Sourdough starter

Sourdough Glazed Donuts

January 20, 2025Recipes, sourdough4 Comments

About 5 years ago when I was still a sourdough newby I attempted to make sourdough donuts. I had failed miserably. Since Brad [my starter] turns 5 this year it is the perfect time to redeem myself. Aberle Home helped guide me to success. Though I don’t have a oil thermometer it would be recommended by me to get one [it’s on my list as well] as ensuring the oil is at the right temperature is the hardest part of these donuts. This is a two day process so make sure you are planning ahead but OMG are they worth it.

Ingredients

Tangzhong (Scald)

180g whole milk
38g unbleached bread flour

Dough

Cooled tangzhong
200g ripe sourdough starter (100% hydration)
375g unbleached bread flour (12.7% protein)
3 Large eggs
38g granulated sugar
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
12g kosher salt
100g salted butter, cold and cut into small cubes

Vanilla Glaze

70g Whole Milk
230g Powdered Sugar
1 TBSP Salted Butter, melted, cooled
1/2 TSP Vanilla Extract
Pinch of Salt

Additional

Vegetable Oil for Frying
Donut Cutter [or create your own at home like I did with a container lid and smaller cookie cutter]
Parchment Paper

Let’s Get Baking

Day One

Feed your starter 6hrs in advance and allow it to peak.

Prepare the tangzhong mixture: whisk together 180g milk + 38g flour in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir constantly with a rubber spatula until it thinkens to the consistency of mashed potatoes. Spread flat on a dinner plate and refridgerate until cool.

In a stand mixture fitted with a dough hook, add the cooled tangzhong + 200g Ripe Starter + 3 Large eggs + 38g granulated sugar + 2 TSP vanilla extract + 375g unbleached bread flour. Mix on low speed for 1 minute until combined. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, add in the 12g of salt and knead on low speed for 10 minutes. Add in half the butter cubes and continue needing until the butter is incorporated and no longer visible. Add in the second half of the butter cubes. The dough is done when it cleans itself off the sides of the bowl and clings to the dough hook, this may take 10-15 minutes.

With damp hands form the dough into a smooth ball. Place in a large bowl, cover, and set in a warm plave until it has nearly doubled in size. After the dough has risen, cover tightly, and refridgerate overnight.

Day 2

Line two sheet pans with parchment paper, lightly dust them with flour. Lightly flour your counter and turn out the cold dough. Roll evenly to 1/2-inch thickenness. Use your donut cutter and cut as closely spaced together, placing them on the parchment paper.

Cover the pans with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to proof until the donuts are puffy and soft to the touch.

When the donuts are about ready, fill a heavy bottomed pot with 2 inches of frying oil. Line a cooling rack with paper towels underneath and begin frying when the oil reaches 360F. Fry about 2 donuts at a time, fry about 2 minutes per side or until they are golden brown.

Make the vanilla glaze: combining 230g powdered sugar + 70g whole milk + 1 TBSP melted butter + 1/2 TSP vanilla extract + salt. Mix well until all combined. Once donuts have cooled, dip them in the glaze and place glazed side up on the cooling rack.

Enjoy immediately! Trust me you’re not going to be able to stop.

Made with Love,

Hannah

Sourdough Sandwich Bread

May 6, 2024bread, Fermentation, Recipes, sourdough2 Comments

I have been on a sourdough kick recently, I love how versatile it is! You can make pastries, savory snacks, and the best bread ever. I love making the big loaves, but I wanted to try something easier to cut and use for my morning avocado toast. I found this recipe from Stay at Home Sarah and she truly is right on with how easy this sandwich bread is! This recipe makes two loaves which you can easily wrap up and freeze until you’re ready to use!

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Softened Butter
2 1/2 Cups Warm Water
1 1/2 Cups Active Sourdough Starter
2 TBSP Honey
1 TBSP Salt
8 Cups Bread Flour

Let’s Get Baking

Using your stand mixer bowl, add in softened butter + warm water + active sourdough starter + honey + salt + half of the flour. Mix with paddle attachment until all the ingredients are combined. Switch to the dough hook and slowly add in the rest of the flour. Knead on low for about 7-8 minutes or until the dough is smooth and glossy.

Place the dough into a buttered bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel. Leave at room temp to proof for 10-12 hours. The dough will be ready when it’s doubled in size.

