BarBBQ Bill decided he wanted rye bread.  He was making borscht (beet soup) and a fresh loaf of rye bread to go with it just seemed the right thing to do.

He didn’t want just any old rye bread.  He wanted sourdough rye.

I’m gonna take a whack at it (even though I have no clue how this is going to turn out).

First, I need a rye starter (I think?), so I took about 1/4 cup of my regular starter and added 1-1/4 cups of lukewarm water and 2 cups of rye flour to it.  Mixed it well and let it sit, covered, at room temperature overnight.

The next morning, I discarded half and added 1/2 cup of water and 1 cup of rye flour.  Let that sit for about 4 hours.  I again discarded half and decided that the remaining starter looked a bit thicker than I thought it should (remember I have no idea what I’m doing), so I added 3/4 cup water and 1 cup of all purpose flour instead of rye flour.  After a couple of hours, that was bubbling nicely and smelled nice and sour.

Now I need a recipe.  We wanted a dense, sour “peasant” type bread, so I found three or four different recipes and sort of did the “pick and choose ingredients” thing…and came up finally with this:

Peasant Rye Bread

1 cup rye sourdough starter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups rye flour
1 cup warm water

1/4 cup warm water
1 packet (2-1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast

1 cup whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat)
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons KAF rye bread improver (optional – I happened to have some, so I threw it in there)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons caraway seeds

Combine starter, rye flour, and one cup of the water in a large bowl and mix well. Let stand about 1/2 hour (or longer for an extra-sour rye flavor, but I thought mine smelled about the way I wanted it).

Combine yeast and 1/4 cup warm water in small bowl. Let stand about 5 minutes until foamy. Add to sourdough mixture.

Add the flours, salt, sugar and caraway seeds.  Mix until the dough starts to come together.  I mixed by hand, but you can use a bread machine or a stand mixer for this.  Knead 10 minutes until the dough is smooth (I added about 1/4 cup of AP flour while kneading – the dough remained a little bit sticky, but not unworkable).

Put the dough into a greased bowl (I used butter), cover and let rise about 1 hour in a warm place until doubled.

Punch down dough and knead slightly to get the dough nice and smooth.  Shape into a round loaf and place on a baking stone, a parchment-lined sheet or a greased baking sheet.  Cover loaf lightly and allow to rise until almost doubled (mine took about 40 minutes).  Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Slash the top of loaf and spray with water. Bake at 425° (my oven is convection, so I started at 400°) for 9 minutes. Spray the loaf with water after 3 minutes, again after 6 minutes, and once more at 9 minutes.

Reduce the oven temperature to 400° (convection – 350°) and bake another 20-25 minutes until loaf is browned and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.  I turned off the oven and let the bread remain for another 10 minutes (it wasn’t quite done on the inside, but the top was browned enough). Cool on a rack.

It came out looking pretty good for my first experiment.  Now how did it taste?

It tasted great.  It didn’t spread much sideways, which I liked (I tried one of those “no-knead 5 minute a day” rye bread recipes, and everyone agreed they looked like cowpats – sort of a puddle of dough about an inch tall).

In retrospect, I would have let it rise more the second time, as it is so dense (which is the way we wanted it) I didn’t get much “oven spring”.  It came out of the oven pretty much the same size as it went in, so I think next time I’ll let it rise about an hour, or until it’s as big as I want the finished loaf.  It needs more caraway seeds too, but I only had about 2 tablespoons to add (if that).

I baked it at too high a temperature for the first nine minutes (crust got too brown too quick), so I’m going to cut it down to 375° or until I figure out the peculiarities of my particular oven (and get a good oven thermometer for testing).  Overall it came out great for my first attempt.

He never did finish making the soup last night, the bread is almost gone, so I’ll probably get to try this again today

Thanks to Mama Bear at Gotta Little Space for including us in this week’s Make It From Scratch! Blog Carnival.

Bookmark This Post

A couple of weeks ago, I made a batch of cranberry chutney, which we thoroughly enjoyed with our Thanksgiving turkey.  The other night, BarBBQ Bill was eating some on his grilled pork chop and got “That Look” in his eye.  “Hey, Hon, I really like this, but could you make some that’s not so “desserty”?

Translation – Cinnamon, ginger and cloves do not belong on meat.  Make it more savory.

So I experimented a bit and came up with this:

I substituted Balti Seasoning (a spicy curry powder) from Penzey’s for the cinnamon, ginger and cloves, then added mustard seeds, celery seeds and pepper for a (somewhat) more traditional chutney flavor.

So here’s my rendition of Curried Cranberry Chutney:

1 cup apples, peeled and chopped (I used Granny Smiths)
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup sweet onions, chopped
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup apple cider vinegar, 5% acidity
3/4 cup celery, chopped
3/4 cup orange juice
Zest from 1 orange
1 12-oz bag of fresh cranberries (I used frozen ones)
2 teaspoons Balti Seasoning
1 teaspoon celery seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper (I used fresh ground white pepper but black pepper would work, too)
1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds (not prepared mustard from a jar)

Combine all ingredients in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 25 – 30 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring occasionally.

Fill half pint jars, leaving 1/2″ headspace.  Apply lids and rings. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. I got 5 half pints from this recipe.

Bookmark This Post

BarBBQ Bill asked me to make some sourdough rolls. Easier said than done.

First, you need a sourdough starter.

I’ve never had much luck with starting my own, so I bought some from King Arthur Flour.

Add 1/4 cup lukewarm water to the jar containing the starter, and stir it around to help get the starter out.  Then scrape out the starter with the water into a bowl (use glass or ceramic – not metal).

Mix in 1-1/4 cups lukewarm water (no chlorine, please) and 2 cups of unbleached flour.

Mix it up well and loosely cover the bowl (I use my trusty free-from-a-hotel shower cap).  Put it out on the counter for about 8 – 12 hours.

It’ll get all nice and bubbly.  Now it’s time to feed it again (and yes, I had to hear BarBBQ Bill’s “Feed me, Seymour.  Feed me.” imitation every time he would go peek at the bubbles).

Stir the starter and throw half of it away.  Yes, you throw half of it away.  I know.  But do it anyway (I lessen the guilt slightly by putting it in the compost bucket).

Add 1/2 cup water and 1 cup of unbleached flour.  Mix it in well, and let the starter sit on the counter, loosely covered, for another 2 to 4 hours.

Then repeat the feeding cycle – discard half the starter, add 1/2 cup water and 1 cup unbleached flour.  Let sit another 2 to 4 hours.Now the starter is ready to use and we’re finally ready to bake some bread.  It’s not really sour yet – that comes with time, but it has a nice clean “sorta sour” smell.

We’re having burgers tonight, so BarBBQ Bill wants rolls.  I’ll use the KAF Rustic Sourdough Bread recipe that came with the starter and cut the recipe in half.  This will make one loaf of bread or four burger-type rolls.

In a mixing bowl, combine:

1/2 cup “fed” sourdough starter
3/4 cup lukewarm water
1-1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 tablespoon sugar (I used a bit less)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2-1/2 cups unbleached flour

Mix it well.  Dump the dough out on a board or countertop and knead until the dough becomes smooth and soft (about 7 to 8 minutes for me).  Try not to add too much additional flour – the dough should be soft.

Put it into a greased bowl (I used butter), cover and let rise about 90 minutes.

Divide the dough into four pieces and shape into rounds.  Put the rounds on a parchment-lined baking sheet (or you can lightly grease it) and cover. Let rise until very puffy (mine took about an hour and 15 minutes).

