Sourdough discard crackers/Garden Roasted Salsa

[Altreac]

I've been baking and cooking a fair bit lately.

Finally after everything since July 2023, I've got my own space, everything is slowly settling down. Dust has settled a bit.

Today's project came out well.

Sourdough discard everything seasoned crackers and oven rusted, garden salsa.

Started 2 sourdough cultures 22 September 2024, and they're both mature enough to work with now. I've baked a couple loaves with the one so far.

Lots of study for that. Came out well.

This is kinda a bit past that. I haven't still gotten the intuitive feel for feeding my starters, so I had some discard.

Totally learning to process everything from scratch. It's been decades learning cooking and baking. Only took a more serious interest maybe 7ish years ago.

I haven't bought bread or pasta in over a month now, and I'm getting into a routine of getting them done. It's getting easier.

But this one was today.

I don't have a blender or food processor yet.

Got the KitchenAid now, but no attachments yet. Eh. In time.

The green & hot peppers plus tomatoes are homegrown in pots.

Lacking a blender, I turned the chillies and garlic into pastes to combine better with rough chopped veg.

Confit'd the garlic in olive oil. Added the oil to the mortared garlic and chillies to make the paste and some to the main mix.

Added the salt into the pastes. Both to help combine and add grit to grind the stuff. You add the oil after mostly mushed.

Mix in your lime juice, cilantro, a bit more of the confit garlic oil. Combine. Taste before adding more salt. I only needed more lime juice.

Crackers. Equal parts discard and flour. 1/8th ratio melted butter. (1 cup, 1 cup, 1/4 cup)ish. Squirt of olive oil. Pinch of salt (2% by baker's ratio of you must).

Rest 20-40 mins. Roll thin. Thin. Mine weren't thin enough! (unless you like thicc...)

Brush with melted butter or olive oil. Sprinkle desired topping.

Bake between 350-400f till they're your preferred colour. 15-25 minutes.

Helps to poke the centers with a fork of you don't want them to puff up.

Couple hours total for everything.

 

[Old Hippie]

Cool! Great work.

I was thinking, "You need a molcajete." And look; you have one. Great for processing veggies for pastes/sauces.

O.H.

 

[Altreac]

Cool! Great work.

I was thinking, "You need a molcajete." And look; you have one. Great for processing veggies for pastes/sauces.

O.H.

I totally plan on getting a molcajete eventually! You're not wrong,

I want everything for cooking and baking!

There's a really cool cast iron spice grinder I've been watching.

More knives.

KitchenAid attachments. Rofl.

Molcajetes heaven gotten to be a reasonable price on Amazon.

 

[Old Hippie]

I totally plan on getting a molcajete eventually! You're not wrong,

Thought I saw one in one of your pix. I have one that I use occasionally. Also a couple of laboratory mortars and pestles, which I use more often.

There's a really cool cast iron spice grinder I've been watching.

Skeppshult Swing, by any chance? I can say they're great. I use mine as a pepper grinder. Great for making a large amount of cracked/ground pepper in a hurry. I tend to use a lot of black pepper.

More knives.

I'm pretty basic there. Most of our knives aren't expensive. A couple I've made, one my paternal grandfather made. Uluit. Some other stuff.

KitchenAid attachments. Rofl.

Retirement gift to myself was a commercial KitchenAid. We use the meat grinder a lot. I have an old grain mill for it that was my mother's. I use it for coffee because I have better grain mills. The new meat grinders come with a sausage stuffer so you don't need to buy that. I also use the mid-size plate for extruding pasta by simply leaving the chopper blade out. Extruding is tough on the mixer and tough on the pasta, but it works. [shrug] I'd like to have the pasta roller set for it but I'm not all in for pasta at the moment.

In fact I have to laugh at myself because when I make bread now it's usually not with the KitchenAid. But it's nice to have and I can say the commercial version is way more quiet and powerful than the home model.

Molcajetes heaven gotten to be a reasonable price on Amazon.

PM incoming...

O.H.

 

[Altreac]

Thought I saw one in one of your pix. I have one that I use occasionally. Also a couple of laboratory mortars and pestles, which I use more often.



Skeppshult Swing, by any chance? I can say they're great. I use mine as a pepper grinder. Great for making a large amount of cracked/ground pepper in a hurry. I tend to use a lot of black pepper.



I'm pretty basic there. Most of our knives aren't expensive. A couple I've made, one my paternal grandfather made. Uluit. Some other stuff.



