Sunset Sourdough Starter Food

SOURDOUGH SCONES

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Whisk together the flour, salt, cream of tartar, baking soda, sugar, and apple pie spice in a mixing bowl. Cut in the butter with a knife or pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the sourdough starter and mix by hand to form a soft dough.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 4 pieces. Pat or roll one piece of dough into a 1/2-inch thick round. Cut it into 4 wedge-shaped pieces and place the scones on the prepared baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Repeat with remaining pieces of dough. Brush the tops of the scones with milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar, if desired.
• Bake until the scones just start to turn golden, 12 to 15 minutes.

SUNSET SOURDOUGH STARTER

Steps:

• Fill a 3 to 6-cup container with hot water and let it stand. In a pan, heat the milk to 90-100 deg.F. on thermometer. Remove from heat and stir in yogurt.
• Drain water from container, wipe dry, and pour in milk-yogurt mixture. Cover tightly; if using a screw-top jar with a metal lid, place a double layer of plastic wrap over mouth of jar before screwing on lid. Let stand in a warm place (80-90 deg F.).
• After 18-24 hours, starter should be about the consistency of yogurt - a curd forms and mixture doesn't flow readily when container is slightly tilted. (It may also form smaller curds suspended in clear liquid). If some clear liquid has risen to top of milk, simply stir it back in . However, if liquid has turned light pink, milk is beginning to break down - discard and start again.
• After curd has formed, gradually stir in flour until smooth. Cover tightly and let stand in a warm place (80-90 deg F.) until mixture is full of bubbles and has a good sour smell (2-5 days).
• If clear liquid forms during this time, stir it back into starter. But if liquid is pink, spoon out and discard all but 1/4 cup of starter, then blend in a mixture of 1 cup each warm skim milk or low-fat milk (90-100 deg F.) and flour. Cover tightly and let stand again in a warm place until bubbly and sour smelling.
• To store, cover and refrigerate.
• Always bring your starter to room temperature before using it (this takes 4 to 6 hours).
• To maintain an ample supply, replenish your starter every time you use it with equal amounts of warm milk and flour. Use the same type of milk and flour to maintain consistency. Cover tightly and let stand in a warm place for several hours or until bubbly; then cover and refrigerate.
• If you bake regularly, your starter will stay lively. If you don't bake often, it's best to discard about half your starter and replenish it with warm milk and flour about every 2 months.

SOURDOUGH BREAD

Steps:

• For the levain: Combine the all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, water and starter in a medium bowl and mix to combine. Cover and let sit at room temperature until bubbly and increased in volume by about 20 percent, about 8 hours.
• For the dough: Add the all-purpose flour, water and whole-wheat flour to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Weigh out 7 ounces of the levain (about 1 cup) and add to the mixer (discard any remaining levain). Mix on low until a shaggy dough forms. Cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• Add the salt to the dough and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes; the dough should feel a bit sticky and wet but look smooth and very stretchy. Scrape the dough into a plastic or glass container about twice its size. Cover and let sit at room temperature until puffed, about 45 minutes.
• Put the dough on a floured work surface, flatten it gently, then fold in thirds like a business letter. Transfer it back to the container. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 45 minutes.
• Repeat the folding process one more time, transfer back to the container, cover and let sit at room temperature for another 45 minutes. After the third 45-minute rest, the dough should feel soft and pillowy; when pressed with a finger, it should leave an indentation that begins to spring back.
• Gently scrape the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide in half using a bench scraper. Shape each piece loosely into a round by gently tucking the edges under. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for 30 minutes.
• Drape 2 kitchen towels into 2 medium (8-inch) bowls and dust very generously with flour. Dust the top of the dough rounds very lightly with flour and flip over using a bench scraper. Flatten one piece of dough into a circle, then fold the left and right sides of the dough over the center. Keeping tension in the dough, begin folding down from the top edge in 3 segments, sealing the bottom edge with the last fold. Loosely cup the dough and, using your hands and the tension between the board and the dough, pull the bread very slowly towards yourself while creating a taut ball. Gently flip the dough ball over and into one of the prepared bowls. Cover loosely with another kitchen towel. Repeat the process with the second piece of dough. Place both in a warm place to rise until about 1 1/2 times their size, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
• About 20 minutes before baking, position an oven rack in the lower third of the oven, put a 4-quart Dutch oven and lid on the rack and preheat to 500 degrees F. When preheated, carefully transfer the hot Dutch oven to a heatsafe surface with oven mitts (leave the lid in the oven). Flip one round of dough over into the Dutch oven. Using a sharp knife, scissors or bread lame, score the top of the bread in a cross or desired pattern. Return to the oven, immediately cover with the lid and bake for 20 minutes. Lower the temperature to 425 degrees F, uncover and bake until dark brown, about 10 minutes more. Transfer the bread to a cooling rack to cool completely. Return the empty Dutch oven to the oven, raise the temperature to 500 degrees F and let heat for 10 minutes before repeating the baking process with the second dough round.

SOURDOUGH CREPES

Steps:

• In a bowl, stir together starter, water, and flour until smoothly blended. Cover and let stand in a warm place until very bubbly (about 8 hours).
• Beat together eggs and oil, then stir into batter. Combine salt, baking soda, and sugar; sprinkle over batter and stir well to blend. Cover lightly and let stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes.
• Place a 6 or 7 inches crepe pan or other flat-bottomed frying pan over medium heat. When pan is hot, add 1/4 teaspoons butter and swirl to coat surface. At once, pour in 2 tbl. batter, quickly tilting pan so batter flows over entire flat surface (don't worry about a few little holes). Cook until surface appears dry and edge is lightly browned. With a spatula, turn and brown other side. Turn crepe out of pan onto a plate. Repeat, stacking crepes, until all batter is used.
• A nice way to serve is to roll them up into a tube, serving 3 or 4 per person, with jam, powdered sugar or maple syrup. Or use in any other recipe calling for crepes.
• Crepes can be wrapped airtight and kept in refrigerator for a week. Let warm to room temperature before separating, to prevent tearing. They may also be frozen.
• Note1: a standard coffee measure is 2 tbl.
• Note2: if your batter is too thick, stir in room temperature water, a couple of tablespoons at a time, until batter flows easily. You may find that you need 3 or 4 tbl. of batter to coat pan appropriately, but somehow the yield ends up the same.
• Note3: I recommend using a non-stick pan. You can then reduce the butter to just a smidge per crepe. The pat of butter you get at the restaurant is 1 tsp., to help you judge the amount needed.
• Note3: try adding some herbs or spices to the batter: herbes de Provence, thyme, cinnamon, nutmeg are all good. I'd start with about 1 tbl. of dried herbs, 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoons ground herbs or spices, per recipe. I usually cook some plain, adding a smaller amount of herbs or spices to the remaining batter.