Sourdough carmel cinnamon buns

Yesterday after my massive sourdough post, I was chastised. I guess it was for good reason.

I ended my post with this photo.



My apologies. And if you accept them, you may read on. Because I'm telling you how today I made a failed attempt at them.

But all the same, here's what I started with:



A batch of sourdough dough (haha) that I added a little more sugar to--on its first rise. I also only used a cup and a half of starter. But my starter was pretty wet and later I'll explain what I should have done differently there. Brown sugar, 1/4 cup sugar mixed with some cinnamon, whipping cream, butter, and a 9 x 9 pan.

A note: I start my dough in the late afternoon and then put the rolls together after all the kids are in bed.

The recipe is actually my variation of my mother's sour cream cinnamon rolls.

Put 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup cream in a sauce pan.



Over medium heat, bring to boil and boil and stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Roll your dough into a rectangle.



Check your carmel mixture.



I'm such a carmel junkie.

Butter your dough rectangle and sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar. My husband isn't a fan of too much cinnamon, so these are cinnamon-lite rolls. But with the carmel, the amount of cinnamon really isn't important.



Roll your rectangle into a looooong roll and pinch the seam.



Pour your carmel into the baking dish.



Cut the long roll into little rolls.



Notice there are a LOT of rolls for that little pan? That was my mistake. I should have just put 9 of them in there, but I decided to do all of them.

Put 9 of the little rolls into the carmel puddle in the baking dish.



Now cover them in plastic and put them in the fridge overnight.

In the morning they'll look like this.



Bake them at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. They'll be lovely and golden brown and the carmel will be baked into the dough. These aren't quite done. FYI.



I squished too many of them into the pan and then I didn't bake them long enough.

Now the secret to these rolls is to flip them onto foil when they are fresh out of the oven. Then the carmel that wasn't baked into the rolls is all oozy and blankets the rest of the roll.

They should look like this:



They should not look like this:



I actually put these back into the oven, just like this, because they were doughy in the middle.

I think I actually made TWO mistakes. The first one was that my starter was more watery than I anticipated and it made more dough than I wanted to. The second mistake was that I just went ahead and ignored my "too much dough" thought and put it all in the pan anyway.

But remember what I said about that carmel? How it really doesn't' matter? Well, as disappointed as I was in this batch, there were certainly no complaints. And this is my evidence of that.



Yes, I'm a carmel junkie, but I did NOT eat them all.

Have a great weekend!

Giant sourdough instructions post!

Seems my sourdough adventures are catching. And I've been sharing some starter with some of you. And some of you who have my starter have come to me with questions.

I'll be honest. I don't know all the answers. (My husband already knows that, but don't tell my kids or my brothers.) But I have been having fun and I have yet to make a loaf that is not edible. I've come close, but with some butter, it's always been edible.

First, you need starter. I made mine. It was a process, but now it is lovely and active and I have consistent success with it. (And if you want some, all you have to do is ask!)

Making sourdough isn't all that different than making yeast bread. You still make a dough, knead it, let it rise, punch it, let it rise again, and bake it. If you've made bread before, you'll see the difference. But it's super easy and super forgiving. In fact, yesterday was the first time I actually measured anything. I'm more of a dumper I guess.

This recipe makes two loaves of bread. It's best to start the day before. But the day before you need a grand total of less than 5 minutes and a cup to a cup and a half of starter.



I store mine in a good old fashioned canning jar with plastic wrap covering it. I've read several different places that sourdough doesn't like metal and plastic containers make me crazy, so a glass canning jar it is.

In a glass container, place two cups of flour--just plain ole' white flour--and pour in two cups of water. Just plain ole' tap water. Not super cold, but not hot. Something around room temperature.



Add your starter.



Stir well.



Cover it with a piece of plastic wrap and then go about the rest of your day while it sits happily on your counter. This is your "sponge" and you are now "proofing" it.

Yes, "proofing" is an alcohol term, but it's much the same process and I'll come back to alcohol in a moment.

In a few hours your sponge will look like this.



All nice and bubbly. It might smell yeasty, too.



In a few more hours it will probably look like this.



