Sourdough for Beginners

Hi friends!
Here is a tutorial for baking your first loaf of sourdough bread. I've included a recipe and video instructions for each step. Please know that there are many ways to successfully make sourdough. This is just my method. I'd encourage you to try others' methods too and take notes on your process. If you keep at it, you'll develop your own idiosyncratic method.

A few notes:
1. Sourdough starter: You will need an active sourdough starter. In these times of flour shortages, I'd highly recommend obtaining a starter from a friend. You can also make your own starter. I followed this method:
King Arthur Flour Sourdough Starter
To conserve flour, you can scale down the amounts recommended in the King Arthur tutorial. So instead of 1 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water, you could use 1/2 cup flour and 1/4 cup water.

2. Measuring by weight vs volume: Many sourdough bakers use a kitchen scale; so amounts in most sourdough recipes are listed in grams. If you have a scale, it will make the process easier. But I want to make getting started accessible. So in this recipe, I'm giving rough volume measurements.

At the same time, many sourdough bakers bake entirely by feel and use no measurements. It's all about developing the method that works for you.

3. Time: "Watch the dough, not the clock." Rising times for starter and dough can vary widely based on a number of factors (ambient temperature, temperature of water used in dough, starter vigor, amount of starter used in recipe, type of flour, etc!). Because of that, you'll want to learn how to "read" your dough. However, I've given a timeline in this recipe to give beginners at least a rough estimate to follow. I'd highly recommend taking notes for yourself!

Recipe with a sample timeline:

Thursday a.m.  feed starter
Thursday p.m. before bed: feed starter

Friday a.m.*
Make pre-ferment
100 g of active fed starter (approx 1/2 cup)
150 g flour (bread or all-purpose flour) (approx 1 1/8 cup)
285 g water (approx 1 1/4 cup)

Whisk all ingredients in a bowl. Cover with a towel and leave at room temp for 7-10 hrs. You can also start this step in the evening and leave it out overnight. It should be nice and bubbly and pleasantly sour-smelling when ready to move onto the next step.

*Note! Beginning with an active, "doubled" starter is very important! If your starter rose and fell during the night, feed it again and begin when the starter is ready. It's best (schedule-wise) if you can make this pre-ferment either in the morning sometime before noon OR in the evening right before bed. This will help you avoid having to stay up late to mix your dough.




Friday ~4 p.m. (7-10 hrs after making the pre-ferment)

Make dough
To the preferment add
300 g flour (approx 2 cups; bread flour is ideal. All-purpose flour will do. Can do part whole wheat)
8-10 g water (approx 1 Tbs)

Measure out and set aside
13 g salt (very scant TBs)

Using your hand, mix all ingredients except salt into a "shaggy" dough. Cover. Leave at room temp for 1 hour.



Friday, ~5 p.m. (1 hr after mixing dough)

Mix your salt into the dough and do the first set of stretch and folds (see video below). Cover and leave at room temp for 30 minutes.

*Note: if your dough is very dry at this point, mix in a small amount of water as you add the salt. Start by adding a TBS and only add more if it still won't come together into a dough. It's not against the law to add a lot more water, but I've purposely tried to keep this a drier dough so that it will be easier to work with. Carry on.



Friday 5:30 p.m.

Do another set of stretch and folds. Cover and leave at room temp for 30 min.

Friday 6 p.m.

Do 3rd set of stretch and folds.



Friday 6:30 p.m.

Do final set of stretch and folds. Look for "windowpane." See above video.
Cover with a tea towel and a plastic bag. Place in the fridge overnight.


Saturday a.m.
Remove the dough from fridge and shape into a boule. Let it rest on the counter while you prepare a vessel for the shaped dough to rise in.



A well-floured towel in a colander works great for proofing your shaped dough. If you have rice flour, it works very well to keep the dough from sticking to the towel. You can grind a small amount of rice in a coffee grinder. Otherwise, cornmeal, or regular flour will do. Just make sure it's well-floured!

