I’ll be submitting this to Yeastspotting, so don’t forget to check out their other breadstick recipes too.

Recipe:

• 2 cups sourdough starter (see how to get your starter going here)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp each; dried chervil, dried tarragon, dried marjoram
• Kosher salt (optional)

In a large bowl or stand mixer bowl, combine the starter, olive oil and milk. Stir to combine. Add the flour, salt, sugar and herbs. Mix well and then knead until shiny, about 5 minutes in a stand mixer and 10 minutes by hand. Let rise in a greased, covered bowl for two hours. Place dough on a parchment lined baking sheet and pat into a rectangle about 3/4 inch thick. Cut into breadsticks using a pizza cutter, cover and let rise another hour. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush dough with an egg wash (one beaten egg + 1 Tbsp water for soft breadsticks) or water (for crispier breadsticks), sprinkle with kosher salt, and bake for 25 – 35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool. Break sticks apart and enjoy!

Note: You really can use any combination of herbs here. I used three delicate French oriented herbs because I didn’t want to overwhelm my salad. But in the past I’ve also used basil-oregano-chive and rosemary-parsley-thyme. What’s your favorite herb bread combination?

Recipe:

• 1 1/2 cups sourdough starter (learn how to make your own here)
• 1 cup water
• 4 – 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp softened butter, cut into small pieces
• 3/4 cup part-skim ricotta
• 1 1/2 tsp salt

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the starter, water, ricotta and butter. Add the flour and salt and mix well. Knead for about 10 minutes by hand or 5 minutes using a stand mixer, or until dough is smooth and shiny. Form into a ball and let rise in a greased, covered bowl for about 3 hours. Gently deflate dough, divide into two tight rounds, and place on parchment paper. Let rise for another 1 1/2 hours. Place a baking stone in the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees. Make a quick cut in the top of each round, and bake on a heated stone for 30 – 45 minutes, or until bread is golden brown and internal temperature is about 204 degrees. Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

Recipe:

• 1lb. eggplant
• 1 – 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 small bell pepper
• 1 recipe of Country Cacciatore Red Wine Sauce
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice eggplant and chop bell pepper. Add the crushed tomatoes to the already prepared Red Wine Sauce and stir to combine. Layer half each of eggplant, bell pepper, cheese and tomato mixture in a greased 8 x 8 inch baking dish. Sprinkle additional cheese over the top if desired. Cover and bake for 50 minutes or until eggplant is cooked through. Remove cover and bake an additional 5 minutes. Serve with cooked pasta, noodles, or rice and a green vegetable. Serves 6.

Note: My baking dish was overflowing a bit so next time I will probably use a 2 quart casserole dish. I have made this same recipe using zucchini instead of, or in combination with, the eggplant. I have also used cheeses than Cheddar with good results.

Recipe:

• 1 1/2cups sourdough starter
• 1 3/4 cups water
• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp olive oil

Add all ingredients to stand mixer bowl and mix on lowest power until well combined. Increase speed to medium-high and knead dough for about 15 minutes. You may have to stop the mixer a couple of times to scrape down the dough hook and the sides of the bowl. The dough should be very stretchy as you can see from the photo above.

Transfer the dough to a greased bowl, cover and let rise for 3-4 hours. Cover a baking sheet liberally with flour and turn the dough onto the sheet. As the photo above shows it looks like a blob (although yours will not look quite like this – see my What I Did Wrong below). Divide into two loaves. Stretch one piece and place on parchment paper. Repeat with the other half. Sprinkle with flour, cover and let rise about 40 minutes.

Place a baking stone on the middle rack in the oven and preheat to 475 degrees. Uncover the loaves, dimple dough with your fingertips, and slide onto the stone. Bake until the loaves are browned and internal temperature reaches 205 degrees, about 30 minutes.

What I Did Wrong: Ciabatta is a slack dough, but my dough was really too slack. I could make this same recipe again tomorrow using the exact same ingredients and get a different result. Lots of things affect this; brand of flour, how precise my measurements were, even the weather. Keep the dough slack, but feel free to add a little extra flour if your dough is basically unworkable – like mine was.

My kitchen is teeny-tiny with not much counter space at all. While the loaves were rising I was also making homemade caponata. Caponata has lots of ingredients that all involve chopping, adding at different times, etc. I found myself constantly moving the bread out of the way. In effect, I really didn’t give it the opportunity to rise enough, so it was a little flat. The moral of that story? Pay attention and do one thing at a time!

As I noted above, the ciabatta tasted good nonetheless. Almost all of it was used to make paninis using the caponata. However, this is a project that I will re-create at a later time. Still though, better than store-bought bread!

The whole family loves garden peas. I grow them every year, and few of them actually get cooked. Raw peas right off the vine become my mid-morning snack ( a good excuse to step away from the computer for a while) and are the grand-kids favorite. They enjoy picking their own right from the garden and eating as many as they can. And really, who can complain about kids eating vegetables! Sure beats over-processed baked goods.

