Raise Your Hand If You Love Cornbread

 

Do you love cornbread?

Out there among those raised hands may very well be a couple of young men who once upon a time lived in our home. They loved cornbread then and still do, selecting restaurants based on cornbread and happy to eat it at any time.

Tropical Flavor: Sourdough Hummingbird Muffins

Somewhere a tropical breeze is blowing through palm trees and waves are lapping on a sandy beach.  Someone is reclining there, basking in the warmth; no doubt snacking on fresh pineapple or another tropical fruit before wading in the surf. 

That someone isn't me. Is it you? 

Sourdough Blueberry Buckle Coffee Cake Makes Me Smile

Feeling a little blue? A bite or two of blueberries might just cheer you up. Why not? They're good for almost everything else. Full of antioxidants and flavor, not to mention vitamin C, fiber and manganese they are often listed among the most healthy foods to eat. According to the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, they may play a role in cardiovascular health, brain health, insulin response and cancer risk reduction.

Awesome: Chocolate Sourdough Zucchini Cake

Is it possible to have too much zucchini? Most gardeners who optimistically planted more than one hill will answer with a resounding "Yes!".

Sourdough Zucchini Bread Makes Summertime Complete

Have you had zucchini bread this summer? If not, your summer is not complete. And if it was made and served by these lovely young ladies who could resist?

Tang!: Rhubarb Sourdough Coffeecake

Our faithful rhubarb patch.

It's not because of its sweetness that some people really like rhubarb. When I say really like I mean obsessively like. No, it has more to do with its tang, its tingle, its pucker power. 

Everybody issues a warning so I will too. Don't eat the leaves.

We harvest rhubarb for a few weeks each spring when the stalks are about a half inch thick. When we purchased our home, more than 25 years ago, it came with a clump of rhubarb. We have never had to replace it. Last fall at the end of back-to-back summers of brutal heat and drought, it didn't look so good. But it has returned this spring looking just fine. Maybe it will keep going for another 25 years.

I only serve this in the spring, during rhubarb season.

One of my favorite ways to serve rhubarb is Rhubarb Sourdough Coffeecake. It has a nice balance of tang and sweetness with a moist cake and crisp sugary topping. If you love rhubarb, you will love this cake. Even if you aren't all that wild about rhubarb, I think (because I've served it to a few family members who aren't rhubarb fans) that you will enjoy it anyway. And because I know that not everyone has sourdough, I will include recipe adjustments so that you can make it without sourdough if you desire. 
  

Rhubarb Sourdough Coffeecake
(for a printable recipe, click here)

The cast of ingredients for the cake

For Cake:
1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup fresh sourdough
1/2 cup milk
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chopped rhubarb

For Crisp Topping
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, if desired

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Spray a 9X9 inch  or a 7X11 pan with cooking oil spray. 

For Cake:

I used 5 stalks of rhubarb. It was a little over 2 cups but I used it all.

Chop rhubarb into about 1/4 inch cubes. Cream together butter, sugar and egg. Add flour, baking powder and salt. As you are mixing in the dry ingredients, pour in the milk and sourdough. Blend well. Stir in rhubarb. Pour mixture into prepared pan.

For Crisp Topping:
Mix together well and sprinkle over batter in the pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned.

To make without sourdough:
Increase milk to 3/4 cup, flour to 1 1/2 cups and baking powder to 2 teaspoons. Omit sourdough. Combine as directed above.

Where else can you find Rhubarb Sourdough Coffeecake except in your own kitchen?

Interested in learning more about sourdough? Here are a few links to other posts which include more information about sourdough. (Both links also include sourdough recipes.)
Some notes about sourdough
 How to get some sourdough.
 (You can also find more of my recipes if you check out my Recipes on pages located beneath the sign)

Sourdough Banana Bread

There are lots of good recipes for banana bread and they all taste pretty good. Why then Sourdough Banana Bread? Because it is indeed superb.

The simple ingredients.

What is it about sourdough that makes it taste so good? I am truly not sure. Sourdough is a fermented mixture of flour and water. What it does for bread is almost magical. Yes, its worth it to keep a jar with this bubbly concoction in the refrigerator should you happen to have a few overripe bananas sitting on your counter.

