Sourdough Pillar #3: Taste Takes Time
From the Portland Bake This Day kitchen, today we celebrate Bread Pillar #3 with a salute to the hours of extra time we all have at home. The perfect opportunity to better care for your starter, which should, by the way, have a name. Bake This Day starters are named Fleaux, Louis and Mr. Carson. Naming your starter is well-known kitchen mojo for excellent rise and oven spring. Refer to your starter as, “that”, and, well, good luck, just saying.
To this end, we bring you Mr. Carson’s Sourdough Waffles, a delicious weekend treat.
But before you begin, do what we do, and WAKE UP your starter from its refrigerator snooze.
This is how it is done:
- After removing from the refrigerator, remove all the starter from the jar leaving only a ½ inch of old starter. The old starter is full of acidic byproducts the starter used while chilling to stay alive. The acidic byproduct is delicious and sour, but too much of it will inhibit your gluten from working and hence, a flat loaf.
- Now feed your starter with a 1:1 ratio of bread flour to water, 100gms of each.
- Place this on the kitchen counter overnight
If you do not see billows and air bubbles, DO NOT THROW OUT your starter. Simply repeat steps 1-3 and let your starter culture recover its ability to reproduce, make leavening carbon dioxide and more fresh acidic delicious taste! There is no substitute for the gorgeous flavors or complexity that come from these natural yeasts and bacteria doing what comes naturally. One of our bakers thinks, softy singing a Marvin Gaye tune will help this along…perhaps?
Mr. Carson’s Sourdough Waffles
Makes 10, seven- inch waffles
2 cups of whole milk, barely warm, too hot will murder your starter, no more than 95- 100 degrees.
1 stick of unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 and ¼ teaspoons kosher salt
3 large eggs, separated
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup pastry flour
1/3 cup active starter
(If you are concerned about how fresh the starter is, use it anyway AND add ¼ Teas. baking soda)
The night before combine the milk, starter and honey in a bowl and let it sit for 10 minutes. Stir in the butter, vanilla and salt. Add the flours and whisk up, then whisk in the egg yokes. If you like your batter a bit thicker you can add ¼ cup pastry flour.
Put the whites in the fridge to wait until morning and leave the waffle mixture overnight in your coolest room or in the garage. MMMMMM, this is a cold ferment and you will have ample sourdough taste in the morning. You have just given extended time for the lactic acid bacteria to make their acidic byproducts in just the right delicious proportion, well worth the wait!!
The next morning while the waffle iron is heating, beat up the chilled egg whites with ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar and fold into your sourdough batter.
Bake per your own waffle iron settings/preference and add your favorite toppings.
Here is another waffle-looking delight, great for breakfast on the porch with a gallon of coffee.
Tortuga Rum Cake
Adapted from Food and Wine
CAKE:
1 3/4 cups almond flour (about 6 1/8 ounces)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (about 2 1/8 ounces), plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter (6 ounces), at room temperature, plus more for greasing
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons Myers’s Original Dark Rum
RUM SIMPLE SYRUP:
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon Myers’s Original Dark Rum
VANILLA ICING
2 tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
Make the cake: Preheat oven to 325°F. Generously grease a 6- to 8-cup Kugelhopf or Bundt pan with butter, and dust lightly with all-purpose flour.
Whisk together almond flour, all-purpose flour, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Place butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 3 minutes. Gradually add 1 cup granulated sugar, beating until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl, and add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until well combined after each addition. (Batter may look slightly broken; do not overmix.)
Reduce speed to medium-low, and add flour mixture to butter mixture, one-third at a time, beating for 15 seconds after each addition, stopping as necessary to scrape down sides of bowl to ensure all flour is incorporated.
Scoop 1/2 cup batter into a small bowl, and whisk in 2 tablespoons rum. Add rum batter back to remaining batter, and stir to combine. (Dough may not be completely smooth; do not overmix.)
Spoon batter into prepared pan, and tap pan against counter to distribute evenly. Bake in preheated oven until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 42 to 45 minutes.
