The leaves have turned and family begins to gather. Evenings are spent around fires and mornings carry a chill which keeps us under the covers a bit longer. The sun isn’t up but everyone still needs to be ready to go to either work or school. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I love to have some variety. If you have never worked with sourdough starter this is an easy entry, if you have your own, perfect-it’s a great excuse to get it out and feed it.
Sourdough traces its ancestry back to the early Egyptians, but is more popularly known from the California and Alaska Gold Rush days. Prospectors earned the moniker of ‘Sourdoughs’ and fiercely guarded their particular batch of starter as each one develops a unique flavor. An easy method of starting your own is mixing two cups of flour with equal parts of water, three tablespoons of sugar and a packet of yeast to get the process going. The starter needs to sit out for 2-3 days to get the initial fermentation. Always keep starter in glass or crockery and stir with wooden utensils. Feed a starter a cup of flour and water weekly or store it in the refrigerator. (Many books written on the subject)
Using your starter is easy; feed it the day before and if refrigerated remove two days in advance to warm then feed.
Pancake ingredients:
1 cup Sourdough Starter
1 egg
1⁄4 cup of pumpkin – I used canned pumpkin 100% pure not pumpkin pie mix
1⁄2 cup of milk
1⁄2 tsp Baking Soda
1⁄2 tsp Baking Powder
1⁄2 tsp Cinnamon
1⁄4 tsp Nutmeg
Dash or two of Salt
Topping ingredients:
1 apple – seeded and sliced 1⁄4 cup of brown sugar
1⁄2 cup of dried cranberries 1⁄2 cup of apple cider
1⁄2 cup of Walnuts (Optional)
Saute’ topping ingredients till cider begins to thicken. Then combine all pancake ingredients to preserve some of the bubbling action of the pancake dough. Cook as normal pancakes but these will be thinner (1/4 inch thick) vs. a ‘flapjack’ style (1/2 inch thick) pancake. After topping the pancakes you can drizzle with maple syrup. I used a bit of whip cream to top and dusted with some additional cinnamon.
Ciao, Glenn and Glenn
