Sourdough Banana Bread

Now the kids are back to school. Its back to lunchbox prep and baking for me. One thing they love to take in is Banana bread. I usually make mine with spelt flour and maple syrup and have been testing a recipe that can use up the sourdough discard.

You will need:

2 cups / 250g spelt or plain all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking /bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup / 113g softened butter

1/2 cup / 100g soft brown sugar

1/2 cup / 100g demerara or raw cane sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large bananas mashed

1 cup / 250g sourdough starter/ discard

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180oC / 350oF. Grease and line standard size loaf tin.

2. Placed softened butter and sugar into a medium to large mixing bowl and mix until well combined. Add in eggs, vanilla and mashed banana and mix until combined.

3. Add in flour, baking soda, salt & sourdough starter/discard and mix until combined. Spoon or pour into baking tin and bake for 55 - 60 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

4. Leave to cool in tin, remove from tin 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