Everyday sourdough sandwich loaf

Ingredients:

100-130 grams well-fed sourdough starter
325-350 grams water
500 grams of flour (can you various ratios of bread flour to whole wheat to etc)
15-20 grams oil (can use neutral oil (Avocado, vegetable) or could use olive oil)
15-20 grams of honey
10 grams fine sea salt

I’ve been making a weekly loaf for the past year or so. With this recipe, you definitely have some leeway on adjusting the types of flours along with some of the enrichments (oil and honey). It is also a fairly forgiving recipe I feel (or maybe I just do it regularly enough that I’ve grown accustomed to it). The above recipe makes 1 loaf (in a 8.5 inch x 4.5 inch loaf pan). This is also a no-knead recipe. The loaf can be made ahead of time and then stored to continue to ferment and develop in the fridge for 24-48 hours. Typically I will bake it ~24-36 hours after forming the loaf.

Combine the water, well-fed starter, 500 grams of flour (my current combination is 350 grams bread flour, 50 grams of semolina flour and 100 grams of whole wheat flour), oil and honey in a mixing bowl. I use a spatula and stir and make sure everything is well incorporated together (about 2-4 minutes of mixing usually).
Let sit (auto-lyse) for anywhere from 30-90 minutes covered.
Slowly incorporate the salt – I usually add a little bit at a time and using a wet hand knead the salt until well incorporated.
Cover and let rest 45-60 minutes
Perform a stretch and fold (using a moist hand, grab dough at 12 o’clock position and pull upwards toward ceiling. Without allowing the dough to rip, pull it down towards 6 o’clock. Turn bowl 1/4 counter-clockwise and repeat above and continue until back to original position. Can continue to do this to tighten dough (another full rotation). Optional would to flip dough over at end (should have smooth ball). Cover
Wait another 45-60 minutes (dependent on room temp)
Repeat stretch and fold an additional 3 times (total of 4). Sometimes the dough will look mature and ready after 3 stretch and folds and that is fine as well.
Dump dough out on well floured surface. Using bench scraper, gather the dough (bringing each corner to center) and then flip dough to have a nice ball. Cover with tea towel and let sit for 20 minutes.
Stretch and flatten dough out into a large rectangle. Bring the left side of the dough and fold to the center line along the vertical axis. Then fold from the right edge to the center overlapping – envelope fold. Then grasp dough closest to you and roll it away from you creating a cylinder. Tuck the ends of the dough underneath to create a smooth surface for each end.
Using a bench scrapper lift the dough into a well oiled loaf pan (in my case a 8.5 inch x 4.5 inch loaf pan)
Place this in a bag (can also add some oil to top of dough and cover with saran wrap) and let rise for ~1.5 hours (depending on temperature in kitchen).
Place in refrigerator (~12-48 hours).
Turn oven on to 400 F. Place pan with water in lower rack of oven
Remove dough from fridge. Sprinkle flour on top of bread and smooth. Using sharp knife, score the bread.
Bake for 20 minutes at 400F
Remove the water container (be careful not to splash hot water onto glass of oven door as it may crack – I use a tea towel to cover the glass while removing the water container).
Bake additional 30-35 minutes until golden brown (bread temp ~200 F). I usually just bake an additional 33 or 34 minutes as it seems to work for my oven.
Turn bread out on cooling rack and let cool fully before slicing.

Visual instructions:

2022 Clarksburg Country Run – 30K Race Recap

On a cold and windy day a few weeks back I did my first in person race in a little over 3 years. Prior to COVID I had planned on running my 5th full marathon in 2020. The world had other ideas and that race was moved virtually with the option to postpone it for the next few years. I had initially planned on running CIM 2022 but missed the deadline to use my voucher. Instead I thought I’d tackle a new race distance and challenge. Previously I had looked into the Clarksburg Country Run back when they had a 20 mile option. I looked and saw this year they had a 30K which is 18.6 miles. I figured this would still be a good distance to challenge myself (after having done tons of half marathons and knowing that distance).

Much of this year’s running has been done on the treadmill, a combination of not wanting to run in the heat but also just me not wanting to get outside like I used to. Nevertheless I created my own training guide and tried to follow it as closely as possible.

Packet pickup at the Fleet Feet Store was no frills and I picked up my bib and shirt the day before (no swag bag or other goodies and I didn’t feel like browsing the store). I was in and out in under a minute.

Race morning turned out to be quite cold but super windy. Temperature when I arrived was around 42F. I don’t particularly mind the cold but the wind is what turned out to be something to reckon with. Parking was about half a mile away at The Old Sugar Mill – which houses multiple wineries in one area. I had actually visited this many years back with my MIL and did wine tastings.

After the chilly walk to the start/finish area (a local high school), I visited the portapotties and then dropped off my sweatshirt/pants at the sweat check and waited for the start. I feel like at most races I’ve run, people start getting into the start area well before the start. This one seemed a little less urgent. The 30K was the first to kick off at 8 am and people were just milling about until about 5 minutes before race start. Finally we all gathered behind the timing mats but again people didn’t seem all that keen to be up near the front. There were only 148 of us doing the longest distance (other race distances were half marathon, 10K, and 5K) so I ended up pretty close to the start line (even though I knew I would probably be one of the slower participants).

Lasagna

I’ve done lasagna a handful of times now and everytime I do things a little bit differently. I’ve tried it with my homemade dough, traditional dried pasta as well as the oven ready (no boil) noodles. Overall I think I still like the traditional pasta that you boil first. This time I decided to jazz up the recipe a bit with some sauteed mushrooms along with italian sausage and I have enjoyed this one the best.