Retirement gift to myself was a commercial KitchenAid. We use the meat grinder a lot. I have an old grain mill for it that was my mother's. I use it for coffee because I have better grain mills. The new meat grinders come with a sausage stuffer so you don't need to buy that. I also use the mid-size plate for extruding pasta by simply leaving the chopper blade out. Extruding is tough on the mixer and tough on the pasta, but it works. [shrug] I'd like to have the pasta roller set for it but I'm not all in for pasta at the moment.

In fact I have to laugh at myself because when I make bread now it's usually not with the KitchenAid. But it's nice to have and I can say the commercial version is way more quiet and powerful than the home model.



PM incoming...

O.H.

Sorry again on my delay for responding!

Lemme unpack this:

The mortar and pestle I have is stone, granite I think. I got it at a rummage sale for 4 bucks. I'm not sure if it qualifies as a molcajete though. They tend to be larger I think.


I'm also a huge fan of cracked pepper. I like toasting mine before I put it in the grinder.
The cast iron mill I'm talking about is a knockoff of that one for much cheaper. Kabin Spice Mill. Same design, but only $35 CAD.

Knives your grandfather made at special. I've been putting together of Japanese knives and others for quite a few years now. I've got 4 Fujimoto Nasiji, a thrift store Wustof (63 cents, great find) and a couple others.
Lost my damn blacksmith shop to my ex, or I would have been making some myself. I fit trained in blacksmithing.

I got the 6 qt pro model at Costco for $320. Lift stand model. And I really want the he anyway grinder and suffer. I have a manual pasta roller for now, Canadian Tire MasterChef model was only $50.
I want the Mockmill kitchenaid attachment. Stone mill. Word is the stone is much finer & doesn't heat up as fast as steel, so you can mill more per run before needing to cool it down. Honestly, I want a lot of the attachments. And given I'm rebuilding my life, I might as well get the stuff initially rather than wait a long time. I know how to use most of it already.

The pasta gear, roller and extruder are of interest. I'm a bit OCD and the plate method you mention might fight that with me, but it's interesting.


As for using the KitchenAid for dough? Sometimes I'll do the bulk of the mixing in it, but I still really like using my hands to finish dough. So I let it do the hard part and just do the fun part myself.

Breads I'm pretty new at. But general cooking and baking are close to 3 decades now (at 41). So I'm picking it up fast.

Already into sourdough!

 

[Old Hippie]

I want the Mockmill kitchenaid attachment.

I looked at them and hear good things about them. Peter Reinhart seems to like them. I like a little bigger mill for grains, though. We have a Grainmaker No. 99 and a No. 275 flaker/crusher. I power them with a bicycle kit, though I will say that breaking down whole dried flint corn will make you reconsider not using Reddy Kilowatt! I used to race bicycles so I still have some leg muscles left, but dang...corn is hard.

My old KitchenAid mill is good enough to get some pretty fine-textured cracked grains but I'm not sure how many trips through it'd take to get flour. Small mill, too; it takes heck and forever. Even slow on coffee but I'm willing to wait for it.

Already into sourdough!

Yay! I was raised on the stuff. One little trick I use is to keep my culture at 100 per cent hydration (equal weights of flour and water). That makes converting a dry-yeast recipe to sourdough simple. If my sourdough addition is 150g, then that's 75g of water and 75g of flour I can take off elsewhere and keep the recipe proportions.

O.H.

 

[Altreac]

I looked at them and hear good things about them. Peter Reinhart seems to like them. I like a little bigger mill for grains, though. We have a Grainmaker No. 99 and a No. 275 flaker/crusher. I power them with a bicycle kit, though I will say that breaking down whole dried flint corn will make you reconsider not using Reddy Kilowatt! I used to race bicycles so I still have some leg muscles left, but dang...corn is hard.

My old KitchenAid mill is good enough to get some pretty fine-textured cracked grains but I'm not sure how many trips through it'd take to get flour. Small mill, too; it takes heck and forever. Even slow on coffee but I'm willing to wait for it.



Yay! I was raised on the stuff. One little trick I use is to keep my culture at 100 per cent hydration (equal weights of flour and water). That makes converting a dry-yeast recipe to sourdough simple. If my sourdough addition is 150g, then that's 75g of water and 75g of flour I can take off elsewhere and keep the recipe proportions.

O.H.

I figured how to work the baker's ratios. I even did my own recipe for my first loaves.
Took a bit to learn the math, but I got it now. The starter breakdown you explain I ducky realize at first.

So I tried for a 72%, but ended up with 76% hydration.


Out trying to find the comet, I'll get back to this. Thanks for the info!


