Step #1 Find recipe
Step #2 Get bread
Step #3 Get Eggs
Step #4 Select green egg
Step #5 Stir egg becuase you do not prefer a soft boiled egg
Step #6 make hole in bread
Step #7 Place bread in buttered skillet, fry for a moment on each side, then pour mixed (or unmixed) egg into the hole
Step #8 Remove from pan and say, "oooooo"
Step #9 Add some homemade nectarine and thyme jam on top
Step #10 Eat!
~Sarah
I didn’t realize that the death of my sourdough starter had such an effect on me. I have been crushed honestly. Unable to make ANY bread. Unable to take pictures for the blog despite having made tortilla soup, brownies, beef stew, cheesecake squares and all sorts of other dishes.
Although I had a few days off in a row, I simply could not muster the will to start again. But last night, somehow, I was able to do it. I enlisted the help of the three year old and just did it. Who knows if it will work since it is only day one, but at least I have started. I feel better already. Aren’t humans peculiar? I mean really, letting a food product get me down. Sheesh.
This wild seed starter is made from one cup freshly ground quinoa and 3/4c water. The idea comes from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. The original text uses rye flour, but of course I can’t use nor do I own rye flour so I picked quinoa since I had that enormous bag from Costco. Just mix the flour and water together with a plastic or wooden spoon and keep it lightly covered in a plastic or glass container.
As usual, the little one had a blast grinding it up in the coffee grinder (not used for coffee) and pouring the water in to the cup. Here it will sit for 24 hours.
Day 2
It doesn’t look any different than Day 1 so there’s no picture. Same idea though, mix 1c of rice flour and 1/2c of water into the starter from Day One. Let it sit out for another 24 hours. It might rise a little, or it may do nothing as mine did.
Day 3
Day 3 is a little different, you have to throw out or give away one-half of the starter. Then add one cup of flour and 1/2 c of water. Stir and let it sit for another 24 hours. (yes there is a lot of sitting and waiting). My Day 3 isn’t over yet, so I’ll take a picture later. Last time my Day 3 is where something started to happen! Here’s hoping…
Well days 4, 5 , 6 and seven never got posted because this starter is hassling me. I think I finally have it going, but I’m just not sure it smells quite right. I am going to try and refresh today to see if it will work. Otherwise I may need to start over.
Recently I acquired a lovely book called Loaf, Crust and Crumb by Silvija Davidson. It’s a sort of encyclopedia of bread. There are recipes, but not for the bread itself, rather how to use the bread once you’ve got it. I love this idea, particularly the uses for stale bread. We tend to forget that necessity brought about so many delicious recipes we still enjoy today. Who doesn’t love French toast (pain perdu to the French), a way of saving yesterday’s lost bread? Stuffing, croutons, all these are in the book, along with some unexpected recipes like Brown Bread Ice Cream.
I have the great fortune of living near enough to the Acme Bread Company that I can enjoy these exceptional loaves on a regular basis. My favorite being pain au levain. I could happily eat the entire loaf in one day, but when I manage to show some restraint and I have a bit leftover, there are so many possibilities. One of my favorites is a Moroccan inspired stuffed fish. I particularly like Jamie Oliver’s recipe, though I tend to use butterflied whole trout, and I don’t bother to tie it. Delicious with or without the bacon & crème fraîche.
The most recent way I’ve used up my bread was for breakfast, after having noticed a recipe for Migas in a beautiful book by Sam & Sam Clark called Moro. I decided to see what I had in the fridge. I sauteed onion and garlic in bacon drippings, added in the bread cubes, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, a fresno chile and some spinach for color. Topped it off with a fried egg. Breakfast served.
-Jennifer
This is amaranth bread. It is the third-generation sourdough (the one with the egg white added). I am quite happy with how it turned out. It looks like “normal” bread and has a reasonably soft texture due to all the tapioca flour.
For those of you who don’t know what amaranth is it is a super-tiny seed that comes from an ancient, beautiful magenta-pink colored flower that is actually a weed (I think). It is high in protein and can grow damn near anywhere, hence it’s weed-like qualities. It is a little like hemp in that it contains essential amino acids that human bodies need. It is a valuable crop indeed!
This bread uses the entire seed, not the flour most people may have seen. While I use amaranth flour in lots of other things, I chose to use the seed here. Here’s what I came up with to put in this simple bread:
1/2c of whole amaranth
1c millet flour
2 1/2c tapioca flour
1t each of guar and xanthan gums
1 1/2t salt
1 C of starter
1 egg white, lightly beaten and
about 2 cups of water
I throw all this is a bowl and mix it up for a few minutes. I let it rise, covered, in the bowl on the counter for about 30 minutes and then plop it in the 9×5 loaf pan that has been spray oiled and dusted with cornmeal. Then it sits to rise until it is almost at the top of the pan. After that, it’s off the oven set at 375 degrees. It bakes, for 10 minutes uncovered and then about 30 or so covered with foil. Then it must cool completely on a rack before I can eat it.
I don’t know if I have just grown accustomed to gf bread or if this really is good bread. As much as I tried to get my mother to buy Wonder when I was younger, I never ate any of the super-soft loaf breads. Then as I grew older, I always ate the whole grain ones that were firmer from bakeries like Alvarado St.. It may just be that I don’t long for soft, squishy bread because I don’t have a memory to which I could compare the texture. Who knows.
What I do know is that gf bread keeps me from being sick and I think this bread tastes lovely. Why would I expect anything less from such a beautiful flower.
~Sarah
Crocodile bread?
I saw this picture and said, “Oooo, what a neat picture.” To which my son replied, “It looks like a crocodile.”
This is my fourth attempt at a GF bread without eggs, store-bought yeast, milk or other flavor additives. Straight flour mix, wild starter, salt, water and xanthan/guar gums.
Both loaves look fabulous, but I think the flavor is a bit too sour. Here’s a picture of my firmish starter (I think it sorta looks like tofu):
I may add a tablespoon of sugar the next time around. My son thinks the loaves are going to taste “hecka good” despite not yet trying the bread (he licked the top). My neighbor who is a retired chef said it was “very good, but still has that cake-like quality that all gluten free bread seems to have.” He then ate some more. Apparently, the flavor is not affected by this cake-like texture.
I made one fake rye and one plain. Despite being a tad too sour, they are darn tasty if you ask me.
I have been contemplating and tinkering with how to make a vegan or GF/CF bread for years. I was also looking for something simpler. I mean, look in any gluten free bread baking book and you’ll find myriad ingredients ranging from chia seed gel stuff to Knox gelatin to recipes using six different flours. Don’t get me wrong, I own those books and I’ve made those recipes. In fact, my pizza recipe is awesome, but it has a lot of ingredients.
The problem with these recipes is that they usually require shopping at multiple stores, shelf space, more dirty dishes etc etc. And as if eating gluten free didn’t already make you sometimes feel like a freak, when you are standing there making bread with twenty ingredients, that feeling only gets worse.
My first three attempts at a simpler bread had one egg white in them. I must admit that I think the egg white makes a huge difference in not only appearance, but texture. This bread is good, damn good in fact, but the egg may come back in future loaves. Of course it can be left out if one chooses.
It will be interesting to see where this journey takes me.
~Sarah