Right when this corona virus was just beginning and we were all just starting to be afraid that it would spread to the UK, I had my last Chiropracter visit in Chester city.  We always treated ourselves to a lunch afterward on our walk back to the bus station.  Usually at a different place each time. 

 

On that day we decided to treat ourselves to a Yorkshire Pudding Wrap at one of the hot sandwich shops in downtown Chester.  I remember feeling very paranoid about germs at the time. It wasn't a nice feeling.  That was the last time we went anywhere. It was the 5th of March.  The rest is history.  We did enjoy our sandwiches however. They were very good indeed.

 

The ones we had on that day were turkey ones, with stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc.  I decided to recreate them in our home today using what I had in the house.  Leftover roast beef, leftover roasted vegetables, peas, leftover gravy, etc.

 

I cut my regular recipe for yorkshire pudding down in size and baked it in a jelly roll tin.  Because it was spread out quite a bit, it didn't rise quite as high, which is what I wanted.  I rolled it up in a clean tea towel as soon as I took it from the oven for a few minutes to soften it and make it a bit more pliable for wrapping purposes. This worked very well.

 

I then cut it half crosswise to make two smaller wraps.  I spread each half with a quantity of horseradish sauce and grainy mustard and then I started layering.

  

First heated roast beef.  You want to cut it very thin for this purpose. You can season it a bit with some salt and pepper if you like.

 

Onto that I layered on the leftover and heated cooked veg that I had.  Roasted potatoes, cut into smaller bits, roasted parsnips, carrots, cabbage . . . baby peas, roasted onions . . .

  

Just use what vegetables you have.  You don't need a lot really, just a tiny bit of each scattered over your roast beef . . .

 

A bit of gravy got drizzled on top and then I rolled them up tightly.  In town you can eat these in a parchmen wrapper and yes they are messy.

 

Here at home, we ate them on plates, with knives and forks and some homemade coleslaw on the side, coz  . . . that's how we roll. 

 

Of course there was extra gravy for drizzling over top.  You just have to have some gravy drizzled over top.  Just look at that tender roat beef, those crispy roasted potatoes, parsnips, peas  . . .  carrots . . . 

 

It was nigh on impossible to eat these out of hand.  We didn't even try . . .instead we gobbled them up with knives and forks.

  

There were little utterances of glee in between mouthfuls  . . .  and why not. These were delicious!

 

I couldn't finish mine actually.  Mitzie didn't mind. My loss was her gain. She loves a good roast dinner, minus the onions and the potatoes!  Do yourself a favour the next time you have leftovers from a roast dinner and make yourselves some of these delicious wraps!  They are Mmm ... Mmm ... Good!

 

 

I keep seeing Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies all over InstaGram.  They look fabulous and one day I am going to try them.  

The recipe is on a blog called A Bountiful Kitchen, which is owned by Si Foster.  Si and her husband are doing Missions in Spain at the  moment for our church. (Just like my husband and I did a few years ago, except we didn't get to go to Spain.)

 

Interestingly enough Si's son in law did his Mission here in the UK several years back.  He was one of my favourite Missionaries, Elder Eliason.  

I know I say that about them all!  You know how much we love feeding them.

 

Cody and his wife Brook were here in Chester last summer for a couple of days with their son George.  What a cutie pie George is.  

Brook is the owner of the very popular blog, Female Foodie. I think eating and cooking good food runs in the family!

 

So anyways, I kept seeing these Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies all over IG, all attributed to Si's page.  I took a gander and thought hmm . . .  dare I?  

And then I spied her Levain Bakery Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, and that did it.  Resistance was futile.  I am a connoisseur of Oatmeal Cookies.

  

I adore Oatmeal Cookies.  Besides they didn't take as much flour as the Chocolate Chip ones.  The Levain Baker is a NYC Bakery that is well known for its cookies.  

People line up around the block for one of their cookies.  And save it to say, they are EXPENSIVE!  

I have never had one, but now I feel like I have coz these Oatmeal Raisin Cookies of Si's are AMAZING!

  

And a whole lot cheaper.  Mine were not as tall as Si's. They did flatten out a bit, but boy oh boy, are they yummy! 