Ingredients for sauce

28 ounce Cento San Marzano peeled tomatoes
Tomato Paste
Dried oregano / Dried Basil
Rind of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Bay leaf
Salt
Garlic
Olive oil

Directions for sauce

Sauté dieced garlic in the olive oil in a pot
Add in the tomatoes (crush whole tomatoes with hands), tomato paste, oregano, basil, rind of parmigiano, bay leaf, salt.
Simmer for at least 30 minutes and up to a few hours.

Ingredients for lasagna

Sauce from above
1 box of traditional dried lasagna noodles
Whole milk mozzarella cheese
Ricotta cheese
Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (put in a food processor to make into crumbles for spreading – easier than trying to grate or slice).
Cremini mushrooms
Mild italian sausage (can also use ground beef, pork, chicken, etc)

Directions for lasagna

Sauté slice mushrooms until soft and tender, add salt for flavoring
Cook sausage (remove from casing and crumble) in some olive oil
Cook pasta (follow directions) and then lay out on a oiled cookie pan to prevent from sticking to one another
Add a layer of sauce to bottom of casserole dish to help prevent sticking
Add layer of pasta
Can create layers as desired – I did mushrooms with sauce and cheese (mozz/parmigiano/ricotta as dollops), then another layer of noodle, then a layer with sausage and sauce/cheese.
Repeat a few more times (depends on amount of pasta and sauce you have)
Top layer: Add sauce and then cheese layer
Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 375 F for 30-40 minutes, then uncover and bake additional 15 minutes.
Let sit for 10 minutes before cutting and eating.

-StewsCat

Enchilada sauce and enchiladas!

I’m terrible about posting. I realized that I do need to be more diligent about it because I use this as my reference for how to make stuff. I decided to make some enchiladas again. I couldn’t remember how I did it the last time because it had been so long ago. I like making the sauce because then I control the amount of sodium in it. I have used some of the store bought sauces and they are typically salt bombs. The sauce is actually quite easy to make. I’ve got both the sauce recipe as well as the actual enchilada recipe below. We like flour tortillas (I know traditionally it is corn) so for this one I made flour tortillas to go into it.

Enchilada sauce

~ 1 lb tomatillos
1 medium yellow onion
1 anaheim pepper
2 jalapeno peppers
Cumin (~1 Tbsp)
Mexican oregano (~2 tsp)
Salt (~ 1 tsp)
Black pepper (~ 1 tsp)
Handful of cilantro (I forgot this when I made it)

Directions:

Peel and wash the tomatillos and cut the onion into quarters and simmered in water for 10-15 minutes.
Toasted the anaheim pepper on stove flame
Add tomatillos, onion, and ~3/4 cup of water to blender
Add remaining ingredients to the blender and blend until desired thickness/consistency
Simmer sauce in pot for 10-15 minutes

Ingredients – 2 jalapenos gave the sauce a little more kick

Blended ingredients and the simmered for 10-20 minutes.

Enchilada recipe

2 cups enchilada sauce (see above)
Shredded chicken breast
Cheese (monterey jack, mexican blend, cheddar, mozzarella) – whatever your heart desires
Tortillas (corn or flour) – I ended up making my flour tortillas because we enjoy them better than corn overall

Directions

In a casserole dish, add some sauce to line the bottom of dish
Dip and cover both sides of tortilla in sauce, add ingredients (in this case it was a mixture of the chicken and cheese)
Roll tortilla and place into casserole dish.
Repeat process until casserole dish filled with rolled tortillas
Cover in sauce and then cheese
Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes covered, then uncover and bake additional 5-10 minutes.

-StewsCat

Brownies!

It’s been awhile. That’s kind of the theme for this place, not that anyone is really paying attention. In the end I like having this as a record of my baking/cooking and traveling adventures and to look back on for recipes that have worked (don’t usually publish things that don’t work because why keep that). The other night I decided to try my hand at some brownies. Aside from cookies and banana bread, I don’t do much in the way of sweets baking. D isn’t a huge cake person so haven’t really had a desire to do that. I am not opposed to pies though just haven’t got around to attempting anything. So brownies it was. I looked up a few different recipes and of course looked to Ina Garten since she has some good recipes (especially booze ones). I then kind of modified it to my own. D wanted to incorporate some peanut butter into it. I was initially going to do a PB swirl type thing but then elected to just use the peanut butter chips I had.

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter
3.5 ounce dark chocolate (had a bar of some random Russian chocolate)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
~1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 1/4 AP flour
1 packet (~ 1 Tbsp?) of instant coffee

Directions

Using a bain marie (I did a makeshift one with a small pot with simmering water and a metal bowl on top), I melted the chocolate and the dark chocolate bar.
I then mixed in the cocoa powder (probably could have added more as the final product didn’t come out as chocolatey as I was hoping).
In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, vanilla, eggs and instant coffee
In 3rd bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder
After letting the chocolate mixture cool some, mix into the sugar/vanilla/egg mixture.
Coat some peanut butter and chocolate chips in flour
Fold in the flour mixture to the wet mixture from step #5. Then add in the chips.
Poured the final mixture onto parchment paper in a 8 by 8 pyrex pan
Baked at 350 F for about 30-35 minutes (until a toothpick came out clean)
Let sit on rack for 30 minutes and wait until cooled to cut.