Rustic Sourdough Bread baked in Cast Iron

Rustic Sourdough Bread

Yield: One 1 1⁄2-pound sourdough boule


1 cup leaven, or fed sourdough starter
2 cups lukewarm water
5 cups flour, plus up to 1 cup more for the work surface
1 1⁄2 tsp salt


Feed your starter by setting aside half of it and feeding the remainder with 4 ounces of flour and 4 ounces of lukewarm water. Stir to combine, and set the starter aside for 8 to 12 hours to complete the culture proof before you use it to bake.

In a mixing bowl, pour 1 cup fed sourdough starter into 1 cup lukewarm water. Add 3 cups flour, a little at a time. Stir until loosely combined, then mix thoroughly with wet hands. Cover the container loosely and set aside for a half-hour if using white flour, or 45 minutes for whole-grain flour.

Feed the set-aside starter with 4 ounces each of flour and lukewarm water. Stir to combine, cover loosely, and leave at room temperature until it becomes fully active. This is your new starter to maintain and use.

After the dough’s autolyse period (about 20 minutes for white flour, and as much as 40 for whole-grain flour), sprinkle the salt over the dough and mix it in using your hands. If the dough feels dry, add a little more water — it should be somewhat sticky. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead it for a couple of minutes, until it no longer picks up any new flour. Return it to the container, cover loosely and leave at room temperature to undergo bulk fermentation.

Bulk fermentation usually lasts 3 to 4 hours. During the first couple of hours, gently stretch and fold the dough about every half-hour, pulling one edge at a time up and over the center, until all sides have been stretched. After the first few times, be extra-gentle, and take care to keep the built-up gases inside the dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board and let it rest for 10 to 20 minutes. If it seems very strong and cohesive at this point, take care not to overwork it when shaping the dough. If it seems slack and tears as you stretch, you may want to give it extra stretching folds before the final shaping. If it is extremely slack, incorporate more flour as you fold and shape, although ideally you would not incorporate any more flour at this point.

Pat the dough lightly into a rectangle. Pick up each side one at a time, gently stretch it out, and fold it back over the dough’s center, until all four sides have been stretched. Leave the dough alone for a minute to relax.

Roll the dough into a ball, or “boule.” Pull gently but tightly to ensure that the top is taut all the way around. One way to do this is to put the ball on an unfloured surface and begin spinning it gently. The bottom will grab the work surface and create tension as you rotate the ball. Another way is to grab and gently pull four “corners” to the bottom and pinch them together.
Let the shaped dough rise for its final proof, right-side-up, on a floured baker’s peel. You can improvise a baker’s peel by flouring the back of a cookie sheet. Or, let the dough rise upside down in a floured proofing basket, or “banneton,” which will help it keep its structure. You can improvise one by lining a mixing bowl with a floured cotton towel.

The dough should proof 2 to 4 hours at room temperature. Dust a bit of flour on the surface, and cover it with a kitchen towel to keep a crust from forming.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit about 30 minutes before baking, with a Dutch oven, cloche or enclosed pan in the oven.

After 30 minutes, carefully remove the lid, and use the baker’s peel to shuttle the loaf into the pan (or turn the loaf upside down from the proofing basket or bowl into the pan).

Replace the lid, turn the oven down to 450 degrees, and bake the bread for 20 minutes. Then, remove the lid and allow the loaf to bake for 20 to 25 minutes more, uncovered, for good browning.

Remove the finished bread to a cooling rack. Let the loaf cool for at least one hour. Proper cooling is important to keep moisture from escaping and for the bread’s final crust development.

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

   
Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

2 c flour
1 c sugar
1/4 t salt
1/3 c cocoa
1 t baking soda
1 c cold water
1 1/2 t vanilla
2/3 c mayonnaise

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the water, vanilla and mayonnaise. Beat 100 strokes with a wooden spoon until smooth. Grease 2 - 8" layer pans, line the bottoms with wax paper and pour half the batter in each. Bake at 350 degree's for 25-35 minutes until done. Cool in pans 5 minutes before turning out to cool completely.






I like to freeze the layers which makes it easy to assemble the cake later.

For the center use frosting, mousse, or even a light layer of raspberry or cherry jam. Another delicious filling we've used is hot fudge sauce.



I used a Seven (7) Minute Frosting for the top but you can use your favorite frosting.


Spread the frosting over the cake

Chill and serve!

Lithuanian Napoleona - Lithuanian Torte

Mine is 10 layers pastry and 10 layers filling with a top layer of crushed pastry for a total of 22 layers

Craving this.  So much so, that I dreamed about it last night.  It's a little involved to make, with an average of 10 pastry layers to cut and bake, but in the end, it's a beautiful, amazing dessert that can serve a large group of up to about 16-20 people or you can keep it for your own family and freeze it - slicing off servings and returning it to the freezer.

Originally I had a similar dessert at a wedding rehearsal dinner that was from a very well known bakery in the United States.  However, they put a very thin layer of apricot jelly between the layers and I prefer a vanilla custard and flaky pastry without any hint of fruit.  (I cut that part out and leave it on the plate - as I do when having a layer cake that has a fruit glaze between the layers as well.  I just don't like 'sweet' desserts very much!)  I know most people love a hint of fruit in their desserts so I'm leaving the apricot jam listed in the ingredients.  If you are like me, you can leave it out.  