These peas are called Lincoln and I purchase the seed every year from Cook’s Garden. Not only does this variety taste great, they are an heirloom (I like to support vegetable heirlooms as much as I can), they are prolific and have 8-10 peas in each pod, and they grow as a bush so they don’t have to be staked – perfect for lazy gardeners like me! Also, peas are pretty self-sufficient. They don’t need lots of care or fertilizer, pests usually leave them alone, and they actually improve the soil they are grown in because they are nitrogen fixers.

Depending on where you live, it’s not too late to plant peas. They do like cold weather though and won’t produce much in hot weather. It gets pretty warm here in the Mid-Columbia region, so I planted these about a month ago and they will be ready in June. When I lived in Maine, I usually planted my peas in May for a July harvest.

What about you – do you plant peas in your garden? Do you have a favorite variety?

Sauces, while really not all that difficult to make from scratch, often intimidate even the most experienced home cook. Perhaps it’s because the store shelves are stocked with every kind of bottled or canned sauce you can imagine, tricking us into thinking that we could never come up with anything so creative. Sadly though, when you look closely, most commercially available sauces are made from high fructose corn syrup, an artificial flavoring or two, and a good dose of salt, all topped off with chemical preservatives. I worked very hard to overcome those limitations when I ran our specialty food business, Wine Barrel Gourmet (thus the name of this blog!) and designed four different red wine sauces. Country Cacciatore Red Wine Sauce was one of the most popular. It’s quick, easy, elegant, and a great Mediterranean style addition to your table. But first, here’s the background:

Last summer we stopped producing our Wine Barrel Gourmet Red Wine mixes. Since then I have been fielding numerous calls and responding to emails and letters from disappointed customers. The requests have been so prolific that I promised to post the recipes so everyone can re-create our recipes at home. (Note – this isn’t the exact sauce mix recipe, since the packaged mixes included several dried ingredients that aren’t easily available to home cooks – but it’s close. If you are interested in purchasing Wine Barrel Gourmet’s recipes, wholesale contacts, supply contacts, etc. and starting your own soup mix business contact me here.)

Recipe:

• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 small shallot, minced
• 1 stalk celery, finely diced
• 3 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 1/4 tsp fennel seed
• 1 1/2 tsp muscovado sugar
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup wine
• 1 cup water
• 1 small tomato (optional)

Saute the garlic, shallot, and celery in 1 – 2 Tbsp olive oil until tender but not browned. Add all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid is reduced or slightly thickened. Total cooking time approx. 20 minutes.

Country Cacciatore Red Wine Sauce can be served as is over grilled chicken or beef, or roasted vegetables. It can also be used to add flavor to homemade marinara sauce or as a base for Chicken Cacciatore, Lasagna, Beef Stew or Eggplant Parmesan. I made a delicious Cheesy Eggplant Bake the other night with this red wine sauce. Look for the post coming later this week!

Getting back to sourdough – first I gave my starter its final feeding with white whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose. For those of you unfamiliar with white whole wheat flour, it is actually a whole wheat flour that isn’t quite as dense as the more common whole wheat. It makes a great addition when you want to increase whole grains, but don’t want that usual heavy whole wheat effect.

Recipe:

• 2 cups sourdough starter
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

In a large bowl or stand mixer bowl, combine the starter, water and olive oil. Add the flour and salt and mix until combined. Knead in the chopped rosemary and continue kneading until you have a smooth but soft dough. Let rise in a greased, covered bowl for about 2 hours. Divide dough and shape into 2 tight balls. Place seam side down on parchment paper and let rise another 2 hours. Preheat oven and baking stone to 450 degrees. Slash the top of each loaf and slide onto the hot stone. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the internal temperature is about 205 degrees. Move bread to a cooling rack and let cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

Note: As you can see, I forgot to slash the loaves before they went in the oven. Therefore, the bread “slashed” itself and split along one side. It hasn’t affected the taste though! Fresh rosemary makes a big difference here. Don’t be tempted to substitute dried rosemary as it will not impart as much flavor. The bread is nice and soft, but slices easily for sandwiches.

If you want to learn more about sourdough check out the Sourdough Resources page at the French Road Bakery Blog. Don’t forget about all the great recipes at Yeastspotting on the Wild Yeast Blog. And if you are looking to start your own sourdough from scratch see our posts on how to get your starter going, how to keep it going, and how to revive a dead starter too!

Recipe:

• 2 cups sourdough starter
• 1 3/4 cups water
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp salt

In a large bowl or stand mixer bowl combine the sourdough starter and water. Add flours and salt and mix until well combined. Knead for 5 minutes if using mixer or 10 minutes by hand, or until the dough is shiny and satiny. Note: Add more flour if necessary. I personally prefer a really soft dough, but as you can see from the above photo, my dough was really too soft. It worked out fine, but the next time I make a loaf I will add more flour so it holds together better.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover and let ferment (rise) for 2-3 hours. Shape and place in either one large loaf pan or two regular loaf pans. Cover and let rise for another 1 1/2 hours. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 210 degrees. Let cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

This recipe made a nice, mildly sour bread. It has a good texture, dense enough for sandwiches but soft enough to enjoy by itself spread with butter.

