My Sourdough Method

I had a sourdough starter in 2024 and made it pretty regularly for a year and a half. I had okay luck for not knowing what I was doing. Then I stopped and started up again this past fall with a new starter. It immediately got moldy, which seemed kind of crazy because that's never happened to me before. I began again in November 2025 with a new starter I made myself and I've had luck so far! I actually use a mash-up of a couple of different recipes so I'm going to type out what I DO. I legitimately feel, 2 years in, that it's about what works for you and you have to be willing to experiment a little. It's more about feeling and how basic science works, not so much following an exact series of steps in a recipe or having the right equipment. I used to get really hung up on the equipment aspect. I'm linking the products I used but none are very expensive. The most "expensive" part of sourdough making is the time you invest. 

The only special equipment you need is a food scale and a way to warm your sourdough starter. 

I do prefer to bake in a regular loaf pan, and you probably already have one! I did buy the fancy Dutch oven to start two years ago but realized I preferred a loaf method better. 

1. Pull your starter out of the fridge and let it warm to room temperature for about 12 hours. I'll pull it out first thing in the morning or before bed. 

2. Discard half your starter --I keep a jar of discard in the fridge, or you can just throw it out. You can make just about anything with sourdough discard. Google it. 

3. Add 3 tablespoons of flour and 1 tablespoon of water. Stir really well and place on a sourdough warmer. This is CRITICAL. You must keep it warm. I am lazy and also a little cheap so I made my own warmer. I'm not telling you to do this but it works amazingly well. 

I also never understand how people are putting open jars or jars without a lid or jars with a lid or whatever as a way to let their starter rise. Every website talks about ventilation and air but also covered but also loosely covered. It's all very contradictory. 

I use press-and-seal with a rubber band around it. The first person to give me a starter two years ago handed me a mason jar with press-and-seal on it so that's my method now. I do the same for my discard jar in the fridge because I lost the lids to my mason jars I bought specifically for this purpose. 

Just fed and starting to warm

...and a few hours later:

4. You want the starter to get bubbly and double in size. This can take 4 hours, it can take 10 hours. I used to think it was a hard and fast 12 hours from feeding the starter to mixing the dough, because that's what the tutorials give for their time ranges. It's not. It just depends on what the starter is doing. This key is: Has it doubled in size? Is it bubbly?

5. Then you're ready to make dough. 

After I measure out the starter, I also feed the starter again and put it back on the warmer. This is why it doesn't get moldy; as long as it is being fed or refrigerated between feedings, starters last forever. I try to discard and feed twice a day if I'm actively making a few loaves of bread a week. 

You will need a scale. There's no way around it. I've been using it for a couple of years. 

Put a big bowl on the scale and then "tare" it so it goes to 0 grams (you are measuring in grams).

Add 100 grams of your starter. 

Add 360 grams of room temp/slightly warm water. I usually take a big mug of water and microwave it for 20 seconds. Comes out to about 80 degrees. A thermometer is great for checking this--I also use a thermometer to check how warm my starter is when it's in the jar. 

Stir.

Add 500 grams of all-purpose flour. 

I used to use separate bowls but I realized I was just aiming for 960 grams on the scale when I was done and it saves some time and dishes. 

Stir into a dough.

6. Cover and let sit in a warm spot (I just put it on top of the stove but sometimes I check the air temp there with my thermometer) for about 30 minutes. This is a very important step because it lets the flour absorb the water. 

Add 10 grams of sea salt. I used Redmond's, and can only find it on Amazon. Do not use table salt. It's a different consistency for the measurement and your bread will be too salty.

Either mix in the salt with your hand or a wooden spoon. Form the dough into a loose ball but keep it in the bowl.

7. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.

Put some flour on a cutting board and scrape the dough onto the board. Do some stretch and folds, just for about 15 seconds, maybe 4 or 5 of them. Don't over-handle the dough.

There are a ton of quick tutorials out there on how to stretch and fold. It's not complicated at all but just watching someone explain how to do it is helpful. It's not a long task or process. 

Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.

Stretch and fold again.

Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.

Stretch and fold again.

Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.

Stretch and fold again.

Four times is usually the magic number for stretching and folding. You can do more but you don't want to over-handle the dough. 

8. Then you have the bulk rise. If you make up your dough in the morning, it's going to rise all day. If you make up your dough at night, it will rise overnight. Again, I used to think that it needed to rise for like 12 hours. It doesn't. The key is to just let it double in size, just like with the starter after you feed it. I used to get over-fermented dough because I let it go too long. For me, I normally mix up the dough around 8-10pm and then will bake it around 9am (because I'm lazy and get up late...you can do it earlier). Or I'll mix it up in the morning and bake it late afternoon or evening. Again, just let it double in size. 

9. Flour a cutting board, scrape out the dough, shape it into a loose rectangle and gently fold it up into a loaf shape. I tri-fold it and then tuck in the ends. 

10. Put it into a loaf pan. I use a regular metal one. Cover with press-and-seal and place in that warm spot again for about 30 minutes. Then I preheat the oven for the next 15 minutes or so. In all, it sits in the pan for about 45 minutes. 

11. I bake at 392 degrees F. The very first recipe I used gave that as the time so that's what I stuck with and it works. I've seen loaf pan recipes say to bake at 375 degrees or 400 degrees. I'm sure the difference between 392 and 400 is negligible at best, but I like what I like. 

Score the top. Nothing fancy here and I just use a paring knife. You just need a place for steam to escape. 

I usually bake for 40 minutes. I set the timer and check on it at that point. I do usually put a knife into the center but if the outside is golden brown and it's puffed-up, it's done. 

That's it. No fancy equipment. Just a few links to products I already use. No videos. No ads that slow your scrolling. This is my tried and true method. 

Let me know if you try it and I'd love for you to share your own recipe for sourdough!

Chocolate Chip Cookies and Banana Bread

These are my 110% go-to recipes.  I know this because a few weeks ago, Scott told me we were going to someone's house for dinner. I asked what I could take, but wasn't going to listen to his answer because I had what I had in the house. There would be no one hour round trips to the store.  I made these chocolate chip cookies.  I know that they were delicious because the first person who tried them said How do you get them like this? and everyone devoured them.

My secret for cookies in 6,000 foot altitude: Omit the salt and and add 1 1/2 times the recommended baking soda.  My recipe calls for 1 teaspoon, so I do 1 1/2 teaspoons and take out the salt, because baking soda is salty (yes, this is a mistake I learned from).

Moving onto banana bread, I've had plenty of bread flops since we moved to a high altitude location. I've discovered that the solution for me is to use the "convection" setting on my oven. "Convention" flops bread. But if you use Bisquick for my banana bread recipe and live in high altitude, I would try adding a couple extra tablespoons of the Bisquick.  Also, I bake my "bread" in an 8x8 pan. Less cooking time and less chance of it sinking in the middle. Also, my Pyrex pan that I use has a lid and WHY DO LOAF PANS NOT COME WITH LIDS? I appreciate that I can store it all week without crumbs going everywhere or the bread drying out.

I made a pan of this recipe last week and Scott proclaimed it the best banana bread ever, which is a compliment because I make a lot of banana bread. It was definitely good.  I like peanut butter on it.

Just in case you're looking to do a little weekend baking! These are my favorite things to make.

Recipe Recap (thus far) and My Grandma's Banana Bread

I'm three weeks behind on this self-imposed challenge and I kind of hate myself for doing it in the first place, but that's life.  And, truth be told, there's many things here I make regularly, so I've been uninspired to develop new stuff.  Practical and useful is more important to me in a recipe than innovative. I've also spent the better part of this year living by myself, so I tend to stick to the same foods. Here's what I've got so far:

