I know, I know, you're thinking "Hey, those are just pancakes. I know about pancakes." But wait! Hold on to your phaeton, because I am about to lay down for you some knowledge. Knowledge about sourdough.
*Sourdough has been used for ages by many world cultures to raise bread.
*It is basically slow-acting liquid yeast.
*Not all sourdough tastes the same. Each culture has its own unique taste. You have probably tasted the San Francisco strain, which is sort of tangy. There's a Bahrain strain that tastes of almost nothing. I don't get the point, but people who hate the taste of sourdough like it.
*It is like having a pet [or, technically, billions of pets] that isn't messy, smells nice, and periodically gives you fresh bread.
*It self-replicates if you feed it. After you take some out for a recipe, stir in some flour and water. Result: infinite sourdough starter. It is basically like owning a tribble.
*You can buy starters online, get some from a friend, order it for free from here, or grow your own. I got mine from the Pioneer Foodie.
In the 70's, as part of the get-back-to-nature Mother Earth sort of movement, sourdough got a little spike of popularity. And for good reason.
Sourdough Pancakes
2 cups sourdough starter
2 T. sugar
4 T. oil
1 egg
1/2 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
Mix sourdough starter, sugar, egg, and oil. Dilute baking soda in a little bit of warm water, and stir in gently just before you are ready to cook the pancakes. Cook the pancakes.
Husband said these are his new favorite pancakes. I had to add chopped blackberries so they would not float away, so light and fluffy were they.
3 comments:
This reminds me of a fun project I want to try. My husband's cousin and her friends, who live in different parts of San Francisco, each grew their own starter, then made bread from the same recipe, then got together and tasted all the different loaves of bread. Apparently they all tasted quite different, just from the differences in the air and water and free-floating yeasts in their respective neighborhoods. Neat!
That is fun. Sourdough is interesting stuff. It is like mad science that you can eat!
Blackberries in sourdough sounds delicious !
Post a Comment