After your first proof, lightly coat your loaf pans with oil or butter. Divide the dough in half. Working one at a time, roll the dough into a large rectangle. Stretch the sides and press gently on the dough to release any bubbles. using the short sides, fold the dough into thirds. Starting at the short end, roll the dough up into a log, tuck the ends in underneath. Repeat with the other piece of dough. Place into the prepared pans seam side down. Cover with a damp towel and let proof again. This can take up to about 3-6 hours, or until the dough is about 1in from the pan rim. I completed this second proof in the fridge, but you can also leave it out.

To bake, preheat the oven to 375F and bake for about 40 min. Allow to cool on a wire wrack and let rest 1 hour before slicing.

This makes the best bread that can be used with any toppings imaginable! I have been loving it with avocado + chili oil + a runny egg for my breakfast

Made with love,

Hannah

Brad’s Sourdough

March 19, 2022March 18, 2022Fermentation, RecipesLeave a Comment

We all know that I love Brad Leone, my sourdough starter is named after him. I got his new cookbook for Christmas and was excited to see that he shared his sourdough recipe. Brad’s recipe is completely different from Claire Saffitz recipe that I had been using from the New York Times. Brad’s recipe incorporates olive oil which brings out a fatty flavor that I love in the bread. Brad also doesn’t require you to knead the dough for 20 minutes, which my arms appreciate. If you’re making bread at all it’s increcibly important to have a kitchen scale.

Ingredients

You need a total of 1000g of flour, it can be of different types, but Brad notes it also can be 1000g of all the same

700 g Bread Flour
150g Rye Flour [I used whole wheat]
150 Fine Italian Flour/type “00” [ I just used the bread flour again]
750g Filtered, Room Temp Water
15g Fine Salt
30g Extra-Virgin Olive Oil [I had a little fun here and used my herbs de provence oil]
150g Active Starter, fed the night before

Lets Get Cooking

Sift the flours together into a large bowl and mix in the water. You want the flours to autolyze which will help build up the gluten development. Make sure there is no dry flour left in the bowl. Cover and let sit for at least 30 minutes, you can let it sit for longer.

Once you’re done letting the flours autolyze, add salt + oil + starter to the flour mixture. Using your hands, knead the mixture into a smooth uniform ball. You can knead by gently pulling the dough and folding it over itself, or whatever kneading method works for you. Once you get the dough how you like it, place it back in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. This will begin the fermenting process. Be sure to leave the dough at room temperature.

Here’s the part where you need to watch.

Every 60 minutes during the fermenting process you’re going to have to ‘turn’ the dough. This is done by wetting your hands and pulling up a side of the dough and folding it over itself. Turn 90 degrees and complete these ‘turns’ on all 4 sides. After each turn, cover again and let the dough rest. Depending on how your dough is fermenting you may do 3 turns, you may do 6. Once you’ve noticed that the dough has about doubled in size in the bowl and has a light and airy texture.

Once your fermentation is done it’s time to shape and bake! Flour a surface and let the dough fall out. Cut the dough in half if you are making bread, if you are making pizza dough, cut it into 4 equal pieces. With a bench scraper, slide it under the dough and turn, making it into a ball almost. Have floured bowls ready to place the shaped dough back into it and cover. Flip the dough into the floured bowl so that the bottom of the loaf is facing up. You can refrigerate for a day, which I recommend. Or you can bake that day.

Preheat the oven to 500F and place the dutch oven with the lid on into the oven. Gently flip out the dough onto a floured piece of parchment paper. Cut the top of the dough so it can release steam while baking. Place the dough/parchment into the dutch oven, cover, lower the temp to 460F and bake for about 20-25 minutes. Remove the lid and then let bake for another 45 minutes.

Let sit for about an hour before cutting into it!

If you’re making pizza with the dough, follow along with my sourdough pizza recipe after making the dough!

Made with Love,

Hannah

Sourdough Pizza

June 6, 2020June 2, 2020Fermentation, Recipes2 Comments

If you’re like me & every other food lover, you made some sour dough starter during this quarantine. You can make so many delicious things with sourdough starter. I personally love the sour taste so I have been trying to find new ways to use the starter. Recently, I made pizza dough from my starter & omg it’s everything I could have wanted. I got the recipe from Little Spoon Farm, check them out! Enough talking, let’s get cooking.

