Sourdough Discard Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Every week when I feed my sourdough starter I like to use the "old" discard to make something easy, usually pancakes or flatbread. 

Today I had some leftover pineapple and thought this would be a good way to use the fruit and the discard.  It was great - moist and delicious and only took a half an hour.  

Pico de Gallo Summer Salsa

 PICO DE GALLO

With hot summer days approaching I always start thinking of fresh, seasonal foods that don’t require cooking. This salsa is so easy and versatile that it has become a favorite for our family.

Salsa with Avocado

Variety of Salsas

We have always loved going out for Mexican food and enjoyed the salsa they serve with the meal. We noticed how different each salsa was in taste, texture and spice level. Same with the jarred salsas we purchased from the grocery store.

I wanted to try making it at home, so I began to experiment. What I found is that even with the exact same ingredients you can come up with an entirely different salsa. Some are cooked or blended, others chopped. It’s all personal preference but we love the flavor of the raw vegetables and a nice medium heat.

How to Use Salsa

We have found so many ways to use this salsa it’s almost become a game to see what else we can put this on. Here are some of our favorites:

Grilled Steak Taco

• Carne Asada (grilled meat) Tacos
• Breakfast Tacos and Burritos
• Scrambled Eggs or Omelet
• Guacamole
• Avocado Toast
• Mexican Shrimp Cocktail
• Cold Black Bean and Corn Salad

Ingredients:

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
4 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
2 scallions, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1⁄8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and adjust seasoning to taste. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

Notes: For a milder salsa reduce the amount of jalapeno. Also, this salsa can be blended and stored in a plastic baggie for several months in the freezer. I use it as a flavorful addition to soups and stews.

Guacamole

Sourdough Discard Coffee Cake

This morning I wanted to make a coffee cake and thought it would be fun to add some sourdough discard to the mix and see how it turned out.  
 
Whenever I look for a specific sourdough recipe on the internet, I get dozens of complex results and very quickly feel overwhelmed.  

Something as simple as a coffee cake should not involve that much work.  
 
When my children were growing up, I would frequently make something special for breakfast on the weekend.  Usually, quick bread, muffins or coffee cake.  It was a great way to start our day and it is one of my favorite memories of being at home with my family. 
 

Sourdough Coffee Cake

 
Cake:
1/4 cup sourdough starter discard
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
2 Tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
 
 Topping:
 1 teaspoon cinnamon
 1/2 cup sugar
 2 tablespoons butter
 1 tablespoon flour

Instructions:
 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Combine sourdough discard, butter, egg, milk and vanilla
Add flour, sugar, salt and baking powder to sourdough mixture 
Mix until smooth
Pour into greased and floured 9-inch round pie dish or 8x8 square pan
Crumble topping ingredients together and sprinkle over cake batter
Bake for 30 – 35 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean 
 
 

Easy Summer Sourdough Baking

The days are getting warmer and my sourdough starter is in full bloom.  I love cooking with the discard but I try to keep baking at minimum when the temperatures get too high.

This recipe is very quick and doesn't take long to bake so I can prepare it in the evening and bake it first thing in the morning.  I love that there is no need to use fed or active starter, no kneading and no shaping for this light and fluffy loaf.  

What I am discovering is that the easier I am about this process the better the results seem to be.  Baking should be fun!

Seeded Sourdough

 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cold, unfed starter

1/2 cup water, room temperature

1/2 Tablespoon sea salt

1 Tablespoon honey 

1 Tablespoon oil

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 - 2 Tablespoons Everything Bagel Seasoning (optional)

Instructions:

In a large mixing bowl dissolve starter in water.  Mix in salt, honey, oil and flour until well combined.  You can do a couple of stretch and folds but it's not required.

Cover and let rise at room temperature overnight.

Next day, scoop sourdough into oiled loaf pan. Cover and let rise 1 hour.  

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Sprinkle top with everything bagel seasoning and bake 30 - 40 minutes until golden brown.

Let cool completely before slicing.

This recipe can be cut in half for a smaller loaf, perfect for 1 -2 people.

Enjoy!

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Simple Sourdough Bread with Unfed Starter

 Loving My Sourdough Again! 

Many years ago, I was gifted a sourdough starter from my mother-in-law.  What started out as a simple function of making bread, turned into a lovely experience of nurturing myself and my family.  Every week I looked forward to making beautiful, fresh loaves of bread.

Now, all these years later, I have resumed this process and find that baking for myself brings the same joy and calm as it did so long ago.

Although, most of the recipes I find now are so complex that it doesn’t feel relaxing but rather stress inducing.  Worrying if my starter is active enough, if I’ve manipulated the dough properly, if I have all the right equipment etc.  This is not how I used to make my bread.

It got so over whelming, that I was cooking mostly with my discard.  I made everything from crackers to pancakes and stocked the freezer with all the great things I was making.  Finally, I felt a little satisfaction for my efforts.  My first trials with bread however were not so successful.

It’s very disheartening when you spend 2 – 3 days nurturing a loaf of bread only to have it fail.  Disappointed doesn’t begin to explain it.  It almost made me want to go out and get some commercial yeast or easier yet, just buy a loaf of bread.

I have been making bread most of my life and I was determined not to give up.  So, I’m now on a mission to make homemade sourdough bread as easy as possible with results that produce a lovely loaf of bread.

First, I had to sort through all of massive instructions for how to make a proper loaf.  So, I began by eliminating any recipe that mentioned autolyze, levain, poolish or any other term that I had to look up to understand the meaning. 

Next, were the ingredients – I have to use what I have which is all-purpose flour and filtered tap water.  If I have to seek out special flour with a specific protein content to make a loaf of bread, it will just never happen. 

Last but not least, equipment – I spent more time worrying about not having a scale, banneton, lame or dutch oven than I did making the bread itself.  None of this was ever an issue before.

So, here I am with my simplified version and much to my surprise and delight, it’s turning out even better than any other complicated version that I’ve tried. 

Baking should be a pleasure and when it is, you will have fantastic results!

Simple Sourdough French Bread

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup cold, unfed starter (right out of the refrigerator)
• 1/2 cup water (room temperature)
• 1/2 Tablespoon sea salt
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• 1 Tablespoon oil
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions:

• Mix all ingredients for dough.  Cover and let rise until double.  (You can stretch and fold a few times if you like, but it's not necessary).
• Shape dough, cover and put in refrigerator overnight.
• In the morning, take dough out of refrigerator and gently reshape and place on greased baking sheet.  Cover and let rise 1-2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• Score dough and bake in preheated oven 30 minutes or until golden brown.
• Let cool completely before slicing.

Enjoy!