Steak Recipe

Steaks must be 3/4 inch, but not thinner.

1. Prepare each side the same.
   1. Salt steak with coarse or shaved sea salt. Should be evenly salted, but not overly.
   2. Add Garlic Powder, Rosemary, Pepper, and Smoked Paprika liberally
   3. Sprinkle Avocado or Sunflower oil on side. Work spices and salt together with oil into meat to a nice coating. Shouldn’t be runny. Just enough oil to allow spices and salt to stick to side.
   4. Turn over and repeat
   5. Let rest on Rack at least 30 minutes. I put the rack on a cookie sheet so I can just add directly to oven.
   6. Preheat oven to broil 10 minutes. This allows the element to get to full working temp.
   7. Put upper rack on second rung. Steaks should be about 2 inches from element when added to oven.
   8. Cut a 3/8 pattie of butter into 4 quarters. The butter blocks should be 3/8 inch.
   9. Add two blocks of butter evenly spaced on the steak.
   10. Add to oven.
   11. Cook 3 minutes.
   12. Turn steak and add two more blocks of butter.
   13. Cook 4 minutes.
   14. CAUTION- Oven will smoke, so turn fan to high.
   15. Remove steaks from oven and lightly tent and rest for 10-15 minutes.
2. Enjoy!

These directions are to reconstitute and bring back to life dehydrated starter:

1. Stage 1 (Kitchen Counter – 65-75 Degrees Room Temperature)
   1. 1 Tablespoon Dried Starter
   2. 3 Tablespoons Unbleached Flour
   3. 2 Tablespoons Filtered (Brita) Water
      1. Mix in a Pint Mason jar with a butter knife until it looks doughy.
2. Stage 2 (6 hours or so later)
   1. Add 1/8 cup Filtered Water
   2. Add 1/8 cup Unbleached Flour
      1. Mix until doughy
3. Stage 3 (Overnight)
   1. Toss 1/2 of mixture
   2. Add 1/4 Cup Filtered Water
   3. Add 1/4 Cup Unbleached Flour
      1. Mix until doughy
4. Finishing
   1. Dough should have some air bubbles and be rising. A rubber band wrapped around the jar will help you gauge how it is rising.
   2. Don’t be afraid to mix with a knife. I use a knife to pull in the dough towards the center and work it around so it is away from the edge. This actually feeds the starter by bringing more food to the starter.

Care and Feeding

• Keep it on the counter.
• If you let it go too long without feeding it will become runny and have an orange tinted cover to the mixture. It will smell a bit of alcohol. This is fine, it’s just hungry. Toss all of it out except about a teaspoon and start over. The first feeding will make it a little happy… The second feeding should see a good rise and it will be ready to use.
• NEVER give it yeast. You can use yeast in a recipe, but don’t use it in the jar.
• If you have a good batch and have nothing to do, spread it onto parchment paper and let dry. Grind it up with a blender and you have a backup for future use.
• Have Fun!!
• More Starter Info Here!

Recipe-

3 1/2 cups Unbleached Flour
1-2 tablespoons Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
1/2 teaspoon Yeast
2 cups Filtered Water (Not Tap- Clorine kills yeast)

Additions-
3/4 cup Sourdough Starter

Cinnamon, Dried Berries, Spices- Berries (1/2-3/4cup)

1. Dump ingredients into a bowl
2. Mix with a spoon until combined, clean sides with spatula.
3. Cover with foil or plastic wrap
4. Let stand 12 hours (I mix the night before and in the morning do the baking
5. After 12 hours Preheat oven to 450 degrees- Put Dutch Oven in oven to preheat as well.
   1. Preheat Dutch Oven as well
   2. Start Timer to 35 minutes after Oven comes up to Temperature
6. Use parchment paper to line a bowl or banneton
7. Use spatula to pour dough onto floured surface
8. Sprinkle flour over dough
9. Using Dough Knife or Spatula, fold dough over itself and shape into a small ball
10. Place Dough into Parchment Lined Bowl
11. After 35 minute to 60 minute rise
    1. Open Oven
    2. Sprinkle tablespoon rice into dutch oven
    3. Place Dough into dutch oven by holding with parchment paper
    4. Place dutch oven cover
12. Bake 35 minutes
13. At 35 minutes remove dutch oven cover and bake for 5-8 minutes uncovered (Until nicely browned)
14. Remove Bread from Dutch Oven and cool on wire rack for 3 hours.

Enjoy!

If it get’s too “Happy” it can pop the top off ! Haha!

Care and Feeding of John’s Sourdough Starter

Feeding-

Ideally, feeding the sourdough starter is in grams. With gram scale you add 50 grams of flour and 45 grams of flour and mix with about a teaspoon of starter. I’ve measured what that equates to in cups and found that ¼ cup of flour and just over an ⅛ cup of water is the amount. (I use the same ¼ cup measuring cup and with the water I add just over half)

I’ve found that a flat edged butter knife works awesome to mix it up. After mixing, then just leave on the counter. I “knead” the starter with the knife whenever I’m in the kitchen until it starts to grow. In about 12 hours it should more than doubled. Then it’s ready to use.

I use the starter in my “hybread” recipe that uses both sourdough AND yeast. This causes and active rise and also allows cutting into the bread when it’s almost cooled. A true sourdough bread really isn’t ready until the next day. Basically I’m using the sourdough for flavoring, but it also does alot of the heavy lifting for the rise. When using, just scoop out everything. It takes just the littlest bit, a smidgen as my grandma used to say, to start another batch. It shouldn’t be too runny. It will resemble a very soft bread dough with lots of bubbles. 

Over time you’ll want to feed it at least once every couple of days. If it gets a little light orange skin and smells really boozy, then it really needs feeding. Just scoop out almost everything and trash it and feed it and it will get happy again. This batch really likes the artisan flour. If I notice it’s getting weak, I’ll add a little whole grain to it to help it along. 

This will grow to about ¾ of the pint jar, but when it’s happy it may even grow all the way to the top.

You know it’s ready as it just crowns up before starting to retreat. If you want to use it exclusively without yeast, take a teaspoon of the starter and see if it will float in water. If it does, it is ready.

Backup- As a tech guy, a backup of documents is a must. Well, you can make a backup of sourdough starter as well. If it gets really happy and bubbly and awesome, but you don’t have any baking lined up, take the amount of starter out, just like you were making bread, and spread it thinly parchment paper and let dry. Not only will you have a backup, but it seems to super charged by gathering more yeast from the air. When it is completely dried out, break it out and blend the flakes in a blender. It will turn into a fine powder. I then put this away in a dry place for use later. To reconstitute, take about a tablespoon of dried starter, a tablespoon of flour, and about tablespoon of water and put in a pint mason jar. Stir well let sit, stirring every so often. You’ll see some tell tale bubbles appear and it’s time to feed it as above. Generally the first rise isn’t powerful enough to use for baking, but the next will be. 

History- The starter was borne April 4, 2020 during the pandemic. It was started using an apple and flour and cultivated for a year. I crushed an apple and let it set out for 5 days. When it started to smell a little boozy, I added flour and a little water and let it sit uncovered for another week. I stirred it several times per day and eventually it started to grow. Initially it was a little week. It really only could rise about 50% or maybe 1 to 1. My has the little creature grown!!
It has some strains as well from a batch from the Nyac Gold Mine and a package of starter that claimed it was from the Chilkoot Trail of 1898. I had a “competition” to see which was the best and the apple was always the best. I tested mixing them all together and liked the smell and taste the best. It should be a sweet sour. 

Have fun!!