Sourdough Biscuits

As you know, I made this sourdough starter a couple of months ago. After baking two underwhelming loaves of bread, I forgot about it for a while in the refrigerator. Since I really didn't feed it at all in October or most of November, I was a little afraid of even opening the lid. When I finally worked up the courage, I found a grayish watery substance on top that looked dead and swampish. However, I was assured by the internet that this is perfectly normal and went ahead and poured off the top liquid, gave the starter a stir, and fed it according to the instructions in the Bread Baker's Apprentice -- 1 cup starter to 4 cups flour and 2 1/2  cups water. 

Just before Thanksgiving, I found a klondike-style sourdough pancake recipe in a 1985 Mother Earth News that sounded like a great way to use up some of the 4+ cups of sourdough starter. The pancakes were so fantastic that I moved on to their biscuit recipe (this one from ME's August 2011 issue). The biscuits were very tasty, but the texture needs a little work. I followed the recipe to the letter, but think that I need to work on the technique of incorporating the dry ingredients with the wet. I went against my best judgement and stirred the dough, when I should have just gently mixed in the wet stuff and dumped the crumbly mixture onto the counter while folding to incorporate. I've found that the best biscuits are made when you work the dough as little as possible -- only folding it in thirds on the counter a few times to create the flaky layers that puff up when cooked. 


We experimented with the scalloped edges vs. smooth and the vote was unanimous in favor of scallops. The edges got a little crispy in the oven, which was a great contrast to the sourdoughy chew. I'm definitely going to try these again very soon to see if my folding technique improves the already great-tasting treats. 

Welcome to the 21st Century

When Jesse and I moved to Portland in 2008, we sold (and gave away) a lot of our possessions** in order to cram all that we owned into a single 7'x7'x6' moving crate. Among the things we left behind was our medium-sized, but rather bulky television that we scored on Craigslist. When we got to Portland, our apartment was not much bigger than our studio in D.C., so we decided to go without TV for a while (that and we felt rather broke, since the economy tanked and I was without a steady job). 

Three years and three months later, we took the plunge and bought a TV -- a brand new, flat, and comparatively light TV. I can attest to it's relative lightness, because I carried it 4 blocks home from the car. We now stream our Netflix and Hulu onto 32 inches of beautiful screen. And Miles watched football in high definition for the first time on Thanksgiving day. He was enamored with the clarity (as was I) and even after the TV was switched off for the afternoon he would walk up to it and point while saying "boot ball." 


We had to do a bit of rearranging to accommodate the new technology. In terms of decor, it does nothing for the mid-century modern credenza that had to be placed awkwardly in the corner. However, it felt wonderful to kick up my feet and watch a little Masterpiece Theater after a long day with Miles, so I'll bend this time on appearances. 


**One possession that made the move and still remains is that damn drying rack from Amish country (seen to the right in the above photo). It's like the weirdo kid that shows up in all of your vacation photos, but I can't give it up, it's just so functional. I still maintain that if you come to visit, we'd be happy to air-dry your entire wardrobe on our 15-foot-tall rack in the living room. Some day we'll have a house with a basement where the drying rack can live out its retirement in peace and solitude after years of being shoved around, kicked, cursed, and crammed in closets.

Goodbye October

October 2011 turned out to be an incredibly shitty month. Lots of travel, sadness, and unanswered questions. It's fitting that it isn't even acknowledged in my blog. But I'm back, maybe not fully, but life continues and there's lots going on lately. My job has picked up, Miles is growing and changing like crazy, and we're looking to move to a bigger place -- I guess I'm not giving October enough credit. 

It made me remember how important family and friends are in my life. If I'm smart (and I like to think that I am) I will keep October close by and use it as a reminder to take a break now and again from my busy life to be thankful. Here Miles and I are with my sister, her fiance, Eric, my parents, and grandmother all together for the first time in a very long while. 

Sourdough Success and Failure

Yesterday I was determined to make this bread submit (rise) in time to have it before bed. In my rush to get it proofing before picking Miles up from our nanny share, I did something stupid. I left my KitchenAid mixer running on the countertop for less than 30 seconds while checking out the next steps in my cookbook and BAM! It somehow walked its way off the countertop and onto the floor. Luckily, the dough was almost finished kneading and looked ready to go. 