I always refresh the sourdough a few hours before using. Ideally sourdough should be used often, but I've found that even though I might not use it every week, if I take it from the refrigerator and add equal amounts warm water and flour, it is soon bubbling away and ready to work its magic. This is the good stuff. The sourdough setting in the refrigerator for several weeks is not. Oh, it would probably still work, but the recently fed sourdough is the best.

And an egg. Gotta have an egg.

This recipe, along with many of my sourdough recipes, was adapted from Rita Davenport's Sourdough Cookery which was published in 1977.  I love this book and it has taught me well. Most of the recipes are very good and some are outstanding. Sourdough Banana Bread qualifies as outstanding.

The recipe is simple, but goes together in a rather unusual way.

 Sourdough Banana Bread
(for a printable recipe, click here)

Begin by mixing together:
1 cup fresh sourdough starter

Sourdough starter is added to sugar and the fun begins.

1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

This creates a lovely foamy mixture.

Add:
1/3 cup canola oil (or any vegetable oil)
1 egg

Mix well.

Add:
1 cup flour
1 cup mashed banana (usually two)

Mix well.

Pour mixture into oiled loaf pans. It makes one large loaf, but I usually prefer to make it into two or three smaller loafs. Allow to sit in a warm place for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with about 1/3 cup chocolate chips.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50-55 minutes (single large loaf) or 30-35 minutes (two smaller loafs) or until done.

Pour a cup of tea and cut a slice of banana bread. Yes, I think you'll agree. This is a very good banana bread.

How to get your own sourdough starter:

1. Ask me! I really am glad to share. I think I have an excellent sourdough. I have been using and feeding my sourdough for at least ten years. If you know me and live close, I am a great option.

2.. Make your own. There are a several recipes posted on Tasty Kitchen (click here or here or here). I have not tried any of these recipes, but they seem fairly simple and I'm sure would work well. Rita Davenport offers several recipes for starter in her book, Rita Davenport's Sourdough Cookery. 

3. When someone offers you Amish Friendship Bread starter, accept. Occasionally Amish Friendship Bread starter makes the rounds in our community. According to the directions you have to make a loaf of bread and give away several bags of starter every week. It doesn't take very many weeks before there is a glut of baggies of starter. Then in another week everyone gets tired of the "have to"  in making the friendship bread and they throw everything out.  If someone offers you a bag, go ahead and accept, but don't follow the instructions. Feed it only equal amounts of warm water and flour. You'll have a great sourdough starter. It is possible that this is how I got my original sourdough.

Interested in sourdough? Here are some more recipes you may want to try (Click on the label for a link to the recipe):

Sourdough Blueberry Pancakes

Sourdough Apple-Oatmeal Bread

Sourdough Waffles

Sausage and Bacon Sourdough Waffles Do Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner

Sourdough Waffles and sausage or bacon are a great combination. But don't just serve sausage and bacon beside your waffles when you can have them inside your waffles! Yes, sausage or bacon waffles are a comforting meal at breakfast, lunch or dinner. Topped with fried apples or just a drizzle of syrup, they are a meal you'll want to have again and again.


Like Sourdough Pancakes, Sourdough Waffles begin the evening or about eight hours before you will be serving them. It's nothing complicated, it just means planning ahead. 

Sourdough starter is a white liquid.

 Mix:
2 cups flour
2 cups milk (or water)
1/2 cup sourdough starter

Cover with plastic wrap and let sit a room temperature overnight or for about eight hours.

When the starter mixes with the flour and milk, the bubbles begin.

 Add:
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
5 tablespoons canola oil
3 eggs

Mix together thoroughly. 

Meanwhile,  or perhaps before mixing up the batter, cook 4-12 slices of bacon until done, but not crisp. Drain.

Cook 1/2-1 pound of bulk sausage until no longer pink. Drain. 

The amount of meat you cook will vary according to how many waffles you want of each kind. All sausage? Cook about a pound. All bacon? Twelve slices. A mixture or some just plain? You do the math. If you have leftover cooked meat, pop it into the freezer and use it another time. You don't even have to defrost. I have often sprinkle frozen cooked sausage over a waffle and it works fine.

 Pour batter onto a preheated waffle griddle sprayed with canola oil. My waffle griddle is large and I use about one cup of batter per waffle. On my griddle with this recipe, I get four or five waffles.