Place the dough topside-down in the towel-lined banneton or colander. Cover with a tea towel and leave at room temp for 2-4 hours, or until dough is ready to bake.




Saturday around noon (or whenever dough is ready)

When dough is ready to bake, it will have risen, although probably not "doubled in size." It might jiggle when you shake it. You can try a "poke test." Wet two fingers and press them into the dough up to the first knuckle. If the hole fills back in quickly, it needs more time to proof. It the hole fills in part-way, it's ready to bake.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place Dutch oven in the oven while preheating*  Your dough needs steam when it's first placed in the oven to keep the crust soft with the baking bread expands. The Dutch oven accomplishes the steaming effect of professional ovens by containing the steam from the baking bread.

*Many people insist on preheating the Dutch oven. And just as many people insist that a cold Dutch oven works better. I prefer to pre-heat mine as I feel it gives a greater "oven spring," but you should experiment for yourself. Also, if you don't have parchment paper on hand, I'd recommend not preheating the Dutch oven, so you don't burn yourself trying to lower the dough into the pot. If you don't have a Dutch oven, use a cookie sheet with an oven-safe bowl upturned over the loaf.



Turn your dough out of the banneton/colander onto a sheet of parchment paper. Use a sharp razor blade to score it.



Place the dough in the Dutch oven and put in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.
After 20-25 minutes, remove the lid of the Dutch oven. Return bread to oven and bake additional 10-12 minutes or until crust is desired "brown-ness." I place a cookie sheet on the lower shelf at this point to prevent the bottom of the loaf form getting too done.






Cool finished loaf on a wire rack and try to refrain from cutting into it for 1 hour so the crumb can set. Enjoy! Send me pictures of your loaves! And remember, loaf fails are part of the process. Take notes and try again! Happy baking.

Soft & Chewy Gingerbread Cookies (sweetened only with dates & love)

As promised in my last post about date paste, here's the first holiday date-sweetened recipe! I made these yesterday. Oh man, I love gingerbread, especially SOFT gingerbread. The two keys to making these nice and soft are to: 1. Roll it out thick! and 2. Don't overbake!

 RECIPE

3 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 T cinnamon
1T ground ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
12 T butter (room temp, but not warm) cut into small chunks
3/4 cup date paste (or approx 1 cup of dates cooked down in 1 cup water and pureed)
         check out all about date paste for tips!
3/4 cup molasses

I like to use a food processor, but a mixer is great too.

Mix dry ingredients.
Add the butter and mix until mixture is "sandy."
With the mixer on low, slowly add the molasses and date paste until the dough is evenly combined.
Scrape the dough out onto parchment paper.
Divide into 2 balls, wrap in plastic and chill. An hour in the fridge or speed it up in the freezer.
Roll out between 2 pieces of parchment. Roll out thick, about 1/4 inch.
Cut out shapes and place on a parchment covered cookie sheet. Add any decorations at this point. Pop in the freezer for about 5 min.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-13 min. Don't over bake 'em! They'll firm up on the pan outside the oven.
Cool for several minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to wire rack.

P.S. If you don't feel like rolling out the dough, just shape into little round balls and flatten slightly.

If you try it, let me know how it goes! Also if you have good sugar-free decorating ideas besides raisins, let's hear 'em!

Happy baking.

Carrie

All About Date Paste

Ok, so I don't eat sugar. Not because I'm morally superior, but because I'm vain: it gives me acne. It also makes me feel like I've chugged 5 cups of coffee on an empty stomach. Unfortunately for me, maple syrup and honey have the same effect. Enter date paste. It's dates, cooked down and softened in water and pureed. I use it almost exclusively as a sweetener when I bake and it doesn't make me jittery.

I buy my dates at Costco or from the bulk bin at Winco. Both places are about $3.50 per pound

Here's how to make it!

1 cup dates
1 cup water

Makes approx 3/4 cups date paste, which is usually enough to sweeten most recipes.

