Kaiser Rolls

It has been over a year since I've shared a recipe. Today I'm breaking that record.

When I make these kaiser rolls, I think of May 2017 when Ed was so sick with terrible headaches and we didn't know why. I baked these rolls, one of the first times ever, to serve with Ed's favorite pork barbecue, but he hardly touched the meal.

But despite that memory, we do enjoy these kaiser rolls. They are chewy and perfect for sandwiches. I have made a lot less bread this past year since Ed can't eat it, but I've made these rolls numerous times.

The original recipe came from my sister who got it from one of Peter Reinhart's cookbooks. The original recipe called for making a pre-ferment one day and then finishing the dough the next day. That is too fussy for me. I adapted the recipe to mix all the ingredients at one time and either bake it immediately, or refrigerate the dough and bake in a day or two. Sometimes I bake half the dough into rolls the first day and save the remaining dough for the next day so we can have freshly baked rolls again with minimal effort.

I make these rolls with a mix of white and whole wheat flours, but they can be made with all white or all whole wheat flour. If you use bread flour, the higher gluten level will make these rolls even chewer. I usually add a bit of vital gluten to aid the gluten development and make them chewy but it is not necessary.

You can shape these rolls into simple round rolls. But I like to roll the dough balls long and skinny and "tie" them into knots. If you google "shaping kaiser roll knots" you'll find lots of tutorials.

I'm attempting to rewrite this recipe for sourdough, but I'm not completely satisfied yet. Hopefully with a little more work I'll have that recipe perfected enough to share.



Kaiser  Rolls

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups white flour
2 T vital gluten (optional)
1 T salt
1 T yeast
1 T honey
2 eggs
3 T olive oil
2 1/2 cups water
Egg and seeds for garnish (optional)

Stir all ingredients together except garnishes. Knead 6 minutes with a kneading hook at medium speed. (Or knead by hand - though you may need to add more flour.) The dough should still be tacky and hard to handle, though not sticky.

Cover dough and allow to rise 2 hours or until double. Divide dough into 16 pieces. Rest 10 minutes. Shape into balls or roll and twist into knots. Place on greased baking sheet.

Allow rolls to rise one hour. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds and poppy seeds. Bake at 425 for 13 minutes. Cool and serve with your favorite pork barbecue or other favorite sandwich toppings.

Variation: After mixing, allow to rise for 30 minutes at room temperature. Then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place in fridge. One to three days later, remove dough from fridge, divide into rolls, and proceed with the recipe. The rolls may need more time to warm and rise before baking.

Sourdough Sticky Buns {Or How to Adapt a Recipe to Sourdough}

I'm often asked how to adapt a typical yeast-bread recipe to a sourdough recipe. I could make a guess, - decrease the water, substitute the yeast for sourdough starter, and extend the rising time, but I had not actually tried it. 

But a few weeks ago, I ran out of yeast and didn't want to make a special trip to the store when I was hit with an urge to make sticky buns. I figured this was the perfect opportunity to try adapting my mom's sticky bun recipe to sourdough. 

I can now say with assurance that it works to adapt a yeast bread recipe to sourdough. Works very well.

When I mixed up the dough, I omitted the yeast, added some active sourdough starter, and cut back the water. I placed the dough in the bowl and began to wait. And wait. It took over four hours for the dough to nearly double in size. Sourdough is never  mistaken for the fastest baking method.

After rising, I divided the dough in half, rolled it out, and sprinkled the dough with brown sugar and cinnamon.

I rolled the dough tightly and sliced the dough into fifteen slices and placed it into a 9x13 pan with prepared slurry.

I could have cut them into fewer slices for larger buns, but I knew these will increase in size and be perfect for our family. I did the same with the second half of dough, resulting in two pans of buns.

Again, these took a while to raise (2-3 hours) but eventually they filled the pan and were ready to bake.

After baking, I turned them out onto a pan and let the syrup drip down into the buns.

But the real question - what about the flavor? Do sourdough sticky buns taste sour? 

If you have eaten a San Francisco-type sourdough, you know that sourdough can taste truly sour. But not all breads made with a sourdough starter has that distinctive flavor. I actually wish we would use "wild yeast" or some other term instead of "sourdough."  Bread that is made with a large quantity of starter and risen in warm temperature won't have as strong a flavor, because it will rise quickly and not allow the "sour" flavors to develop. Bread that is made with less starter and risen cold and slow, will have a more developed flavor. 

