This Is Us

  Today I looked through some saved recipes, read up on cream of tartar (to see if my cookies actually needed it) and created this recipe. Cream of Tartar (how do you say it Tar-Tar or tarter?) is needed for this recipe. It interacts with the baking soda, which makes the cookies puff up and then flatten out when cooling off. It also is what gives snickerdoodles their signature cracking. Here is the recipe: Sourdough Snickerdoodle Cookies Ingredients: 1 3/4 c Granulated Sugar  3/4 c + 2 tbsp Softened Salted Butter 2 Large Eggs 3/4 c Sourdough Starter 3 1/2 c Flour 1 tsp Baking Soda 1 1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar 1/2 tsp Salt Directions: Preheat your oven to 350°. In the bowl of your stand mixer add the butter and sugar and mix for about 2 minutes.  Now add the eggs and sourdough starter and mix until creamy.  In a smaller mixing bowl add the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and the salt and mix with a fork.  Add these ingredients to the stand mixer bowl and combin...

  These sourdough sugar cookies are so soft and delicious.  I know it has a lot of sour cream in them, but I don't notice it and it helps keep them soft. I made almond butter cream frosting to go on top. Here is the recipe: Sourdough Sugar Cookies Ingredients: 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp Salted Butter 3/4 cup Granulated Sugar 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil 2 Large Eggs 1 1/2 cups Sour Cream 2 tsp Vanilla Extract 2 tsp Almond Extract 3/4 cup Sourdough Starter (Discard) 3 1/2 cups Flour 1/2 tsp Salt 1/2 tsp Baking Soda 1/2 tsp Baking Powder Directions: Preheat oven to 325°. Line a baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper.  In the bowl of your stand mixer add the butter and sugars.  Mix until well combined.  Add the oil and mix.  Add the eggs and mix for 1 minute (until fluffy).  Scrap down the sides and add the sourdough, vanilla and almond.  Mix well.  In a separate bowl add the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.  Mix with a...

  Nick loves peanut butter cookies.  So, I decided to try and make some.  I found several different recipes and then came up with my own.  I'm not good at knowing everything I should put in cookies, but I can adjust different recipes to and make my own from it.  lol Here is my recipe: Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies Ingredients: 1/2 Cup Salted Butter softened 1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar 1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar 2 Eggs 1 tsp Vanilla 3/4 Cup Sourdough Starter 1 Cup Peanut Butter 2 1/2 Cups Flour 1 tsp Baking Powder 1 tsp Baking Soda 1/2 tsp Salt Directions: Preheat the oven.  Add the butter and sugars to your stand mixer.  Mix until it's lighter in color.  Add the eggs and mix again.  Mix in the vanilla and sourdough starter. Add the peanut butter and mix until creamy.  In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add to your dough in your stand mixer.  Mix until well combined.  Using a 2 t...

  I have had my  Sourdough Starter  for almost 2 years now! About a year ago I started putting it in a lot of recipes, but especially dessert recipes. I looked up some sourdough pumpkin recipes and adjusted them for me. So here is my recipe for them. I do have to add more flour being at a high altitude. If you are not, you won’t need as much flour. Sourdough Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients: 1/2 cup Salted Butter 1 tbsp Pumpkin Spice 1/4 cup Sugar 1/2 cup Dark Brown Sugar 1/3 cup Pumpkin Purée 1 tsp Vanilla 1/2 cup Sourdough Starter (fed or unfed) 2 cups Flour 1/4 tsp Baking Soda 1/4 tsp Baking Powder 1/2 tsp Salt 1/2 cup Mini Chocolate Chips Directions: Preheat oven to 375°. In a small saucepan brown the butter stirring frequently. It takes about 5 minutes over medium heat and will have a nutty aroma. Remove from heat and stir in the pumpkin spice. Set aside to cool (under 100°). While it’s cooling, in a large mixing bowl; mix the sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin, v...

  My sister Jessica sent me a new sourdough jar, just because she loves me and she wanted my opinion on how it was. I do like the mouth of the glass jar being so wide, it makes it easier to add flour and water to feed it.  It is much easier to clean.  However, I like just having a paper towel on top instead of having it completely closed off, like the silicone lid this one has. *UPDATE* 8/7 - I started just using the yellow measuring band to hold on a paper towel instead of using the lid.  I like it so much better. If you would like to know more about sourdough here are some more blog posts I did about it. Sourdough 101   Sourdough Bread Recipe Here is what the jar looks like...

