Friday, February 18, 2011

Sourdough Crackers. And stuff.

My dearest readers.


Have I told you how much I appreciate you coming and visiting our homestead each day?  If I could give you all a million dollars, I would.  But let's be honest here, that ain't gunna happen. 

That being said, we have two orders of business this morning.


1.  I have become an affiliate of Cultures for Health!  (Have you seen their animated logo on my sidebar?)  This means that whenever you make a purchase from their company through my website, I receive a small commission for each sale. 


2.  I am in the process of creating an Affiliates page on my blog that will list the other companies I am affiliated with thus far (Mountain Rose Herbs, Heavenly Homemakers, and Amazon). Being affiliated with these companies allows me the pleasure of recommending products that I use and love and each time a purchase is made through these links, it goes to help support the blog. 
 
Which means that I can buy more wheat berries.


Which means that I can grind more flour.


Which means that I can make more bread.


Which means the world is a better place.


THAT BEING SAID... Cultures for Health offers some wonderful sourdough starters, kombucha starters, and kefir starters.  All the goods you need to get crackin' on those fermented foods we've been workin' on the past few weeks!  Missed those posts?  You can find them here, here, and here.

 When you get your sourdough starter up and bubblin', try this recipe.  I have made it a bunch of times already and am very much in love with it.  Like my husband.  And coffee.





Sourdough Crackers
You will need:
 - 1 cup sourdough starter (the term used for your established, bubbly, healthy sourdough)
 - 1/4 cup melted butter or melted lard or melted shortening
 - 1 cup flour
 - 1/2 tsp. salt


Step One:  Mix the starter, flour, and butter together until they form a nice, solid dough ball.  I use my hands.  Let this ball sit overnight in a covered container.  I use a big tupperware with a lid.


Step Two:  The next day, roll the dough out into a thin layer on a pan smeared with olive oil (just enough to keep the dough from sticking).  Again, I use my hands for this step and just squish the dough out with my fingers.


Step Three: Sprinkle with the salt and whatever seasonings you like!  We love ours sprinkled with rosemary.


Step Four:  Bake at 350 degrees until they are crispy and browned, maybe 20 minutes or so.  Just keep an eye on them and pull them out when they get nice and toasted.  I have also just shut the oven off once they looked done and let them hang out in there while the oven cooled down to really get 'em crispy. 


Step Five:  Using scissors, or your hands, break up the baked dough into cracker size pieces.  Or cut it into the shape of dinosaurs.  Or hearts.  Or whatever you wish!  They are, after all, your very own crackers.


So easy and so delicious.  Stuart can't get enough of them.  A perfect alternative to expensive store bought "healthy" crackers.  These are made for mere pennies and are so tasty.  Yum.


On this special Friday (you KNOW how much I love Fridays!) I want to thank you all for being such loyal and loving readers!  Truly, every email and every comment that I get makes me all giddy inside.  I look forward to writing my post each day and getting to share a little bit of my life with you (for those I know and for those I don't know, too!).


I hope this blog goes on forever and ever until I am old and gray.  And that it leads me to a real homestead that has a dairy cow.


And Amen.