I have loved cooking with sourdough ever since I lived in Alaska in the early 60s. The problem is that the starter keeps growing, just like Topsy! I give it away, I use it as often as possible, but I still end up with more than I can use. I’m open for any sourdough recipes you may have, so please send them to me!
This recipe starts out with 1/2 cup of starter, and since I had extra without having to prepare it the night before, this was a good recipe to use today.
In a medium-sized bowl, mix together:
1/2 cup starter
1/4 cup milk (I used skim)
1 cup unbleached flour
1/2 cup sugar
NOTE: I used real sugar in this first mixture because I believe it is necessary to help the starter to “work.” Cover and let this mixture stand for 2 hours in a warm spot. I put mine in a sunny kitchen window.
In a separate bowl, cream together:
1 cup butter (I used Smart Balance 65% buttery)
1 cup sugar (I used Splenda)
When well mixed, add 1 tablespoon molasses (I used blackstrap). Then add one egg and continue to mix thoroughly.
Add:
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup raisins (or dried cranberries or dried blueberries)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Into this, mix the starter mixture.
The batter will not be as stiff as most of us are accustomed to when we make plain oatmeal cookies. Using a teaspoon, drop the batter onto greased baking sheet about two inches apart. Bake at 375 degrees F. for 12 minutes. Depending on your oven, it may take a couple minutes longer, but mine came out at 12 minutes. I got 4 dozen in this batch.
A funny story about pizza comes from my high school years in Belleville, Illinois, just across from St. Louis and the Mississippi River. There was a new Italian family in the neighborhood who had opened up a new “pizza parlor,” which is what they were called then. I was with my parents and some of their friends one evening when we went in to see what all the excitement was about.
The group asked the waitress to describe a pizza. After she finished, my mother looked around and said, “I think we’ll each take one.”
The waitress tried to convince her they only needed one, but Mother insisted. Finally the waitress said, “Uh, let me bring just one to start with and you can decide if you want more later.”
I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on everyone’s face when it was brought out. Without a doubt, that huge pizza was enough to serve everyone around the table.
I suppose there are people who don’t like pizza, but I have no idea what planet they come from. It’s basically like an Italian open-faced sandwich, and you can put anything you want on it, or leave anything out you don’t want.
I’ve made bread a lot in the past, but never pizza. I couldn’t imagine myself trying to learn how to toss a huge circle of dough above my head without a major disaster.
Then I found a little hidden-away article in a magazine. I don’t even remember which magazine it was in. All I know is that I clipped it for further evaluation. Was I ever surprised when I read it! And it’s super delicious! I think I could even categorize it as an “artisan pizza,” whatever that’s supposed to mean. I’m eating it right now as I type up this post!
Homemade Individual Pizza
Crust
1/2 package dry yeast
1/3 cup warm water
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon sugar
Add the yeast to the water and let it sit for 10 minutes. It will begin to look slightly foamy.
Meanwhile, mix the flour, salt and sugar together in another bowl. Then add the yeast mixture to the dry ingredients.
Stir until it’s well-mixed. The dough should be thick, requiring a little effort to mix it. Cover the bowl with a clean kithen towel and let rise at warm- or room-termperature for about two hours.
After the dough has risen, place it on a floured board to knead until smoother and no longer sticky. I pushed the dough into a greased 9-inch iron skillet with my fingers, making sure the edges came up a little on the side of the skillet to form a rim.
Add the toppings, starting with the tomato paste, and ending with the shredded cheese. Bake at 425 degrees F. for about 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese bubbles up and the crust just starts to brown.
My toppings
tomato paste right out of the can
sliced mushrooms
thin salami slices, cut in half
thin slices bell pepper
minced garlic
freshly picked oregano leaves
freshly picked marjoram leaves
sliced fresh basil leaves
shredded Romano Pecarino
shredded pepper Jack cheese
Other toppings I like (but didn’t add this time)
loose sausage
chopped onion
sliced black olives
sliced tomatoes
any other sliced veggie
jalapeño peppers
pineapple
sauerkraut
any kind of cheese
You can put whatever you love on pizza, or whatever you have on hand. Have fun with it!
This was super simple and easy – with no fancy tossing! The only wait was for the dough to rise, but I can usually find lots of other things to do around here.
This could be served to two people along with salad and dessert, but I ate the whole thing by myself (blush)!! Even the rim was tasty! But don’t even ask how many calories are in it. Of course, other than the crust, the veggies would all be “legit.”
If this is your recipe, please let me know and I’ll give you full credit, along with my deepest gratitude for having put it where I could find it!
Buon appetito!
Aloha! Feral Fables, my newly published e-book, will be available for a special promotional price of $2.99 until August 1, 2010. Go here to to buy or sample Feral Fables. Use the promotional code “SL25S” (not case sensitive) at checkout. Mahalo! (Thank you!)
