It’s been a bit since I’ve done anything with sourdough because I let my starter, Fred, die. Life got crazy and I forgot to feed him. Then, I tried to revive him but it was too late.
I asked around and was brought a lovely starter! What luck! Just look at that beauty! I’ve named my new counter surfer, George.
I busted out my Starter Sourdough book by Carroll Pellegrinelli and got to work! First, the recipe says to activate your starter by adding water and flour to the starter. This needs to sit 6-12 hours on your counter.
After about 8 hours, I mixed in milk and more flour. This needs to sit for 8-12 hours. This is great to mix together just before heading to bed so you can make them first thing in the morning.
Look at this beautiful dough I woke up to! I mixed in sugar, salt, baking soda, and a little more flour. I ended up with a very loose dough. I liberally floured my counter and just patted the dough flat. Then, I used a large cup to cut out them out. (I don’t have a cutter big enough, so I used what I had. It actually worked great!)
After cutting them out I put them on a baking sheet that had been dusted with cornmeal. They wait here until it’s their turn in the fry pan. Yes friends, these beauties are fried in butter, not baked. I wish you could smell these when they are cooking. My grandma used to coat morel mushrooms in flour and then fry them in butter. My kitchen had that “flour fried in butter” smell. Mmmmmm…
Anyway, in the pan they go to get fried to a golden brown on both sides.
When they are done, I put them on a cooling rack. Between each batch that gets fried, I wipe the pan clean with a paper towel. This keeps the butter from burning and having the next batch taste like burned butter.
Once they are cooled, I cut them in half and bag them up. This recipe makes about 24. So, some go in the freezer and some go to friends.
Some have lots of nooks and crannies, and others have just a few. Also, I haven’t gotten the knack of making them all look the same, but I figure, you can definitely tell these are homemade! Lol! Regardless, they are SO good! If you’ve never tried making these, you should give it a try! They are not hard, they just take time!
Happy cooking!
Baking with Becky 