Sprinkle batter with crumbled sausage.














Or top with several slices of bacon.

A Sausage Waffle

A Bacon Waffle

Once the waffle is done, you barely tell that what these waffles have inside.







Other possible additions include blueberries and nuts. You may also wish to make some without any additions. Those are yummy, too.

Good to the last bite!

Sourdough Waffles

2 cups flour

2 cups milk (or water)

1/2 cup sourdough starter

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

5 tablespoons canola oil

3 eggs

Mix flour, milk or water and sourdough starter. Cover and let stand overnight or for about 8 hours. Add sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Beat in eggs. Spread batter on a sprayed griddle. Cook 5-6 minutes until done. Makes about four-six servings.

Source: Rita Davenport's Sourdough Cookery, with some changes

Apples Announce Autumn's Arrival

Perhaps there is no perfect food, but consider the apple. Round and smooth, crisp and juicy, sweet and tart...and it's nutritious!  That's very close to perfection. There are thousands of varieties to choose from and most taste great. A crunchy fresh apple is delicious but so is one that is cooked in a crisp, cake or bread. Cinnamon is apple's comforting companion and together they announce that autumn has arrived!

The scent of apple bread baking is almost worth the effort of making it, but when you taste it, there will be no regrets! Sourdough Oatmeal Apple Bread is loaded with apples and oatmeal gives it a delightful chewy texture. If you're into sourdough, this is a recipe you will want to try. If you don't have sourdough, keep looking because I am also including a recipe for apple crisp.

Sourdough Oatmeal-Apple Loaf

 1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 cup sourdough starter
2/3 cup oatmeal
2 cups shredded apple, with peel
1 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda


Cream together sugar, oil and eggs. Add sourdough starter along with the dry ingredients. Mix well. Fold in apple.  Pour in a well-greased loaf pan and in a 350 degree oven for 50 minutes or until done.  I have used my small mini-pans and baked for about 30 minutes. 

Source: Rita Davenport's Sourdough Cookery, some changes made

Apple Crisp reminds me of my mother as it something she often made. The soft spicy apples contrasting with the crispy buttery topping make it one of the ultimate comfort foods. In my book, its as good as pie and much less work.

Apple Crisp

First of all, let me admit that I don't usually measure these first ingredients. There's some flexibility to this part of the recipe.

5-6 cups apples, peeled, cored and sliced
3/4-1 cup sugar
2-3 tablespoons corn starch 
 1/2-1 teaspoon cinnamon


Mix together in an 8X8 pan. 

Next make the crisp topping, which I do measure, mix together in a separate bowl:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup softened butter


I usually use a fork to stir, just until it kind of holds together. It should be crumbly. Sprinkle on top of apple mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Crisp is done when top is browned and apples are soft when tested with a fork. Best served warm and on the day it was made. 

Warm and Wonderful

Cookbooks I Have Loved

Keep your romance novels, I'd rather settle down with a good cookbook. It's not that I don't enjoy good fiction, it's just that I have so little self-discipline and am inclined to consume a book while neglecting all other responsibilities including things like sleep. It's ridiculous! It doesn't even have to be all that good. So I don't allow myself to indulge all that often. Cookbooks, however, make good reading and I can put them down. Cookbooks not only make good nighttime reading, they also can take you on great adventures in the kitchen.  Delicious dishes are just a recipe away!

While I'm always looking for a new cookbook, there are some that stand out. Splattered and worn, they have been beloved teachers and dear friends. Here are some of the cookbooks I have loved:

Betty Crocker's Cookbook
I received this book from my mother at one of my wedding showers. She had used a Betty Crocker Cookbook for years and she got me the latest edition.

Sourdough Blueberry Pancakes Are Quite Good

Sourdough is an ancient way of causing a rising or growing action in dough or batters through fermentation. Before commercial yeast was available this is how most bread was made. Many pioneer families depended on sourdough as did the Yukon gold miners who were even called "sourdoughs." Since sourdough is a culture that is "fed" flour and water, it can be sustained for many years. Claims are made of sourdough maintained for a hundred years or more. 

Sourdough Blueberry Pancakes make a lovely weekend breakfast.

My sourdough is nowhere near that old, but I am thinking that I've kept it going since sometime in the 1990's, perhaps even earlier.