If you are a sourdough lover too, check out these other great posts:

• Sourdough Biscuits over at one of my favorite blogs, Rural Spin
• A beautiful Mill Loaf at Bread and Bikes
• And don’t forget the great selection of bread recipes found at Yeastspotting, part of the Wild Yeast blog

Luckily for me, my Mom was a child of the 1950′s. She followed the expectations of that era and pored her heart and soul into being a wife and mother. A big part of that was cooking. I fondly remember soft chocolate chip cookies, cream puffs made from scratch with a real custard filling, fried dough made in a deep skillet on the stove top, and sweet rolls baked with a tangy-sweet orange topping. Here I have adapted her much loved recipe using a sourdough starter made with all-purpose flour. At least I think it’s her recipe. I have a copy of the recipe she adapted, but she never actually wrote down her own process. For twenty years she made orange rolls for every special occasion until one day….she didn’t. Time went on and now neither of us can remember exactly how she made them. The moral of this story is, if you have a family specialty, write it down. Even if you think you’ll always remember how to make it, someday you will forget. Good advice for me too! So even if these aren’t exactly Mom’s rolls, they are soft, citrusy, and sweet – perfect for a spring day.

Recipe:

• 2 cups of sourdough starter
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 Tbsp sugar
• 3 1/2 – 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 egg
• 4 Tbsp brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp butter, melted

• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 Tbsp grated orange peel
• 1/3 cup butter

Mix orange juice, 3/4 cup sugar, orange peel, and 1/3 cup butter in a saucepan. Cook over low heat until butter melts. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl or stand mixer bowl, combine the sourdough starter, milk, salt, 4 Tbsp sugar, and egg until well mixed. Add the flour and knead until dough has a satiny sheen; 8-10 minutes by hand, about 5 minutes when using a stand mixer.

Roll the dough into a 12 x 10 inch rectangle. Brush with melted butter. Sprinkle brown sugar over the dough.

Roll up the dough from the long side of the rectangle. Slice into 15 rolls. 

Place the rolls in the 9 x 13 inch pan, making 5 rows of 3 rolls each.  Cover and let rise in a warm place for 2 – 3 hours. Remove cover and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until well-browned.

Remove rolls from the oven and invert on a cooling rack. Make sure that the cooling rack is placed over parchment paper or you will have a mess! The orange topping will drip some. Let rolls cool at least 15 minutes before serving. Sticky but delicious!

Sourdough sweet breads are not all that common, but I have really enjoyed the extra flavor it gives to the three recipes I done over these last few weeks (cinnamon rolls, hot cross buns). So what do you think? Have you ever made sourdough sweet breads before? How do you think they compare to regular, straight-dough sweet breads?

Don’t forget to check out all the great bread recipes over at the Wild Yeast Blog, where I’ll be submitting this recipe to Yeastspotting,

I started with this recipe from Joy of Baking and made a few changes. Since this is a sourdough series, I used ripe sourdough starter instead of making a straight dough with yeast. The recipe calls for plenty of warm spices, including nutmeg but I used ground mace instead. Mace is made from the lacy covering of the nutmeg and has a less pronounced, but just as unique, flavor. Instead of purchased candied fruit peel I made my own candied meyer lemon peel using this recipe. Candied orange peel would be good here too. And I used currents instead of raisins. Currents are sweet with just a touch of tartness. They taste like a cross between raisins and lingonberries. Unlike raisins, currents really come into their own once they are cooked. Save the raisins for another recipe – this one lets the currents shine. And to top the rolls off, the icing was made using orange juice instead of milk, for an added boost of flavor.

Recipe:

• 2 cups of sourdough starter
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 5 Tbsp butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 1/2 – 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground mace
• 1/3 cup chopped, candied meyer lemon peel
• 1/3 cup currents

Glaze:

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp orange juice

In a large bowl or stand mixer bowl, combine the sourdough starter, milk, egg, and melted butter until well mixed. Add the flour, brown sugar, salt and spices and knead until dough is combined. Add currents and candied lemon peel. Knead until dough has a satiny sheen; 8-10 minutes by hand, about 5 minutes when using a stand mixer.

Divide dough into 12 pieces. Roll each into a ball and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover and let the buns rise in a warm place 2 – 3 hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush the tops of each bun with an egg wash made from 1 beaten egg and 1 Tbsp water. Snip the top of each bun with kitchen scissors if desired.

Bake for 20 – 30 minutes or until well-browned.

Remove rolls from baking pan and let cool on a rack. When the rolls are completely cool, combine the powdered sugar and orange juice and drizzle over the rolls, forming a cross.

Note: These buns will make the whole kitchen smell wonderful while baking. They are best served the same day as they are baked, but can be also be frozen (before adding the icing) and served at a later date. Keep the dough as soft as possible and don’t over-knead it. Buns, rolls, etc. don’t require as much mixing as a loaf of bread.

Does your family have an Easter or Passover bread tradition? Do you make your own from an old family recipe or visit a favorite baker? Or if you are just starting your own tradition, check out some other Easter bread recipes at Yeastspotting on the Wild Yeast Blog. Always lots of yummy recipes to try!