Combine in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Simmer until the dates are very soft. The water will reduce. Use a fork to mash up the dates and break them apart. If you have an immersion blender, this speeds up the process considerably and gets the paste as smooth as possible. Simmering time can vary from 15 min to an hour, depending on how much you are actively smashing up the dates with a fork.

This consistency works fine if you are using the paste to sweeten pie filling or muffins. But if you want it completely smooth for something like frosting, blend, blend, blend.

Using date paste


I usually just go for it, subbing date paste in recipes and trying to make it work. It usually does. 😁. Sometimes you get a different texture than you are used to, but it's usually still good. Following are some ideas.

Pie filling - super easy. Just use date paste instead of sugar. Do it to your taste. It's very forgiving. I use about a cup of dates for a regular pie. A cup and a half to 2 cups if you like it sweeter, or if the pie contains a sour fruit such as rhubarb.

Muffins - I do this all the time using the following link as a guide:
breakfast muffins I used raisins in this recipe, but date paste works just as well. You can also substitute the grated apple and banana for another "wet" ingredient too, such as pumpkin puree.

date sweetened chocolate almond bars - a favorite around here

Cake - This is my go-to chocolate cake recipe from "A spoonful of sugar-free." I usually double it.
Flourless chocolate cake (made with almonds) I have a great date-sweetened frosting recipe that I use with it. Message me if you want it!

Cookies - I have subbed date paste in regular old cookies. It's a bit of trial and error, as it does change the consistency. I've noticed it makes them a bit more cake-y than crumb-y if that makes sense. I do think that almond flour might be better suited with dates for cookies and I'm going to do some testing in my "date paste test kitchen" this holiday season and I'll report back with any winners!

Also, coming soon! Date-sweetened homemade eggnog recipe.  Happy baking!

Shut the Front Door

Maybe a front door isn't THAT interesting, but still I think it deserves it's own mini-picture-post considering how far it's come! Jarrod had to first remove a large garage door meant for RV's to drive through. We bought the front door at an outlet-type place, so while we got a great deal, the doors were unstained blanks that had to be sanded and stained and the door knob had to be installed. In addition, since this pole barn was originally a garage/shop, the floor is not even. The corner where the front door is dives downward in two directions. So making the doors look level, as well as open/shut well was a challenge (I'm told).

The RV door on the right is where the front door is now!

Also, since a huge RV door came out of this space, we had to replace some sheet metal siding. Jarrod has used the scraps that have come off the building where we've put in windows to puzzle it in. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good for free and for re-using scraps. Some day, we might re-side, but not a priority now.

Someday a patio out here instead of gravel. Also, a stoop/awning/covering over the door is in the plan.

And the lovely door handle that just went in this weekend.

Why yes, I am an albino.

In honor of "International Albinism Awareness Day"

This post will be a little bit about my experience as an albino and as the mother of toddler with albinism. But I also want to raise awareness about (and hopefully some funds for) the plight of people with albinism in Tanzania, because what they face is horrific.

Albinism is an autosomal recessive condition, if you remember the Medelian square stuff. One can carry the recessive gene and not have the condition. It's only when one inherits the recessive gene from both parents, that it manifests. So, my daughter with albinism received the recessive gene from me, but also from her dad, who does not have albinism. That's the basics. There are different types of albinism, but I'm speaking broadly about oculocutaneous albinism. Basically, the eyes, hair and skin are affected because of the lack of melanin (the stuff that makes you tan).



My experience with albinism
I and my two brothers have albinism. Neither of my parents do and there is no known history of it anywhere else in our family. I don't think I've ever met another albino in my life besides my brothers and now my daughter. It's pretty rare in North America: 1 in 18,000-20,000.