I set the dough to rise on the warm oven for three hours and contemplated the fate of my poor mixer. From what I can tell, the cord took a brunt of the force and came nearly completely out of the back of the motor. Today, one of my tasks after taking Miles to his one-year checkup is to call around and find a repair shop so the KitchenAid will be up and running again when we get back from our October trip to the east coast. After rising for three hours, I divided the dough into two balls and put one on the stove to proof again and one in the refrigerator to proof overnight. I got impatient and decided to go ahead and start the baking process at 10:30pm (about an hour early). 


The dough looked perfect when I set it on the peel, but somehow the semolina flour didn't get under one of the edges and it flopped onto the baking stone in this sort of amoeba shape. As you can see, my cuts in the top weren't deep enough either, so overall, the appearance is less than ideal. However, the taste was fantastic. I'm excited to try again today with the loaf in the fridge, but this time give it the proper amount of time to rise and maybe leave it on the sheet pan so it will retain its beautiful round shape. 

September Projects

September is almost over and I don't even know how that happened. It's not been Miles' best month, to put it mildly, he's been a bit of a tyrant through his cold, growing pains, and teething. There are some clues left behind from the rubble of Hurricaine Miles -- piles of clothes soiled with snot and drool, chewed up books, miscellaneous kitchen gadgets in various states of disrepair, and some dried up raisins and frittata ground into the carpet. Somehow in the chaos, I managed to start a couple of cooking and sewing projects on the weekend and in between naps, work, and fluctuating nanny schedules. 


My first project involved breaking out my Bread Baker's Apprentice book and doing two things that I've been meaning to try for a while: pizza dough and sourdough bread. The pizza dough was a success. I made six dough crusts and froze them for later use. The other night we decided to give them a try and they were wonderfully delicate and stretchy and when coupled with my baking stone, we made pizza that rivals our favorite pizzeria. Dough win.

The sourdough has been more of a challenge. I embarked on making my own starter over a week ago and still have yet to make a sourdough loaf. I feel like I've spent more quality time with the seed and barm than I have with my own child. Maybe if Miles smelled like rye flour and pineapple juice, I'd love him more. The process is easy enough. It starts out with dark rye flour and some liquid (pineapple juice for the first two days) and goes something like this: mix, cover, ferment, uncover, mix, throw out half of your bubbly (stinky) concoction, mix, cover, ferment, mix some more, throw out some more, uncover (shielding your eyes from the fumes), refrigerate, wait wait wait, warm up, mix, cool off, rise, wait wait wait, flip yet another page to find a list of 12 more steps to go. I think you get the point. 

So here I started, with a weeks worth of variations on the starter in my Pyrex measuring cup, and am today, finally at the bread making step. I was so excited to have a fresh baked sourdough loaf on the table for dinner, but after reading through each step carefully, I realized that the bread won't be finished until about 9pm. Bummer. I should have started the process when I woke up this morning! Well, lesson learned for next time. And there will be a next time, because I have a bowl full of barm in the fridge that needs to be fed, rocked, and snuggled (I kid). Jesse and I have made a pact to bake at least three batches before giving up, then I'll freeze the starter for later so I don't have to start the process again. 

The other project was making Miles a chair. I've been searching around for a mini upholstered chair for Miles to climb on and relax in, but they're either all terribly ugly or insanely expensive. So, I spent one evening on the internet and found a lady on Etsy who made a pattern for a plush kid's chair. I purchased the pattern on Tuesday and with great restraint, waited all the way until Saturday to get the supplies. Jesse watched Miles all afternoon while I went on an epic run to JoAnn's and Fabric Depot. Miles took stock of the foam and batting and determined it was a worthy project. I had all of the pieces cut out by Saturday night and spent Sunday in my sweatshop pumping out the slipcover. The instructions were pretty good (not outstanding though) and I had to scratch my head and dig deep into my brain's sewing chest to figure out how to get it all put together. 

In the end I'm pretty happy with the results. Would I do it again? No. It was only slightly less expensive than just buying a stuffed chair from Pottery Barn, and was kind of a pain to sew. However, it looks adorable in our living room and Miles loves it, so totally worth the mild annoyance. I have to go back and fix the arms (they need more stuffing) and I goofed when putting in the zipper, so there's a slight pucker on the right side (this may never get fixed though, since removing a zipper is high on my list of things never to do). I don't think Miles will care though, because he now has his own piece of furniture to love and jump on.