1. Baked Crab Dip
2. Mint Oreo Ice Cream Cake
3. 30 Minute Leek and Potato Soup
4. Company Chili
5. Cookie Dough Ice Cream
6. Scott's Salmon
7. Homemade Marinara Sauce
8. Homemade Naan Pizza
9. Crockpot Chicken Curry
10.  Steak Fries
11. Sort of Homemade Chicken Stock
12. Carrot Cake Blondies
13. Crockpot BBQ Pulled Pork
14. Mint Oreo Rice Krispy Treats
15. Basil-Oregano Pesto
16. Italian Couscous
17. Limeaide Margaritas
18. Burrito Bowls
19. Sausage Breakfast Bake
20. Maple Donut Muffins
21. Pumpkin Pupcakes
22. Maple Scones
23. Fajita Quinoa
24. Pineapple-Ginger Smoothie
25. Blender Guacamole
26. Caramel Rice Krispy Treats
27. Birthday Cake S'mores
28. S'mores Popcorn
29. Roasted Garlic
30. Peach Crisp
31. Lemon-Lime Bars
32. Honey-Sunbutter
33. 3-Ingredient Mango Salsa
34. (a link to) Mexican Stuffed Shells
35. Jalapeno Popper Dip
36. Grilled Zucchini
37. Pizza Lasagna
38. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
39. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
40. Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal
41. Peanut Butter Frosting
42. Hershey's Kiss Cookies
43. Beef Vegetable Soup
44. Grandma's Banana Bread

If you're looking for Thanksgiving-friendly foods, I recommend #1, the Baked Crab Dip and #39 Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I'm hoping to have our turkey recipe up next week (because we have to make it, of course) and you can always file it away for Christmas.  Growing up, we had turkey on Christmas too.  So, to me, Thanksgiving smells like Christmas without the presents.

Moving on...

Recipe challenge, week forty-four.

Today, I want to share a post I first wrote 5 years ago.  It was, I think, the second recipe I ever posted.  My grandma had a banana bread recipe that used Bisquick and it probably just came off of the Bisquick box. But it was written in her own handwriting and still sits in my mom's recipe binder, so I'm calling it a family recipe. I've never actually found it on a Bisquick box if that makes a difference.  This is one of my go-to recipes.  I make it multiple times a year and it's a quick and easy way to use up ripe bananas.
Practical and useful for sure.

Make sure you top it off with vanilla frosting or cheese cheese frosting or peanut butter frosting. You really can't go wrong with this recipe. 

^If you're looking for a dessert recipe, scroll through the Frosting tag.  Yum.

Caramelized French Onion Soup

A few days ago, Scott asked for the address to my blog.  I was immediately suspicious.

He told his friend that I had a "cooking blog".  The friend was going to give the URL to his wife so she could look at it since she likes to cook too.

I hung my head in shame.  I said he should probably not do that.  There wasn't much to read in the way of "cooking" lately and he's all confused and I'm all, "I mean, I have a recipe index…" and he's like, "Hey, just give me the link to that then" and I scowled and that was the end of the conversation.

Side note: Let me remind you all that I have the recipe index simply because I'm terrible at writing down recipes.  I even try, every now and then, to do this in a word document and I fail at that.  The only way a recipe ever gets documented in this house is if I click "publish".

The next day, I made soup from scratch.

Often, French Onion soup is one of those that tempt me on a menu when I'm out somewhere.  However, having worked at a restaurant, I know that they just reheat that same pot of soup day in and day out until it's gone.  Really.  Never order soup in a restaurant.  So I make my own French Onion soup at home. Usually I use the crockpot, but sometimes I just don’t feel like cleaning the crockpot.  That is the honest to goodness truth.  Sometimes using it is actually more trouble than it’s worth.  It often sits in the sink for days, full of soapy water, after it has crockpotted us a delicious soup or stew. 

This time, I went with a stockpot on the stove. I caramelized the onions first and it only took about 30 minutes.  I filled the pot with beef stock and let it simmer all day.  This might be the easiest soup in the world.

