Try This Recipe: "With" Buns

Although we have yet to acquire a refrigerator for our room, I have managed to keep my sourdough starter, Mikey, alive and well for two weeks so far. I've even baked with her three times, with varying success - sourdough needs salt, and a fair amount of it, too. (For clarity, I mean the dough and not the starter. Salt kills yeasties, but it also makes your bread taste good. Big thanks to the lovely ladies of Ravelry for that.) My latest attempt was just yesterday, and it was quite a success.

I'm sure somewhere out there someone has a name for this kind of bread, but my roommates and I are calling it yummy. It's sourdough buns "with" - the "with" being cheese, carrots, and peppers. And it tastes amazing. I'm curious to see what you think of it.

Buns Wit'

(for all you cheesesteak eaters out there)

1 cup sourdough starter

1/2 cup warm (not hot) water

3-5 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 liberal shake of garlic powder (optional)

Mix your sourdough and water in a large bowl, and slowly add one cup of flour at a time. I recommend adding two cups of all-purpose and then the wheat flour, to make sure all the wheat flour is absorbed into the dough. When the wheat flour is mixed in, add more all-purpose flour until the dough forms an elastic ball in the middle of the bowl. With floured hands, knead in the salt (and garlic powder, if you like) a 1/2 teaspoon at a time. Continue kneading for three minutes; this is the stage where your kneading turns the flour-and-water glue into gluten, long proteins that bind the bread and trap the carbon dioxide from the yeast, making your bread light and lofty. I find it easiest to knead in the bowl, as it makes cleanup simple and protects the dough from poorly-cleaned counter tops.

1/4 cup carrots, finely chopped

1/4 cup red pepper, finely chopped

1/4 cup green pepper, finely chopped

1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese

(I do appreciate the salad bar at school - it is more or less an ingredients bar, and half the prep work is already done.)

Knead the "with" ingredients in in small quantities. Flatten your dough, sprinkle a little on top, and pull one edge over and press down. Rotate the dough a quarter turn and pull that edge over and press down. Repeat with all edges, and then start again with the next ingredient. Once you've got all the veggies and cheese you want incorporated, keep kneading for another three to five minutes, to evenly distribute the goodness.

Cover the bowl and let rise until doubled in a warm place. Depending on how active your sourdough is and how warm the place, this can take quite a while. One of the challenges of dorm baking is that sometimes, our dorm gets inexplicably chilly. The low-tech, I-don't-want-to-stay-in-the-kitchen solution is to cover your dough with a towel, secure the towel with a rubber band or tape, and then get cozy. Tuck the bowl under the covers with you and let your body heat do the work. I have actually done this, while doing a homework assignment. Yeast likes temperatures from the mid-seventies to the upper nineties, and our dorm was stubbornly sticking to the low sixties. It's a little bit Oregon Trail, but it works.

The more reputable solution is to warm an oven to its lowest setting (usually 200 degrees) and put your dough in with the door propped open so it doesn't get too hot. If your oven has a light, which the ones at school don't, just turning on the light and closing the door is usually enough to make your yeasties happy.

When your dough has doubled, punch it down and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Using a very sharp knife, cut the dough into quarters, for big buns, or sixteenths, for single-serving buns. Shape each piece of dough into a mini boule, done by tucking one edge under, rotating the dough a quarter turn, and repeating until you have a little round ball. Arrange the mini boules on a baking sheet or in a loaf or cake pan. I like mine close enough to bake together, but you can space them out if you prefer. Give them their second rise, until doubled. (This rise must be done in the oven. It can only be done in the bowl if you are making a single large loaf.)

When they have almost doubled, remove from the oven and preheat the oven to 425 F. Using a very sharp serrated knife, slash an "x" in the top of each mini boule. This slash allows steam to escape as they bake, which helps with the texture of both crumb and crust. It also looks cute. Just before putting the bread in the oven, spray or sprinkle the it with water. I usually do this by wetting my hand over the faucet and flicking water over the bread five or six times. If you have an oven-safe container, fill it with water and put it in the oven as well. The steam will help your crust brown nicely without being too tough.

Bake for 15 minutes, turn and add more water to the other container if necessary, and bake for another 15 minutes. Check for doneness - the loaves should be golden brown to dark brown, and should sound hollow when you tap on them. If not, let bake for another 5 minutes. If the bread is browning too quickly, cover with tin foil. When the bread is done, remove from oven and allow to cool. (A wire rack is nice for this step, but not required.) Once it's cool enough to handle, eat and enjoy!