For over 20 years I've been baking bread, I'm pretty good at it too. But I was never able to master sourdough. I don't really know why, but I couldn't do it. UNTIL my friend gave me this recipe...Try it and see for yourself.
Sourdough Starter :
1 Tbsp. yeast
1 cup warm water (between 115* and 125*)
1 cup flour
2 tbsp. sugar
NO METAL is to come in contact with the starter. In a
large glass or ceramic jar (2 quarts or larger is best to prevent dough
spillage) dissolve yeast in warm water for about five minutes. Add
flour and sugar, mix until everything is well combined. Place a coffee
filter or double layer of cheesecloth over the mouth of the jar and
secure it with a rubber band (if you're using a mason jar, you can use
the neck band to secure it). You will notice over the next few hours the
starter will rise, almost like Bread would, it's best to stand the jar
in a bowl in case any rises out of the jar. After a few hours you will
notice it will deflate, that's totally fine, it's suppose to. Keep the
jar in warm area, out of the way spot. Everyday you need to stir the
starter, you will notice the liquid separates from the starter, this is
normal. Between 3 to 7 days you'll start noticing a strong sour smell
once you put your nose up to it, at this point it's ready. No matter how
much you use for a recipe, replenish it with 1/2 cup warm water, 1/2
cup flour and 1 tbsp. of sugar. If you don't use any starter within a 10
day period of time, remove and throw away 1/2 cup of starter and
replenish.
Sourdough French Bread
2 loaves
1 tbsp. of Yeast
1-1/2 cups warm water (between 115* and 125*)
1/2 cup Sourdough stater
2 tbsp. oil
2 tbsp. sugar (divided)
3 1/2 to 4 cups of all purpose flour ( I highly recommend that you
DO NOT use bread flour)
1/2 to 1 cup flour for dusting
Egg Wash:
1 egg white
1 tbsp. Water
I highly suggest coating your hands with shortening every
time you plan to touch the dough. At this time it's okay for the amount
of starter you're using to come in contact with metal. Preheat the oven
to 400*. In a standing mixer, dissolve yeast and 1/2 tbsp. sugar in warm water, allow it
to stand for 5 minutes. Add the starter, oil, 1 1/2 tbsp sugar and 3 cups of the flour.
Mix on low speed until a soft ball forms, adding additional flour if
needed. You'll noticed that the dough will be sticky to touch, it's best
to handle with oil on your hands. Place in a greased bowl, turning the
dough to get well coated. Cover, allow to rise in a warm area for about 1
to 1 1/2 hours or until doubled. After the first rising you will
notice the dough will be really spongy and sticky, place the dough back
into the standing mixer. Add 1/2 cup of flour and mix on low until the
dough comes back to soft ball, adding more flour if needed. Dust a work
area with flour, working with half the dough at a time, roll dough into a
12" rope and place on a really well greased cookie sheet. I prefer a
baking stone. Repeat with the second half of the dough. Allow the bread
to rise for 30 minutes. Beat egg white and water together until well
blended. Brush each loaf with the egg mixture and bake for 15 minutes.
Brush the baked loaves again with the egg mixture and bake for an
additional 5 to 10 minutes or until lightly brown
To make Sourdough Cheesy Garlic Bread
8 tbsp. Soft butter (1 stick)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp oregano
Cheese of your choice (I used mozzarella)
Preheat oven to 400* . Allow the bread to cool. Mix the
first 3 ingredients until smooth. Slice the bread right down the middle
lengthwise and spread butter mixture. Cover with foil and bake for 10 to
12 minutes, or until the butter is fully melted. Unwrap the bread,
sprinkle your favorite cheese. Use the amount of cheese to your liking.
Place back into the oven with both halves facing up for an additional 5
to 10 minutes or until the cheese melted and there's a slight crunch to
it.
Enjoy :)
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YUP......the holiday season is upon us. My favorite time of the year. It's that time when everyone is gathering veggies and fruit at farmers market and grocery stores, getting ready for our family and friend get togethers. When I was at my local farmers market, I came across 12 oz bags of whole cranberries on sale. I'm a cranberry freak so I had to pick up 2 bags. It wasn't until I got home when I realized I had no idea what I was going to make with them. Even thou I love my cranberry juice, it come to mind...homemade cranberry sauce !?!?!? So I googled it and with a little experimenting I came up with this recipe....