Yesterday I made Sourdough Chocolate Cupcakes for National chocolate cake day. They are more of a dark chocolate cake, but so good. They also are very dense, but again, so good! We had a busy day yesterday so I didn’t get this posted. We get together with my “brother” Jeff, his wife Abbie, and his two boys every other Friday for movie night. It’s so fun! Sometimes we don't get a movie watched... sometimes we play games or just talk.  It's a wonderful time! I know you want it, so... Here is the recipe for the cupcakes. Sourdough Chocolate Cake Ingredients: 3/4 cup Sourdough Starter 1/2 cup Milk (I used 2%) 1/3 cup Honey 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil 1/4 cup Hot Water 1/2 tbps Vanilla (I used Mexican vanilla) 1 Egg beaten 1 1/2 cups Flour 1/3 cup Cocoa Powder 1/2 tsp Salt 3/4 tsp Baking Soda Directions: In a microwave save container heat the milk and vegetable oil for about 30 seconds.  Add the honey and dissolve.  Then add the hot water.  Make sure that this mixture is not ho...

This   Sunday January 22, 2023 was National Blonde Brownie Day (or blondies).  So, I made sourdough ones, and they are delicious, if I do say so myself.  One of the things I have longed to do is make things on my own.  I'm not quite there yet, but I can combine and adjust multiple recipes and add in things that we want and take out things that we don't and make them my own.  So, like I said, almost there.  I found several recipes on Pinterest and took things from all of them, then added in some sourdough starter, and made it my own.  Heavenly Father is helping and blessing me by fulfilling a desire of mine, and I am so very grateful! Here is the recipe for  Sourdough Blonde Brownies Ingredients: 1 stick of Salted Butter, softened 1 cup Packed Dark Brown Sugar 3/4 cup Granulated Sugar 3 Eggs 2 tsp Vanilla 1/3 cup Sourdough Starter 1/4 tsp Salt Some Chocolate Chips Some Brown Sugar Directions: Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 13x9 baking pan with p...

  Sunday (January 15th) was National Bagel Day. Sourdough bagels take a very long time, so I wasn’t able to get them done. I was able to get them done on Monday and they are delicious! I used the recipe on  Ballerina Farm - Sourdough Bagels   I didn’t let them rise over night. They only took a couple hours on the counter during the day! I would let them rise a little longer after shaping them so they aren’t so dense. They were really sticky and hard to shape, so I will probably add a little more flour next time. I made half plain and the other half I sprinkled Parmesan Cheese on top. Also, I added the baking soda to the water at the very beginning, instead of waiting for the water to boil and then adding it in. These are very delicious! I don’t want to buy bagels every again! 😆

I used a few different recipes to make sourdough bread and figured out that combining multiple ones together worked best for me. So without further ado… here is my recipe: **********************************   Sourdough Recipe 125 grams Sourdough Starter 368 grams Warm Water (110°) 500 grams Unbleached Flour 11 grams Salt Mix the starter and warm water in a bowl until the starter is dissolved. Mix the salt and flour together than add to the starter/water mixture. Mix until it’s well combined, about 2 minutes. Cover with a damp towel or a plate and let it sit for 2 hours. Then grab the sides of the dough, pull up, and fold into the middle. Continue doing this for about 3 minutes. Cover again and let sit for 8 hours. Then dump out onto a clean counter. Stretch out until you have a large rectangle. Fold the sides over so you have a long rectangle. Then roll it up, tucking in the sides as you go. Once it’s rolled up then you have to push, tuck, and pull the dough to make a tight ball. I...

Sourdough help for beginners (this is me!) I started this post last year and forgot to finish it. Oops. 🙊  So I’ve been trying to make my own sourdough starter. It was going really well for the first few days, but then when I had to discard some of it and use a small amount of the starter to feed, it quit growing. So I started over and it didn’t work again. I decided to buy unbleached flou r to see if that was the problem. I started over again and it was going good, but then my starter grew mold. 😭 So today January 26th 2022 I started yet again.  I was confused about some of the process. I keep seeing everyone with discard and making recipes from it. If they are using discard what are they using for bread? How much of their starter do they keep? How much do they feed their starter? So I’m going to break things down to hopefully help others understand more about sourdough. Supplies needed: Starter Unbleached Flour Warm Water (not over 110°) Salt Scale Measuring Cups Mixing Bo...