Napoleon Torte (or Lithuanian Torte)

Dough:
1 c butter
4 c good quality white flour*
1 c sour cream
2 T cold water

Filling:
2 c whipping cream
1 c sugar
3 egg yolks
6 oz. butter
1 t vanilla
Apricot jam (about 1/4 cup)

To make the dough, combine the flour, butter, sour cream and water on a butcher block board and chop with a meat cleaver, turning often until it becomes a dough consistency.  Chop, don't knead, as the dough will not be flaky if you knead it.  I chose to use my food processor, as chopping/mixing the dough can take up to an hour or more to finish.  I place the butter, flour and sour cream in the food processor with the S-blade and pulsed it to combine.  Slowly adding 1 tablespoon of cold water at a time through the top feeder tube and stopping the water as soon as the dough comes together to form a ball.

Divide the dough into 8-12 equal parts.  Wrap each in plastic wrap or waxed paper and chill overnight.  The next morning, roll each out to a circle the size of a standard pizza pan. I rolled on parchment paper so I could transfer easily to a baking sheet to bake.  Prick the dough all over before baking each rolled layer for approximately 10 minutes at 400.  Have a lot of counter space ready as you bake each one individually as you need to let them cool completely and they are delicate.  I chose to make 10 layers pastry.

To make mine all uniform, I used the bottom of a 9" springform pan round and laid it on top of the hot pastry directly out of the oven.  I quickly scored and cut around it with a sharp knife while it was hot. I saved the cuttings in a bowl to crush later for the final top layer instead of making an extra disk to bake and crumble.  If you can roll perfect circles in uniform shape, you won't need to do this.

Make the filling:  Beat the whipping cream and sugar together and cool in the refrigerator.  Mix the eggs yolks and butter together and add vanilla.  Fold into the cream to keep it light and fluffy.  Note:  I didn't have 2 cups of whipped cream so I used 1 cup cream and 1 cup half and half.  Obviously this doesn't whip up stiff so I ended up making my own filling version using a frosting-type mixture similar to what I make for Red Velvet Cake.  It's butter, sugar, vanilla and then mixing it with a cooked and cooled flour/water mixture.  I added this to the eggs and cream to stiffen it up and it was wonderful and light and delicious.  You can really use any vanilla filling you like best but the one listed is simple and perfect if you have the whipped cream on hand.

To assemble, I chose to use a large 10" round springform pan but that is just me because I'm not making this to serve right away for an event and will be freezing it.  Most people just assemble it to serve.  Start with one pastry, spread a thin layer of filling and top with another pastry.  Warm the apricot jam to melt smooth.  Every third or fourth layer of pastry you can brush it with a thin layer of apricot glaze.  Continue until all the pastry layers and fillings are used up.  Top with a last layer of filling/frosting and cover in the crumbs from a crushed pastry or if you have scraps from cutting circles.  Chill.  This can serve about 26-30 people if  you need it to as it's very tall and rich and a small piece goes a long way!



*Some people may use Wondra flour.  I used White Lily.

I chose to make my dough in a food processor instead of a traditional way

You decide how many layers you want it to be but make it at least 8 or 10 and up to about 15

 

Layers of pastry with custard

This can serve from 16-30 people depending on how you cut it. It's rich and pieces should be small!

Make it a swirly cupcake kind of day! Rainbow swirled frosting on a vanilla cupcake.

Cupcakes.  So easy. So fast. Yet... giving a cupcake to someone is a sure way to put a grin on their face.  How about making today a cupcake kind of day?  Or if you are short on time, whip up some plain cupcakes tonight, stick them in the refrigerator and give them a twirl of frosting tomorrow?

Instant smiles.

Now... what cupcake recipe (or box mix) you make is up to you!  I've featured cupcakes so many times on my website that all you have to do is put "cupcakes" into the search bar to the right and you'll get over 500 returns.  So, pick a favorite.  From chocolate to pumpkin, vanilla to coconut.  From full sugar, full fat to low carb or sugar free. Healthy wheat germ and flax to all white flour.  The recipes are there.  You choose the one you want ot make.  Same goes for the frosting!

If you want a rainbow swirl like I did in these cupcakes, just put a thin line of food color (liquid or paste) down the inside of your decorating bag before you put the frosting in.  If you have liquid, just hold the container at the top of the plastic decorator bag and let a drop slide down the inside of the bag.  If you have paste, use a knife edge if you like.  Mix the color blends you wish.  Add your frosting, squeeze a bit out of the tip to get rid of any build up of color and then start to swirl on your icing.  Make it a happy cupcake kind of day.

Sugar Free/flour free cupcakes waiting for their turn to receive a swirl of frosting.

If you don't have time to decorate, you can bake plain cupcakes tonight and decorate tomorrow.

Low Carb, Sugar Free Pumpkin Bars

I would love to say these are 'no guilt' pumpkin bars, but to be honest, after 6 or 7 of them... in one day... yes, there is a bit of guilt.  But just  a bit!  No flour.  No sugar.  But yum!




Pumpkin Bars

3/4 c almond flour
1/4 c coconut flour
2 t oat flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t pumpkin pie spice
2/3 c pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1/4 c coconut oil
1/4 c  Brown Sugar substitute
3/4 c granular sugar free sweetener of your choice
1 1/2 t vanilla

In a bowl mix the almond, coconut and oat flours with the baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice.  If you don't have pumpkin pie spice, just use about 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 t ginger, nutmeg, cloves and allspice.  In another bowl mix the pumpkin, eggs and oil.  Add the sugar substitutes and vanilla.  Pour into a greased pan of your choice.  10X10", 12X8", 8X8" - the bigger the pan, the thinner the bar.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25-40 minutes depending on how big of a pan you used. 

Cool Completely.  Frost with a basic cream cheese frosting.  You mix one version up by beating together 8 oz. cream cheese with  3 T butter, 2 t vanilla, 1/4 c sugar substitute (I used Just Like Sugar and Ideal Brown Sugar - mixed together, with about 10 drops liquid sweetener).   Refrigerate.