The Busy Mother's Bread Maker Sour Dough Bread

I have been influenced by a couple of bloggers this week or so. I have been reading Liz's posts ( from Farmer Liz) on the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and the inspiration it has given her in terms of making whey drinks . I was so interested that I went out and bought the book! The other post that resonated with me was Linda from Greenhaven blogspot for her post on how 'slow living ' should be called 'Simple living' because we are all so busy living so slow.Like the ingredients in a recipe these elements swirled around
alot.
Here I am reading Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions ...which is truly the best book in the world if you are interested in good nutrition and the science to back it up. I found myself questioning many things in our diet but was also quietly pleased to discover that we are doing alot of what she says too, just by instinct.I was fascinated by Sally's information on fermented foods and how our body needs them to aid good digestion,good vitamin and mineral absorption etc.There is lots of information on the importance of soaking your grains,She quotes Jacques Delangre as saying 'Baking with natural leaven is in harmony with nature and maintains the integrity and nutrition of the creal grains used.'
One thing our family has realised about sour dough bread ...is that even with our wheat allergies - a spelt sour dough bread never gets reacted to (ie. no hay fever, no tummy aches etc) compared with yeast risen bread. Apparently this is because the sour dough leaven actually partially digests the gluten for you .I was buying alot of sour dough bread which tends to be on the expensive side, but over the past 2 weeks we have got a sour dough culture going and are making our own. The bread is far better than anything we buy and our tummies are thanking us for it.
But the trouble was , I was exhausting myself. Checking on my sour dough all the time, kneading it and rising it etc. It was all great fun and there is something really special and ancient about kneading dough for your families bread. But if you are teaching, doing farm work ,interacting with farm stay visitors  and doing  house hold chores as well as all the 'mum can you take me to....s' as well , well then hand made  sour dough bread everyday is just impossible for me! So I was thinking 'I want to live slowly but I want it to be quick as well'.
I knew I had to come up with a solution that would mean that I did not revert to bought bread because we just feel great eating this bread .So here it is ...

The Busy Mother's Bread Maker Sour Dough . 

Ingredients:
625 grams of spelt flour ( I sure you could use white if you wanted)
325 grams water
2 teaspoons of salt
65 grams unsalted butter 
30 grams of honey
412 grams sour dough starter. 


Method: I do this the night before so that we have fresh bread in the morning .
In my Breville breadmaker , it likes the wet ingredients in first .

1. Add the following ingredients in this order: 
- water, sour dough starter,honey , butter, flour.
2. Press the dough setting for bread.
3. Go to bed. (Yay!!) 
4. Allow the dough to rise all night in the bread maker . This time gives the dough time to rise slowly and gently. 
5. As soon as you wake up , go and press the bake button on bread maker . (and make sure you really wake up properly before you go pressing buttons!) 
6. Our bread maker has a 45 min baking cycle . Once it beeps, I actually press the baking cycle for one more baking of 45 mins . It's a big loaf so it takes a while.90 mins baking time in a Breville bread maker all up.

By the time the kids are ready for breakfast and sandwich making - we have freshly baked sour dough bread  at  7am (but I do get up at 5am to push the button for baking ).

It's all flexible though, you could give it the same raising time during the day in the bread maker. The great thing is , it is a very wet dough...so not handling it and leaving it in the bread maker really helps.
The other variation I do , if home and fire is going ...is instead of letting it rise all day , I take the pan out of the bread maker and sit it near the fire for 2-3 hrs . The result is a softer , milder bread..

It Was Just A Lovely Day.

What's Happening At The Little Black Cow Farm Stay In Autumn

Lots of reading on cheese making and bread making.

 Discovering sour dough pancakes:
My recipe:
1 1/2 cups of sour dough starter
2 cups spelt flour
Milk added until a batterlike consistency

Leave in front of fire for 3 hours until mixture starts to bubble with live cultures.

Cook!

So easy and so good for you! These pancakes are so light and fluffy. We even used them as 'flat breads' with our home made curry.

 Hard to believe these bubbles are made just from sour dough ...no baking powder was used at all!

 Paneer cheese making .

 Frying paneer  for an indian curry.

 So healthy looking and delicious as well - paneer cooked in a spinach and vegetable sauce.Mopped up with sour dough pancakes.

 Sour dough chocolate cake rising in front of the fire. I will let you know how I go with this ...an experimental model at this stage.

Beer barm dough - this little mixture of sour dough starter and boiled beer will be sitting in front of the fire until evening, then the flour etc will be added  later. Another experiment.

'Goat Rides Bike and Falls Off Just Before Photo Taken' .

 Honey VERY  pregnant now.
Has disappointed numerous farm stay visitors with her pretend labours and acting like she will have her kids any day.
Officially 1 and half weeks overdue if calculations are correct.

 We need a giant udder now...Honey's ultimate sign of babies coming .

 Lots of pre birth behaviours happening, like bike riding, head pressing, yawning and her quiet little 'meh' noises to unseen babies.

 Perhaps pre birth pregnacy cravings too.
This is what I discovered in her paddock...have spent weeks and weeks nuturing the biggest Hubbard squash in the world and Honey ate half of it just as it was ready to pick. She didn't even leave me any sends to plant for next year.

 Sheep in new paddock.

 Sophie in paddock with Honey to keep her company until she has the babies.

 Very clever husband has set up what may be truly a sheep and goat proof fence ...with sheep wire, barb wire and electric fence . I have been proved wrong before ...but I think we actually can keep the sheep and goats in the one spot for a change!

 Loving my netting that I put over the vege beds so the chickens can get out for a run.

 Happy chickens.

 New seedlings.
Lots of cabbage moth...every day going out to wipe the eggs off the leaves.

 Snow peas climbing.

 Cucumbers still producing.

 Sweet potatoes going crazy.

 Autumn leaves in the grape vine trellis.

These caterpillars were my enemy ....now my friend. Small children visiting the farm stay  love finding caterpillars and watching them in the bug catcher.

Tractor in place - lots of families having photos taken here and lots of kids imagining.

Zuchini plant still producing....I wish it would stop.Even the goats are sick of zuchinis.

 Pimply squash- served steamed or boiled smothered in butter.

 Seed saving - hubbard squash seeds ( the one Honey didn't eat)

Seed saving - lazy house wife beans.





A whirl wind farm tour , lots happening , a crazy kind of wonderful busy.