Your pleasure in more or less flavor will depend upon your goals or your tastes. Our family enjoys sourdough. While my children like if I occasionally make a typical yeast bread, Ed says that the typical yeast bread has no flavor. 

(Warning: get your husband hooked on quality bread, and you'll spoil him for any other bread - for life. Last week, when he was traveling for work, I heard a litany of complaints about the horrid sandwich bun he was forced to eat. But doesn't every wife like to know that her husband likes her cooking best?)

But I wasn't sure if the combination of sour and sweet in these sticky buns would be complementary. 

There IS an undercurrent of a sweet/sour tang in these buns. And we loved it. It reminded me of a citrus tang, like adding a lemon glaze to a sweet cake.

But of course just one attempt wasn't enough. I had to make these buns again to makes sure that the first try wasn't just a lucky success. And this time they were even better. I omitted the slurry or goo, instead making plain cinnamon buns. Then I added a peanut butter fudge frosting. I'm sorry. We were eating the last of the batch when I realized I had not taken a photo. 

Want to try it? Here is the recipe for the sourdough sticky buns adapted from my mom's sticky bun recipe.

Sourdough Sticky Buns

1 cup warm potato water

1 cup mashed potatoes

2 cups active sourdough starter

2/3 cup butter or oil

1/3 cup honey (or 2/3 cup sugar)

2 eggs

2 tsp salt

3 cups white flour

3 cups whole wheat flour (more if needed)

Mix all ingredients together. Add more flour if needed to make a soft dough. Knead for five minutes. Place in greased bowl and raise until doubled (at least 3-4 hours). Divide dough in half and roll half into 12 x 18 inch rectangle. Sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar. Roll up jelly-roll style from long side. Slice in 15 pieces. Place in 9x13 pan. Repeat with the second half of dough. Raise for 2 (or more) hours until doubled. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes.

Variation: Place slurry (or goo) in pan before placing rolls if you want sticky buns. My mom's recipe is 2 cups brown sugar, 1 cup water, 4 T molasses, 4 T butter. Stir together in pan and bring to boil. Simmer for one minute. Pour in baking pan before placing rolls. Remember to flip out of baking pan immediately after baking.

Second Variation: After shaping buns, wrap pan tightly in plastic wrap and place in fridge. They will rise slowly. One or two days later, remove from fridge. Allow to warm up for 30 minutes then bake them for fresh buns.

I'd love to hear your attempts in adapting recipes for sourdough.

Question: Adapting a Sourdough Starter

I'm often asked some variation of the following question.

A friend gave me a sourdough starter. It is fed with sugar and potato flakes. I like how your starter is fed with only water and flour. Can I adapt my starter to be fed with water and flour? Or is my kind of starter different than yours? Can I use your bread recipe with my starter? - a reader

My answer to this question: "I don't know." I never tried it, and though I'm tempted to do some experiments myself, I don't have a potato-flake starter to do some trials.

So I'm throwing the question out to all of you. Have any of you adapted a sourdough starter from being fed with potato flakes to just flour? Were you successful? Have you used a potato-flake starter in the sourdough recipes I share here?

I'd love to hear about any experience - good or bad, yummy or bleh. If you would rather not let a comment here, you can email me. Thanks.

Looking for general sourdough advice? You can find what I DO know about sourdough at the sourdough page.

Almond Cranberry Tea Ring

My sister-in-law gave me this recipe and asked me to make it for our family Christmas Eve gathering. I made a few adaptions and ended up making it three times for various gatherings in December where it was well-received.

A tea ring is a fun and attractive method of shaping bread dough. You fill and roll the dough similar to cinnamon buns,but instead of cutting the buns and placing individually in a baking dish, they are shaped into a ring. This recipe makes two medium size tea rings, but I've also used all the dough to make one large size tea ring.

This tea ring can also be filled with raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, or other ingredients instead of almonds and craisins.

Almond Cranberry Tea Ring

1 T yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup warm milk
1/4 cup sugar or honey
1/3 cup soft butter
1 tsp salt
1 egg
3-4 cups flour (I used half whole wheat flour and half white.)
Topping ingredients: brown sugar, craisins, sliced almonds, and glaze

Combine all ingredients except flour and topping ingredients. Slowly mix in flour to make a soft dough. Knead five minutes. Place in greased bowl. Cover and allow to rise until double (about 1 hour.) You may place though dough in the fridge to rise slowly for up to three days before shaping and baking.

