One of Jim's favorite types of rolls is the restaurant style Garlic Knots.  We have learned to make them ourselves, now, at home with the sourdough bread recipe.  This one is a tasty one to create to go with soups, Italian dishes, or just with eggs in the morning.

Garlic knots are simple - take 1/2 batch of the Sourdough Bread Recipe. Cut this into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope, about 6 inches long. Tie it in a simple knot. Place each in a greased baking pan large enough to fit all 12 rolls while they rise. Cover with a warm, damp cloth and allow to rise 1-4 hours, until doubled in size.

I find that the pan needs to be sized just right - too small and they mold together into one blob, too large and each roll rises too wide, and not upward enough. There should be about 1/2 inch of space between each roll before rising so that they force each other upward as they rise.


Once risen, bake for 18+/- Minutes in a preheated 375 F oven. Immediately after removing from the oven, brush with olive oil that has a large number of crushed garlic cloves added to it. I like to crush the garlic into the oil before baking the rolls as it gives the oil a good chance to absorb the natural oils from the garlic. Serve hot.

NOTE: If you really LOVE garlic as much as we do, you can also add crushed garlic directly into the dough to up the garlic flavors!  YUM!!!  You can also use the full batch of dough and make enough to share, freeze or eat the next day.

This recipe uses our Whole Wheat Sourdough dough and provides one more addition to the family menu planning to utilize a basic recipe, from basic ingredients.  We find that for our tastes, we tend to like to use about 2/3 - 3/4 of a batch of dough for pizza crust.  This gives a nice, fluffy thick crust pizza. 

Mix your dough according to the main recipe, found here.
Before shaping dough into your desired pizza crust, grease one or two pizza pans, depending on desired thickness of crust.
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Whether making pizza crust or the focaccia, you can take a few minutes here to knead in some garlic and herbs, OR if you were on top of things, you already did that when you first made your batch of dough. It IS much easier to add those ingredients earlier with one of the additions of flour before kneading takes place.

Roll out dough to the appropriate size ON THE PAN. It makes it easier than trying to transfer!

For Pizza:

Brush the crust with olive oil, if desired, cover and allow to rise until doubled. 2-6 hours depending on room temperature. Before baking, brush with olive oil and garlic. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove crust from oven but do not turn off the oven. Spread the crust with pizza sauce, sprinkle with toppings, replace in the hot oven and continue to bake for approx 10-15 more minutes until baked through and toppings are hot, cheese melted. Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes before slicing. Slice and serve!


For Focaccia:

Once the dough is rolled onto the pan(s), using your fingertips, poke down into the dough at intervals to make “dimples” to allow the dough to cook more evenly throughout. Cover and allow to rise 1-4 hours. You DON’T want it to rise until fully doubled or it may puff up, or be too thick. When risen, brush generously with olive oil, sprinkle with herbs and parmesan or romano cheeses, bake in 425 oven for approx 15 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to rest 5 minutes, slice and serve!

Focaccia goes great with soups, pasta dishes, or just as an appetizer served with some marinara or other dipping sauces on the side

BAGELS
Yield: Approx. 8-18 bagels, depending on size
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Ingredients:
1 batch of our Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread dough
Kosher salt or other toppings

Bagels are made similar to the pretzels and will need to be par-boiled before baking.

Taking your dough, divide into equal pieces. From one full batch of dough I generally get 12-24 bagels, depending on size. Take each piece, roll between the palms of your hands to get a nice ball shape. Take the ball, press one thumb into the center, going all the way through to form your hole. Stretch the bagel out a bit making the hole a decent size to allow for rising, while still leaving a hole.

Place each bagel on a greased cookie sheet that has been sprinkled with corn meal. Cover with a damp, warm cloth and allow to rise until doubled. About 1-2 hours, more if the room is chilly. After rising is complete, bring a pot of water to boil on the stove. Place 3-4 bagels into the water and allow to pre-cook on one side for approx. 60 seconds. Flip the bagel for another 60 seconds. Remove with a strainer or slotted spoon to a baking rack. Allow to drip a minute or two while you place the next ones into the water. While the next round of bagels boils, take the drained bagels and move them to the baking sheet. Sprinkle with toppings, if desired. We like kosher salt. Do this with each small batch as they are removed and drained, until all bagels have been pre-cooked. Turn off the pot.

Place the baking sheet of bagels into the preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Serve hot, or allow to cool. Be careful when slicing!

This recipe is one of our favorites to make with the Traditional Whole Wheat Sourdough batch.  It is quick and easy for the 'kitchen staff', while also an enjoyable taste treat for everyone! 

