My history with sourdough goes back to my almost-hippy days in 1973. I say almost because real hippies in Nova Scotia did not drive big John Deere diesel tractors. I was living on the land and growing much of my own food but my ambition was to have a bunch of cattle which we eventually accomplished at Tay Ridge Angus.
Before I ended up with 200 head of cattle in New Brunswick, I was living on the Nova Scotia shore of the Bay of Fundy. I was friends with folks who lived in a Dome. I think they might have sparked my interest in sourdough bread. I bought a kit with a sourdough crock. I still have the crock which is probably forty-nine years old. About eight years ago I decided to reconnect with my sourdough side.
That sourdough starter which supposedly descends from the gold rush years is still doing well. It just got refreshed this week and is now back in its back corner of the fridge. It will stay there for five or six weeks or until the urge to bake strikes me again. I would bake every week, but I try to watch my carbs and baking every week definitely is not good for managing your carbs.
My wife claims that I put away the starter because I did not want to take the chance of having sourdough pancakes Saturday morning. It is true that tonight's sourdough pancakes and sausage were delicious. However, the sourdough BLTs that we had for lunch on Friday were equally tasty. It is also impossible to forget the delicious sourdough toast that we had with our bacon and eggs for breakfast the same day. You probably get the picture, but I was also worried that we might decide to follow up the other meals with some sourdough waffles which are also amazing.
This is the link for the sourdough pancake recipe that we made. We halved the recipe except we kept the whole egg. It was just right for two people who hadn't had pancakes for months. I think there were only a couple left.
Below is my Sourdough Bread Recipe which I like to think I have perfected over time. It works well for me here on North Carolina's Crystal Coast.
3 cups all purpose floor
1 1/2 teapoons of salthh
1 cup of warm water
2 cups of sourdough or whatever I have
Mix flour, water and salt in a large bowl
Add Sourdough and stir, I work it all together with a dough scraper. Depending on how much sourdough I have, I might add more water until the dough comes together in a nice lump.
Once the dough is together, I turn it over, cover and leave overnight or at least two to three hours
Then I turn out on a floured board and stretch the dough then fold and knead the dough and stretch again and then knead again. This should take five to ten minutes. I will often stretch the dough four times if I am not in a rush.
I then grease either one 9X5 or two 8X4 pans.
If you are doing two pans carefully divide the dough.
Place dough in pans, spread to all sides and tuck edges in properly
Bake at 400 30 to 45 minutes, checking the temperature for 190F at 30 minutes
When bread is done turn out on rack and let cool before cutting.
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