Sourdough Pancakes and Winners

The winners of the Second Helpings cookbook giveaway are:
Ta da!! - Lady Wild, Donna of The Start of Something Frugal, and Cheryl. They will be getting an e-mail today and, once they send back a mailing address, will be getting their cookbooks directly from Thomas Nelson Publishers...to whom I give a hearty 'Thank you!' for this opportunity to share some great cookbooks.

An then there are pancakes....
We used to eat a lot of pancakes when Max was around. Of all the kinds of cakes, pancakes were his favorite.

He got pretty good at making them and I do think that it really helps to make them somewhat frequently. Since we make 'em once or twice a year these days the learning curve is steep each time...how thick or thin should the batter be?...what is the best setting on the stove to keep the pan at just the right temperature?...how much oil or butter does the pan need? Each time the first third to half of the batch gets made too thin or thick, gets burnt or undercooked in the middle until we learn again how to get them just right.

Sweetie was doing the honors yesterday on Max's birthday morning. I had made the batter using some of my sourdough starter but he wanted to cook them. It was hilarious getting to the point where it all came together. The pancakes were tender and just slightly sour...perfect with coffee and some warmed real maple syrup. I had thought to make a chocolate cake for the birthday, but I think Max would have liked these pancakes batter.


Sourdough Pancakes
Makes enough for 2-4, depending on how hungry you are and how many you mess up trying to find the right combination of heat and batter thickness.

2 cups sourdough starter (actually one cup starter, mixed with a combination of one cup all-purpose flour and 1 cup water, the whole whisked together and then set uncovered on the counter for at least 2 hours)
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter, melted and cooled
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons sugar
about 1/2 cup more flour, but it might be more or less depending on how thick you like your pancakes

In a large bowl whisk together the starter mixture, melted and cooled butter, egg, salt, sugar and 1/4 cup flour. Let sit 10 minutes. If you like a thicker batter, whisk in more flour until batter is the thickness you like.

Heat a griddle or large skillet. If desired oil lightly or brush with melted butter. Heat over medium-high heat until a drop of water, dropped on the pan or griddle, sizzles on contact. Ladle on the batter. Some people like silver dollar size pancakes and some, like Sweetie, like huge pancakes that take up almost the whole pan...so use the amount you like to get the pancakes you like.


Cook until small bubbles form and break around the edges and bubbles also form in the center. Flip pancake over with flexible spatula to cook other side. Check after a minute to see if side in contact with pan is brown enough. When cooked as desired, use a spatula to remove from the pan to a an ovenproof plate and keep cooked pancakes warm in the oven (which has been set at a low temperature) or serve right away and continue cooking. Serve warm with butter and syrup or fruit.

Variations: For Blubes (Blueberry pancakes) Scatter washed and dried blueberries over pancakes as soon as you have ladled the batter on the pan or griddle. I usually then drizzle a little of the batter on top of the berries, too. That way you get a little batter between them and the pan when you flip the pancakes. If you prefer, you can gently stir 1 pint of washed and dried blueberries right in to the batter, then bake as directed in the basic recipe.

Other variations included other berries like strawberries or raspberries, dried fruit, sliced bananas, or chocolate chips instead of the blueberries.

101 Sourdough

Although it might look like this is going to be a tutorial (especially to the hardy souls who attend or attended college) the actual reason for the 101 is the weight of the flour.

Before we get into weighing flour, I'm happy to announce the winners of the My Southern Food book by Thomas Nelson Publishers. The first out of the hat was Richelle, who doesn't seem to have a blog but did send her e-mail address along. The second drawn was Kelly-Jane of Cooking the Books with Kelly-Jane. She has a great blog and it will be fun to see if she posts anything from the book. The last name drawn was Lynnette of Desserts Divine, a new blog for me to visit and a nice one. Congratulations to each of you. An e-mail has been sent to you asking for a mailing address. The publisher mails the books directly to you.

Back to baking! One of the things that can happen if you bake a lot of similar breads is that you get familiar with the ratios for a good loaf. This time I wanted to use my sourdough starter, three kinds of flour and some water and salt.