Divide dough in half. Roll half the dough to form a 15x9 inch rectangle. Spread with brown sugar, craisins, and sliced almonds. Roll up tightly from long edge. Place on a greased baking sheet and pinch edges of dough together to make a ring. Cut 2/3 of a way through the ring at one-inch intervals. Turn each slice onto its side. Allow to rise until double (about 40 minutes.) Repeat with second half of dough.

Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes. I found that it browned quickly so half-way through the baking time I covered it with foil. After cooling, drizzle with glaze made with 1/2 cup confectionery sugar, 1/2 tsp almond flavoring, and 1 T milk.

Serve. You may find yourself with a new holiday tradition like I did.

Did you make a successful holiday bread this year?

Sourdough Ciabatta

I haven't been doing much bread baking. Summer is the time for other activities. But a few days ago I did bake a batch of sourdough bread and it was some of the nicest bread I've ever made. I wonder if sourdough likes this humid weather?

If you have wanted to try sourdough summer might be a good time to begin if you have the time.

Ciabatta is one of my family's favorite breads, but I don't think I've ever shared the recipe with you. I've tried numerous recipes, this sourdough version being our current favorite.

The name ciabatta comes from the Italian word for slipper. The dough is very wet and can't be kneaded or shaped like typical dough.  The goal is a rough shaped rustic loaf, the size a man's shoe with an interior full of large airy holes. Sometimes I make that goal and other times the loaf is more flat, but at my house even flops don't last long.

I doubt any Italian baker would add whole grain flour to their ciabatta but we like this combination of white and whole wheat. Using all white flour should allow you to gain even greater holes in the crumb.

Sourdough Ciabatta

2 cups active starter
2 cups water
1 T oil
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups white flour
2 1/2 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients except salt together for two minutes. Allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes (also called the autolysis). Add salt and mix dough for five more minutes at the lowest speed on your mixer. Dough should be sticky, like a thick batter, and you would not be able to knead it by hand.

With a wet spatula, dump the dough into a well oiled bowl, cover, and allow to sit at room temperature for four hours. Every hour, with wet hands, stretch and fold the dough over itself. Pour the dough out onto a VERY well floured surface. Divide the dough into half with a knife or dough blade. Do not knead. You do not want to add more flour to this wet dough or deflate the bubbles that have formed.

Keeping your hands under the dough, stretch it slightly and fold the dough over itself. Now the top and bottom should be well floured. Carefully place the dough onto a well-oiled baking sheet. Do the same for the second loaf and allow both to rise for 1-2 hours or until the loaves are nice and puffy.

Preheat the oven at 450 degrees. Place in loaves hot oven. Place roasting pan lid over bread if desired. Bake for 15 minutes. Turn heat down to 425 degrees, turn loaves around, remove roasting pan lid, and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Cool and enjoy! My family loves ciabatta with an herb dipping oil.



You can find all my sourdough information, tips, and many more recipes on the sourdough page.

Sourdough Egg Bagels

I've already shared a sourdough bagel recipe several years ago but recently I've been making this version from Teresa Greenway and I think it is better than my former recipe. I assume it is the eggs that make the difference.

I usually make these with part whole wheat and part white flours but you could use all of white or all whole wheat.

Sourdough Egg Bagels

2 cups active starter
1 cup warm water
3 eggs
2 T. oil
1 T. honey
1/4 cup vital gluten (optional)
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups white flour
3 1/2 tsp salt
Desired topping: egg wash, onion flakes, poppy seed, sesame seed

Mix all ingredients together. Allow to rest for twenty minutes. Knead dough for five minutes. Add more flour if needed. This will be a stiff dough. Place in a greased bowl and allow to rise for 4-6 hours until doubled. While rising, stretch and fold the dough at least twice to help strengthen the gluten.

After rising, divide the dough into 12 pieces and shape into balls, then punch a hole in the center of each ball and stretch into a bagel shape. Cover bagels and allow to rise for two hours. In a large pot, boil two quarts of water with 1 T. salt and 2 T. baking soda. Gently drop bagels in the boiling water and cook for thirty seconds on each side. Place on parchment-covered baking sheet. Brush with egg wash (egg beaten with 1 T. of water) and sprinkle with favorite topping. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Variation: For cinnamon raisin bagels add 2 tsp cinnamon to dough. Soak 2 cups of raisins in 1 cup hot water for 15 minutes then add to dough. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar before baking.

Dilly Rolls

I have not been making much bread this summer. But I finally have some dill growing in my herb garden again (more on that topic in a later post) and I wanted to try some dilly rolls.