Jellied Cranberry Sauce
2- 12oz bags of cranberries
1 cup water
1/3 cup orange juice
2 cups sugar
1 envelope Knox unflavored gelatin
Rinse and sort cranberries, remove any white or rotting berries. In a pot bring Cranberries and water to a boil over medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes. You will start hearing berries making a popping sound about half way mark , cook long enough to ensure berries are fully cooked. At this point you will notice the liquid is starting to thicken. Once berries are done, remove from the heat and allow it to cool for a moment or 2 NO LONGER then that. Run the berries through a food mill to remove skins and most of the seeds. If you don't have a food mill, like myself, run the berries and liquid in a blender until smooth or until all berries are crushed, then place mixture thru a fine sieve. Using a wooden spoon, use pressure to help the sauce strain. You will notice a good amount of skin from the berries are left behind in the sieve, but some still gets thru. Personally I'm totally fine with that, it gives the cranberry sauce a unique texture, it's not gritty, but there's a texture. Place the sauce back into the pot. Meanwhile mix gelatin and orange juice in a small bowl and set aside. Over medium heat add sugar to the sauce, once you see the beginning stages of boiling add the orange juice mixture and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat.
At this point you have two options with the cranberry sauce...home canning or jello mold. Home canning will produce about 2 pint jars
ENJOY !!!!
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Pick up a copy of my ebook "Having A Very Merry Christmas on a Budget" for $1.99...available thru Kindle and Kindle apps
Fall is a beautiful time of the year. You have the beauty of changing colors of the trees, the sights, smells and tastes of everything apple and pumpkin. The other day, like I do every Autumn, I started to stock up on my pumpkin puree. While doing that, it came to mind that I haven't made anything with apples for a long time. Considering I had apple cider and several pounds of apples, I looked around and found and a terrific recipe for apple cider butter. Like I always do, I changed a few ingredients around and came up with this gem. Takes a little while to make, but the time is well worth it.
Apple Cider Butter makes about 4 pints
6 lbs Apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2 cups apple cider
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
Add sliced apples and apple cider into a large saucepan. Simmer until apples are soft. Once soft, puree the mixture using a food processor, don't liquify, you want it somewhat chunky. Return the pureed apples to the large pot, add sugar and spices. Cook slow until thick, stirring frequently, thick enough to round up on a spoon. You know when you're getting to that point when the mixture bubbles it looks like little lava puddles. To test, place a spoonful of apple butter onto a small plate that was chilled in the freezer, if you see a ring of liquid around the apple butter, it needs a little more time to thicken. Keep cooking, stirring and testing until it's thick enough
Ladle the hot butter into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust 2 piece caps and process for 15 minutes in a boiling-water canner.
Thanks for stopping by, Become a Fan and follow My blog for more fun ideas~ Thank you, Carleen
ENJOY
Ever since I made my own homemade laundry detergent, and loved it, I've been looking for new ways to make my own cleansers. Since I've seen so many recipes for homemade dishwasher detergents, I figured I'll give it a try. After trying a few of those recipes, I conjured up my own. My recipe is simple, it calls just for four simple ingredients. For those of you who make their own cleaners will have at least two of those ingredients on hand...Borax and Washing Soda (NOT baking soda). For those of you who don't have them, you'll find them in the laundry/cleaning aisle at your local grocery store. They usually sit around in the area of the powdered laundry soaps section. The other two ingredients are salt and Citric Acid. For those who are not familiar with citric acid, it's used in home canning to replace lemon juice or vinegar in certain recipes. I buy my citric acid at a bulk store, if you don't see the citric acid in the spice aisle at your local grocery store, look in the home canning section at your grocery or hardware stores (whichever one has a larger selection). Yes you heard right, home canning supplies in a Hardware store. Twenty years ago when I started home canning, small mom and pop hardware stores was the ONLY place you found home canning supplies, now it's everywhere. I don't know about home depot, but I DO know Lowes carries a nice selection of home canning supplies ONLY during the summer time. True Value Hardware stores carry it year round. If you still can't find citric acid, I have a link on the right for you to buy it from Amazon. Enough of home canning and back to the Dishwasher Detergent. It's real simple to do, the combination of the ingredients is as follows :
Powdered Dishwasher Detergent
1 and 2/3 cups of Borax
1 and 2/3 cups of washing soda
3/4 cup of Salt
2/3 cup of Citric Acid
Combine all the ingredients and store in a air tight container. To use, place 1/2 tbls in the prewash tray and 1 tbls. in regular wash tray. For those who have hard water I suggest using jetdry or vinegar in the rinse dispenser.
~~It's That Easy~~
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Like most people, there have been times when I made a meal that end with leftovers of some kind. Me being a cheapskate, I don't like to put anything to waste, especially meat. After any meal I'll take leftovers and store them in zip-lock bags in the freezer until I'll have enough to make another meal with them. Since my family doesn't like outright leftovers I tend to repurpose the food into a new dish so they're fooled into thinking it's not leftovers. Chicken pot pies is one of those dishes. I use leftover chicken and leftover fried potatoes from the morning meals, my family absolutely loves it. This recipe makes two pies, I'll use one of the pies for dinner on the day I make it and the other one I'll freeze for a lazy day where I can't be bothered to cook. Make sure you label the pies with the cooking instructions before you freeze them.
