Category: Sourdough discard

Categories
Dessert Sourdough discard

Sourdough Scones with Sprouted Flour, Almond Flour and Berry-Nut Combo

 

How easy it is to make a healthier dessert? Not really difficult if you put your mind and creativity into it. All you have to do is analyze the ingredients in your homemade dessert and figure out what ingredients you can replace with their healthier counterparts. Basically, you will replace empty calories with nourishing calories. 

Sourdough Scones with Sprouted Flour, Almond Flour and Berry-Nut Combo

This is one of my favorite dessert recipes. I used organic coconut sugar and organic sprouted wheat flour to add sweetness to the dough. Both sprouted wheat flour and almond flour help to create that wonderful light and moist texture, which many people like that much. Oat milk contributed to the texture too. All the flavors are well balanced.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Servings 13

Ingredients
  

  • 210 grams active sourdough
  • 300 grams all-purpose flour, unbleached and unbromated
  • 100 grams organic sprouted whole wheat flour
  • 100 grams almond flour
  • 75 grams organic coconut sugar
  • 170 grams oat milk or any nut milk
  • 113 grams cold butter or Ghee
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 120 grams dried currants
  • 30 grams dried cranberries
  • 40 grams black walnuts

Instructions
 

  • I started with sourdough. As you can see my sourdough was pretty active. It could go without refreshing for another half hour or so, but it was in good condition for scones.
  • I took out almost all the sourdough from the jar. I left just enough to refresh my sourdough culture in 2 steps for the next day's bread dough. Basically, I added 25 grams of room temperature water to it and 25 grams all-purpose and white rye flour mixture.
  • I added all three types of flour to a large glass bowl.
  • Then I added coconut sugar.
  • I also added sea salt, baking soda, and baking powder. When you can see what is in your bowl, it is easier to control all the dry ingredients. It is time to whisk everything together.
  • Whisking in the orange zest.
  • I am absolutely adamant about not employing my food processor for simple recipes. I wanted to use a fine grater and a pastry cutter for my cold butter.
  • My pastry cutter worked just fine.
  • In a separate bowl, I mixed together all my wet ingredients -- my sourdough and oat milk.
  • I combined all my dry ingredients and all my wet ingredients. I mixed everything with my hands.
  • The dough is a bit sticky, but very easy to work with.
  • In a separate bowl, I mixed together dried currants, dried cranberries and black walnuts. Dried currants are smaller than raisins, which is great for scones. I had to cut cranberries into smaller pieces to create more or less harmonious texture. I got finely chopped walnuts at a discounted price, so I did not have to cut them.
  • I mixed my berries and walnuts into the dough with my hands.
  • I greased a square glass baking tray with Ghee and spread all my dough evenly all over it. Then I covered the tray with plastic wrap and put it into the refrigerator for a few hours. Chilled dough is easier to cut into pieces.
  • I cut the dough into little triangles with a plastic dough cutter and put them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  • I baked these scones at 400°F or 204°C for 20 minutes. Then I lower the temperature to 375°F  or 190°C and bake for 5 more minutes.
  • It is best to enjoy these scones with a simple lemon glaze. You will need 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice and 1 cup of powdered sugar. Whisk everything together and garnish your scones with it. I also like adding fresh lemon zest on top of the glaze.

Notes

These scones are moist and fragrant.
The recipe calls for many healthy ingredients, which are easily customizable. 
Coconut sugar is a healthier replacement for traditional white sugar with a lower glycemic index.
You may use some other dried fruits and nuts in any combination you like.
Any nut milk will do just fine. 
Have fun with your dessert!
 

This is definitely a keeper in my recipe collection. I love the texture of the crumb. Almond flour and finely chopped walnuts were major contributors to the flavor. Two thumbs up from my family!

 

Have a wonderful baking day!

 

Categories
Dessert Sourdough discard

Sourdough Scones with Dried Currants

The key to any good baked dessert is using the best ingredients available to you. When I use the sourdough discard, I actually use the surplus sourdough. The term “sourdough discard” is widely used within the baking community, although most bakers regard this as a surplus sourdough. This is normally the same active sourdough you use for making bread.

This is the picture of the sourdough surplus (discard) that I used for these scones.

