I had made a sourdough starter last week using these instructions. It was alive and well so I took out one cup to make sourdough pretzels and put the rest in the fridge.
One thing about working with sourdough that I'm not used to is that it makes a soft dough that doesn't rise quickly. It has to ferment for hours, typically being made one day, left to ferment with folding and flipping it every hour for several hours before going in the fridge overnight. My typical yeast doughs rise rather quickly. My pizza dough easily doubles in an hour or two. I wasn't sure if the pretzels were going to come out right. The dough in the bowl seemed sticky after the 5 hours so I left it out for 2 more hours with more folding. It started to feel more "lively," pulling away from the sides of the bowl, so I figured it was ready for the fridge When I took it out in the morning to shape the pretzels with the cold dough, I knew it was right because there were air bubbles in the pretzel ropes!
After shaping the pretzels and leaving them to come to room temperature for an hour, they got placed in a boiling water/soda bath for 10 seconds on each side, brushed with egg white and sprinkled with Trader Joe's Everything But the Bagel topping which is good stuff!
This recipe is a winner! I wrapped 6 of them and froze them. We each had one yesterday then I put the others in the fridge. I quick warm up in the oven on a cookie sheet makes them taste fresh baked.
I think the next sourdough experiment will be cinnamon rolls.
The next cooking task: freezing celery. This sounds weird I know but I always find soup recipes that call for celery and I don't keep it on hand. I had bought a bag with 2 celery bunches at Trader Joe's last time I went (11 days ago) as I needed some for soup. I didn't want to throw the rest out. I did some research and found that you can blanch it and freeze it for freezing for soup. It can't be eaten fresh this way. Apparently it keeps longer in the freezer and retains more flavor when blanched. I diced the celery, put it in boiling water for 3 minutes then plunged it in ice water until the water was cool. I let it drain on a paper towel.
I packed it in portion control bags--enough for 3 batches of soup!
Next up--making tortilla bowls for taco salad. I have a little chili left over but not enough for two full servings so I thought I'd make taco salad. Normally when I make a batch of 18 tortillas, I use 3 cups of masa and 2 cups of water for tortillas weighing about 1.4 oz. each. So I figured I'd try 1 cup masa and 2/3 cup water. Each dough ball was 3.8 oz plus a .2 oz one for Gloria. I pressed the dough balls in the tortilla press and had to further roll them out as the press is a little small.
The get "cooked" on the griddle for about a minute on each side before going in a tea towel to steam. This makes them more pliable.
Next I had to figure out how to shape them. First I draped them over upside down pyrex bowls but that didn't work because they don't flop enough. I ended up lining the bowls with oiled foil and just sticking them in the bowls. Then they got baked until they were crisp. They took longer to bake than I expected. When they started getting crisp, I lifted the foil from the bowls and they finished cooking much more quickly. I flipped them over for a minute or two as well.
Here they are waiting to be filled. I'll have to find a better shaped bowl for the next time.
And here they are filled with baby lettuce, topped with leftover chili, sweet baby red pepper slices, cherry tomatoes, olives, jalepeños, cheese and sour cream. Gloria's has oil free refried beans, spinach and sweet red peppers. These were fun. They would probably be crisper if they were fried but I think the bottom just gets leathery from the moisture of the ingredients in the bowl. The sides were still crispy.
Today's numbers have hit a milestone.
Over 1 million infected. They are predicting at least 2 weeks before we hit the apex here. If you're thinking of going out in the public--don't!
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