Tips on Timelines (9)

Time to bake cookies! (More about these cookies in my next post.)

Hello again gentle readers. It’s been a minute since I have posted. April was a busy month and time just got away from me. So, I thought my first May post would be a good time to talk about timelines. Although many sourdough recipes are quick and easy especially if you are using discard, some do require a bit of planning. This is especially true if you are hosting or contributing to a special meal. For example, my husband and I traveled a few hours away to join our son's family for Easter brunch. I contributed baked goods (of course 😉) and wanted them to be fresh and easy to transport. I knew I wanted to make cinnamon rolls and muffins, but I also received a special request for a sourdough chocolate bread. Something I hadn’t made before. It was time to roll up my sleeves.

I decided to go with my cinnamon roll recipe I’d been making years before I began creating traditional sourdough breads. It’s my dad’s recipe that I have included in the recipe section if you would like to give it a try. I can create the dough a couple of days before I need it and just keep in the fridge (tightly sealed) until I’m ready to make the rolls. I wanted a large pan of rolls so I used all of the dough. To save more time, I prepared the rolls the night before baking, I covered the pan and put it back in the fridge until the next morning. The rolls needed to raise before baking for 30-45 minutes in the morning, so I gave myself time for that and the bake time. I also decided to make the buttercream frosting, but not frost the rolls until the morning of the brunch. Easy enough, I just kept it in a cooler for the ride to St. Louis.

Also, I decided to make the Morning Glory muffins (carrots speak to Easter right?). (Note: The recipe is in my recipe tab.) Since these muffins keep well for several days, I was able to bake them a day ahead of time and knew they would be fresh and tasty for the Sunday morning brunch and easy to transport. That left the chocolate bread. I knew a quick bread would be best as it would be more kiddo friendly and wouldn’t require as much time as the King Arthur recipe I had found. That recipe looked intriguing, but I didn’t want to risk that on my first attempt. I found a chocolate sourdough bread recipe from thesouthernladycooks.com. It was straight forward, used discard, contained cocoa and chocolate chips; that was the one I wanted to try.

To summarize my timeline:

• Thursday evening before Easter I prepared Dad's "Sourdough" rolls dough and placed the bowl in the fridge.

• Friday before Easter: Prepared and baked Morning Glory muffins in the morning. In the afternoon I prepared and baked the chocolate bread. It smelled great! (I will cook it for about 5 minutes less next time. 😉) Friday evening I prepared the cinnamon rolls, placed them in the pan, covered it with plastic wrap and left it in the fridge overnight.

• Saturday morning I took the rolls out to raise for about 45 minutes, baked them and made buttercream frosting. The rolls had time to cool and then I wrapped the pan in foil, put the frosting in the cooler, and put the muffins and bread in containers for easy transport.

• Sunday morning we reheated the rolls and let them cool a bit before frosting them.

  
  

I probably didn't need to make all three treats, my son and his family made an amazing brunch. But, they were fun for me to make and I did learn a few things. Making the cinnamon rolls ahead and keeping them in the fridge overnight before baking made them very light and fluffy. My oven tends to run hot, so, I really need to keep an eye out when I make new things like the chocolate loaf. Putting the muffins in paper muffin liners makes for an easier transport and they look nice too!

I always plan out my baking schedule (in my head) especially when baking my Pain De Compagne (Country Bread). It is not as time constraining for me as baking sourdough bread that requires the starter to be at its peak. You do need to consider the time to let it raise for 8-12 hours at room temperature, the time for it to continue to "process" in the fridge in your baskets or bowls and then of course the time to bake. You need to preheat the oven with your pans inside for about 45 minutes before you bake your loaves. Once you've done this a time or two it becomes second nature. I had a request from one of my sourdough buddies to outline a timeline for this bread. Here you go:

• I mix my dough ingredients usually mid-morning so I can keep an eye on the dough bucket for how high my dough has risen. My starter is fairly active even as discard, so it only takes about 8-9 hours to double.

• In the early evening I shape and put the dough in the baskets, cover them and put in the fridge for the night. I also place the bread pan(s) in the oven to prepare the the morning bake.

• I'm usually up pretty early (I'm a morning person, I understand that can be annoying for some! 😂) I preheat the oven at 500 degrees for about 45 minutes. I then put my dough in the pans, cover them and let them bake for the 20 minutes, and an additional 20-25 minutes uncovered (at 450 degrees of course).

• Once baked and looking beautiful I let them cool on a rack for at least 4-5 hours. Then slice and enjoy!

  
  

This is just a summary of my typical routine. I have also mixed the dough in the evening, let it rise overnight at room temperature and put in the baskets for the fridge to rise during the day. I then bake it in the evening as outlined above and in the recipe.

You guys need to "do you" though,. I love to bake, try new recipes and feed my friends and family. It brings me joy. You can make it a regular routine if that works for you, or a special treat on the weekends or special occasions. The good news about the starter is that it can be fed every week or so if kept in the fridge and will continue to be healthy and ready to bake when you are. I've mentioned in other posts that I tightly seal my starter when I put in the fridge. That way when I'm out of town for a few weeks, or don't have time to bake for a week or two, I can revitalize it easily.

If you are not ready for that kind of commitment, you can bake lots of different kinds of bread that don't require a starter. That's how I began and just evolved into the sourdough arena. I hope that many of you will love it as much as I do, but if you don't that's okay too! I'm here to provide tips, ideas and recipes we love. Thanks for reading and will post again soon. Take care!

NOTE: I recently met someone at a social event who has written several cookbooks. So cool! Her name is Kathy Moore and she is the co-author of "The Best Cast Iron Baking Book". I ordered it from Amazon and it looks great! So if you want to try some non-sourdough recipes for breads and desserts you might give it a try. https://www.amazon.com/Best-Cast-Iron-Baking-Book/

I will let you know if get to try one of the recipes. The chocolate chip pan cookie looks amazing!

Talk to you soon!