Desperately Seeking Simone

Okay here she is:

1 tablespoon yeast
2c warm water (baby's bath warm, not hot as that will kill the good stuff)
2c whole wheat flour (any flour will do. Rye is apparently particularly good for sourdough starter).

Dissolve yeast in water in 11/2 to 2 qt jar or crock. Do not use metal. Let stand for 10minutes. Stir in flour. cover with lid or plastic wrap. let stand in warm place overnight or at room temperature for about 2 days until bubbly and slightly sour-smelling, or longer if you like it more sour. Use immediately, leaving a little in the jar, or store, covered in fridge. When you use some, stir equal amounts of warm water adn flour back into remaining starter and let stand until bubbly. Stir down before returning to refirgerator. IF starter gets too sour, discard 1c and add 1 c warm water and 1 c flour and let stand as above. Starter will last indefinately if used at least once a week.

Yeast breads can be converted to sourdoug. Subsitutoe 1 c sourdough starter for 3/4 c liquid in any 2 loaf recipe or for more sourdough flavor leave out the yeast and start your bread the night before. Make a sponge with the starter, liquid and about half the lfour and let it sitin a warm place overnight. In the morning, add all the other ingredients except the yeast to the blubbly mixutre and proceed with the recipe allowing a little more time for rising. And remember that sourdough breads are stickier to kenead than ordinary yeast breads so don't add too much flour.

If you find your breads too heavy try adding egs, mashed potatoes or potato cooking water in place of all or some of the liquid or 1/4 tsp of baking soda per cup o fstarter to sweeten it a little.

If the liquid at the top turns pink, discard all but 1/4 c and you'll have to star another batch with the remainder. Don't worry about molds, jus scrape moldy encrustations off the inside of the crock with a spoon and throw them away (they are not harmful).


Sourdough Bread:

1c milk
1/4 c butter
1/4 c sugar
2 t salt
2 c sourdough starter
2 t baking soda
5-7 c flour (whole grain preferred)

optional:
1 T yeast
1/2 c wheat germ

Heat milk in saucepan until scalded. Add butter, sugar and salt. Cool to lukewarm. Ad sourdough starter. Dissolve baking soda and yeast if using, in a small amount of water, stir into soudrough mixture. Add flour until dough is soft and pliable. knead well (in your mixer works great!!). Let rise for 3 hours until doubled or 1 hour if yeast is used. Punch down; shape into 2 loaves. Place in greased loaf pans or cook free form. Let rise. Poke the end with your little finger. if it fills in quickly, let it rise more. If it does not fill in ,its ready. Bake at 400 F for 25-30 minutes. May subsitute honey or maple syrup for sugar. Can also use this dough for buns.


Whole Grain Pretzels (for 4ever29)

1 T yeast
1 1/2 c warm water
1 T honey
1 t salt
3 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c wheat germ

Glaze:
1 egg beaten with 1 T water

Optional:
3 T oil
1/2 c dry milk powder

Optional toppings:
coarse salt (ya baby!)
sesame seeds
poppy seeds

Dissolve yeast in water with heony in bowl until bubbly. Stir in salt, desired optional ingredients and 2 c lfour. Beat until smooth. Add wheat germ and remaining flour to make soft dough. Knead for 5 minutes or utnil smooth and elastic. Let rise for 45-60 minutes or until doubled. Punch own. divied into 16 equal portions. Roll into 16 inch long ropes. Shape. To make original shape, loop as if making a big circle but with two long pieces at the top, cross rope over once and then twist once. flip this over to have the ends meet up with the circle part. i need to put the drawing up....

Let pretzels rise 20 minutes, lower them gently 1 at a time on a slotted spoon into 2 qts of boilint water with 3 T salt. Boil for 1 minute, drain well. Place on baking sheets. Brush on galze and sprinkle with toppings. Bake at 400 F for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to racks to cool.

Once shaped, you can freeze the pretzels. To bake, dip frozen pretzels in water, sprinkel with courase salt and bake for 30 minutes. Frozen baked pretzels can be thawed in a 350 oven for 5-6 minutes.


All of these recipes come for Whole Foods for the Whole World, published by La Leche League International - THE leading experts on breastfeeding... publishers of some fantastic books. I love this cookbook because everything is very whole grain and does not use any processed foods. Even things like the muffins and the cakes! And they are good. Au naturel before it was hip to be au naturel (this cook was first published in 1981 in the days when breastfeeding was still frowned upon and no one ate whole wheat anything).