Ingredients

1/2 Cup/100 g Sourdough Starter (If you don’t have starter, check out the recipe here to make your own!)
2 TSP/10 g Sea Salt
1/3 Cup + 2 TSP/ 50 g Whole Wheat Flower
3.5 Cup + 1 TBSP/ 450 g All Purpose Flour
1.5 Cup/ 375 g Water
You’ll also need whatever pizza toppings your heart desires, I’m a cheese and sausage kinda gal but it’s your pizza so you run the show

Let’s Get Cooking

The night before: Add the pizza crust ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Using your hands, mix until all the ingredients are incorporated. Cover the bowl and let it ferment over night at room temp.

In the Morning: wet your hand with water and gently pull one side of the dough up & over its self. Turn the bowl and complete this on all sides.

Cover the bowl and place in the fridge up until about 36 hours until you are ready to bake. You can skip this step if you’d like and get right to cooking!

When you’re ready to eat: remove the bowl from the fridge and let sit for about 30 min.

Divide the dough into 4 pieces on a floured surface, shape the dough into a ball form and let rest for about 30 min. Cover with a towel

Turn the broiler on high and heat up a cast iron skillet. While the skillet is heating up, press the dough into about an 8″ circle (use as much flour as you need)

Remove the skillet once it is hot and place the dough into the skillet. Put on whatever toppings you desire and then place back into the oven for about 5-6 minutes, or until the crust on the bottom begins to char.

Remove from heat, slice it up, & enjoy with friends, family, or just yourself.

Made with Love,

Hannah

April 10, 2020April 10, 2020Fermentation, Recipes1 Comment

We all have so much time on our hands that it’s the perfect time to try new things. Sourdough bread has been something that is on my mind, but it always seemed out of reach, the starter, the fermentation process. I did not understand anything about it. I figured now was the perfect time to figure out this whole process. King Arthur Flour has the BEST guide for making your own starter, so that is what I am going to share with you. I think the best possible thing you can have in your kitchen when making a starter is a kitchen scale, this thing saved me! Now you can always get some starter from a friend, or beg a bakery for a bit of theirs, but truly what fun is that. Here is the guide that I used to make my starter and eventually, my own bread. My best advice is be patient, this is going to take some time!

Ingredients

To Begin the starter:

1 Cup/113g whole rye or whole wheat flour
1/2 Cup/113g cool water

To Feed starter

1 Cup/113g unbleached All-purpose flour
1/2 Cup/113g cool water (if the house is warm) or lukewarm water (if house is cold)

Let’s Get Fermenting

Day 1: start the process by combining the whole wheat flour with cool water in a non-reactive container. Glass is recommended & what I used as well. Be sure that whatever you store it in the starter has room to grow. Stir all the ingredients together and cover. Let the container sit at room temperature/70 degrees for 24 hours.

Day 2: Some bubbling my start appearing on the sides of the container. Now discard about 1/2 cup/4oz of the starter. Add what is left of the starter to 1 cup/113g of unbleached all-purpose and 1/2 cup/113g cool or lukewarm water depending on your house temperature. Mix well & let the mixture rest again for 24 hours.

Day 3: MORE ACTIVITY, there should be some bubbling and it may even start to smell a little bit differently now, THIS IS GOOD! This is soon going to get repetitive, but you are now going to move to 2 feedings in a day. This starter is now your new pet!

Discard all but 1/2 cup/4oz and combine with the 113g unbleached and 113g water. Mix & cover like usual. This time however, you are going to repeat the step in 12 hours.

Day 4: Discard all but 4oz/1/2 cup and combine with 113g of unbleached flour and water. Feed again in 12 hours

Day 5: At this point your starter should have doubled in volume, there will be lots of bubbles, and a very different smell than when you started. Repeat the same steps you completed in Day 4 until the starter has risen enough.

If your starter has risen enough feed it one more time before using what you need to make the bread. One thing I have to say is do not worry about this being perfect. There were times that I forgot to feed the starter twice, or I didn’t do it at the same time. Trust me it all works out, it will just make the process a little longer! Store the starter in its permanent container and place in the fridge. Feed once a week with the 113g flour and water.

I hope this guide is helpful, please check out King Arthur’s guide as well for any extra tips! This process is very rewarding once you realize that you were able to make your own sourdough at home! It’s no easy task & you should be proud!

Made with Love,

Hannah