Serve with your favorite pretzel toppings for snacks, or as a fun addition to the kids usual soup recipe.  They also pack nicely in lunch boxes with some fresh fruits, veggies and dip for a nice "rounded" meal.  Use your imagination and spice them up in different ways, too.  Add fresh pressed garlic or finely diced onions, or one of our favorites: spice them up with some Cajun Spices mixed with just a touch of salt before baking.  Fresh or dried herbs added before kneading make for a taste sensation, too. 

Yield: Approx. 24-60 pretzel nibs depending on size.
Yield: Approx. 12-30 soft pretzels depending on size.

1/2 to 1 full Batch of our Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread (depending on desired yield)

Kosher Salt for topping

Grease a cookie sheet, and sprinkle with corn meal. Taking your sourdough fully mixed and before rising, shape into the pretzel shape you prefer. We like to do Pretzel Nibs, so we make a rope and cut them to size. You may prefer the traditional pretzel shape. As you shape each pretzel, place them on the greased and sprinkled cookie sheet. Once finished shaping your pretzels, cover with a damp warm towel or damp linen napkin, and allow to rise 1-3 hours.

Once risen, preheat over to 425 degrees.

While oven is preheating, in a deep frying pan, (ours is almost 3 inches deep) place enough water to be almost 3/4 full. Add 1 tsp salt. Bring water to a boil. Gently place pretzels into the boiling water and allow NIBS to pre-cook for 45-60 seconds. If making regular soft pretzels, allow them to boil for approx 30 seconds then flip and allow another 30 seconds. With a strainer or slotted spoon, remove to a cooling rack to drain excess water from the pretzels. Once drained, approx. 1 minute, move back to the cookie sheet. Top with kosher salt. Place completed pan into the preheated oven and bake.

Pretzel nibs take approx 12-15 minutes, depending on size.
Pretzel Shapes take approx 18-20 minutes.

We don’t typically brush ours with beaten egg, but you can do this if you would like. Before sprinkling with kosher salt, take 1 egg mixed well with 2 Tbsp water, and brush over pretzels. Top with salt and bake as usual.

Serve with cheese sauce, japenos, mustard, or any of your favorite soft pretzel toppings. Enjoy!!!

Farm Cheese
It seems like I say this a lot, "My favorite food storage recipe. . . ."  What I really mean to say is that feeding your family is only as far away as your recipe book or your imagination!  It is comforting to know that you can create food for your family from what you have laying around in the kitchen.

Another of my favorite recipes is for what I have always been taught to call “Farm Cheese." It is very simple, and yet so very versatile. It starts with simple ingredients of milk and vinegar, and only takes a little bit of your time.

You will also need a heavy bottom, non-aluminum pot and a candy thermometer. A very fine mesh strainer or cheese cloth. An old, clean linen napkin also works very well. The rest is very simple.


Farm Cheese

8 Cups Milk - whole milk preferred, but any will work. Even 8 cups of mixed up powdered milk

1/4 to 1/2 Cup Vinegar

Place the 8 Cups of Milk in a heavy bottom pot and heat on medium heat until the milk reaches 180 degrees F. Watch the milk carefully during heating so that it does not burn to the bottom. Turn off the heat and add your vinegar. Stir gently, then allow to sit until milk and whey separate. Allow to sit for 10 minutes or so.

Strain through the strainer or cloth, saving the whey liquid to use in other recipes. If you want the cheese to be softer, don’t press it and don’t let it sit and drain. For a drier cheese, allow it to strain for additional time, checking occasionally to check consistency. Use immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

NOTES:

You can vary the softness and hardness of this cheese by changing up the type or amount of vinegar. In my experience, rice vinegar seems to make a softer cheese, while white vinegar makes a very hard cheese. Mine was more crumbly with white vinegar. This made it good for ravioli and sprinkling in quiche, but not so great in lasagna. It was horrid as a pizza topping.

I find that Farm Cheese never melts like mozzarella cheese does on pizza, but if made softer, it can be similar to ricotta on the pizza, and goes great in other pasta dishes like lasagna or baked ziti.

One very yummy vinegar to use is the leftover vinegar brine from a jar of jalepenos or banana peppers. We have used this and it is wonderful. It tends to make a much softer cheese with a nice pickled-pepper flavor. It goes great on top of Southwestern Quinoa bowls and even sprinkled on top of a taco salad.

Experiment with red wine vinegar and others to see what you enjoy. Make sure to write down how much vinegar you use and your results. This will help you develop favorite recipes to use with your meals.