Preheat the oven to 425°F.  Slash the tops of the rolls and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Here they are out of the oven.  My slashing technique needs some work, but the rolls were very good. I used a pan of hot water in the bottom of the oven to create some steam for the first 15 minutes of baking, as I like my crust a bit softer.  I think these could have baked a wee bit longer, but I have a new oven and I’m still trying to get used to it.

The rest of the starter (of course, its name is Seymour) is in the fridge in a quart canning jar, loosely covered. What’s next?  No telling – whatever BarBBQ Bill comes up with today!

Bookmark This Post

Homemade suet, that is.  Another “Found in the Freezer” recipe – while organizing it, I discovered a bag of venison fat from last year.

Melt the fat (you can use beef suet or lard or shortening, but mine was free) in a saucepan over low heat.  When it’s melted, stir in a roughly equal amount of cheap peanut butter and let that melt into the suet.

Here’s where you can add all kinds of goodies to the mix.  I added some bird seed, whole wheat flour and cornmeal (again, roughly equal portions of each – sorry, I didn’t measure anything).  I tossed in little bits of things I was going to “save” for baking, like a few raisins, the last of a box of oatmeal, and a handful of walnuts.  If you need to, add more flour or cornmeal until the suet starts to stick together like cookie dough.

While it’s still warm, dump it onto a deep cookie sheet or into small pans (you want the suet to be about an inch thick) and spread evenly.

I used some small loaf pans.  Put it in the freezer to chill until very firm.

When it’s nice and hard, turn it out of the pan onto a cutting surface.

Cut the suet into cakes.  These are about 4″ square.

To put it out for the birds, we just used a scrap of hardware cloth bent in half and fashioned a hook from an old wire coat hanger.

And these folks stopped by to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving.

Bookmark This Post

For the past few years, I’ve given homemade canned goods as gifts.  After checking the pantry (getting low), I’d better get started making some more stuff.

I discovered two bags of frozen cranberries in the freezer this morning.  Hmmm, how about a cranberry chutney?  This might be a bit more interesting than just a plain cranberry sauce or relish for the holidays.

Here’s the original recipe (thanks, Katie C) that I’m going to start with and then (as usual) tweak it a bit.

Cranberry Chutney (this is a double recipe for 8 half pint jars of chutney)

2 cups apple cider vinegar
1-1/2 cups orange juice
2 cups dried cranberries
2 cups Granny Smith apples, chopped
2 cups onion, chopped
1-1/2 cups celery, chopped
2-12 oz. bags cranberries
2 cups of sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Be very careful when changing a canning recipe.  I feel comfortable making some “substitutions” from the original recipe because:

Apple cider vinegar for white vinegar – vinegars are interchangeable in canning recipes as long as the acidity is at least 5%.  This was just for flavor – since there are apples in the recipe, I thought apple cider vinegar would be a bit more mellow than white vinegar.
Orange juice for water – obviously, orange juice is more acidic than water and I had an orange in the fridge to use up.  And I like orange flavor with cranberries.
Dried fruit (cranberries for raisins) – cranberries are high acid (low pH number) even more so than raisins.

I also feel comfortable doubling this recipe as opposed to a jam or jelly recipe using pectin.  Those can be problematic when doubling, and is not usually recommended.

I’m going to BWB (or boiling water bath) this, so I’ve gotten my canner down, washed ten half-pint jars (always prepare a few extra), the lids and rings, and found my jar lifter, ladle and funnel.

Then I fill the canner with enough water to cover the jars I’m going to use by two inches.  I have lots of minerals in my tap water which leave a white film all over everything after boiling.  I usually use a glug-glug of white vinegar in the water, but I’ve discovered something that works better.

I bought citric acid (which I use for canning tomatoes) and a tablespoon (or two – depending on how much water you need in the canner) of that in the water keeps all the film off the jars. It works great in the rinse cycle of my dishwasher too.  You can purchase citric acid (also known as sour salt) from Great American Spice Company, kosher sections of grocery stores, or winemaking shops.

Canner and utensils are ready – time to start cooking.

Cranberries freeze really well, and these – even being a year old – look perfect.  I dumped my bags of frozen cranberries into a colander and picked through them.  Rinsed well and drained.

I decided to start by putting the liquid ingredients (vinegar and orange juice) in my maslin pan and add the dried cranberries while I’m chopping the other ingredients.  You probably don’t have a maslin pan, so use your widest heavy bottomed stainless steel pan.  When cooking this chutney, I’ll need to reduce the liquid quite a bit to thicken it, so the more surface area for evaporation, the better.  And a heavy bottomed pan will help prevent burning or scorching.

Next, I added the chopped apples.  The orange juice and vinegar will keep them from browning while I’m chopping the onions.

Next, the onions.

Dump in the celery and drained cranberries.

Add the sugar (I decided to use 1 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of white sugar – just a last minute change for taste thing) and the spices.  I found a piece of frozen ginger in the freezer so I used some grated fresh ginger instead of dried powdered ginger.

OK – double check the list of ingredients (yep, everything’s in there) and start the canner heating up (the chutney needs to cook about 1/2 hour, so that should be plenty of time for the BWB to get up to a boil).

Mix the chutney and bring to a boil.

The liquid is starting to boil and the cranberries are starting to “pop”.  I’m going to lower the temperature a bit and keep the chutney at a “gentle boil” until it thickens.  Stir gently but often to keep the chutney from scorching.

Here we are after about 15 minutes.  It’s reduced about two inches and it’s getting thicker.  I’ve taken a small taste to check the seasonings.  Tastes great so far.  I’ll nurse the flame down to keep the chutney at a gentle boil and, as it reduces, I have to be careful it doesn’t scorch.

Now I need to make sure I’m ready to can.  Oops, forgot to…

heat the lids in a small pan of water.  The lids should not be boiled – just heated to about 180° to soften that reddish band of silicone to provide a better seal.  Usually when I start to see the bubbles on the lids, they’re hot enough and I turn off the heat.  Note the water is not boiling.  Check the canner.  Yep, it’s just starting to boil.

After 30 minutes, the chutney looks just about ready.  The fruit has softened, the liquid has reduced about another inch, it’s nice and thick and it’s smelling really good.

Time to start ladling the chutney into the prepared half pint jars (I love my canning funnel).  I’m leaving about 1/2″ of headspace.  That’s the space between the top rim of the jar and the top of the chutney.

I wipe the rim well with a damp paper towel to make sure there’s nothing between the glass and the lid.  Put on the warmed lid and screw on the ring to hold it on the jar.  Tighten just enough to feel a bit of resistance.

As I fill the jars, I put them in the canner.  Figures – I ended up with 9 half pint jars.  My canner only holds eight (these were wide mouth pints) in a single layer.  So what to do with the ninth?  I can stack the ninth one on top of the first layer because I put enough water in the canner to cover the top of all the jars including the second layer (and wide mouth half pint jars are not as tall as most other jars).  I wouldn’t get away with this using pint jars or regular mouth half pint jars – they’d be too tall for two layers.

Process the chutney for 10 minutes keeping the water at a gentle rolling boil.  When the timer goes off, turn off the heat and remove the canner lid.  Let the jars sit in the water for another 5 minutes.  Using a jar lifter, place the hot jars on a nice thick towel and let cool.  I’ll let them sit, undisturbed, until tomorrow morning.  Then I’ll check the seals, remove the rings (store for next time), rinse off the jars with warm water, and they’re ready for labels and gift giving.

I forgot – I have a few spoonfuls that wouldn’t fit.

Cook’s treat.  Cranberry chutney on a piece of cheddar cheese.  Wow – it’s kinda tart and kinda sweet and kinda spicy all at the same time.  Bring on those turkey sandwiches!

Thanks to Liss at Frills in the Hills for including us in this week’s Make It From Scratch! Blog Carnival.

Bookmark This Post