Too Hot for Bread

Waffles

It has been too hot for bread over the last two weeks. The heat is ridiculous and I never want to turn on my oven. However, I have a bunch of sourdough starter languishing in the refridgerator. So I decided to make waffles.

Recently I've been on a big waffle kick. I started over the last 4 months or so making waffles on the weekends with my sourdough starter using a slightly modified version of this recipe from Wild Yeast. I usually half the recipe when I'm just making waffles for two people, but this time I doubled the recipe and made enough waffles to store in the freezer and toast whenever I wanted a nice crispy waffle. They are delicious!

Waffles on the Cooling Rack

Recipe for Sourdough Toaster Waffles:

1. Make sure your sourdough starter is viable but also that it is young and sweet smelling like overripe fruit. If it smells wine-y or vinigar-y, your waffles will taste like vinegar. If it is not young smelling, refresh it and leave it out on the counter for a few hours until it's ready.
2. Heat a waffle iron and grease it (I use a small amount of spray canola oil)
3. Follow the Wild Yeast pancake batter recipe (I put in 2 tbsp of honey instead of maple syrup and I made the waffles half with whole wheat starter). The batter should be slightly thinner than muffin batter but thicker than crepe batter. I usually have to add a couple of splashes of nonfat milk to achieve my desired consistency. If you want a large stash, double the recipe.
4. Ladle in enough batter for one waffle.
5. Cook until it is cooked through, but not until it is crispy.
6. Take out and let the waffle cool completely. Repeat this process until all of the batter is used up.
7. Place the cooled waffles in freezer bags (air tight) and remove all excess air from the bag.
8. Throw them in the freezer and stick them into your toaster as needed!

Bag of cooled waffles for the freezer

I have been really enjoying them. I'm planning on trying sourdough crumpets before the heat dies down.

General Thoughts...

I'm taking my math final on Tuesday and I just finished up my latest SAT prep class so I will not resume posting in depth for a few days. I am spending my time writing a study guide for the class.

I took the leftover pancake batter from the other day and made apple and cheese crepes for dinner and dark chocolate crepes for dessert. They were great, except I think that next time I will simply used the sourdough for crepes instead of adding the baking soda. Also, I noticed that the slight sour flavor of the crepes requires something with a strong flavor inside-- e.g. the crepes with sharp cheddar and apples were better than those with brie and apples. I forgot to take a photo, but this was the first time I ever made crepes (Servia makes great ones) so they were perhaps not as photogenic as another attempt might be.

Sourdough Pancakes: with or without baking soda

I took the recipe from King Arthur Flour and modified it. Here is what I did:

Pancakes with Baking Soda

Overnight sponge

• 1 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cups 2% Milk + lemon juice
• 0.66 cup sourdough starter, straight from the refrigerator (not fed)
• 1/3 cup of hydrated rolled oats

Waffle or pancake batter

• all of the overnight sponge
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 egg yoke
• 1/8 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• [0.5 tsp baking soda] optional
• [1 tsp vanilla] optional

The night before eating the pancakes, made the sponge. First distribute the sourdough starter into the milk and then add the flour and sugar. Mix until a batter forms and leave on the counter overnight, covered with plastic wrap or similar. I made the mistake of putting it in the refrigerator, which meant that I ended up having pancakes for lunch instead of breakfast because it was not bubbly and ready.

Sourdough Mixture

The next morning beat the egg whites until stiff and set them aside. Mix together the egg yoke, the vanilla, the salt, and the oil. Then mix it into the sponge. Fold the mixture gently into the egg whites. If lighter pancakes are desired, mix in the baking soda.

The pancakes are pretty tasty. I had them with syrup. About 1/4 of the mixture or less made a full lunch for Servia and I, so this recipe is huge. I saved the rest of it for further experimentation. More thoughts to come.

As a preview, tomorrow I bake these lovely croissants. I think I may have made some serious mistakes, so wish me luck. But they look pretty cute!

Mini Tartine Croissants

More tomorrow...

Sourdough Pancakes?

I spent tonight on the first phase of croissants for my class. I forgot the reason I made croissants only once: they're hard. I think I made a whole bunch of mistakes, but I won't find out until I make them on Wednesday.

In order to try to soften the blow in case the croissants didn't work out just right, I made some sourdough pancake batter to try in the morning. I took the recipe from King Arthur Flour and substituted 2% milk plus a teaspoon of lemon juice for the buttermilk. I also added about 1/3 cup of hydrated rolled oats and I will explain the few other modifications I am making in the next post.