For one loaf (shown above) I also went seedy by using some recently received King Arthur Flour's Harvest Grains Blend. Whole oat berries, millet, rye flakes and wheat flakes enhance texture. Flax, poppy, sesame, and sunflower seeds add crunch and great, nutty flavor. I used 6 tablespoons of the mixture for one loaf and it adds just the right amount of textural and seedy interest. The point of mentioning this isn't to hawk King Arthur's blend, but to suggest that when you are making two loaves that you don't have to make them the same. Have some fun! Work in some chopped nuts or just one kind of seed like sesame or sunflower if you don't have a blend...or create your own blend. One of the reasons that making bread continues to appeal to me is that I see it as a creative vehicle and a way to add joy to my life...and the bread is great to eat, too.

Back to the flours: I weighed out the remainder in a bag of bread flour and it came to 101 grams. I decided to build my flour mixture from that measurement, so I did two additional 101s of bread flour, 101 grams of whole wheat flour twice and 101 grams of King Arthur Flour's Ancient Grains blend for a bit more complexity of flavor. As it turned out I ended up needing a bit more bread flour at the end, so the weights didn't work out quite so neatly, but the proportions are still good ones for flavor. The same flour can need variations depending on the weather. I would have thought that our rainy weather would mean less flour but it seems that it meant more added. Of course it could be that my starter was wetter than I thought it was. There are lots of variable in making the dough, so relax and go with what yours wants you to do. You are looking for a supple, soft dough that has body but isn't stiff.

This made a tight grained, slightly chewy bread with good wheat flavor plus that small bit of complex 'I wonder what else is in this bread' taste that was so delicious. I shaped the 'plain' loaf into a long thin loaf, slightly curved to fit in the pan, and made the seedy loaf into a torpedo shape.

For those of you who wonder how I can keep making bread so often and not be as big as a house...I am not as big as a house, but I am overweight and...ta da!...I'm now doing slow weight lifting to help burn some of the calories and to be heart happy. I also eat a lot of soups and salads which I love as much as bread.

This recipe is going over to Susan at Wild Yeast. Her weekly Yeastspotting event is a wonderland of bread ideas for those of us addicted to bread baking. Check it out HERE.

101 Sourdough

582 grams sourdough starter
300 grams water, lukewarm
353 grams bread flour
202 grams whole wheat flour
101 grams ancient grain blend
15 grams sea salt

In the bowl of a stand mixer place the sourdough starter and the water; whisk to blend.

in another large bowl whisk together the bread flour, whole wheat flour, ancient grain blend (or additional bread or whole wheat instead, if you prefer), and the salt.

Whisk 1 cup of the flour mixture into the sourdough mixture, then attach the bowl to the mixer. With the dough hook attached and the mixer on low to medium-low, add the about 1 cup of the flour at a time, letting at least half of it incorporate into the dough before adding the next 1 cup. For the last cup of flour, add the flour mixture by tablespoonfuls, one at a time, until the dough is soft and climbs the dough hook and doesn't completely slump into the bottom of the bowl when you stop adding flour. You may need to add an additional small amount of flour if the dough is very soft. Let the mixer knead the dough for 10 minutes.

Turn the dough out into an oiled rising container or bowl. Cover with oiled plastic wrap or a clean shower cap and let rise until double in bulk, about 2 hours.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to remove gas bubbles. Cut dough in half and return one piece of dough to the rising container or bowl. Flatten the remaining piece of dough on the lightly floured surface into a rough rectangle, then shape and either put into a bread pan or let rise on a parchment or silicone mat lined baking sheet until double in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.

Take the second piece of dough and repeat the process you used for the first piece of dough, or you can do as I did and knead in 1/2 cup mixed seeds and grain flakes (I used King Arthur's grain blend), then shape and let rise as with the first loaf.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. If suing a baking stone, let it preheat at the same time in the oven. Slash the loaves when the oven is hot. Paint with egg wash if desired (1 egg whisked with 1 tablespoon of water). Bake in the center of the oven (on a baking stone if possible) for 45 minutes to an hour, or until loaf sounds hollow when the back is tapped. Let cool before serving.

Makes 2 loaves.