Caramelized Onion Pizza

Sourdough Crust:
Mix 1.5 cups bread flour with 1 tsp salt. Mix in 1.5 cups sourdough starter (100% hydration) and 1 Tbs olive oil. Mix well (I use my KitchenAid with dough hook for this) until a satiny smooth dough forms. Oil bowl, turn to coat dough, cover and let rise a few hours. If you get this started around lunch time your dough should be ready by dinnertime. Hand toss and/or stretch dough into desired shape (I usually put mine on a 15" pizza stone and it makes a moderately thin crust). I don't like to roll the dough because it compresses it too much. Brush with EVOO and top as follows.

Pizza Sauce and Toppings:
Heat about 2 Tbs EVOO in a small to medium saucepan. Add one sliced red onion. Heat gently, stirring occasionally, until onions are sweet and caramelized. This is a slow process and will probably take about 20 minutes. Remove onions with a slotted spoon (set aside in bowl) and add one 8oz can of tomato sauce to the saucepan. Add a tsp or so of dried basil and dried oregano. Stir and simmer a few minutes to let flavors infuse.

After the girls and I ate :)

Meanwhile, grate about a cup of mozzarella cheese and crumble about ½ cup chevre (fresh goat cheese). Top the oiled crust with the sauce, spreading around evenly. Then top with the two cheeses, spreading evenly. Layer on the onions. Bake in preheated 500ºF oven for about 10-13 minutes, until crust is nicely browned. Remove, top with fresh basil, and let cool a few mins before slicing.

Chocolate Waffles!

Somehow I stumbled across this recipe for chocolate waffles (probably doing a search for kefir and sourdough waffles) and thought what a special treat they would make! I modified them just a bit to suit my taste and what I had on hand. With Valentine's Day coming up, it might be the perfect occasion to make these for someone special. Be forewarned, they are very rich and you will want to have something not sweet and chocolatey to go with them (bacon, anyone?) ♥

 Chocolate Sourdough Waffle Recipe
The night before you want waffles for breakfast, mix well and cover:
4 oz sourdough starter*
1 cup kefir (or buttermilk)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

8 to 12 hours later, mix in a separate bowl:
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp sea salt
pinch cinnamon
½ cup coconut sugar (or 4 packets powdered stevia)

In separate small bowl, mix:
4 Tbs melted and cooled coconut oil
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix the contents of all three bowls together and stir well. The batter should get nice and bubbly/frothy.

Gently stir in ½ cup mini dark chocolate chips. Pour batter into hot greased waffle iron and cook according to waffle iron's directions. They would be super good with homemade whipped cream (not too sweet!) on top. Enjoy!

*For those of you who don't have sourdough starter, you could just leave it out and omit the overnight step. Or you could come by and get your very own starter from me ♥

Homemade Chewy Granola Bars

Seriously, what can't you do with sourdough starter? Yes, sourdough starter went into this recipe for granola bars. The recipe I started with is found on Wild Yeast Blog. I took the recipe there and basically just used some different fruit and nuts to suit my taste and also what I had on hand. This is so super flexible - you could change out the fruits and nuts and seeds for whatever you like or have on hand. If you don't have sourdough starter to use up, I'm guessing you could use flour and water to make up the same weight (so instead of the 200g sourdough starter you would use 100g water and 100g flour). However, I don't know if the rising capabilities of the starter are necessary or not. So, if anyone does attempt this with just flour and water, be sure to comment and let me know how the bars come out.

Ingredients:
200g sourdough starter (100% hydration), straight from fridge
1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup chopped (pitted) dates
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup coconut oil (solid)
2 Tbs chia seeds
1/4 tsp salt

Super easy method:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8x8" baking dish with parchment paper (letting some hang over the edges for easy removal) and grease the paper.

2. Mix everything together in medium bowl with clean hands to make sure ingredients are well incorporated.

3. Press mixture into prepared baking sheet and bake at 350F for about half hour or until golden brown on top.

4. Let cool a few mins in pan, then pull out and cut into bars or squares.

Pressed into pan

Nicely browned

Stacked full of goodness :)

Sourdough Pancakes

This whole sourdough thing is likely to make me gain weight. Although sourdough is supposed to be lower glycemic than even whole wheat bread, I'm still pretty sure you need to eat it in moderation. With starter that needs to be fed every 3 days (which means discarding or using some of the original), I'm making an awful lot of sourdough treats. So this morning it was sourdough pancakes. I tried once before and ended up with something more like dense sourdough bread cooked in a skillet. This time they were light and fluffy and delicious. I pretty much followed a recipe I found on Wild Yeast Blog. Since my starter wasn't exactly "fresh", I decided to add a little whole wheat pastry flour and milk. This was the first time I measured in grams, and I really liked it. I've done ounces before but it gets confusing when you have to pull out the calculator to start figuring out pounds and ounces. My new digital scale has both ounces and grams so it was super easy. This recipe is a great base and you could certainly add wonderful thinks like fruit and nuts to the batter.

Ingredients:

• 250 g mature 100%-hydration sourdough starter
• 125 g whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 Tbs maple syrup or agave nectar (or 10 drops liquid stevia)
• 2 Tbs healthy fat or oil such as melted butter, coconut oil, or grapeseed oil
• 2 eggs 
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• enough milk to thin to desired consistency (about 1 cup)

Mix all ingredients in large bowl. Let sit a couple of minutes to give the yeast a chance to perk up. Pour by scant 1/4 cupfuls onto hot greased griddle. I used my cast iron skillet but next time I'll go back to my electric pancake griddle because I can fit more on it and it has more even heating than the stove top. Either way, flip when bubbles start to appear and cook to desired shade of brownness. Serve with desired toppings and try not to eat too many (they do freeze well). I enjoyed mine with fresh blueberries and cream.