 

I refresh my sourdough regularly and do not let it become dormant for a long time. That is why I need to use it many times throughout the week not just for bread baking.

 

There many recipes for sourdough deserts and sourdough scones are among my family favorites. Sourdough scones with dried currants and refreshing lemon glaze pair wonderfully with a cup of espresso to cheer you up on a cold winter morning.

 

Sourdough Scones with Dried Currants

This is another delicious way to use your sourdough surplus to make a dessert for your weekend breakfast.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Servings 8

Ingredients
  

  • 400 grams all-purpose flour
  • 75 grams sugar or coconut sugar
  • 200 grams sourdough surplus, active (About 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon)
  • 160 grams nut milk, milk or heavy cream 3/4 cup
  • 113 grams cold butter or Ghee 1/2 cup, packed
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • zest of one lemon
  • 160 grams dried currants (About 2 cups)

Instructions
 

  • Combine together all-purpose flour, coconut sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder and the zest of one lemon. I use whisk to mix them together.
  • Mix your cold butter with your dry ingredients. You could use a food processor. I prefer to use a pastry cutter.
  • Now combine all your dry and wet ingredients together. You may whisk together your sourdough and milk first, and then add it to the dry ingredients. I omitted that step and added my sourdough and milk directly to the bowl. After that, I mixed everything well with my hands.
  • The dough is ready for the ingredients of your choice. I added dried currants. You may use other dried berries and/or your favorite nuts.
  • Carefully mix in the berries. I would not advise you to use a food processor at this step. Currants are rather small. You want to preserve your berries intact. Use your hands to distribute the berries all over the dough. if you have larger berries, use your best judgment on how to handle them.
  • Refrigerate your dough for an hour or so. Refrigeration makes it slightly easier to divide the dough into pieces. I used a simple plastic dough cutter for both cutting the dough and placing the pieces onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Baking

  • I bake my scones at 400°F or 204°C for 20 minutes. Then I lower the temperature to 375°F  or 190°C and bake for 5-7 minutes.

Glazing

  • It is best to enjoy these scones with a simple lemon glaze. You will need 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice and 1 cup of powdered sugar. Whisk everything together and garnish your scones with it.

Notes

This recipe is for dried berries or dried berries and nut combos. If you want to use fresh berries, freeze them to make them strong enough to withstand mixing without breaking. Depending on the type of berries, you might need to adjust the quantity of milk in the recipe.
You may enjoy the scones with lemon glaze, or with whipped cream and mascarpone mixed with lemon juice and some powdered sugar. I had some mascarpone cream left from the filling, which I made for the tart, and it complemented the scones nicely.
Categories
Fermented beverage Kvass Sourdough discard

Fermented Bread Beverage — Kvass. Part 2

In the evening, I strained the mixture through a colander into a large mixing bowl. I added 3 tablespoons of sugar and mixed everything together. Sugar is necessary to boost the second fermentation. This is the only way to get that fizzy fermented drink that I love since I was a kid.

Then I poured the kvass into bottles through a fine strainer and a funnel. I used large plastic seltzer bottles. They have airtight lids.
 
I put the leftover bread from the large sieve into a small jar and put the jar in the refrigerator. This is my new starter for the next batch of kvass. I will not have to add sourdough for the new batch.
 
For the second fermentation, you may put raisins or mint leaves into your bottles with kvass. These additions are very popular for kvass. They boost the fermentation process and give new flavors. 

Then kvass ferments in bottles at room temperature for a few days. After that, I put it in the refrigerator.
 
It is a very fizzy drink at this point. Open the bottle slowly!
 
I do not think that kvass is a warm-weather beverage. It is a fermented beverage that is like Kombucha. You can buy Kombucha all year round in a supermarket. Why not treat kvass the same way? I make kvass less frequently in winter, but I still make it.
 
I remember how my grandmother made her kvass. It fermented in a large enameled bucket in her summer kitchen. I would strain some kvass at the end of its first fermentation, strain it into a mug and drink room temperature. Most people prefer kvass cold. Either way, it is a very nice fermented beverage.

The taste is fragrant and bready. I love kvass with aromatic herbs like lemon balm and mint, but this time I made it simple. For color, you could add molasses or date syrup. This is just a basic recipe. Make it to your own liking.