This is a simple yeast bread. Don't expect a light, puffy dinner roll. These are a rustic, hearty-type roll - absolutely perfect with a roast beef dinner.



I wanted to make sure they had a good dill flavor so after looking at several recipes I added both dill seed and dill weed, plus an onion. (Dill weed is the leafy green part of the dill plant.)

My children thought the flavor of these rolls was a little strong - but they helped themselves to seconds and thirds. I thought it was perfect. You can adjust the flavor to your liking by decreasing the dill and onion if you wish.

I'm looking forward to enjoying these rolls this fall with a pot of beef stew.



Dilly Rolls

1 cup milk
1 T honey
4 T oil
2 T instant yeast
1 cup warm water
1 onion, diced
4 T finely shopped fresh dill weed
1 T dill seeds
2 tsp salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
3-4 cups white flour

Add all ingredients except white flour to mixing bowl. Stir well. Add white flour as needed to make a soft, slightly tacky dough. Knead for five minutes.

Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover. Let raise until doubled, about 1 hour. Divide dough into 24 pieces and roll into balls. Place on a greased baking sheet. If desired, brush tops with a beaten egg. Raise for 30 minutes or until doubled.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

How to Re-hydrate a Dried Sourdough Starter

Recently I have received several questions about re-hydrating a dried starter and I realized that I don't have this information on my sourdough starter page. 

If you get a starter through the mail from a group such as Carl's Friends, it will arrive looking like a small bit of powder. What now?

Some directions require you to add potato flakes. Personally I wanted a purist starter with only water and flour so this is the method I successfully used.

How to Re-hydrate a Dried Sourdough Starter

In a small container, mix one tablespoon of lukewarm water and 1/2 teaspoon of your starter and let stand for a few minutes to soften the starter granules. Then mix in one tablespoon of flour 

Depending on the type of flour (whole wheat or white), you may need to add an additional teaspoon or two of water. You want the mixture to be like a thin pancake batter.  

When the mixture gets bubbly (maybe a few hours or a day), stir in 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of flour. 

When this mixture rises and is bubbly, add 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of flour.  

When this bubbles up, you will have about one cup of active starter that is ready for use. Now you can go crazy baking with sourdough!

Go to the sourdough page for lots more sourdough information and recipes.

Sourdough Pizza or Focaccia

I've been working on a sourdough pizza crust ever since I started my sourdough adventure. But though I could make bread that we loved, pizza crust seemed to escape me.

Normally I would say that pizza crust is far easier to make than bread and would be the perfect first project for a beginning bread baker, but somehow I couldn't get the perfect chewy/crispy pizza crust effect with sourdough.

But I kept trying, and I think I've made progress.  Maybe one of you are searching for a good sourdough pizza crust. And maybe you have some hints for me that I haven't tried.



My best results have come when I fed my starter the night before. We usually have pizza Saturday evening, so if I can just remember to feed it Friday evening, I'm ready for pizza baking.



I also have found that I need to give it plenty of time. Regular yeast pizza can be started late in the afternoon. But for sourdough, I plan to mix up my dough by lunch at the latest. If I mix it up at breakfast, then it will be all ready for whenever we decide to enjoy our pizza on Saturday.



With this pizza crust, we've also become addicted to focaccia. This is a flat Italian bread, thicker than pizza, that is fun to personalize. Be sure to check out the variation at the end of the recipe for focaccia. I usually make a double batch of the dough so I can make two pizzas and one focaccia. Above is focaccia with pesto and mozzarella.



Here is a focaccia with mayo, cheddar, and sweet onion ready for the oven.



And this is the result after baking. I think this is my all-time favorite version.

Part of the fun of pizza and focaccia is the variety of toppings. This one has slices of zucchini. Use your imagination for all kinds of fun toppings.

Sourdough Pizza Crust and Focaccia

Makes two large pizza crusts or one focaccia

1 cup sourdough starter

1 cup warm water

2 tsp salt

1 T oil

1 cup bread flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

Combine all ingredients in bowl. Stir until well combined. Allow to rest for ten minutes.

Knead for five minutes, adding more flour if needed. Dough should be slightly tacky but not sticky.

Place in oiled bowl and cover. Allow to rise for approximately four to six hours.

Divide into two pieces for pizza. With hands, stretch dough onto large pizza pans or baking sheets. If dough resists stretching, allow to rest for five minutes, then stretch again.

Add toppings and bake at 425 for 15-20 minutes. Cool five minutes before serving.

