Saturday, September 3, 2011

Weekend Cooking: Pizza Sourdough Bread

If you love baking, you’ve probably already seen Farm Girl Fare – it’s a fantastic food blog. I love to poke around there for farmer’s market inspiration! It was Susan’s Fresh Tomato and Basil Sourdough that inspired one of my family’s favorites: Pizza Sourdough Bread. Sounds a little crazy, but a slice of this toasted with cream cheese is a heavenly breakfast. My younger daughter likes to use it for grilled tomato and provolone sandwiches!

Col’s Pizza Sourdough Bread

1 cup sourdough starter*
2 large heirloom tomatoes (no need to peel or remove the seeds)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon dried basil
2 tablespoons dried oregano
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
2 ounces shredded Romano cheese
About 2 ½ cups whole wheat flour
About 2 ½ cups bread flour
1 tablespoon salt

Combine the sourdough starter and tomatoes in the bowl of a standing mixer and let sit for a few minutes. With the mixer running, add the olive oil, then the spices and cheese.

Slowly work the flour into the dough, alternating ½ cup whole wheat and ½ cup bread flour, until you have a stiff dough (you many need more or less flour, so I’ve given you a ballpark figure). Knead 10 minutes. (I do this with the dough hook, but if you want to do it by hand, you have my undying respect!) At the end the tomatoes will be pulverized, but your bread will still have lovely red and green flecks.

Place the kneaded dough in an olive-oiled bowl after turning it over once to make sure the top is also covered with oil, cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel, and let rise until doubled in size. Then punch down, reknead for about 5 minutes, divide in two and place in two loaf pans. Let rise again until doubled, and score right before placing in a 350 degree F oven until the bread sounds hollow when tapped (about 45 minutes). Remove from loaf pans immediately, and let cool completely on a wire rack.

*You could also start with a sponge of ¾ cup warm water, ¾ cup flour and 1 teaspoon yeast. Let it start to bubble before adding tomatoes.


Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. Thanks to Beth Fish Reads for hosting!

9 comments:

  1. Hummm. I'd better get my sourdough starter on the move while tomatoes are still available. This sounds awesome. And look at that crumb -- lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This sounds fantastic! Now if I could just get someone to give me some starter.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a crazy idea - I love this. We love pizza at our house so I totally am going to have to try this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That would be fun putting the tomatos in the mixer and watching them get mushed by the dough hook. love the photo, I could just make out the red specks. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  5. That sounds wonderful. I'm going to try it this week.

    *leaves the internet to feed the sourdough starter*

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Beth -- I was thrilled that my starter weathered the benign neglect of summer very well :)

    @Kathy -- Most sourdough bakers are happy to share! But I found a really easy starter recipe, and it's been going strong for more than two years. It's the Foolproof Starter at http://www.alaska.net/~logjam/Sourdough.html

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Amused -- It is crazy, but good!

    @Heather -- Yes, the pulverizing tomatoes are a nice amusement for the daughter!

    @Joy -- I hope you enjoy it -- Let me know how it turns out!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh, yum! And this actually sounds good for you as well!

    ReplyDelete

I absolutely love comments. Thanks for taking the time to share! Col