Breadmaker Sourdough

I've been looking for a recipe for English muffins.  First attempt failed as muffins but I managed to produce reasonable flatbreads.  Too many distractions happening - well that's my excuse.

The recipe I used is a simple one though and would make good pizza dough.

Moving the thought process onwards, I experimented with making a sourdough loaf in the breadmaker using the same recipe.  I set a sponge going overnight using all the water and 2/3rd of the flour.  The next morning, the sponge was poured into the bread pan along with a little salt, sugar, the rest of the flour and a little bicarb soda.  Normal setting produced a loaf with reasonable holes and the most amazing crust.  Not sure I'd do it again though because the stirrer blade was well and truly embedded in the loaf and very difficult to remove because of the crisp crust.

Sourdough Crumpets

So what can you do with 750ml of accumulated excess starter - those portions of mix that you are suppose to throw away when you are refreshing your precious starter?

Crumpets for now, breakfast in the morning and the rest can go in the freezer

Why, make a triple batch of crumpets of course....

You can see my recipe here

Sourdough pancakes

I seem to have a fair amount of "discarded" starter in my fridge - Yes, I know you are suppose to throw it out, but I can't bring myself to do that and each time I refresh my starter, I toss the surplus into a container in my fridge.  I add some flour and water into the mix when I remember and it stays fresh and sweet.

So, pancakes for breakfast using my recipe.  They are just so nice - light and fluffy and the bicarbonate of soda counteracts the sour in the starter.  Basically, you take about a cup of starter (no need to refresh), add an egg, some oil and powdered milk, a little sugar, salt and bicarb and there you have it.  Mix it up and make your pancakes.  How easy is that!

Now I need to work out what to do with the other litre of left over starter.

Pressed pickled pork

I managed to buy a nice piece of pickled pork last week and finally cooked it today.  It's one of those pieces that come in a string bag which is never a good look for a piece of meat.  However this one cooked up nicely and there's not a lot of fat with it.

Mum's old meat press on the left and mine on the right.

So, to the press.  I scavenged a nice meat press from my Mum a while back and it's probably the best one I've ever seen.  It's heavy cast aluminium and rectangular in shape.  Mum tells me that my Nana gave it to her many years ago so it's done a bit of work and still looks fit for another 50 years of service.  My other press is a lightweight aluminium affair that looks cheap and nasty but I guess it does the job too - not as nice to use as the old one.