 

Categories
Fermented beverage Kvass Sourdough discard

Fermented Bread Beverage — Kvass. Part 1

When you first work with sourdough, you might wonder how to use all that surplus sourdough you have. I was concerned about that too. I do not throw away any sourdough discard. So, I want to share my ways of dealing with it.
 
I use it to make a traditional Russian fermented bread beverage — Kvass. Most people use leftover bread for it. I thought that making this special sourdough discard bread would be a much better option for me. I have some sourdough discard after every feeding of my sourdough culture.
 
The simplest way to make this bread is to collect all the sourdough discard over the course of a few weeks. I use a large jar for it and keep it in the refrigerator.
 
When I have enough sourdough discard to make a loaf of bread, I take it out of the jar into a large bowl. I add some flour to it and make a dough. I knead the dough by hand. It is very easy to do. There are only two ingredients — sourdough and flour. The dough should not be very sticky. There are no particular requirements for the crust and crumb of this bread either.
 
I shape it into a loaf and put it in a floured basket. It stays in the basket for a few hours and rises a bit. The dough is rather heavy and the sourdough itself is not in a very active stage of its development. But it serves its purpose well.
 
After a few hours of fermentation, preheat the oven to 450 ° F (230 ° C) with ceramic tiles in it. Then I put this bread on parchment paper and slide it onto ceramic tiles. Most of the time I bake this bread before or after baking my regular bread. That way I do not use the oven for this bread only.
 

After baking, I let the bread cool down, cut it into pieces, and dried it in the residual heat of the stove. I had enough dried bread for three batches of kvass. Your bread does not have to be as large as mine. You may bake your bread for one batch of kvass to try it.
 
I put some dried bread into a large pot with boiling water. I let it simmer for a few minutes and turned the heat off. I let it brew and cool completely in this pot. Then I transferred the bread and water mixture into a large glass jar.
 

Then I added the active sourdough culture and mixed it well with the bread infusion. After that, I added a couple of tablespoons of molasses. It gives a beautiful color to kvass. Plus, it is excellent supplementary food for lactic acid bacteria.

Finally, I covered the jar with a plate and left it at room temperature overnight.
 
In the morning, it all looked like this…
 

The smell is fragrant and very bready. Not enough acidity yet. The first fermentation is not over.
 
The next photo shows my future kvass a few hours later.

By the evening, the kvass should be ready to get transferred to bottles.
 
Stay tuned for the next post.
Categories
Blini Sourdough discard

Sourdough Blini with Oat Milk

Blini is a yeasted or naturally leavened (sourdough) version of crepes. They are a great way to use your sourdough discard. Blini are not paper thin like crepes, but fluffy because of the fermentation. They are infinitely versatile. One can serve them with a great variety of toppings or fillings.

 

Sourdough Blini with Oat Milk

Blini is a delicious way to utilize your refrigerated or fresh sourdough discard to enrich your blini batter.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine Russian
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

  • 160 grams active sourdough
  • 600 grams oat milk
  • 16 grams monkfruit sweetener or sugar
  • 91 grams eggs, 2 large
  • 225 grams all-purpose flour
  • 1 pinch of salt

Instructions
 

Making the batter:

  • Combine the sourdough with oat milk. Add monk fruit sweetener or sugar. Whisk everything vigourously. Add eggs and salt. Whisk everything together again. Many people use room-temperature eggs because they mix better.
  • Add flour and whisk everything again. Mixing is finished.
  • You could also use a blender. It takes about 30 seconds to blend your batter until smooth.
  • In the ideal world, you let your batter ferment for about an hour and a half or two hours. If you want to make your blini faster, you may let the batter rest for 30 minutes. Then you add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda with a splash of vinegar. It will mimic the fermentation process and will give you those tiny air bubbles in the batter that you strive to get.