Variation: This dough is also terrific for focaccia. Focaccia is a kind of flat bread. Do not divide in half and shape dough into a large rectangle on a baking sheet. Dimple dough with fingers and brush with olive oil and desired toppings. I like sundried tomatoes, pesto, or chopped sweet onions. Smearing the dough with mayonnaise is awesome. And of course, cheese is always good. Bake as for pizza. Ed loves to make an egg sandwich with leftover focaccia.

Crusty Sourdough Rolls

Summer brings more sandwiches on our menu. I buy a lot more of my bread in the summer. Between my reluctance to heat up the kitchen and just the time savings, it often seems easier to throw a bag of rolls in the cart.

But if I have the time, my husband sure enjoys my own homemade rolls.

I've been searching for a good crusty roll - one that will stand up to a pile of toppings without smashing into a wad. The perfect roll, in my opinion, is slightly chewy, with a nice browned crust and firm interior. And of course, as sourdough fanatics, we think the flavor of sourdough is the perfect compliment to a great burger or pork barbeque. This roll has been my go-to recipe this summer.

  
Crusty Sourdough Rolls
Makes 2 dozen rolls

5 cups whole wheat flour (or white if you prefer)
2 T vital gluten (optional)
4 T honey
4 tsp salt
4 T oil
2 cups active sourdough starter
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup water
Sesame or poppy seeds for garnish

Mix all ingredients together. Allow to rest for 20 minutes. Add more flour if too sticky but avoid too much flour as it will make a dryer bread. Knead for five minutes. Allow to rise for about four hours or until doubled in size. Divide dough into 24 pieces. Form into rolls and place on greased baking sheet. Cover and allow the rolls to rise several hours until double. Brush rolls with beaten egg and sprinkle sesame seeds or poppy seeds for garnish. Slit tops of rolls immediately before baking. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Don't under-bake. A nicely browned crust boosts the flavor.

Hearty-Grain Sourdough Bread

 

My husband likes bread with lots of crunchy seeds and grains. I've made many different variations of this bread. You can substitute various grains and seeds, this is just a guide to get you started. I use the whole wheat sourdough bread as my base but you can use many of the bread recipes, not just sourdough bread to make a heart grain bread.



I mix up the grains and seeds the night before with warm water. It is a good time to also feed my sourdough starter so it is busy and active for bread baking the next day.


Hearty-Grain Sourdough Bread


1/2 cup rolled oatmeal
1/2 cup bulgar (or steel-cut oats)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
2 T flax seeds
2 T poppy seeds
1/2 cup warm water
2 cup sourdough starter
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water 
1/4 cup oil or melted butter 
1/4 cup honey 
5 cups whole wheat flour (approximate measure)
3 tsp salt 
additional seeds for garnish

Directions:
 Mix rolled oatmeal, bulgar, seeds, and warm water together. (You may add an acid ingredient if you like to soak your grains and seeds in an acid liquid.) Allow to sit overnight.

In the morning, mix all ingredients except salt for 2-3 minutes. Allow the dough to rest for about 20 minutes.

After rest, add salt and knead dough for about five minutes. If dough is too sticky, add slightly more flour but dough should be soft and not dry and stiff. Place in oiled bowl and allow dough to rise for 3-4 hours or until nearly doubled in size.

Divide dough into two pieces (unless you want smaller loaves, then divide into however many loaves you wish) and shape into loaves and place in two greased bread pans. If a free form loaf is desired, place on greased baking sheet. Spray with oil and cover with plastic wrap to keep from drying out. Allow to rise for 2-3 hours.

When dough has risen, brush beaten egg on loaf tops and sprinkle oatmeal or seeds on loaf as desired for garnish. Carefully slash the top.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes. For even browning, turn loaves halfway through baking time.

 

Cinnamon Raisin Bread and Bagels

One of the questions I've been asked is how to make Cinnamon Raisin Bread.

You can use any favorite bread dough to make Cinnamon Raisin Bread. Some good recipes on Home Joys are Country White Bread or Whole Wheat Bread. In the photos on this post I was using the Sourdough Potato Bread.

I like to hydrate the raisins before adding them to the bread. Adding dried fruit to bread dough can make the dough more dry as the raisins suck the moisture out of the dough while it rises.

And none of us want dry bread. Right?

But neither do you want the raisins so soft that they disintegrate, especially if you add them to the dough while kneading. I usually add the raisins when forming the loaves to avoid problem. Or add them to the very end of the kneading process.