Your mill setup sounds crazy. I mountain bike, so I have an idea the feeling. I don't 'think' I'll need that much grain. I live alone for the time being.

I got my starter at 30 grams, 33ish flour and 31ish water. My humidity is high, so I need a thicker mix.

But I wanna talk on this stuff more with you for sure!

 

[GR5233]

The crackers look really good. I wonder how they would taste with olive oil and Italian seasoning?

 

[Altreac]

The crackers look really good. I wonder how they would taste with olive oil and Italian seasoning?

Thanks. They were pretty good!

I need to roll them a little thinner next time, but I'm totally doing them again.

After you've done the dough, you can pretty much season with anything you like.

You could probably fold the Italian seasoning into them too, if you wanted them as inclusions.

It's pretty flexible. So long as your inclusions don't modify the hydration amount (or you compensate for additional hydration by reducing your liquid amounts; melted butter in this case - I might just add more wet and bake longer...) you're pretty much good to do whatever.

 

[Altreac]

And no good comet sightings last night. Too cloudy. Boo.

 

[GR5233]

I need to roll them a little thinner next time, but I'm totally doing them again.

The thickness looks just right for what I’d want but I can see how some people would prefer it a little thinner.

You could probably fold the Italian seasoning into them too, if you wanted them as inclusions.

Doing both as an inclusion in the dough and as a topping is also a possibility. Just depends on preference.

It's pretty flexible. So long as your inclusions don't modify the hydration amount (or you compensate for additional hydration by reducing your liquid amounts; melted butter in this case - I might just add more wet and bake longer...) you're pretty much good to do whatever.

That’s the good thing about sourdough discard. It’s so versatile. I know some ingredients like sugar can act “wet” even though it’s physically dry due to it being hygroscopic

 

[Altreac]

I looked at them and hear good things about them. Peter Reinhart seems to like them. I like a little bigger mill for grains, though. We have a Grainmaker No. 99 and a No. 275 flaker/crusher. I power them with a bicycle kit, though I will say that breaking down whole dried flint corn will make you reconsider not using Reddy Kilowatt! I used to race bicycles so I still have some leg muscles left, but dang...corn is hard.

My old KitchenAid mill is good enough to get some pretty fine-textured cracked grains but I'm not sure how many trips through it'd take to get flour. Small mill, too; it takes heck and forever. Even slow on coffee but I'm willing to wait for it.



Yay! I was raised on the stuff. One little trick I use is to keep my culture at 100 per cent hydration (equal weights of flour and water). That makes converting a dry-yeast recipe to sourdough simple. If my sourdough addition is 150g, then that's 75g of water and 75g of flour I can take off elsewhere and keep the recipe proportions.

O.H.

So. On grinding and milling.

For coffee, I'm running a 1Zpresso K-Ultra and I'm sticking with it! It's a pretty luxury unit. Little of the jack of all trades, master of none. But that doesn't mean it's not in the excellent category for what it does. In tier rankings where it goes S, A, B, C etc, it usually falls high A. I've been a bit of a coffee nerd for years now. (lost my espresso machine to my ex, boo).

So. By myself, I think I'll be good with a Mockmill. From what I've seen it can make fine enough flour.

I really want the meat grinder as well, I was getting pretty heavily into grinding my own over the last few years as well. I was doing 75% brisket/25% sirloin. I love that mix. Smash burgers. Tacos beef. Whatever. Get a big brisket (sale if you can) and get the butcher to cut you 25% weight of sirloin (they love doing it... Usually).

I've done sausages. I get the nitrate math (nitrites too).

Pasta extruder before roller, cause I've got the manual roller for now and it's not terrible. 2 sizes of cutter with it, spaghetti and the thicker cut noodle (linuini?)

I really want to be able to process everything from scratch.

 

[Altreac]

The thickness looks just right for what I’d want but I can see how some people would prefer it a little thinner.


Doing both as an inclusion in the dough and as a topping is also a possibility. Just depends on preference.


That’s the good thing about sourdough discard. It’s so versatile. I know some ingredients like sugar can act “wet” even though it’s physically dry due to it being hygroscopic

They weren't entirely consistent. My rolling technique could use work still. The first batch, I also forgot to put fork holes in, so they kinda inflated a bunch.

I figured either way would work. I still have a lot to learn.

Hydration I think is the key overall. Further factors, like my place is a consistent 50-60% humidity, just working dough in my apartment functions like slightly higher humidity dough.

I haven't done too much yet. Just the 2 loaves, crackers, discard and a few straight up fried starter pancakes with sesame and green onion mixed in.

I'd bake more frequently, but I can only eat so many carbs!