Well, my Natural Yeast Starter is 'flying' now, so I have to ensure it is usable for making bread with. Yes, it is rising very quickly, once refreshed. However, the sample is very 'sour' due to the continued actions of the Yeast and Bacteria; this must be addressed.
Firstly though. How about some peaches?
I just love Spain. The fresh and delicious fruit and vegetables, locally grown, and readily available from the weekly Town Markets, it is wonderful; I am so lucky. When I think back to North Yorkshire, in England.....well, yes you could get fresh fruit and vegetable there, but they were not grown and ripened in the sun - it does make a difference.
It significantly alters for the better: the taste, texture, and aroma. Take peaches for example. I love peaches, I love the velvety texture of the skin, I love the way when you bite into the juicy flesh, the juice just runs down your chin
.....yeh, right, not in England you don't! To find a peach like that is a very rare occurrence. Normally, you buy some because they look lovely. A little hard, yes, but they will ripen given a little time; so you leave them for a few days and they start to wrinkle and shrivel, but still stay hard. If you bite into them as they look to have softened a little....sawdust!
So what do you do? I poached them in Dubonnet flavoured syrup and they were really delicious. Not fresh but now edible. If you have never come cross Dubonnet before then you are in for a treat. French of course, a fortified wine packed with lovely spices, which marry beautifully with Peaches. Here is my very simple recipe for ....
Peaches poached in Dubonnet
Ingredients Required:
900 ml (4 cups/30 fl ozs) Water
150 ml (2/3 cup/5 fl ozs) Dubonnet
75g (1/3 cup + 1 tblsp/2 1/2 ozs) Sugar
1 broken cinnamon stick
Pared rind and juice of 2 oranges
8 medium sized peaches
Method:
- Put everything except the peaches into a large saucepan. (Big enough to hold the peaches closely together. Not over big though as you want the peaches to be covered by the liquid when cooking)
- Bring to the boil and simmer for a couple of minutes, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
- Put the peaches into the flavoured syrup as 'snugly' as you can. (This stops them moving around the pan while cooking and reduces bruising)
- Put a circle of greaseproof paper on top of the peaches but within the pan. Put the lid on and simmer, gently until the peaches are just cooked. (The paper helps to keep the peaches under the surface (as much as is possible), while poaching)
- Allow them to sit in the covered pan and cooking liquor until they have cooled somewhat. (If you remove them from the liquor while hot they will loose their shape, so just let them sit there for a while - don't over cook them too)!
- Remove the peaches with a slotted spoon and place in your serving dish. (You can peel them at this stage if you want to, the skin comes off very easily)
- Put the syrup back on a medium high heat and reduce by half.
- Sieve out the 'bits' and pour this luscious syrup over your peaches.
- Serve chilled with semi whipped cream, or ice cream....a delicious summer dessert.
In my next Natural Yeast Starter Post I will show you how to turn this luscious dessert into a Granita - perfect for these hot summer days. For now though, lets progress with the starter.....
Natural Yeast Starter:
We left the last update with a very active starter.....
Fantastic! Ready to start making bread with it? Unfortunately, no. Yes it would make lovely well risen bread but inedible. The starter would be too sour and your bread would just taste of alcohol. So we have to begin to discard the majority of the starter and add lots more flour. This is where the 1:5 ration begins. You remove 1/5th of the starter and throw the rest away. I just make it easy for me and take out 2 tablespoons of starter
and add 2 heaped tablespoons of flour
with a little more water.
It needs to be quite thick at this stage.
It still has to be runny enough to fall off the spoon though.
Put back in the clean jar and cover with the breathable fabric and an elastic band to hold it in place. Don't forget to remark the fill line so that you can judge how it is working.
In a few hours time this process needs doing again. The starter is vigorous enough to make bread, we just need to 'tone down' the flavour to make the bread taste nice.
I could be making bread tomorrow....yeh!
Interesting Posts you might have missed:
Just click on the blue highlighted name to be taken straight to the post.
@hollyjb has produced an interesting 'money saving' post. As a 'coffee addict ', I found her post very enlightening. I hope you do too.
@steemloverr 's post I absolutely love; what a great idea to cook a baked potato with a raw egg! What would you put into yours - hey, might make a great challenge? Will give it some thought.
@Stacie made a stir fry using spaghetti....how interesting, and novel!
and finally for now .....
@nozakai2015 . I know this is silly but I never equated Japan with bread until I saw this post. Does anyone out there have Japanese bread recipes they would do a post on? I would promote them (and nick the recipes)!
Please take part in my Community Project. Place a link to your post in the comments box below if you would like your recipe to be included.
In the meantime keep 'Posting' interesting content, as all I want to do is:
and:
as well as:
As often as I can!