To hydrate the raisins I pour a half cup of hot water over 1 cups of raisins and allow to rest for about 15 minutes. You may also heat the raisins and water in the microwave. One cup of raisins will be a nice amount for two loaves of bread. Drain off all the excess water before adding the raisins to the dough.



For this bread, I rolled my dough thinly, spread on the raisins and generously sprinkled cinnamon and nutmeg. I also added some brown sugar. You can use honey if you desire. I then rolled the dough tightly and place in loaf pans. Bake as usual.

If you are accustomed to making cinnamon rolls, you probably also butter the dough. I do not use butter when making cinnamon bread. Butter will cause the dough layers to separate causing a great hole in the center of the loaf.



Want to make Cinnamon Raisin Bagels?

I again soak the raisins, this time two cups of raisins with one cup water for a batch of Sourdough Bagels or Whole Wheat Bagels. Halfway through kneading I add the raisins with 1 tsp of cinnamon. Precede with the remainder of the kneading and other directions.

If your family is like mine, the aroma of cinnamon and raisins will send them to the kitchen where they will beg for a taste.

You may not have any left for breakfast.

Sourdough Cheese Bubble Bread

After neglecting my sourdough starter for weeks over Christmas and the new baby, it is now back into production. Yumm.....Winter is a good time to try out some new recipes or bread variations.

Sourdough Surprises has inspired me to try new sourdough projects. This month their challenge was to make monkey bread, also known as pull-apart bread, bubble bread, or pluckets. I decided to try a cheese/herb variation.

It was not a disappointment. 

The result was a perfect combination of flavors. The sourdough flavor merged perfectly with the cheese and herbs.

I used my sourdough potato bread recipe. You can use your favorite bread dough. It doesn't even need to be sourdough. You can use frozen bread dough for an extra quick treat. You'll need dough for an equivalent of two loaves.

After you allow your bread dough to rise for the first time, divide into 32 pieces.



Shape dough into balls around a cube of cheese.



Dip dough into melted butter and herbs.



Place in a tubed cake pan.



Allow to rise until nearly doubled and bake.

 


 

Pull off pieces and enjoy! Perfect for a winter meal with a pot of soup.



Sourdough Cheese Bubble Bread

2 loaves worth of bread dough (I used sourdough potato bread.)

32 cubes of cheddar cheese (3/4 inch cubes)
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup butter, melted
Parmesan cheese

Divide each loaf into 16 pieces (32 total). Shape into balls around cheese cubes. Mix spices with melted butter. Dip bread balls into butter mixture. Place into well-greased tube cake pan. Sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese. Allow to rise until doubled. For my sourdough bread this was about three hours. Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes. Remove from pan immediately.

Sourdough in the Tropics

My friend Holly makes most of the bread for her household so I made bread nearly every day while we were in Guatemala.

 

I had taken some sourdough starter along in my suitcase. It wasn't that I couldn't bear to leave my starter, I just thought Holly would enjoy playing with it. But whether she did or not, I sure did.

I've never saw sourdough grow so well. I can get a good crop of bubbles in Pennsylvania but in Guatemala the same starter was so bubbly is foamed! I don't know if it was the difference of flour, or weather, but the starter liked its new growing conditions. I know I'm crazy but it made me bubbly happy to see such happy sourdough bubbles!

 

I learned a few things by baking bread in Guatemala. First, I relearned the joy of hand mixing/kneading bread. Every morning I pulled out the big red bowl and a couple measuring cups and mixed up a new batch of bread. So simple. So few dirty dishes. I usually made a double batch of the soft sourdough bread making either loaves or rolls with the dough. I thought it would be too much dough to knead by hand but it wasn't bad. If I would have had another week of bread baking, my arms would have probably become used to it and it would have been even easier.

 

Second I was surprised at how mild the sourdough tasted. I always thought that hot temperatures would make a more "sour" flavored sourdough. But Holly's kitchen was certainly warm, over 100 degrees most days. The sourdough pot sat next to the bean slow cooker and was certainly cozy warm. But the sourdough bread was very mild flavored and not sour tasting at all. I'm not sure if it had to do with the flour (I was using white flour instead of the usual whole wheat I bake with.) Or if since the dough raised faster in the warm temperatures it didn't have as long to acquire a strong flavor. Or something I haven't considered.

Whether the mild flavor is a good thing or not is dependent on your goals. My husband actually likes a bread with a lot of flavor! But regardless, the bread was very tasty, actually sweet - and addictive.



So if you live in the tropic - give sourdough a try! From my experience, sourdough flourishes in the warm, humid environment!