I decided I needed a new project for the quarantine. I’m not sure how I came to the conclusion but I decided to try to make a sourdough starter. Turns out the rest of Ireland, or at least Limerick, had the same idea. Maybe not making sourdough, but definitely baking. The grocery store was completely out of flour. And when they had flour, it was all purpose. Which apparently is not the correct type of flour to make sourdough.
Sourdough starter needs to be fed every day. So every day I discarded half of my starter and fed the remaining starter with more water and flour. But after almost 3 weeks, my starter was still not floating so no yeast was growing.
Meanwhile, I had containers full of my discard starter with nothing to bake with it. I quickly learned that a cup of discard can replace 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water in baking recipes.
I’ve been dabbling in creating my own baking recipes and decided to try my hand at a scone recipe. Rob and I think it’s turned out pretty well. So without further ado….
I’ve been experimenting with different flavors. So far I’ve done lemon blueberry (needed way more lemon zest), Lemon ginger (needed more lemon zest AND more ginger), cranberry orange, rhubarb. YUM!
Ingredients:
- 250 g flour
- 70 g cold butter diced
- 1/2 cup sugar
- generous pinch salt
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 egg
- 1 cup sourdough discard
- dash milk
Preheat oven to 475F.
In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder and soda together. I like to just mix with my hands. add cold cubed butter to the dry ingredients. Work the butter and dry ingredients together with your hands until you have what looks like bread crumbs. You can use a food processor to do this step, but I find that squishing the mixture together is therapeutic.
In a separate bowl, mix together egg and sourdough discard.
Now is when you add your flavors. Whatever your heart desires! Lemon zest, orange zest, lemon juice, orange juice…any kind of zest, cinnamon, juice gets mixed with the egg/discard mixture. Meanwhile, berries, anything “dry” gets mixed in with the flour mixture. I like to use about a cup of fruit.
Now, combine the egg mixture with the dry mixture. Don’t over-mix. Just use a wooden spoon to combine until there are no more dry bits left. If needed, add a splash of milk. The dough should be sticky but not too wet.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto the baking sheet. You should get 6-7 scones.
Now, throw those bad boys into the oven on the middle to lower rack. Set a timer for 8 minutes. The scones should start to raise but watch for burning.
After 8 minutes, turn the over down to 350F and continue baking for 8 more minutes. Stick a toothpick into the center of the scones to make sure they’re done through.
Let me know what you guys think! Tell me the different flavor combos you’ve come up with.
