I make this the first time on holiday at the beach.  I had my sourdough starter with me (doesn’t everyone take their sourdough starter to the beach? Yes, he comes on holiday, mostly for pancakes but you never know). I’m not totally obsessed though – I had flour with me but none of my usual at-home stock of multigrains or spices or nuts. So it was overripe bananas, sourdough starter, flour and a little salt and that’s all.  And it was spectacularly good.

So of course, when I got home I had to try to go one better.  In the weeks since, I’ve tried adding kibble and adding nuts and adding cinnamon and nothing has come near that beach perfect banana-y but not overly sweet crusty and chewy bread, toasted with butter and nothing else.  Simple and divine. Overcomplication is the enemy of some recipes.

The Recipe:

It starts with a standard fed sourdough starter.  My usual method is to feed a cup and a half of starter with a mug of baker’s flour mixed with a mug of water.  A cup and a half of it put back in a container with a loosely fitting lid in the fridge, and the rest (about a cup and a half full) left in a bowl covered with a tea towel on the bench overnight or for a few hours.

With clean hands, into the starter, squoosh 4 big over-ripe bananas.  You want them well squooshed in but not blended.

Add a teaspoon of salt and enough baker’s flour to make a smooth, soft dough.  Knead briefly. Like all sourdoughs, there’s not much kneading involved, just lots of letting it take its own sweet time.

The dough is softer and moister than I am used to with my normal wholemeal or multigrain breads but it is still smooth and elastic like a good bread dough.

Put some mild flavoured  oil (I use macadamia oil) in a bowl, roll the dough round in it, then leave to sit  covered with a cloth, for the day or overnight.  It will more than double in size and be soft and spongy.  In warm weather at the beach it proved beautifully overnight but like all sourdough, it has its own temperament and in the cooler weather this week it took about 12 hours.

Flour the benchtop, knock the dough down and knead very briefly, then put it into an oiled tin.  It’s a bit soft to bake freeform – it does cook nicely but it’s a wide flat loaf and I liked it better with a bit of height to the loaf.  Slash the top of the loaf and let it prove again for one and a half to two hours – again it depends on the weather and the temperament of your starter.  It will double in size again.

Bake in a medium oven for around 40 to 50 minutes, till the top is nicely browned and it sounds hollow when tapped.  Take it out of the tin and put it back in the oven for 5 minutes to get a bit of crustiness to the bottom.

We ate it warm straight out of the oven, or toasted in thick slabs for breakfast.  But it would probably go really well as a sandwich too, I’m imagining it with chocolate nut spread or honey and peanut butter.

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My 11 Grain Sourdough is still my daily bread. I make a small loaf a couple of times a week.  It tastes wonderful, and it’s super healthy with lots of low GI complex whole grains.  But most weeks I do something else as well just for variety.  Sourdough Pita and Seedy Sourdough Crispbread are very regular, Sourdough Naan Bread fairly common.  And this latest one has been a regular regular lately, and will likely stay regular till the macadamia season is over.   Macas, besides tasting wonderful, are really good for heart health,   – there’s some very good science that just a handful of nuts a day makes a huge difference. But mostly, it’s just because it’s so decadently delicious!

The Recipe:

The recipe makes a small loaf, which is all I usually make at once.  You only need very thin slices – it’s so rich – so it goes a long way.

First the starter, taken out of the fridge before I go to bed and fed with a mug of baker’s flour mixed with a mug of water.  A cup and a half of it put back in a container with a loosely fitting lid in the fridge.  The rest (about a cup and a half full) left in a bowl covered with a tea towel on the bench overnight.

In the morning I add a couple of handfuls of roughly chopped macadamia kernels, and a handful each of whole pepitas, sunflower seeds, black sesame seeds, and crushed linseeds, and a couple of spoonfuls of poppy seeds.

Stir this lot in, along with a teaspoon of sea salt, and enough unbleached baker’s flour (high gluten flour) to make a smooth dough.

Put a slurp of oil in a bowl, roll the dough round in it, then leave to sit on the kitchen bench, covered with a cloth, for the day.  I can get macadamia oil in bulk from my local wholefoods store, so that’s the oil I use for this.

By the afternoon, the dough has doubled in size. I lightly flour the bench top and give it a very quick knead, put it into an oiled bread tin, and slash the top.

