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On Sunday morning, I baked the KAF Honey Spelt Sourdough Bread recipe. I made the levain last night after the newly fed sourdough starter got punchy. The first time I baked this bread, it came out beautifully—flavorful, with a light texture, which surprised me, as 75% of the flour is spelt and the leavening is the sourdough levain and ½ tsp. yeast. The next two times I baked it, the bread did not come out as well. This time, I paid close attention to my notes from the first time. It is a very slack dough, but I resisted adding more than 1 cup of the AP flour. I did get better rise this time, although not as good as what I recall from the first time I baked the recipe, and the dough was too wet to slash very well, so I’m glad that I slashed it about 15 minutes before I put it in the oven, so that it would have a bit of recovery time. I used Bob’s Red Mill organic spelt flour the past three times, and it may be that it differs in some ways from KAF’s organic spelt that affect this recipe slightly. However, the Bob’s Red Mill spelt flour, when bought as a case of 1-pound bags, and as part of an order that gets me free shipping, is much less expensive than buying a bag of the KAF organic spelt flour. I won’t know about taste and texture until tomorrow.
I'm considering using 2 Tbs. rather than just 1 Tbs. of sourdough starter next time to see if that gives more of a rise.
I baked a second batch of large zucchini muffins on Monday. I again used Ruth Bass’ recipe as my base and added 1/2 cup cinnamon chips. I tried adding ¼ tsp. baking soda, but it barely affected the rise, so I will leave it out in the future. I also reduced the canola oil to ¼ cup. I will add a note to this post tomorrow about taste and texture.
Promised Note: Reducing the oil further did help the texture, as I thought the first batch was too wet. Next time, I might try reducing the sugar from 1/2 to 1/3 cup, since I do add cinnamon chips.
For breakfast, I baked a new recipe, “Blueberry Cream Scones [with Mint Sugar], from Ken Haedrich’s The Harvest Baker (p. 46). I did not use the optional mint sugar (my husband is not a mint fan, nor do I have any fresh mint on hand) or the glaze, as a good scone should be able to stand on its own! I made a couple of changes: I substituted in 25% barley flour for that much AP flour, I deleted the ½ tsp. of vanilla, and I used ¼ tsp. lemon oil rather than 1/2 tsp. lemon extract or 2 tsp. grated lemon zest, which I do not have. I have an old jar of vanilla sugar that still smells like vanilla, so I sprinkled some of it on top before baking, along with a bit of the KAF sparkling sugar. These are some of the lightest, most tender scones that I’ve ever baked, and they are heavenly. I followed Haedrich's advice to freeze the blueberries overnight. I also mixed up all the dry ingredients the night before, covered the bowl and put it in the refrigerator, along with my pastry cutter.
I omitted the vanilla because, with the skyrocketing vanilla prices (and no end to it in sight), I find myself taking a page from the home front of the second world war when posters reminded motorists of gas shortages: “Is this trip necessary?” I try to apply that to recipes these days, “Is the vanilla necessary?” My only concession was that stash of vanilla sugar that I really should use up.
Because vanilla has been plentiful for most of our lives, it seems to make its way as an ingredient into most dessert recipes. What I would like to figure out is when the vanilla (and how much of it) is essential, and when it is being added as force of habit. In the case of these scones, my husband thinks the lemon oil is too strong, although I find it ok; perhaps the vanilla would have evened it out, or perhaps I could have left both out.
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