So what happens when you take an active sourdough starter, stick it in the fridge and ignore it for 6 months or more? Apparently nothing bad. This is exactly what I did. Actually, I have 4 starters in the fridge. Last week I decided to try and revive the Italian starter and attempt a batch of bread.
How did I do it? I pulled the starter out, stirred the hooch in (the liquid on top) and put it on the counter in a new bowl. Leaving it on the counter, I fed it with half a cup of flour and half a cup of water twice a day. At each feeding , I poured off about half the starter into a container of excess. But I’ll get to that later.
Friday night I began the Vermont Sourdough from Hamelman’s Bread. Saturday morning I worked through the shaping and then retarded the two loaves in the fridge overnight. Then Sunday morning I baked them off one at a time on my pizza stone. The first loaf I steamed once with ice cubes. The 2nd loaf I added a second steaming. The second steaming seemed to give the 2nd loaf a little more spring. The taste was mild but clearly the starter did its job. Nice rise, good crumb. Chewy crust. Sourdough bread is such a process that it’s even more satisfying when it all goes well.
So there have been sammichs, bread slice snacks, bread with salad, etc. And I haven’t cut into the second loaf yet! So what to do with the cast-off starter created when feeding? There are a bunch of things you can do with it, but this time I chose scones. (Obviously, I veganized that recipe.) It really doesn’t act to rise the scones, but flavors them a little and keeps you from having to throw the excess in the garbage.
tempeh salad sammich
apple pie sourdough scones
It’s been a while, so I’m going to submit this post to WildYeast’s Yeastspotting. Head over there every Friday for a collection of baking porn from around the internets.
I really do love eating giant salads. I just don’t always feel like making them. So if I do feel like it, I go with it. This week has definitely been saladoriffic. Romaine is my favorite lettuce. It lasts pretty long in the fridge and stays nice and crispy. Carrots are always there. Red, orange or yellow bell pepper. After that, it’s really up to whim and what catches my eye at the market. This week I also had radishes, cucumber, summer squash, and cucumber. Then a sprinkling of almonds or walnuts. And this week I added protein, tofu or a fake chicken patty. All were tasty and satisfying. Maybe they make up for the parfait I ate and the chocolate chocolate chip coconut muffins I made. Probably not.
salad with marinated tofu
salad with fake chicken patty
salad with grilled squash and tofu
The Atlanta Vegan Bake Sale this past Sunday was amazing! We raised just over $700 for Catsnip! Thanks to Leigh, Ken, Kevin, Britney, Steph, Ashley, Lisa, Idalys & Howell and Lillian at Criminal Records for helping make it happen! Oh, and all of you that came by and picked up goodies.
Set up outside of Criminal Records
calm before the hungry hoards arrived
deciding is hard
And here are my contributions to the bake sale.
chocolate whoopie pie
pina colada bundt
Jamaican spinach (callaloo) pie
mini peach pie
chocolate bundt with chocolate ganache
Check out Leigh’s set of pics from the sale for more food porn.
Our humble Atlanta Vegan Bake Sale got a mention in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution! Section D, Page 2.
The Atlanta edition of the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale is happening this Sunday, June 21st! Come by and see us noon – 4pm in front of Criminal Records in Little Five Points and pick up yummy vegan baked goods. The proceeds go to Catsnip, a mobile low-cost feline spay/neuter clinic. Steph Timms created the awesome flyer you see above. Feel free to post on your blog or print ‘em out and spread ‘em around. Higher quality files available here.
Tomorrow is going to be baking day for me. I know I’m making little hand pies, fruit and savory, and some whoopie pies. And some other things. I’m just not sure what yet. Maybe pretzels. Or I might keep it simple and just do the first two things, but lots of them. We’ll see.
Grover here is not just a handsome cat, he’s a Catsnip customer!
This story about PETA’s reaction to President Obama killing a fly prompted me to put a new poll over there on the right. I know, it’s long overdue. Maybe I’ll feel inspired to update it more often, or, at all. At least in this case, it sound like PETA was hounded for a comment. You know, it is okay to say “no comment.” Or simply, “it isn’t what we would do.”
Making pretzels is a similar process to making bagels. Mix, ferment, shape, retard, boil, top, bake. I tried really hard to fuck these up. When I need to measure out water that’s a certain temperature range, I usually make the adjustments in the measuring cup, then pour out the excess once the temperature is right. This time, I got the temperature right, then just dumped the whole cup into the flour mixture. Crap. So I fiddled with it by adding more flour and a bit more yeast until the dough texture seemed about right. I was working with the Bavarian Pretzel recipe in Daniel Leader’s Local Breads. Unfortunately because I’m an idiot, this wasn’t a real test of the recipe. They came out pretty well despite this. The pretzels were best still warm from the oven. Oh yeah, I also burned the crap out of my arm on the baking sheet. Add that to the collection of scars.
pretzels taking a swim
pretzels ready to bake
cinnamon sugar pretzel
sesame seed and salt pretzel
pretzel party
Whoops. This is a little tardy. I guess I’m going to get points off on my grade for that. So I hosted the last potluck for our vegan lunch group back on May 30th. Our theme was Latin American cuisine. As always, we had a lovely spread.
3 salsas, chips, guacamole, nopales (cactus)
fruit salad, corn and black bean salad, quinoa salad, horchata
close up of corn and black bean salad and quinoa salad
nopales, guacamole, roasted poblanos stuffed with garlic mashed potatoes smothered in Teese
arapes, fruit salad
arapes smiling for their close-up
The latest barage of Pizza Hut P’Zone commercials is really getting on my nerves. It shows dudes totally chowing on their $5 meal, holding the whole thing in both hands. This is a different commercial than the one they’re showing now, but you get the idea. Each dude has a whole one in front of him. Each guy is going to eat a whole one. So why is it that their nutritional information shows a serving as half an order? I know why. Because they don’t want you to know that if you eat a whole one, and I’m being kind by choosing the pepperoni one, that’s 1260 calories, 48 grams of fat and 3,160 mg of sodium. Wow, happy heart attack!
Most of the cool, vegan-friendly restaurants in Richmond are near VCU. So Monday, Memorial Day, Panda Veg was closed and so was Harrison Street Coffee Shop. I figured since Ellwood Thompson’s is a grocery store, it would be open. And it was. It’s kind of like Whole Foods, but independent and more focused on local items where possible.
They had a hot bar that didn’t look that appetizing. There was also a salad bar that looked okay. So we settled on sandwiches. They had a bunch of options for vegans. You fill out a little laminated card with all the options you want on your sandwich and they make it for you.
Mine was a vegan chicken salad on sourdough. The texture reminded me of Soul Vegetarian’s eggless salad. Kevin said it tasted better than Whole Foods’ fake chicken salad. It was tasty. And the sandwich was huge! Half would have been plenty. But I ate 3/4 of it any way.
Kevin got the vegan BBQ. It was supposed to be heated but wasn’t really all that warm. The texture was satisfying but I’d probably punch up the flavor of the sauce a bit. I like a bit more oomph to my BBQ sauce.
They also have baked goods. I picked up this orange cookie with chocolate glaze that I ended up eating on the road Tuesday. It was a fat cookie and the texture was somewhere between shortbread and a scone. I’d be tempted to eat this for breakfast. I think I’m more of a chewy cookie sort of person. The orange flavor was lovely and the simple chocolate glaze was a nice contrast.
Ellwood Thompson’s also carries some of Twin Oaks‘ products. They use only organic, Virginia-grown soybeans in the products. So I picked up their chorizo, breakfast sausage, regular tofu and Italian tofu. Once we try these out, I’ll give a report on how they were.
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