About an hour and a half to two hours later in this warm weather it is ready to bake.  It goes in a cold oven set to medium hot, and takes around an hour to bake so it sounds hollow when knocked and has a nice brown crust on top.

It’s good fresh or toasted, with sweet or savory topping – but I have to say my favourite is toasted till the macas have just a bit of colour, and spread with local honey.

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My glut crop at the moment is coriander.  In a few weeks time it will all go to seed.  Babies planted now will hardly leaf up before running to seed.  So now’s the time to make the most of it.  If you click “coriander” in the list in the right margin, you’ll find that I seem to have quite a few recipes with it.  It’s one of those flavours you either love or hat.  In one of those serendipities so common with food, avocado, limes and coriander are all in season together.

The dip is really simple – just avocado blended with lots of coriander leaf (more than you would think) and lime juice and salt to taste (not too much of either).

The chips though are a really good invention.  They don’t have much oil in them, and you can use monounsaturated olive oil and avoid the horrible transfats in bought chips.

Baked Sourdough Corn Chips

Mix equal amounts of sourdough starter with dry polenta.

Let it sit for half an hour or more for the polenta to fully soak.  Then add:

• A good pinch of salt
• A handful of grated parmesan
• A few spoonfuls of olive oil
• Enough bakers’ flour to make a soft dough (it won’t need much).

Knead briefly, then cover with a clean cloth and let it sit for a few hours for the sourdough to develop.

Flour the benchtop and a rolling pin and roll the dough out very thin.  Place on an oiled biscuit tray and trim to fit, then score into triangles.

Bake for about 20 minutes in a medium hot oven till the chips are just golden.  Watch carefully at the end because they burn fast.

They will keep for a while in an airtight jar.

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I’m very proud of my sourdough these days. I’m making an eleven grain and seed mix that costs cents, takes minutes, and tastes good enough that I’m making it twice a week most weeks with little incentive to experiment.

Here it is in pictures.

First the starter, taken out of the fridge before I go to bed and fed with a mug of baker’s flour mixed with a mug of water.  A cup and a half of it put back in a jar with a loosely fitting lid in the fridge.  The rest (about a cup and a half full) left in a bowl covered with a tea towel on the bench overnight.

Then the uncooked mix.  In the morning, add a handful each of rolled triticale, rolled oats, oat bran, crushed linseeds, crushed pepitas, and rye flour.  Stir in and let soak.

Then the porridge mix.  While I move around making cofee, getting dressed, eating breakfast, I cook up a bread porridge. It starts with a handful of pearled barley, a handful of buckwheat, and a handful of millet, and a good teaspoon of salt. When they have had 5 minutes or so of boiling head start, I add a handful of quinoa and a handful of oat groats. I cook until the grains are just cooked and the water all absorbed, trying to stir as little as possible and being careful not to overcook.  I want the grains distinct, not mush. I turn it off an let it cool for a few minutes.

Then I make the bread dough.  Stir the porridge into the starter mix, stir in a couple of handfuls of wholemeal wheat flour, then tip the shaggy dough mix out onto the well floured benchtop.  I knead in enough unbleached baker’s flour (high gluten flour) to make a smooth dough.  It varies depending on how wet the porridge mix is and how generous I was with handfuls, but generally it’s about a cup to a cup and a half of baker’s flour.  I put a slurp of oil in a bowl, roll the dough round in it, then leave to sit on the kitchen bench, covered with a cloth, for the day.  (in summer with ants around I have to set the whole lot in a pie dish full of water).

By the time I get home in the afternoon, the dough is like this. On a warm day, it only takes about 4 hours really, a bit longer if my starter hadn’t been fed for a few days. The next bit really depends on the temperature. In winter, I used to give the dough a quick knead, roll the top of the log of dough in sesame seeds (they don’t stick if you just sprinkle them), put it into an oiled bread tin, and slash the top.  Then leave it covered on the benchtop again and hope it rose enough to bake at 7 pm, to be out of the oven before I turn into a pumpkin at 8 pm.  But lately, with the warm weather, I’ve been putting it in the fridge to slow it down and get a more even second rise.  If it rises too fast, the texture is uneven with crumbly bits in the middle.  If it rises too slow, the sourness develops.  About an hour and a half to double in size is perfect.  Then I put it into a cold oven, set to medium, and bake for around an hour till it sounds hollow when knocked.

It’s really good as toast with avocado and tomato, or as a sandwich with hummus and lettuce and tomato, or…

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