Caramelized French Onion Soup
use a 6 quart pot

2 large onions, thinly sliced

2 T. butter

6 cups beef broth

2 T. white wine (or sherry)

Dash of Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon garlic salt

Melt the butter over low heat and add in the onions.  Stir them around to coat them and then put the lid on the pot.  Keep it on low.  Stir every few minutes until they become soft and start to turn golden brown.  (This is where I should've taken a picture…)  

The caramelizing will take about 30 minutes.  Then, add in the wine, garlic salt, and Worcestershire sauce and turn it up to medium.  Pour in the broth or stock.  Allow it to come to a boil and then turn it to low and keep the lid on.  It can simmer for an hour or 6 hours.  Whatever fits your timetable. The longer it sits on low heat, the better.  

To make croutons, this is my preferred method with swiss, provolone, mozzarella, etc.  However, if that's too involved (as it was for me on this particular day…), just slice some crusty bread, broil it to golden-brown, and add cheese to the top.  

Pumpkin Apple Cake (or bread…your choice!)

I was pretty happy to have Scott come home this weekend. He finally arrived home late Saturday night after a month in Texas.  While it might seem like he was gone forever..it hasn't been forever but he was gone for 2 weeks, he was back for 8 days, and then it was 4 weeks.  So definitely not the definition of a long time.  But still.  Kinda seemed that way.  I maintain that long trips (2 months or more) are easier than counting by days or weeks.

This meant I got access to my old computer.  I was able to retrieve my Columbus vs. Pilgrims powerpoint, complete with real Mayflower-replica pictures.  So, of course, I spent a lot of time browsing through my old Toshiba.  It's actually really nice and then I remembered the reason for my upgrade to a MacBook:  the Toshiba won't hold a charge and won't work unless it's actually plugged in.

I did find some interesting documents, lesson plans, and pictures and it was nice to take a walk down memory lane.  This is a screen shot of some menu-planning I found from 2011.

I was an efficient little menu planner.  There were 3 months of menus that look like this.  The strikethrough clearly means "ACCOMPLISHED!"  I mean, I was baking sugar cookies that looked like states and continents.  I don't even know who I am anymore…

As you can see, I used to be quite organized.  I gave myself deadlines.  And I don't know what the asterisks mean.  Some sort of secret organizational code, perhaps? There's a lot more of them as you go through the document. "Re-blog" meant re-do for the blog because the first showcased terrible pictures.  When I showed this to Scott, he just laughed and then we said, "What HAPPENED?" at the same time.

I digress.

This is a recipe for a healthy-ish fall bread that can serve as breakfast, a snack, or dessert.  I actually left the recipe completely sugar-free and just put a homemade cream cheese icing on top, but you can make the call on that.  I'd say a half cup of brown sugar would work just fine in there.  Of course, I highly recommend frosting, or at least peanut butter or something, on the top.  I made it over the weekend as a way to use up some gala apples, canned pumpkin, and extra frosting I had leftover from cookies the week before.

I followed all the food-blogging steps:  created the recipe, constructed the recipe, photographed the recipe, blogged about the recipe.  I'm definitely trying to get back in the groove here.

Pumpkin Apple Cake
makes one 8x8 pan

1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup apple butter
1/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 T. vanilla

Combine all the wet ingredients with a mixer.

Then, in a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients:

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 cups flour

Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl.

Pour into a greased 8x8 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.  I used a convection oven and it took longer than I thought it would.  However, that also could've been the 6,000 foot elevation here.  I recommend starting to check it around 25 minutes.  You could also use a loaf pan and baking time would increase to about 45 minutes.  Just check the middle with a butter knife or skewer before taking it out.  

Everyday Banana Bread

Continuing with the trend of posting something good-for-me (and you) each week, I present Everyday Banana Bread.

You see, my family's banana bread recipe uses Crisco and Bisquick.  It sure is tasty.  I especially liked the way my grandma always put vanilla frosting on the top of it.  I picked up that habit too once I started making it on my own. 

However, I wanted to start making a banana bread that I can eat for breakfast.  Something without a lot of sugar because most of us have learned the hard way that sugar for breakfast won't make us any peppier come Monday morning at 10am.