Each cookie weight a whopping 6 ounces (175g).  That's pretty close to half a pound!

 

If you want to learn more about these cookies and get the North American measurements, you will have to check out Si's page.  

I wouldn't want to step on any toes.   She also has a lot of hints and tips for making them the best cookies ever, so do check them out.

  

I am only posting my British measurement adaptation here, which I am thinking is a.o.k.

  

These cookies are as huge as a baby's head.  Seriously. The recipe only makes 9 big beautiful, delicious cookies.

 

Mine didn't end up as tall as hers did.  I'm not sure why.  (Check hers out.)  But they are incredibly tasty!

 

Crisp on the outsides . . .   chock full of oats . . .  chewy almost brownie-like in the middles . . .

 

I send some to my next door neighbor. She is always getting us bread and  milk.  She can't do enough for us and she won't take anything in return, but I have found that she doesn't mind me baking things for her and her son, so . . .  yeh, I sent half over to them.

  

She died and went to heaven.  Seriously. If you are looking for a wicked indulgence, this is the one you want to try.  Especially if you love Oatmeal Cookies!

 

Another thing I liked about these is that they don't use any vanilla.  I am low on Vanilla and am not sure when I can get more, so I am rationing it!  Anyways, you need to bake these cookies if only once in your lifetime.  (Be warned however, when you taste one, you will want them more than once!)  Sorry about that! 

One thing I have been longing to master for quite a while now is to make a working Sour Dough Starter that I can use to make my own bread with.  We are experiencing a shortage of yeast at the moment (and flour and sugar for that matter) so creating something like a sour dough starter is a skill we can all use.  I had tried once before with NO success.  I thought I would try again and I watched quite a few videos on You Tube and finally felt secure enough that I thought I could master it. (Fingers crossed)  What I am sharing with you today is the result of about two weeks trial and error and finally SUCCESS! 

 I think the real key to my success this time was using filtered water. The time before I had used tap water. I had no idea that the chlorine etc. in tap water would have a hug impact on the success of your starter.  This was something that I learned this time and it was a real boon to my success.  I just used bottled filtered water that you can buy in the shops.  Apparently you can leave tap water out on the counter top for a couple of days also. I decided not to take a chance and just used filtered water from our water storage.  What good is a Pandemic if you don't use the time in quarantine to learn a new skill!  It is my greatest hope that eventually I will be turning out really great loaves of bread with the skill of one who has been doing it all of their lives. But for now, here's my tutorial on how to get a really great starter going as well as a few ideas of what you can do with it!

 

 

Measure 50g (6 1/2 TBS) of your flour mixture into the glass jar.  Add 100g ( 3.5 fluid ounces) of the filtered water.  

  

Stir together until the mixture is completely smooth and amalgamated, scraping down the sides of the jar using your spatula frequently. 

  

Just keep smoothing, stirring and scraping until you have a completely homogenous mixture, then carefully wipe down the insides of the glass with a clean damp cloth.  (use filtered water to dampen the cloth.) 

 

Place the lid on top and set  the jar aside for 24 hours.

  

As you can see there are a few bubbles forming on the top of the flour. 

Give the mixture a good stir, replace the lid and leave it for a further 24 hours. 

 

This is what my starter looked like on the morning of day 3.  As you can see there is a lot of activity going on.  I AM EXCITED ABOUT THIS!!  Progress!  I might actually have some success this time around!

 

You will need a clean jar.  What you are going to do now is to decant 3 TBS of the live mixture into a clean jar.  Once you have done that you will need a further 70g (1/2 cup) of the whole wheat/white bread flour mix and a additional 80ml (1/3 cup) of filtered water.

 

Add this to the decanted 3 TBS of live mixture in the clean jar and give it a good stir together. This is called "feeding" it.

 

Scraping down the sides with your spatula and making sure it is all mixed together well so that there are no dry lumps or streaks.  Clean the insides of the jar with a clean piece of paper towel, moistened with filtered water . . .  so that there are no streaks up the insides of the jar . . .

 

Put the lid back on the jar and then mark the level with a rubber band on the outside of the jar.  (Look, you can see it already bubbling.)  Set it aside to work for 11 hours now.