My parents didn't even know I was an albino until I couldn't see the chalkboard in first grade. I have 20/60 vision, not correctable with glasses. I struggled to read the board and overhead projectors all through school. (I went back to college in my mid-twenties when everything had shifted to PowerPoint and Whoa! Way easier to see.)  I can't pass the eye test at the DMV, but thankfully I have a driver's license, though I had to jump through a few extra hoops to get one.

Probably the most difficult part for me as an albino was growing up in the 1980's when being tan was like a fashion requirement. I hated not being able to tan. People made fun of me in 8th grade, but I'm pretty sure that happens to 99% of eighth graders.

Two years ago, I had my second child and her pediatrician suspected albinism when she was three months old. A pediatric ophthamologist more or less confirmed it. She wouldn't say outright (which was weird), but I'm quite certain that Maggie has albinism. I think she sees very similarly to me just from observing her (holding books close and not picking up far-away details).

You may have noticed that I use the terms "person with albinism" and "albino" pretty interchangeably. The word "albino" might be considered offensive to some people and I'd guess for a lot of people, that's because the word is sometimes used in a derogatory way or has a negative connotation because of the way albinos are portrayed in media. Albinos in movies are usually villains or red-eyed people in basements with magical powers. Growing up, when people called me an "albino," it was often done in a mean-spirited way. Personally, I've chosen to use the word to normalize/neutralize it for me and for Maggie. Others with albinism might feel differently.

That's me with two of my nieces. My two brothers have 4 children apiece, none of them albinos.

Albinos in Tanzania and other parts of southern Africa
The incidence of albinism in Tanzania and other parts of southern Africa is much higher than it is in North America, around 1 in 1500. And because of a pervasive cultural belief that people with albinism are ghosts and that their blood and limbs hold magical powers, they are hunted, sold, dismembered and murdered. They live in fear for their lives. Children with albinism often are not sent to school for fear of being kidnapped. Assailants break into homes at night and commit horrific atrocities against children and adults with albinism. Sometimes, it's even family members selling their albino relatives, or tipping off kidnappers.
This NY Times article from May of this year pretty much sums it up.

Here is the organization that is really doing something about it: Under the Same Sun (UTSS), started by Peter Ash of Vancouver B.C. It's hard to read about some of the truly horrible things that have happened to people with albinism, but it's worth perusing UTSS's website to read about their programs, which are really making a difference and bringing hope to many people with albinism there.

I have a personal fundraising page for UTSS, with a goal of raising $500 for them. You can check that out here.
My fundraising page

Thank you for your support! And feel free to share that page on your social media accounts.


National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation (NOAH) is a great place to start if you want more information about albinism in general.

Also, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have specific questions about anything here.

Happy Albinism Awareness Day!

Do we all have a "calling?"

You know those people who are clearly doing what they are "called" to do. You can just tell. My question is: do we all have a calling? How do we find out what that is? Do circumstances like finances or relationships have the potential to make us miss out on that calling? Or, if we are committed, if we trust and go for it, is there some guarantee that we can live out whatever it is we are called to do, assuming we know what that is in the first place?

It's a question I've been asking God. What am I supposed to be doing? Honestly, if you ask me what my calling is, I have no idea. When people say "What's your passion?" my honest answer is that I don't have one.

I've taken a couple "spiritual gifts" tests. My results indicate that my top gifts are "faith" and "hospitality." Let's take those one at a time:

Faith - definitely a gift. There is no way I could believe in a truly good God who wants the very best for me even if it seems otherwise without faith. And that faith is not something I conjured up or willed to happen on my own. It was given to me. No doubt about it. Now, what do I do with that.

Hospitality - I love that idea. I love welcoming people, cooking for them. I yearn to make them feel comfortable. The hitch is I live in a tiny home and I typically have my shirt only halfway on while I simultaneously wipe a butt and make a peanut butter sandwich and my baby crawls around covered in avocado and dog hair. Sometimes all that makes being hospitable seem overwhelming.

Pre-marriage, pre-kids. If I'm honest, I loved this life, except I yearned for ..... what I have now.

