I spent my Sunday puttering about in the kitchen. It made a bit of a mess. First, I pulled my jar of sourdough starter out of the refrigerator, emptied it into a bowl, and then re-filled the jar with flour, water, and some of the starter again to get another cycle going.
I am still trying to master sourdough bread. I am not there yet. It takes forever to raise on the counter, but pop it in the oven and it expands faster than the M1 money supply during COVID. This loaf was a bit moist in the middle, and I forgot to brush olive oil on the top, but it's still not bad. I need to bake it in smaller lumps and I'll have perfect bread bowls for soup, I think. Next week, maybe it'll be time to try chili as well.
Pineapple does go on pizza, and goes especially well with shredded black forest deli ham instead of the usual Canadian bacon "Hawaiian" style. There was a sale on lunch meat and Daiya shreds at the grocery store, so I stocked up. There's another of these delicious abominations in the freezer for baking at a later date.
@meesterboom's post about bagels reminded me I was long overdue for another pretzel-making festival due to the similar boiling process pictured above. Here's a link to the recipe I followed.
I think I finally figured out a decent system for the whole process, too. I put a cooling rack into the kitchen sink near the range. As the water and baking soda came to a boil in a large skillet, I divided my dough into a dozen blobs of approximately equal size. Then, I rolled out the first blob and tied it into its classic knot. It went straight into the boiling water knot-side down. Then, I quickly rolled out and tied another pretzel. It also went in knot-side down, and I turned the previous pretzel knot-side up. The third pretzel followed shortly, the second pretzel got flipped, and I pulled the first pretzel from the water and placed it on the rack in the sink. Minimal mess! I repeated this cycle until all the pretzels were boiled.
I just used coarse salt as a topping. Any over-sprinkling went into the sink, again minimizing mess. I baked six, and froze the other six for later. The result with the baked pretzels was crispy dark crusts and soft chewy interiors. Perfect! I took no pictures, alas. Too busy eating and sharing.
I am definitely going to try the pretzels!! Will have to practice that knot though!
Roll a rope, make a U, cross the ends, and flip it back down to the bottom. You'll have it down pat in no time. You'll even get to make dirty jokes about length and girth in the process.
That sounds easy enough and the added dirty jokes... I'm in!! :0D
Oh I love these baking adventures. Sourdough is tricky, but you will get the knack for it soon. Practice and loads of practice. It only gets better with time. I have been doing it for almost ten years now and I have made so many mistakes but mistakes are important to learn!
I love that people are getting back into sourdough baking. It is really awesome. Enjoy the baking! I know the feeling of trying to take photographs when it tastes so good.
There is a real resurgence in home cooking, gardening, food preservation, etc. based on what I see people borrowing at the library these days. It was starting to grow before COVID, but that disaster and especially the political/economic fallout really kicked things into high gear. Sourdough is my own small-scale experiment on those lines.
Oh yes, same here in South Africa. People started brewing their own beer when we could not buy alcohol! But this event opened people to the idea of fermented drinks and foods beyond the normal things. But sadly, in my area it seems like people reverted back to things before covid. Fermented foods for the South African palate are too foreign. But I guess living in such hot places like Africa, fermented food is not the go-to preservation method. Or is it exactly the right area? I am not sure!
It sounds like you had a productive Sunday in the kitchen! Keeping your sourdough starter going and maybe trying out some new recipes.
I've managed to keep the starter going for many months now, and while bread loaves have been a challenge, it's made some good pizza crusts, pretzels, and bread sticks in previous experiments. This time I made boring quick-rise yeast doughs for the pizzas and pretzels.
It looks delicious👌
It was.
I think you had a great Sunday in the kitchen! Maybe I'll try to do pretzels but that knot definitely looks a bit complicated haha
I enjoyed reading your post, thanks for sharing!
It's knot complicated at all. I just roll the dough into a long rope, make a U on the counter, cross the ends over each other, and then flip them down to the bottom.
Hahahaha I definitely got to try it out again! Maybe is knot that complicated
Of course, a person should do such things at home. One of the advantages of this is that the day of the holiday also passes comfortably and a person can make something good and enjoy it with his family. Also eats together. Thanks for sharing the recipe. I will also try to make it at home.
I almost bit off more than I could chew, so to speak. Toward the end while I was cleaning up from bread and pizza, but before I rolled out the raised pretzel dough for boiling, my back injuries flared up and I had to take frequent breaks to lie down. But I made it through!
It always makes me gleeful to see baking adventures, and shots being fired in the Pineapple On Pizza Conflict. This post was like a rampaging epic of good times, I am glad to see you are creating comestibles JT!
!PIZZA
I may be taking a break from library drama and political contentiousness, but I still need to raise some hackles here and there.
!PIZZA yourself.
We know that you can't let the contentious part of your soul lay dormant for too long. Plus I am waiting for T to emerge from the bathroom so I can read the Hawaiian part to him.
Because we both know I am not antagonistic. At all😁
Hmm..this is interesting!baking homemade pizza.Thanks for this post☺️
It's a simple yeast and flour dough. I stole a jar of home-made tomato sauce from the Mother Thing's pantry and simmered it in a sauce pan to reduce the water content a bit. Then it's just cheese (or a substitute like Daiya) and whatever other toppings you want.
Very resourceful and creative! Just using what's in the pan makes baking fun and interesting!I bet it tastes superb?
I am pleased with the outcome. I was a bit gluttonous with all things gluten-ous.
Once again, I was in the right place at the right time and can attest to the tastiness of the pretzels!
I gifted $PIZZA slices here:
@jacobtothe(1/10) tipped @generikat (x1)
generikat tipped jacobtothe (x1)
Learn more at https://hive.pizza!