Cooking:

  • Heat your non-stick or well-seasoned cast-iron crepe pan over medium heat for 2 minutes. I always season my pan with melted Ghee, organic coconut oil, or light olive oil. I do it every time before pouring the batter onto the crepe-pan.
  • I use a 9-inch crepe-pan. To pour the batter onto the pan I use my old 1/2-cup ladle, which is a perfect match for the 9-inch pan of the pan. I put one full ladle of batter onto the pan and start tilting and swirling the pan to distribute the batter evenly.
  • I cook blini until the edges start lifting from the pan and the color is golden or golden-brown. The color largely depends on the amount of sugar and type of flour used in your batter. It usually takes 1-1.5 minutes.
  • Then I lift the edges of the blini with a silicon-coated, heat-resistant spatula, and flip them over. I cook blini on the other side just until they reach a golden color. It usually takes about 40-45 seconds.
  • Slide your blini onto a plate.
  • I always brush the top side of my blini with melted Ghee or butter while they are still hot. That way blini stay soft longer and do not stick to each other. Butter coating also makes it easier to reheat blini if you plan to store them in the refrigerator.
  • Stack blini on top of one another and let them cool down completely before refrigerating or freezing. You can keep them in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. I put blini in a glass container with an airtight plastic lid. I do not freeze them, but you may freeze the blini for up to one month.

Notes

  1. For a lighter batter, use freshly sifted flour.
  2. For a savory version of your blini, you may omit the sugar and add some grated Parmesan cheese. Adding some herbs is another option.
  3. To season your crepe-pan, you may use a heat-resistant silicone pastry brush or a paper towel. Each time you need to add only a thin layer of oil to the pan.
 
Keyword Naturally Sweetened, Vegetarian

Enjoy your meal!

Categories
Blog Sourdough discard

White Sourdough Pizzelle with Chia Seeds

This morning I made pizzelle with white sourdough. I like to refresh my sourdough several times a week to keep it strong and healthy. That way, I end up using my sourdough discard more often. Sourdough pizzelle and sourdough crackers come to the rescue. Kids love them, and they never go stale in my house.

This recipe immediately became my family’s new favorite snack. I am happy to share this formula with you. 

Ingredients:

  • Active white sourdough (refreshed the night before) — 250 grams
  • Leftover eggnog (only natural ingredients) — 200 grams
  • Three large eggs (organic free-range) — 150 grams
  • Salt — 1/4 teaspoon
  • Honey — 50 grams
  • Pure vanilla extract — 1 teaspoon
  • Almond meal — 200 grams
  • Sprouted wheat flour —— 100 grams
  • Chia seeds — 50 grams

How to make pizzelle:

First, start combining your liquid ingredients and salt. After that, add almond meal. Whisk everything well. Then gradually add sprouted wheat flour. Finally, add chia seeds. The batter is ready.

Your pizzelle maker will take care of the rest. Enjoy your pizzelle!

Variations:

  • Feel free to use any sourdough discard at hand. I was refreshing my white sourdough that day. 
  • You may substitute almond or oat milk for the eggnog from this recipe. In that case, add more spices and some more honey. Eggnog is a very flavorful sweet drink: I only added some vanilla extract to my batter.
  • I use sprouted wheat flour to increase the nutritional value of my pizzelle. If you want to learn more about the benefits of the sprouted grains, check out this website. You may use any flour you have at hand.
Categories
Blog Sourdough discard

Rye Sourdough Pizzelle

Pizzelle are traditional Italian waffle cookies. They are easy to make if you have a pizzelle press, pizzelle iron, or pizzelle maker. Many years ago, I wanted to buy a waffle maker in an online store. When I was doing my research on the waffle makers, I saw pizzelle presses. I fell in love with the idea of a crispy thin cookie, which is infinitely customizable. So, I got myself a pizzelle maker.

One Thanksgiving morning, I got an idea to use the surplus rye sourdough to make pizzelle for breakfast. The recipe was born along the way. Since then, my family asks me to make them every week. I do not mind. I also enjoy them very much.

Ingredients:

  • Rye sourdough (refreshed the night before) – 180 grams
  • One egg (medium size)
  • Date syrup – 60 grams
  • Salt – one small pinch
  • Macadamia nut oil – 10 grams

I did not add any additional flour. You can substitute macadamia nut oil with any vegetable oil. You can probably use butter or ghee, but I have not tried that yet.

I have been making different versions of pizzelle almost every week ever since.

 

 

Using this basic idea, you can make your own waffle cookies. Let your creativity decide what you want to add to your pizzelle.

Good luck!

 

Solverwp- WordPress Theme and Plugin