Review - Easy Sourdough Artisan Bread

 If I am looking for a recipe the last thing I want to do is scroll for a kilometre through a million pictures (and more importantly, a million ads) before I get to the actual recipe. So I'm just not going to do that. Here's a review of a recipe I use on the regular.

Easy Sourdough Artisan Bread from An Oregon Cottage

 

 

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1 1/4 cups warm water

3/4 cups active starter

1 tbsp honey

1 1/2 tsp salt (I sometimes swap this for garlic salt)

 

Instructions:

 

You can check out the original instructions at this link, my notes and tweaks are below.

 

Note 1 - This recipe was given to me with my very own sourdough starter as a gift from a friend at the beginning of quarantine. I made it as directed with no complaints, but since spending some time learning and reading about sourdough I find this loaf better if you fold the dough in half... the dough is going to be very stretchy, sticky and soft, so grab the edge furthest from you and with a gentle hand stretch it up and fold it in half towards yourself. Give the bowl a quarter turn and do it again and then again and again, until you've folded and quarter turned a total of four times. I do this about every 30 minutes or so during that 3 hour window and truth be told, I'm not above letting that dough hang out on the counter for a bit longer than three hours to get another round or two of folds in.

Note 2 - I don't bother taking it out of the bowl for that final fold, I don't know if it makes a difference or not, I'm just trying to be gentle with the dough. And while you can make and eat this loaf on the same day, I feel it is better to do the first rise and fold activities the day before you want to have it. After that first three hours, I set the bowl in the fridge and let it chill out there overnight. What I have learned by reading and trial and error is that the dough is better if left to develop that sourdough tang over night. That being said, it is still delicious if you power through this process all in one day.

Note 3 - Personally, I watched some youtube videos on how to shape a "traditional" loaf using a bench scraper, a technique I am still working on. This dough should have developed lots of bubbles, especially if you let it hang out overnight in the fridge, so you want to be as careful and gentle with the dough as you can. 

Note 4 - After slashing the x in the top, we like to add a few good shakes of everything bagel seasoning to the dough. It's not necessary, but it is a nice addition if you have it.

This has very quickly become a go to recipe for me. I love it's simplicity, but also that it allows for hands on attention if you would like to employ it here. It is a great beginner's recipe that gave me confidence as a new sourdough starter owner!

dill pickle pasta salad

Summer is here and that means salads of all sorts. Mike is a big fan of a traditional macaroni salad and he has his favourite suppliers, so I tend to steer clear of the traditional route. This recipe had been popping up on facebook and pinterest so much I decided it had to be tried and why not, it has all the things I love.... pickles and cheese. I settled on this recipe over at Spend With Pennies. The first time I made it I followed the recipe to a "T" and this time I fussed around to our own tastes.

Ingredients
3 cups of dry macaroni pasta
3/4 cup sliced dill pickles
2/3 cup shredded cheese
3 tbsp finely diced onion
2 tbsp fresh dill
1/2 cup pickle juice

Dressing
2/3 cup mayo
1/3 cup sour cream
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
4 tbsp pickle juice
salt and pepper to taste

1. Boil pasta according to the directions on the package and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process.
2. When the pasta is cool toss with 1/2 cup of pickle juice and allow to sit while you get the rest of the ingredients ready.
3. Mix the dressing ingredients together and set aside.
4. Slice the pickles, dice onion, shred the cheese. Drain the pickle juice from the bowl of pasta. Add the remaining ingredients and toss with the dressing. Chill for at least an hour before serving, but the longer it chills the better.

Personal Notes: I used macaroni, but you could easily use shell pasta or anything else that strikes your fancy. The first time around I diced the cheese, which Mike thought was too much, so this time I grated cheese. I used no garlic baby dills (because that is what I had on hand) and sliced them on the thinner side. I didn't have fresh dill, so I used dried and I skipped the cayenne pepper for a few shakes of original Frank's. I also subbed out the salt for Lawry's garlic salt.

This is already a summer time hit with two of the four of us. One of the remaining two doesn't like mayo, pickles or cold pasta and the other is on the fence, but maybe seems willing to try it? We'll see, I guess. Enjoy, friends!