 I have not been one to use white flour in a very long time.  In fact, I can't recall the last time I honestly bought a bag of it from the store.  I think it was about 5 years ago to make some recipe that "required" it.  The white flour sat around for so long, that it turned into a block of white concrete in the New Jersey humidity!  I ended up making the recipe that "required" it with whole wheat flour and it must have turned out okay because no one seems to recall a failed flour recipe!

Sourdough starter is one of those recipes that I will never make with white flour.  Although some people may claim that you can't make the starter without it, white flour has not been around nearly as long as sourdough has.  In fact, sourdough is closest to the biblical recipe as one can get these days.  At least until someone discovers a recipe card in the mid-eastern deserts, that is!   

It has been shown repeatedly that whole grains tend to have a better and often higher natural yeast content than any pre-ground, processed flour.  This has also been my personal experience over the years.  The starter I have created from whole wheat, faro or einkorn has been much more active, and healthier than anything I attempted "back in the day" with white flour.  Because of this evidence, I much prefer to create our starter from the simple, old fashioned freshly ground whole grains.

Here is the recipe that I have gotten accustomed to using.  It is very simple to create because it uses two ingredients that many people will have on hand in their food storage:  Water and grains ground into flour.

ENJOY!!!!


Basic Whole Wheat Sourdough Starter
NOTE: Use this recipe for our Traditional Whole Wheat Sourdough

To begin your starter:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup room temperature, filtered water (about 70 degrees)

A glass jar, crock or bowl that can be easily, yet loosely covered. I like to use a glass quart size canning jar, a metal ring and a coffee filter. Place the flour and water into the jar and stir until very well combined, making sure that there is no dry flour left. Cover with the coffee filter and place the metal ring on. Let the mixture sit at room temperature (about 68-75 degrees is optimal) for 24 hours.

Day 2: There may or may not be activity showing as yet - activity would be little bubbles in the mix or there appearing to be more mix than the day before. It may just look like what you started with on day one. Either way, take 1/2 of the mixture, set it aside in a bowl (See below for ideas to do with the discarded starter so that you do not waste). To the mix remaining in the jar, add 1/2 cup of room temperature, filtered water and 1 scant Cup of whole grain flour. Mix well, recover, and let mixture rest at room temperature for another 24 hours.

Day 3: By day 3 you should be seeing some activity - bubbles, evidence of expanding dough. This is the day you will start feeding the dough 2 times per day. Try to feed it as evenly spaced apart as possible - 12 hours.

For each feeding, stir down the dough, then take a generous 1/2 cup of starter and mix it with 1 scant cup of whole wheat flour with 1/2 cup room temperature, filtered water. Stir thoroughly, cover, and set aside for approx 12 hours. Remember to use your discarded starter for something, or set it aside to use later with additional discarded starter.

Day 4: Repeat steps for Day 3.

Day 5: Repeat steps for Day 3. By the end of Day 5, you may start to see that the starter is “doubling" You should also see lots of bubbles, and it should have a tangy, tart, or “sour” but pleasant aroma. If it is not this active as yet, you may need to continue the feeding process for days 6 and 7. (On rare occasions, or in colder weather, it may take a bit longer to develop fully)

-- When the starter has reached the point described on Day 5, you will want to give it one final feeding before storing in the refrigerator. Feed as usual, mix well, let the starter rest for 4-8 hours to see a generous amount of bubbles breaking the surface of the starter. Now you may place it in the refrigerator for “permanent” storage.

Make sure to feed your starter at least once per week with 1 Scant cup of whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup water, just as you have fed it during the process. By removing all but 1/2 cup from the permanent container, setting aside the removed portion to make a loaf of bread, rolls, or other recipe. To the remaining 1/2 cup add your water and flour. I like to leave it out on the counter for about an hour to rest before putting it back into the refrigerator, just to give it a little time to start its process.

Now you can enjoy fresh sourdough bread products any time you would like to!

NOTE:  If I allow the starter to set in the fridge for a week, I often see a brown or dark liquid on top of the starter.  This is a sign that your starter is HUNGRY! Feed it!  It is best that you not allow it to get to that point, though, so that you do not starve it to the point of inactivity.  This liquid is commonly known as "hooch" and is a naturally occurring alcohol.  YES, this should be pour off and discarded before feeding your starter.  I find that if "hooch" happens more often, it means I need to feed it more often. 

More troubleshooting tips can be found here:

I am always a fan of waste-not-want-not, so I do not dispose of our sourdough starter when we are starting a new batch every spring.  When the recipe says to discard it, I always discard it right into a bowl and make pretzels, bagels, or muffins from it.  BUT my favorite is to make whole wheat crackers and have them with some cheese.  Here's my favorite recipe for a tasty snack: