave for 30 seconds. You don’t want this hot, just slightly above room temperature. Add the psyllium powder and whisk well. Allow to set while you combine the other ingredients.

Blend the flour, baking powder, and salt in a food processor until just blended. Add the cold butter in pieces, about 1/2 tablespoon per piece. Pulse the mixture until blended.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour blend, psyllium mixture, and sourdough starter. Mix until blended well, but don’t overmix it. You want some air in the dough.

Scoop the dough out in 1/2 cup increments. Gently shape into a ball with your hands, and then flatten into biscuit shape, about 1.5 inches high. Place on a cookie sheet on parchment paper. Once you’ve formed all the biscuits, cover them with a light cloth and set them somewhere warm to rise. (I usually leave them on the stove, on top of the oven, while it’s preheating.) They won’t rise very much, but this allows the dough to rest and open up a bit.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. When the oven is at temperature, whisk one egg with 1/4 cup oat milk. With a pastry brush, lightly brush the egg mixture on the top of each biscuit. Bake the biscuits for 20 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack. Makes nine large biscuits.

Sunday Scones

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I continue to bake with gluten-free sourdough starter. I am now baking scones following this recipe. Today I added chopped fresh cranberries and grated orange peel. They came out a little softer, but still delicious.

I am doing well with pizza dough and naan flat bread. My loaves were not coming out well, so Bob has taken over baking the bread. He trained me, though, so once I get the hang of his yeast blooming sorcery I will start baking loaves again and share the recipe.

I have a crackpot theory that US biscuits are based on UK scones, but after the American Revolution we decided to rename English things to make them our own. Watching Great British Bake Off, I have learned that in the UK they have biscuits (cookies) and cookies (also cookies). I’m not sure what the difference is, since all our cookies are called cookies here. Their pudding is any kind of dessert dish, and our pudding is a specific kind of dessert dish. Cake is cake, though. And pie is pie. I suppose it could be a change in language in the UK after the colonial period, like the British starting to pronouncing their H at the beginning of herb in the 19th century. I’ll do some research. (I did, and found this article online.)

I have a cold today so I’m going to curl up in front of the fire and rest.

Garden Update: Positivity Edition

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It has been a weird and wet summer, and my garden didn’t produce much. But let’s focus on the positive, shall we?

Two different species of indigo.

The indigo is doing well. I’ve got two different species, apparently. I’m using one for eco printing on fabric and the other for vat dyeing — yarn probably. It will be my first indigo dye vat. This was not the plan. It’s how I’m rolling with what is.

Sweet Woodruff

My sweet woodruff is doing well. If it survives the winter, I will be good for May Wine again next year. The soapwort is alive but struggling to get established. The hops are scrappy. I have no doubt they will be dominant up the back part of the garden next year, which is great because it’s clay and nothing grows back there.

Sweet Genovese Basil

The basil and Anaheim chilis have stolen the show this year. I’ve made pesto, ingredients below:

  • Fresh basil leaves, washed
  • Olive oil
  • Garlic cloves
  • Nutritional yeast
  • Roasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds
  • Kosher salt

I don’t have a recipe. I made it “by guess and by gosh” like my Grandma. (By guess I made it and by gosh you’d better eat it!) I don’t really care if anyone else eats it, though. More for me!

Making my own pesto allows me to eliminate ALL THE THINGS I can’t have, and make substitutions: nutritional yeast for Parmesan, sunflower and pumpkin seeds for pine nuts. My recipe is basically to keep adding things to the food processor until it looks right and tastes good. Helpful, right?

I love Anaheim chilis. I started growing them when I lived in San Diego. Bob made enchilada pie yesterday with the first batch. We’re not sure if we will dry the rest, or use them in another recipe. We probably have enough to do both. I’ll let those remaining on the plants turn red so we can dry them.

I’m thinking about next year’s garden already. Here’s my plan:

  1. A good end of season weeding in the fall. (It’s a jungle out there.)
  2. Plant some greens in the mini greenhouse again this fall. They did well last year.
  3. Let the plants that are doing well reseed themselves wherever they want. (I don’t have any hybrids right now.)
  4. Try again next year with tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and peppers from the nursery.

The thing about getting plants from the local nursery is they are not only hardier than the seedlings I grow myself, they are also better suited to our planting zone. I usually buy my seeds from Seed Savers Exchange because they’re heirloom varieties, but I’m learning they don’t all grow well here.

How is your garden this year? Are you getting much of a harvest? Are you planning next year’s garden yet?

Tasty Tuesday: Gluten-Free Sourdough Naan Flatbread

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This has become a favorite recipe using the gluten-free sourdough starter, so I thought I should record it for posterity.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup gluten-free sourdough starter
  • 2 cups gluten-free one to one flour
  • 1/2 cup gluten-free oat milk
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil (plant butter or ghee)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

For grilling:

  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
  • 3 large cloves of garlic, chopped fine
  • olive oil, plant butter, or ghee

Mix ingredients well. Separate into eight balls of dough. Set aside and cover in a warm place to rest and rise for 1-2 hours.

Preheat cast iron skillet or tortilla grill on high. Using hands covered in olive oil flatten each of the dough balls to about 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick. Sprinkle a little kosher salt, fresh cilantro, and garlic onto one side. Pan fry in oil or grill one at a time until golden brown on both sides. Serve warm. These can be reheated as needed.

Tasty Tuesday: Gluten-Free Sourdough and Lentil Soup

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Now that I have more time on my hands, I decided to try baking our own bread. There are two reasons for this: 1. Gluten-free bread is $8 a loaf at the store, and 2. Most gluten-free bread is not great.

Bob and I have tried gluten-free bread recipes with varied results. I thought a sourdough starter might be what is needed to give the dough a lift. I ordered the starter from Cultures for Health, and followed their instructions and recipe. I substituted white rice flour for brown, because we ran out of brown. The loaf is fluffy, soft, moist, and delicious!

We had lentil soup with sourdough for dinner yesterday. The soup was delicious as well, so I’m going to post the recipe here for future reference. I was surprised how delicious it was with such simple ingredients. How many times can I say delicious in one post?

Crockpot Lentil Soup

  • 4 1/2 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 1/2 cups green lentils
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 4 medium carrots, sliced
  • 3 stalks celery, diced
  • 4 sprigs of fresh thyme (1 teaspoon dried)
  • 3 sprigs of fresh oregano (1 teaspoon dried)

Add all ingredients to the crockpot. Tie fresh herbs into a bouquet garni and add. Cook on high for 4 hours, or on low for 6-8 hours. About 4 servings.

Eggplant Felix Dress with a side of Kale Chips

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I sewed another Felix Dress, this time in eggplant linen. It’s fully lined in the same fabric. I love a floaty linen dress in the summer. It looks great with my Ocean Moon shawl as well as my jean jacket. Pattern is Felix Dress by Grainline Studio.

I also sewed another Melba Dress, this time in charcoal jersey. I don’t think you need a photo of another plain Melba Dress. I do love wearing them, though.

I harvested all the greens from the greenhouse. It’s getting hot, and they are starting to bolt.

I tried out kale chips in the air fryer. I tossed one leaf in olive oil, pink Himalayan salt, and nutritional yeast. I left it in at 200 degrees F for 15 minutes. They came out great, except for the stems. Tear all the leafy parts off the stem first.