Whole wheat sour dough and Canada day long weekend up in Georgian Bay region!

I've been growing and feeding and singing and nurturing a sour dough starter for about 2 weeks and the bread that comes from this starter is unusually sour. And because I wanted to bring some homemade sourdough for our cottaging trip this Canada's Day long weekend, I cheated and added some fresh bread machine yeast to the starter, to help it rise faster, and to tone down the super sour taste from the starter. Do I feel guilty for cheating? Well, not really. The yeasts just wont cooperate! 


If you've got a good sourdough starter, you can omit the addition of extra yeast :)


Ingredients:

125 mL sour dough starter, 100% hydrated
1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast
125 mL warm water

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
1/2 tbsp sea salt
Olive oil


Mix together starter, yeast and warm water and let sit for a few minutes. Combine flours and salt and knead until homogeneous. 


Proof for a few hours until doubled in size. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 mins to push out the air bubbles. 


Oil a baking sheet and with the dough, form a loaf shape onto the oiled sheet. Let proof for another 1 - 2 hours. 


Preheat the oven to 415 F. Gather the long edges of the loaf toward each other and pinch toward the middle axis of the loaf. It should look like a potato bug with pinches down it's middle. Brush the surface with olive oil and bake for 20 - 25 mins until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped. 

Oh if only I could take a picture of your insides...... how tempted I was. But unfortunately, you must wait until we get to the cottage tomorrow, then we'll tear you apart and butter you up good. Pictures coming soon.

Update (July 2, 2012):

The sour dough became bread for an avocado, prosciutto, pickled asparagus and hummus pressed sandwich. Those pickled asparagus are a new discovery for me and are now my new obsession! (Do you have one of those friends who experiments with anything and everything when it comes to food? Or maybe you are one of those crazy friends who will try just about everything! Well, he picked these gems up from Costco and we 6 of us devoured the entire jar easy - Thanks Richin!!!) 

We olive oiled the outsides of the sandwich and pressed them on the grill against the bottom of a baking sheet and a heated cast iron pan. I had wanted to add scrambled eggs inside and press the sandwiches directly against the grill to get those grill marks, but alas, I forgot to scramble them eggs, and was worried my sandwich would fall through the grates. But anyway, it was delicious!














While driving to work that morning, I couldn't have hoped for a better Canada's day long weekend: the weather was going to be perfect, sunny and high 20's, the local radio station was playing one of my favorite songs from the '90s, and gasoline prices had dropped down 3 cents midnight! WAHOO!!

We rented a cottage right by the lake. We had two boats, lots of fishing rods, the beautiful shining sun, and TONS of food, including the not-so-good-for-you highly processed, high glucose-fructose, high glycemic index foods. But we were also pretty creative and made some really terrific, nutritious, delicious, feel-good foods! 


Although I live in the city, I think I'm a country girl at heart. 

Photos courtesy of Richin Choi and Willa Tam