I topped this with a little natural peanut butter and a drizzle of honey.

Everyday Banana Bread

2 mashed bananas

1 egg

1 t. vanilla

2 T. unsweetened applesauce

2 T. apple butter

2 T. oil (I used canola)

1/3 cup brown sugar (You could use molasses…I just didn't have any.)

1 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1 1/2 cups flour

With an electric mixer, combine the bananas, egg, vanilla, applesauce, apple butter, oil, and brown sugar.  In a separate bowl, stir together the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and flour.  Add to the wet ingredients.  

Pour into a greased 9x5 loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes.

(Note: You could also do this in an 8x8 pan and just adjust the baking time.)

My other favorite breakfast breads:

Apple Butter Bread

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread

Healthy Cranberry and Orange Scones

Cookie Butter Pumpkin Bread

I thought about putting chocolate chips, caramel bits (that I've quickly been eating, handful by handful, out of the bag), white chocolate chips, nuts, etc. into this quick bread.  

Then I could call it "Double Chocolate Caramel Butterscotch Walnut Cookie Butter/Biscoff Pumpkin Bread".  Because that is the kind of captioning I'm seeing on Pinterest these days.  Am I guilty of it?  Maybe.  But really now, the more ingredients a recipe has, the less likely I am to make it.  

This bread is a variation of one I made last year.  I subbed cookie butter for applesauce/apple butter.  I like it.  It's especially tasty with cream cheese icing spread on it (homemade or canned).  It's got a bit of a crumbly, cookie-ish texture to it and isn't super moist like banana bread, but that's okay with me.  Scott called it "dry".  Hmm..

I liked it.  Which means you will too.

It's not fancy.  It's not over the top.  It's just a slight flavor twist on pumpkin bread.  The Cookie Butter from Trader Joe's has a very ginger-snappy taste to it.  If you use Biscoff, it will probably be sweeter.  Let me know what you think if you try it! 

Mix-ins optional :)

Cookie Butter Pumpkin Bread

makes one loaf pan

1/4 cup cookie butter

3/4 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)

2 eggs

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Mix together well with a wooden spoon in a big bowl.

1 3/4 cup flour (I used white.)

1/2 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1 T. pumpkin pie spice

Mix together in a smaller bowl.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly, mixing well.

Grease a loaf pan (I used metal), pour in, and bake at 350* until a knife comes out of the center clean.  Mine baked for about 45 minutes.

And this is what was going on while I was trying to get a picture in the last traces of daylight...

Pinned. Did. Done.

I haven't been into the funny stuff on Pinterest in awhile.  Instead, I've been trying to work through my boards, actually creating the stuff I insist on pinning.  

Here's some of the good ones.

I've been filing them away onto a Did it/Made it/Accomplished it/Done board.

Because crossing tasks off a to-do list is one of my favorite past times.

Have you had any Pinterest successes lately??

Who knew marshmallow fluff was so easy to make??  Only took about 10 minutes!

Source: macaroniandcheesecake.com via Kristin on Pinterest

We're really into yams.  I know everyone calls them sweet potatoes.  They're yams...but I'm guilty of calling them sweet potatoes too.

Scott loves this paleo sweet potato hash.  I serve it alongside eggs.

Source: paleoeffect.com via Kristin on Pinterest

My favorite way to eat yams is still like this.

Source: ourbestbites.com via Kristin on Pinterest

I'm so glad I found this recipe.  I use whole wheat tortillas.  Sweet potatoes (yams) and black beans are an amazing combination.  Last night, I turned this mixture into burritos, instead of just soft tacos.

Source: howsweeteats.com via Kristin on Pinterest

This soup makes a great freezer meal.  I cook the noodles separately, as needed, because they get weird in the freezer.

Source: crockpot365.blogspot.com via Kristin on Pinterest

If you're in the market for rich, fudgy brownies, these are quite satisfying.

Source: smittenkitchen.com via Kristin on Pinterest

This was, aside from pizza dough, my first successful yeast-baking adventure.  It was tasty, and we ate the whole loaf in 12 hours one day.