Chicken Pot Pies
2 pies
2 cups of fried potatoes
4 cups of cubed chicken
1 (16oz) bag of mixed vegetables
1 cup of butter (2 sticks)
1/4 cup of diced onion
1 cup flour
2 cups of milk
2 cups of chicken broth
1 tsp of thyme
1 tsp of basil
1 tsp of oregano 1 tsp of freshly ground pepper
2 pie crust
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In a large bowl mix together potatoes, chicken and vegetables and set aside. In a large sauce pan melt butter with the onions on medium low heat. Once the butter is melted, turn the heat to low and whisk flour into the melted butter until no lumps are present. Slowly incorporate milk, broth, thyme, basil, oregano and black pepper into the flour mixture and continue to whisk until thickened. Pour milk mixture into the large bowl and mix with the potato mixture until fully incorporated. Divide the filling into two pie plates and cover with pie crust, don't forget to cut a small hole in the center of the crust for the steam to release.
To cook a unfrozen pie:
Place pie in a preheated oven at 425* and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling hot.
To cook a frozen pie:
DO NOT THAW. Place foil around the edge of the pie to prevent burning of the edges. Place the pie into a cold oven, and turn the heat to 425*. Bake for 35 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350* and bake for an additional 75 minutes or until the crust is a golden brown and the filling is bubbling hot.
** For individual servings you can use custard cups and adjust your cooking times. Since I never made it like that, I'm unsure of the cooking times or how many it will make...BUT it can be done.
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Granted it's the middle of winter and if you live in the northeast then you know how bad it really is. But of course 1-1/2 feet of snow doesn't stop my family's sweet tooth for ice cram. I usually make my Homemade Strawberry Ice cream but unfortunately I ran out of frozen strawberries, BUT I did have frozen blueberries. Since I had to keep my promise for homemade ice cream I decided to use the blueberries. I changed around the recipe a little and came up with this yummy version.
Blueberry Ice Cream
1 and 1/2 cups of frozen Blueberries, partially thawed
2 egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tub (16 oz) of frozen whipped cream, thawed
In a stand mixer, whip together partially thawed blueberries, egg whites and sugar. Whip for about 20 minutes or until it resembles extremely fluffy whipped cream. Fold in the whip cream, DO NOT stir. Stirring will cause both the whipped cream and blueberry mixture to deflate, so fold together. Once fully combined place in plastic containers and freeze for at least 4 hours before you plan to serve.
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Parents know how craft and activities is a big part of childhood, heck everyone loves crafts and having a bunch of fun. With autistic children certain crafts and activities can not only be fun but also help with learning and with sensory problem. I put together 15 great ideas to share with you today.
I Spy Alphabet Bottle
Alphabet bottle is not only fun to make, but keep your child focused. This will also help with recognizing the letters. Have them find a letter and imitate the sounds of each of those letters.
Homemade play dough
Hide toys within the play dough which will encourage to touch and it will hopefully help with the sensitivity. This project can also be a teaching tool with the child learning math and measurements
Homemade finger paint
Again most Autistic children have a sensitivity to certain textures. Even thou this is a messy project it's totally fun to do.
Squishy Bag
If finger pants are to messy for you, then this project is perfect for you. Another great way to teach the alphabet
Sensory table
This sensory stimulation is another device at home for sensitivity, most preschools have these just for that problem.
Matching game
match up the stick pair an place them side by side to complete each shape. This will help your child with learning about shapes
Bird feeder Ornaments
Great learning tool about Nature. Good for texture sensitivity
Smelling Station
Great guessing game and helps with fear of certain smells
Counting
Autistic Children needs hands on learning, Now a days in kindergarten one of the things they focus on is counting to 100, this project will help with counting and improving math skills.
Sensory shower play for kids
I think the title says it all, do I need to say anything more? Shaving cream is wonderful for sensory, heck you can get them clean while you're at it.
100 Free Dr. Seuss themed printable, crafts, recipes, and activities
Now who doesn't love Dr. Seuss? This provides great learning worksheets to support what your children are learning in school.
No sew t-shirt superhero capes
One of the things autistic children need is help with imagination.These superhero capes will help. Fun to make and no sewing skills are required
Benefits of climbing trees
You can learn a lot through play
Storytelling with illustrations
Learn how to make story time fun. For a list of books aimed for Autism children go here, they list books by age.
Fat Brain Toys
For Birthdays and holidays consider shopping online at "Fat Brain Toys" They carry toys, games and tools for children and adults with special development needs
Thank you for stopping by, become a follower of my blog to keep updated with all my great ideas~ Carleen :)
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