The top layer of liquid is called hooch. This is a good healthy layer of hooch. You can pour it off or mix it in. But basically it's alcohol created by the little yeasty pets in your starter. Hooch will also tell you about the health of your starter. If it starts to turns brown or grey, your starter is bad. I haven't had that problem.

You can proof your sponge for several days if you'd like. The longer it proofs, the more sour it gets.

When you are ready to make bread (I start in the morning), stir your sponge well and set aside a portion of it--a cup to a cup and a half. If you don't, you'll be sad.

Again, before you begin to mix your bread, make sure that you have a visual like this:



Or you won't have any starter for your next sourdough adventure.

Put a piece of plastic wrap over your reserve and put it in the fridge.

A note about starter: the more you use it, the more active it is. Make sure you feed it (proof it) at least once a week to keep it happy and healthy. If you need to feed it and don't plan to make bread, you can add 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water and it'll be fine.

Also, if you want to "build" your starter so you are making more loaves of bread at a time, take a few days and add your flour and water each day without baking bread until you get the amount you want.

Now you may proceed.

Pour the remaining sponge, about 3 cups, into a mixing bowl and add 3 tablespoons of oil (I use olive), 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1-3 tablespoons of sugar, brown sugar or molasses. The more sugar I add, the heavier my bread is. I like to go for about 2 tablespoons, but this particular batch got a little heavy on the molasses.

Mix well.



Notice that I use my mixer. And the bowl is metal. The metal here doesn't seem to affect the sourdough, but it's only in there for about ten minutes.

Now you will start adding your flour. On this particular batch, I just used white flour. Generic white flour. But I've had really good success with wheat as well. Generally I go about half and half when I use wheat. And sometimes I toss in a few tablespoons of flax seed.

Anyway, add 4-5 cups of flour about a half a cup at a time. The final amount depends on how liquid your starter was and the flour itself.



It will eventually begin to look like this.





At this point I switch from the paddle to the dough hook and begin to knead the bread, still adding flour about 1/8-1/4 cup at a time.





The goal is to knead for about 10 minutes and end up with a good stiff dough that is still sticky but not gooey. See how it clears the sides? That's usually a pretty good sign.





After about 10 minutes, I find a glass bowl that is at least twice the size of my hunk-o-dough and drizzle some olive oil in it.




Swoosh it around to grease the majority of the bowl (I use my fingers and then rub the rest of the oil in like lotion because olive oil makes my hands feel so nice) and drop your dough in. Flip it over so the top is oiled and won't dry out.






Cover it with plastic and let it rise for a few hours.





Ideally it should rise in a warm spot. The top of your dryer if your dryer is going, on your stove top if your oven is on, or simply switch your oven on for a minute, switch it off and then place your dough in there to do its business.

In an hour or three, it should look something like this.





Now you will punch it down, knead it a few times, and it will look something like this.





Since this recipe makes two loaves, I have two loaf pans ready to go. By ready to go, I mean that I sprayed them with some vegetable spray. But, if you don't have loaf pans, you can just shape the loaves and put them on a cookie sheet.


Then I cut the dough in half . . .




Shape it into loaves . . .





Cover them (with the same piece of plastic wrap just because it seems like the responsible thing to do).





And let them alone until they double in size.


While they are doubling in size, I will tell you about my loaf pans. They are old. And well seasoned. And they belonged to my great grandma. I have fond memories of walking into her house when I was younger and smelling fresh bread. And her signature treat for us was a slice of her bread with butter and brown sugar. The other day I told Grace about that and she lit up. I'll have to actually let her have some here pretty soon.





Hey! Look!




These two beauties are ready for the oven.





Now I preheat my oven to 350 degrees. When it's done heating, I put both loaves in and set the timer for 30 minutes.


And in 30 minutes, I have these two beauties. My general test to see if they are done is to tap the top with my fingernail and listen for a hollow sound. I really try not to over-cook them because that makes them really dry.




Slide them out of the pans. Butter the tops.




Let them cool a little bit, mostly because you don't want to burn yourself when you cut them.




And then you get to reap your reward!