Source: foodsnots.com via Kristin on Pinterest

Apple-Butter Bread

Two recipes in two days?  
 I made this bread a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it  In fact, I've got another Granny Smith in the crisper that would be perfect for another loaf. Also, I've been hoarding this recipe, we were out past 8pm last night, and I'm tired.  My first priority upon waiting up 30 minutes late (yes, just now), is checking blogs/email.
I think I have a problem.
Enjoy.

Topped with more apple butter, of course

I posted some Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread a couple of weeks ago.  Let's get this straight:  I'm all about cooking with whole wheat flour.  It's healthy.  Whole-grains are good.  I get it.  But I can't do it anymore.  I think I have a very specific wheat-type allergy (no, not allergic to gluten..any other ideas?)
So I used all-purpose flour in this bread and it was wonderful.  It gets the brown color from the apple butter.  I didn't use any kind of bran, oats, or whole wheat.

My vegan friend Angi shared a recipe link with me and I thought, "I shall make it today!".  Then I was all, "Eh, I don't wanna go buy a pear...or crystalized ginger...and I'm gonna use eggs instead of chia seeds."

The day before I had bought some lovely MacIntosh apples that were just begging to be used in a pie or crisp. I have a lot of trouble finding MacIntosh apples here, so the window of opportunity had presented itself.

So I got the idea to bake a quick bread from the recipe link below, but I kinda just went off on a whim and added what I thought would be good.  It was probably the best quick bread I've ever made.  I cannot believe it turned out as tasty as it did.  I credit the apple butter.

Apple-Butter Bread
Inspired by/ quite adapted from this recipe

-1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
-1 t. baking powder
-1 t. baking soda
-1/4 cup white sugar
-1/4 cup brown sugar
-1 t. cinnamon
-1 t. ground ginger

Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

-2 eggs
-1 t. vanilla
-1/4 cup apple butter
-1/4 cup oil (I used canola.)

Whisk wet ingredients together in a smaller bowl.

-1 large or 2 small MacIntosh apple(s), peeled and diced

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ones with a wooden spoon until combined.

Fold in the diced apple.

Pour into a greased 9x5 loaf pan and bake at 350* for 40-50 minutes.

Pumpkin Bread

I've discovered that the only way I can (sometimes) make it through a day of work is to take a Starbucks break at noon.

Upon returning from the crack dealership Starbucks, I usually peruse slate.com or people.com until the children return from recess.

I found this recipe through slate.com for Pumpkin Beer Bread last week.  I love beer bread.  Scott and I, for Christmas a couple of years ago, ate a loaf of beer bread and some spinach dip.  It's like our own special little gluttonous tradition.

So when I saw this recipe, I wanted to try it.
I printed it.  I followed it.  I even made some notes because I wanted to share it.

It was not good, and I do not recommend it.

I mean, the flavor was okay, but the outside was super crusty and the inside was kind of gummy, even after almost an hour and a half in the oven.

So the next day, I went back to Espresso and Cream and tried Madison's recipe.  This was the recipe I had intended on doing in the first place.  I made a few changes to the original.
For example, I'm too unorganized to remember to buy applesauce.  So I substituted APPLE BUTTER.  This lady had inspired me to buy apple butter, so I figured, why not?

I did not measure my pumpkin pie spice.  The world didn't end, but...

...now that I think of it, perhaps my refusal to measure was why the Pumpkin Beer Bread didn't work out....

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread

adapted from this recipe

2 T. melted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (I cut the sugar down because my substitution of apple butter packs some sweetness.)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup apple butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup pumpkin puree

Mix in a large bowl with an electric mixer until well-combined.

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1-2 t. pumpkin pie spice (I used almost 2 t.)

Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then add to the wet ingredients in small batches until all is incorporated.
Grease a 9x5 loaf pan, pour it in, and bake at 350* for 45-60 minutes.  Mine took 50 minutes in a gas oven with a stoneware loaf pan.  If I were to make it again, I'll probably use a metal pan.