Cheese & Chive Sourdough Scones

Our herb garden is so pretty at this time of year. All the herbs are blooming and the chive flowers are particularly beautiful.

This is a really quick easy recipe that I make up for the children’s lunchboxes or after school snack. Sometimes we have this for lunch with some hummus, pesto and salad.

Recipe makes 8 scones

Ingredients

1 cup / 170g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate/ bread soda

1/3 cup / 50g cold butter diced

3/4 cup / 50g grated cheese

1 - 2 tablespoons chopped chives

1/2 cup / 125g sourdough starter

2 eggs

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180oC or 350o F.
  Place flour, baking powder, baking soda in a medium bowl and stir to combine.

• add butter and rub in until mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add cheese and chives.

• in a jug or small bowl, mix together sourdough starter and 1 egg.

• add the starter and egg mixture into the dry ingredients until the mixture comes together.

• tip the mixture out onto a lined baking tray. Form into a circle and press down or flatten slightly into a round disc. Using a knife cut the circle into 8.
  

• Separate the scones. whisk the other egg and brush the top of the scones and add extra grated cheese.

• bake in the middle of the oven for 15 - 18 mins until scones are slightly browned and hollow when tapped on the bottom. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

• Enjoy !!!!
  
  
  
  
  

Sourdough Pretzels

The children love these Pretzels, quick and super simple as always and a great addition to the school lunchboxes.

You will need:

50ml water

115g sourdough discard (unfed)

30ml milk (I used oat milk)

10g sugar

10g melted butter / sunflower oil

1 teaspoon salt

200g strong bread flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg, beaten

Everything bagel seasoning - See below for other uses for this seasoning

2 tablespoons back sesame seeds

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1 tablespoons poppy seeds

1/2 tablespoon garlic granules

1/2 tablespoon onion powder

1/2 tablespoon sea salt flakes ( I used Maldon)

Mix all together and place into an airtight spice jar / container.

METHOD

1. In a mixing bowl whisk together the water, sourdough discard, milk., sugar and melted butter / oil.

2. Add flour and salt and knead for 3 - 5 minutes or until dough is smooth & forms a ball.

3. Place into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with tea towel and leave to rise for 2 hours or until it has almost doubled in size.

4. Divide dough into 6 pieces. Roll each each out into a long strip approx 22 - 25 cm and fold into pretzel shape and place onto a lined baking sheet.

5. Preheat oven to 220oC / 450oF and bring a large pot of water to the boil. Once the water has boiled, add the baking soda to it and boil each pretzel for 1 - 2 minutes or until they float to the top of the water.

6. Remove pretzels and place onto lined baking sheet. eat griddle pan or pan on high heat. Brush with beaten egg and top with everything bagel season.

   N.B - If you don’t like this seasoning, top with your favourite toppings.

7. Bake in the middle of the oven for 12 - 15 minutes until lightly browned.

8. Enjoy with butter, cream cheese or buffalo dip.

KITCHEN TIP

You can use this everything bagel seasoning on

• popcorn, eggs, avocado toast, salad topper, guacamole, noodles/stir fries.

Soft Sourdough ToRtillas

The kids love tortillas and it’s something that I had always bought when I did our grocery shopping.

This is another simple recipe using sourdough discard. I have made them straight away so If you can’t wait they are still delicious. I have also made the dough and left it to rest for 4 hours at room temperature or overnight in the fridge and these yielded the softest result.

They are really tasty served warm along with your favourite fillings for lunch, served along side breakfast or dinner.

Makes 4 - 6 depending on size

you will need

1 cup of plain flour

1/2 cup of rye or other flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

1/4 cup sourdough starter

1/2 cup warm water

•Mix all the ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Leave to rest for 20 mins then divide the dough and roll out into thin rounds .

•Heat a medium to large frying pan on high heat until smoking and place tortilla in the pan until bubbles appear on the opposite side, flip over and cook approx 30 seconds to one minute per side, keep an eye on them so that they don’t burn.

• Once cooked rub with butter and enjoy.

SOURDOUGH PIZZA DOUGH

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Sourdough baking has been something on my bucket list or something I’ve always wanted to learn and master and always thought I didn’t have the time to do. It is definately a labour of love and is so rewarding.

At the beginning of the lockdown,I purchased a sourdough stater from my friend Terri Ann Fox who runs River Run Ferments. Terri Ann is an amazing mine of information regarding sour dough and fermenting. I attended her Kombucha and Fermentation class and have been following her ever since. She has been a great help to me with all the questions I’ve had.

The starter was dehydrated and needed to be activated by mixing it with equal measures of flour and water. You can also start you own sourdough starter it takes about 7 days.

Depending on how often you are baking your bread you have to feed your sourdough. I’m always trying to improve my workflow in my kitchen and aim for zero waste. Baking bread quite often left me with quite a bit of sourdough discard.

So began the delicious journey of what make to use up our sourdough discard.

This recipe is one of our favourites, it can easily be doubled and the dough will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days. I have also used any of this leftover dough to make garlic naan bread oh so yum…

This pizza base is so so so good. Yum!

This recipe makes 3 - 4 medium thin crust pizza bases.

You will need :

Ingredients

1 cup sourdough starter (unfed/discard)

2 1/2 cups flour (strong or plain).

1/2 cup warm/tepid water

1/2 tsp each of salt

1/2 tsp dried yeast

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp dried oregano

oil for the bowl

METHOD

1. Place all ingredients in the bowl of the electric mixer fitted with a dough hook and knead for about 7 mins. To make by hand mix all ingredients together and when the dough comes together knead on a floured surface for 10 - 15 mins.

2. Lightly oil your bowl and place the dough in it, cover it with a tea towel and leave somewhere warm for 2 -3 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.

3. Preheat oven to 260oC.

4. Once dough has doubled in size, remove from bowl, seperate into 3 or 4 balls, roll out and add your favourite pizza toppings.

For the pizza above we used a tomato sauce over the base, some grated and fresh mozarella, sliced courgette / zuchinni and baked it for 5 - 8 mins. Then topped it with carrot top pesto and rocket..

Enjoy with a lovely glass of red wine.

Boun Appetito.

Courgette, pesto and rocket pizza