The sourdough starter is built up the night before so that when you wake up in the morning, it's ready to work with. And no extra flour is needed and no commercial yeast. Just some eggs, salt, honey, vanilla, and baking soda. After breakfast, you just feed your starter a breakfast, too! How easy is that?
The whole wheat waffles come out nice and crisp - not crunchy like they're overcooked. No, no, no! A nice kind of crisp. The whole wheat recipe I used before caused the waffles to cook up nicely, but before you could butter them and eat, they were soggy. Not good. Or sometimes, if you overcooked them, they'd get hard. It was always a bit of a disappointment. But no longer! I'm now a sourdough whole wheat waffle gal!
I have to give a little credit to my waffle iron... the work horse of waffle irons. A very good friend gifted this to our family one Christmas and it's been a wonderful addition to our kitchen.
Erin, who helps Wardeh on the sourdough eCourse suggested some ideas for making savory waffles. Oh, my, they sound good! If I start gaining weight, you'll know why!
I think a common misconception about sourdough starters is that they make everything taste sour. But I haven't found that to be the case. A lot of it depends on the environment your starter is in, the age of your starter, and the recipe you're using and it's souring time. There are things you want to taste sour and things you don't. So by adjusting the amount of time you let it sour, you have some control over the taste.
Another item I've used my sourdough starter to make is muffins. Although they didn't dome when they rose, they tasted great! I'll have to work on the poofing issue. Too bad... guess I'll just have to make and eat a lot more!
FINALLY, I made the pizza crust I've been hoping to achieve for months! I tried recipe after recipe, trying to get a thin and crisp 100% whole wheat pizza crust and it's been very elusive, always coming out bready. I took this picture before the cheese and before baking, but we got so excited eating it that I forgot to take another photo! Next time, I'm going to roll it out even thinner and bake it a bit longer for an even crisper pizza!
I'd love to hear what you make with a sourdough starter if you use one. And if you haven't tried a sourdough starter yet because you've been intimidated or think it's too time consuming, it really isn't that hard. Just 5 minutes in the morning and evening to keep it going. A worthwhile investment!