It seems every time I try to take on something extra that seems worthy, I get thwarted. I don't get scheduled. E-mails don't get returned. I'm thanked, but they don't need me right now. In a way it feels like God keeps telling me what I'm supposed to be doing right now and I just keep questioning...."Really, that's ALL? And He keeps answering by blocking me every time I try to take on something else. It seems my answer, at least at this point in my life, is this:

Mom, wife, mom, wife, mom, wife. That's it. Nothing else. I know some women are mom, wife AND ________ fill in the blank with something noble. Apparently, all I can handle, and barely handle might I add, is mom, wife.

Can we just live in this photo?

Why am I not just OK with that? And why, if that's "all" I have to do, am I not knocking it out of the park? 

Also pre-kids. I have nothing left to give for dogs right now. It's just another being that needs me.

Growth is a process, but here is something I'm working on. If I lessen the mom/wife role in my head, I treat it as something I don't have to work on. It becomes something that gets in the way of some other thing that I want to do. That's when I start grasping for something else to make me significant, whether that's working or volunteering or sewing aprons or gardening. But if I can accept that my "calling" right now is mom/wife, it's easier to take on the challenges as a growth and refinement process instead of view them as an annoyance. I can give of myself more selflessly if I just surrender to the idea that what I'm doing is sacred, even if it's wiping up pee. 

Just me? Is it easy for you to just roll with the mom/wife role? Or do you buck against that defining you? Also, how the f--k did those pioneer women do it? I wonder that all the time.

When Molly Bea fell out of the crib

Molly Bea is our baby of the family. The third of three girls. The last baby, we presume. She has the sweetest temperament and a ready-smile.

Last week, she fell out of her crib. I'm often the parent who says "she's fiiiine" and moves on, but this one left me reeling. Molly sleeps in a crib elevated about five feet off the ground.

My husband modified the crib so that the side opens and closes like a door, with latches. I think any mother would be terrified, as I am, that one day she would forget to latch the door. 

Molly Bea is the second baby to sleep in this crib and I still double check myself every time I put her in there. So, here's the gist of it:

Poor little Molly can never get in a good nap. She is constantly awakened mid-sleep because she lives in a tiny house with two older siblings. So the other day when she fell asleep I laid her in her crib hoping she would get to stay asleep for awhile. Just as I laid her down my two-year-old started screaming and I rushed out to hush her.

I was actually quite pleased with my parenting at this point because I was calm with the screaming two year-old, quieted her and the baby stayed asleep. Five minutes later, I was on the front porch when my oldest child came out and said "Mommy, Molly Bea fell out of her crib."

I rushed inside. Molly was crawling towards me crying. My first thought was that there was no way I could have forgotten to latch that door and that my four-year-old had opened it while trying to console her sister. But Mira insisted she hadn't done that and I could tell she was telling the truth.

I inspected Molly's body. She had a small red mark on her forehead but was otherwise completely unscathed. She escaped without so much as a bump! I think her blankets preceded her fall and possibly cushioned her and I know "babies bounce" and all, but still! She fell about five feet, presumably head first. It could have been so much worse.

For the rest of the day, she seemed emotionally shocked, like she had just discovered that the world can be cruel. She still smiled at us, but she was on edge. She cried easily. Poor sweet child. By the next day, she was totally herself again.

In the last couple of weeks, friends of friends lost a child in a tragic rope swing accident and a toddler (also friends of friends) sustained burns all over his body from a pot of boiling water accident. I had been thinking about these two families a lot, and praying for them. When Molly Bea fell out of the crib, my empathy for them shot through the roof.

Obviously, I'm not comparing what happened to Molly to what happened to their children. But let's just say that if my heart was dropping into my stomach when I thought about these families before Molly fell, then it was dropping down to hell when I thought about these families, after Molly fell. Motherhood, parenthood, makes our hearts so vulnerable.

Another tragedy happened close to our house this past weekend, in which a baby died. The mom. I just cannot stop thinking about the mom.