Baking with sour dough

As if I don’t have enough interests to occupy my time and energy I was given a sour dough start by my friend, Nikki.  Read her blog HERE.  I’ve been trying to market my new book, finish my taxes, clean out a few closets, study for my new Sunday School assignment teaching the Old Testament, and write a couple more books. Now I have another hobby to play with!  I’ve used it four times.  The first attempt was sour dough Focaccia Bread that turned out like this! 



Sour Dough Focaccia Bread

Here is a link to the recipe!

Then I made sour dough pancakes.  They are always a hit. I baked a sour dough coffee cake.  I thought I took a photo, but I must have deleted it.   The coffee cake was yummy, too!

When I sent Nikki this photo bragging about my sour dough bread bowls, she replied, “You are on fire!  I haven’t used mine yet.”



Bread bowls I created on my own!

What? I’m wearing myself out in the kitchen out of a sense of duty to make use of the start she gave me and she hasn’t even used hers yet! I bet she will after she reads this post!

Pumpkin Cookies. Really?

I had the opportunity to help out a friend the other day by making some cookies for an event she was hosting.  I listed several options and then threw in “Pumpkin Cookies” just to be cheeky.   She actually picked the pumpkin cookies!   Now, as cookies go, they are relatively healthy and I like the flavor, but my memory of pumpkin cookies as a child are a cakelike cookie with a burned bottom.  I figured I could keep from burning them, but I think that if a person wants to eat cake, she will eat cake.  A cookie should be crunchy or chewy or both!

I decided to tweak this recipe.  I think I like it!  

1 ½ C Shortening

4 ½ C Sugar

3 Eggs

2 C Canned Pumpkin

7 ½ C Flour (I used 6 ½ cups)

1 ½ tsp Salt

3 tsp Baking Soda

3 tsp Baking Powder

3 tsp Nutmeg

3 tsp Cinnamon

3 tsp Vanilla

1 ½ C Nuts

2 C Chocolate Chips or Raisins

These are the changes I made.

·         Cut the flour back to about 6 ½ Cups.  More flour can be added if you feel the cookies are too gooey.

• I only added chocolate chips, because I don’t like nuts messing up my cookies and others in the household are not fans of raisins.

·         Bake at 350◦ for 10 minutes. 

·         Bake a “test cookie” to be sure you have the consistency you like.

The prejudices we bring from childhood are unique to each of us.  My husband is not a fan of fried eggs.  He ate too many as a child.   My oldest son will not touch a shrimp because he came down with the stomach flu once after eating them.  I don’t eat oysters.  Here is why. 

Might it be wise to revisit some of those things we avoid?  Our likes and dislikes have been formed by our experiences.  Could it be that tweaking those experiences, something as simple as cutting back on the flour, might change our entire perspective?  I wonder …