The ingredients:



3 cups sourdough starter

3 tablespoons oil

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1-3 tablespoons sugar, brown sugar or molasses

4-5 cups flour



Yield: 2 loaves

Don't limit yourself to JUST bread. We make pancakes, biscuits, and these beauties:



Sourdough cinnamon carmel buns. They didn't last long. I ought to make another batch tonight.

Happy Baking!!

Living vicariously

This morning my mom sent me this email:

Well, here is my first attempt at making sour dough bread. I set the sponge on Wednesday night and mixed it up yesterday. It didn't rise much so I just let it sit overnight. Made the loaf this morning and just took it out of the oven. Your Dad's critic....Damn, that's good!

Love, MOM




My dad has a way with words. What can I say?

I may have drooled. And I have hope that I'll someday get some of my beautiful starter back. The starter that I had been babying for almost 3 months now. Geez. Stupid mommy moments.

_____________________

The recipe I have been using for bread:

2 cups sponge
2T olive oil
4t sugar
2t salt

Stir that all together.

Add 3 cups flour about 1/2 a cup at a time. Stir until a dough forms and knead.

Then I put it in a bowl with olive oil and flip it so the top is oiled. Cover with some plastic wrap and let it raise.

Punch down and shape into a loaf. Slice if desired. Cover with the same plastic wrap since it's already oiled. Let it raise.

Bake at 350 until it's golden brown and sounds hollow when you thump it.

Fun with sourdough. :)

A lesson in sharing

Some of you have been following my sourdough adventure. And I must say, it's been an adventure. I've had all sorts of fun and all sorts of results.

If you haven't been following, I'll give you a brief rundown.

Making my own starter:



Edible failure:



My first fabulous loaf:



And yesterday's gorgeous loaf:



It's really been coming along. And it's getting easier and easier and I'm getting braver and braver, branching out and trying new sourdough strategies and looking for new recipes. My starter has been fabulous lately. I don't know if it just matured into a lovely starter or the weather changed and made it happier.

But today I went to make another loaf and ended up nearly crying. If you aren't familiar with sourdough (and I'm no expert, really), you have a starter that you "proof" to make a "sponge" and then make your bread. After you proof your sponge you keep out a bit of it for starter for you next loaf.

This morning I opened the fridge to get my starter AND IT WASN'T THERE! BECAUSE I FORGOT TO KEEP SOME BACK AND BAKED IT ALL INTO THE BREAD!

I felt like I was going to cry.

And like I'd been punched in the stomach.

I called my mom. But she wasn't answering. I tried her three times.

Then I gave up and called Kimber. I had given her some starter a while ago.

Wassup!! (That's how she answers the phone.)

I think I'm going to cry.

Why?

Because I didn't save any starter from my last batch of sourdough."

GASP!

That was my baby!

You ate your baby!!

And I fed it to my friends!

HAHA!

Thanks Kimber. :p But seriously, I need some of my starter back.

I had given my mom some starter, too. So I tried her again. She was much more sympathetic. And she told me I might want to change my strategy when I proof the sponge and just keep some back even before I proof it. Or have a couple rotating starter containers. She also was making sourdough pancakes when I called. Now I had two options of getting some of my sourdough starter back.

Thanks mom. I love you.

There are a few lessons from my experience. Some of them I have learned over and over.

1. Don't call Kimber when you need a shoulder to cry on.
2. Always call your mom. She is always helpful and empathetic.
3. I need a new sourdough strategy.
4. Always share the good things in your life. It will come back to you.

PHEW!!!

Just because I think it's a funny term--Day 9

Hooch. That's what they call that layer of liquid is on top there. Hooch. Sounds almost scandalous. Scandalous fungus. Scandalous hoochie fungus.

I think tomorrow I'm going to try my hand at sourdough bread. I poked a couple holes in the lid and put the starter in the fridge.

Here's hoping!

Still MORE orange juice and flour--Day #3

Okay. I agree. Not so exciting yet. But, it's ONLY day three and I'm dreaming of sourdough. It's my effort to be just that much more "crunchy" without having to live off the grid in a yert with a compostable toilet, chasing the milk cow out of the garden with a baby on my back while my kids chop wood and my husband is off hunting for deer or hippo or something else edible that will sustain us through the harsh winter. This seems much more pleasant.