I am fascinated by the fact that my website statistics show “lilikoi butter” as tops in the list of the search words that bring people to my site. It’s been a year since I wrote about making lilikoi butter and I still get requests for more information.
After my first post on that topic, I received an offer from Alexis and Chris of Coastview Aquaponics to come get the last of their wild lilikoi. I wrote about that visit here. I juiced it all up and froze it to save for a later date.
This past week, I finally got around to thawing it out and making lilikoi butter again. I doubled the recipe shown here and ended up with 15 half-pint jars of lilikoi butter. In reading over the original recipe I posted, I realized that I left out the final process. I’ve added it below.
Lilikoi Butter
4 eggs
4 cups sugar (I used a little less and mixed it with Splenda)
1 pound unsalted butter
1 ¾ cup lilikoi juice
Mix juice, sugar, butter in a large pan. Heat until butter is melted. Beat the eggs together in a separate bowl and temper by drizzling a little of the hot liquid into the beaten eggs so they don’t scramble on you. Keep stirring and when the egg mixture is about the same temperature as the hot liquid, pour it into the pan with the juice, butter and sugar.
Bring to a rolling boil, then down to a slow rolling simmer for about half an hour. This will thicken as it cooks. (See picture above.)
Using a large-mouthed funnel, pour into sterilized jars, covering with sterilized lids and rings. I turn the jars upside down to let them cool until I hear the top pop, indicating a good seal.
NOTE: I have often complained that something keeps eating my scraggly lilikoi vines, until I read about (and tried) sprinkling crushed egg shells around the edge of the plant. Whatever it is that was eating them doesn’t like to crawl over the egg shells. I suddenly have new growth on my vines that nothing is eating away! Maybe I’ll get a few of my own lilikoi next summer. Hooray!
A hui hou!
Aloha! Feral Fables, my newly published e-book, will be available for a special promotional price of $2.99 until August 1, 2010. Go here to to buy or sample Feral Fables. Use the promotional code “SL25S” (not case sensitive) at checkout. Mahalo! (Thank you!)
This is a three-day process, but the flavors are absorbed so much better than a marmalade made too quickly. I tend to like my marmalades to have a slight bitterness, more like a true Scottish marmalade. This recipe ensures I’ll get that.
Choose 3 smallish pink grapefruit (or 4 larger ones) and 2 lemons. Have 2 oranges on hand. These are not added to the marmalade, but you’ll use their juice later on.
On the first day, cut off thin slabs of grapefruit and lemon rind and cut into tiny slivers. Take care not to include pith at this point. Add 2 cups water for each cup of fruit. Let it stand.
On the second day, boil this mixture for 30 minutes. It helps the gelling process if you add large hunks of grapefruit pith to the soaking mixture. Also, cut out the grapefruit segments and add these to the mixture.
On the third day, remove all the pith sections and any stray pips (seeds). Add juice of 2 oranges to supplement the liquid. This helps you to know it won’t burn dry. Also add 1 pat of butter to keep down any froth that forms. Cook using 3 cups of the fruit and liquid mixture to 1 1/2 cup sugar. Simmer about 2 hours (or less). Keep an eye on it and watch for gel to start forming. Pour into hot sterilized jars and seal with sterilized rings and lids. Turn upside down until you hear the “pop” of the lid. This lets you know you have a good seal.
Have you ever wondered about the precise difference between jelly, jam, preserves and marmalade? I checked with Google.
An answer came up with the following:
• Jelly is made from fruit juice
• Jam is made from pureed fruit
• Preserves are made from whole fruit
• Spreads are made from whole fruit and/or pureed fruit
• Marmalade uses the zest and pulp, and the juice, however not the whole fruit.
I honestly don’t know which one this is, but because I used slivers of orange peel, and because it looks like marmalade, that’s what I call it. Actually, it’s more a combination of preserves and a marmalade, which probably makes it a spread, according to Wiki. It’s definitely not jelly, but whatever you want to call it, it’s delicious!
Spicy Apricot-Orange Marmalade
4 ½ cups apricots, pitted and sliced (leave the peel on)
2 navel oranges
1 ½ cup sugar
1 ½ cup Splenda
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated is best
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice (I added mine as soon as I took it off the heat)
Cut the oranges to remove the segments (try not to get any of the membrane). Thinly slice the orange peel (like what you normally see in orange marmalade). Combine everything in a large pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
Maintain a slow rolling boil for 15 minutes while mashing up the apricots against the side and stirring constantly.
Add your lime juice (lemon would work, too) and stir in. Put into sterilized jars, then cover with sterilized lids and rings. Turn upside down until you hear them pop, which means you have a good seal.
I got a little more than six 6-ounce jars out of this batch. If I’d filled them a bit more, it would have been an even six jars.
I love this sort of thing over ice cream, with homemade biscuits, or on a thick slice of toasted hearty whole wheat bread (homemade if possible)!
A hui hou!
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