 

Some suggested that you give your Sour Dough Starter a name.  I thought long and hard on this and decided that I am going to call mine HOPE.  Why Hope?  Because one, I really HOPE that it works for me this time, and two,  we have never needed HOPE more than we do at this time during this disheartenig World Wide Pandemic. 

I have the perfect Jar Labels to use as well. Innoveem Jam & Chutney Jar Labels.  These premium quality jar labels have a strong adhesive which means the labels won't fall off my jar.  You can write on them with any pen or biro!  They are also easy to remove, leaving no sticky mess or residue after use (HUGE plus), and the set contains some really classy Vintage shaped designs.  Perfect for this!  

I can also offer my readers a discount of 20% off if they follow this link

 to purchase and add the discount code JLABEL20  at checkout! Offer is good until the end of June.  They really are fantastic labels.  I have been using the same one on my jar of sour dough starter removing it and reapplying it every day for almost two weeks now without any problem.  Looks brand new and sticks as well as it did on the first day!

  

I am really filled with HOPE this time.  I am so excited about this.  Can you tell???  This appears to be working well for me! (Fingers crossed, I don't want to jinx myself!) 

On these next four days you will need to do the following:  

Decant 50g (about 3 TBS) to a clean jar.  Add 100g plain flour (3/4 cup) and 100g filtered water (3 1/2 fluid ounces).  Stir it vigorously.  Clean any residue from the inside of the jar using filtered water on some clean paper towels.  Cover loosely, mark the starter level with an elastic band.  Let rest for 24 hours.  (You can discard the rest of the starter in the first jar, left from the decant, or save it to make pancakes, etc.)

 

This is Day 4   I am impressed.  Look at the action!

This is Day 5  There's a fair bit of bubbling going on.  Not quite as much as yesterday.

This is Day 6.  As you can see it had risen a good inch above the red band and then fell back down again.  It has a really fermented smell to it. Not unpleasant.  Almost but not quite like an alcohol. Almost like a beer.

The starter will be ready to bake with when it rises and falls consistently for a few days in a row.  

This is Day 7.   

As you can see there is a ton of action going on! Its also getting lighter in colour because my feed has been plain strong flour rather than a mix of whole wheat and white.  I think I am now ready to bake some bread with it, but first a few pictures to show you what I have been doing with the discard.  I have a jar in the refrigerator I am keeping the discard in. Flour is so precious at the moment, I really can't bring myself to throw it away.  

You can do quite a lot with it.  King Arthur Flour has a large number of recipes and suggestion on their page. 

I have made us Sour Dough Pancakes several times.

 

  They are the best pancakes I have ever eaten. As you can see they are incredibly light and fluffy and the flavour is fantastic.  Todd enjoys his with syrup, but I am perfectly happy with them just on their own, they are that good!

  

I have also made Sour Dough Brownies.  These are incredible!

 

They are dense and fudgy like a good brownie should be.  Moist, and yet you can hold them in your hand.

  

I had thought about stirring some chocolate chips or nuts into them, but didn't this time.

 

The flavour is really nice, with just a hint of tang.

 

Having mastered the starter I figured I was ready to bake a loaf of bread.

 

I decided to start off simply with my first try at baking a loaf and I found the perfect recipe on Little Spoon Farm.

 

Baking Sour Dough bread can be a bit convulated, requiring many steps.  I thought I would do simple for the first time, and this was the perfect recipe to begin with.

 

It turned out really nice. Not bad for a loaf of bread that was 8 days in the making (counting the number of days it took for me to get the starter going!)

 

As you can see it has a really nice texture.  The crust is really nice as well.

 

Lots of lovely holes . . .  the crust is a bit chewy for Todd. He has a difficult time with anything chewy or hard.

 

I will need to find a recipe for a loaf that makes a less chewy crust  for him.   MY sister found this for me on True Sour Dough. 

I will try that the next time.  I do need want to get a few more things if I am going to bake sour dough regularly.  A proper razor for cutting slashes in the top and some proper proofing baskets, but we will see how it goes.  I don't want to spend too much money until I figure out if this is just a flash in the pan for me.  I really hope to keep it up!  

 

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