First published in Edible Alaska Summer 2024. Subscribe!

Sourdough crumpets

Yields 5–6 crumpets

Ingredients:

• Neutral oil
• 1 cup unfed starter or sourdough discard
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• Cooking spray
• Butter

Method: Rub some oil on your cast iron and put it over medium-low heat to let it heat up.

Put your starter in a small bowl and stir in sugar, salt, and soda. It should bubble up and quickly double in size, growing to be about 3–3½ cups. Spray three Mason jar rings with cooking spray and set them in the pan for your crumpet molds, lip side down. Melt a small pat of butter in each. (You have to repeat this step for your next batch—greased molds are key.) Your cast iron should not get too hot—you’re looking for a heat you can hold your hand over for a few seconds without burning yourself, maybe 300–325° F.

Using a ¼ cup measure, pour the batter into the hot forms. Cook until many of the bubbles have popped and the batter looks like a tiny cratered moonscape with only a few raw spots. Using a stout spatula, flip mold and crumpet. Once it’s flipped, you should be able to easily remove the mold. If it sticks on the edge, you might need to coax it out gently with a butter knife. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes on the second side, until it’s golden.

Serve immediately with butter and jam.

The post Make breakfast like an old sourdough, with these hyper easy sourdough crumpets appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

Recently, I came across a vintage copy of Alaska sourdough history, “Alaska Sourdough” by Ruth Allman. It reminded me baking with unfed or “scratch” sourdough as a flavor, rather than a leavening agent, was really common in Alaska. The starter brings a tang and depth to everything from brownies to cinnamon rolls, but maybe the easiest and most brilliant scratch sourdough recipe is crackers.

The sourdough cracker is so addictively delicious — like a lighter Cheez-It without cheese. There’s a reason fancy places like Patagonia Provisions are making these.

You can make them for pennies. They require only flour, unfed starter, salt and fat. Trick them out with any herb sprinkle you want. I use melted salted butter, though you can substitute olive oil or vegan butter and they’ll work fine. You can use everything bagel spice or rosemary salt for a gourmet vibe. You can roll them extra thin for flat bread, breaking it after baking, or cut them with a pizza cutter for proper crackers. They keep in an airtight container for about a week, but in my house they never last that long.

Scratch sourdough crackers

Makes about 50 crackers

Ingredients:

1 cup unfed sourdough starter

1 cup white flour, white whole wheat flour or a combination of white and whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 cup salted butter, melted

2 tablespoons dried herbs (optional)

To finish: Olive oil. Flaky kosher or sea salt or a flavored salt of your choice.

Method: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the ingredients, except the olive oil and flaky salt, in a bowl with a wooden spoon until they form a slightly sticky dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Separate dough into two balls, and shape each into a flat rectangle. Roll out on a floured piece of parchment paper to a little thinner than 1/8 inch. Brush with olive oil, and sprinkle with flaky salt. With a pizza cutter, cut into 1 1/2 inch squares and pierce each square with a fork — this keeps them from bubbling. Remove the ragged edges; you can re-roll them out. Lift parchment with the crackers on it onto a baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, turning the sheet halfway through. Repeat with the second ball. Let them cool all the way before eating.

The post The easiest thing to do with sourdough starter: Make addictive crackers that taste like Cheez-Its appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

I was having family for brunch so I thought I’d incorporate my berries into a really straightforward cinnamon roll recipe I make all the time. It was a hit. The berries gave the usual rolls the perfect amount of tang. You can use just about any combination of wild berries with this recipe and scale up the jam if you’d like some left over. It keeps in the fridge for about a week. For the jam part, I just use equal parts berries and sugar, add some marmalade to aid in the firming up. Reducing the sugar will make the jam looser. Then I cook it way down. Most wild berries have a lot of natural pectin, so you shouldn’t have too hard of a time getting a nice firm jam going for the filling, plus a little extra for your toast. Especially if you’re using really seedy berries, it’s a good idea to press it through a sieve to remove the solids.

This basic roll recipe is relatively quick — and you can make it quicker by using rapid rise yeast. That should cut the first rise to an hour and the second to 30 minutes. You can also form the rolls the night before, refrigerate them, and then let them warm up for about an hour before baking them the next day. Don’t skimp on the butter you use to grease the pan. I use at least half a stick. The buttery dough edges are the best part!

Alaska wildberry cinnamon rolls

Serves 12

For the dough:

3/4 cup milk

2 1/4 teaspoon (one package) active dry yeast

1/4 cup salted butter, melted

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup white sugar

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

For the filling:

(Butter and brown sugar for the pan)

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

1/4 cup butter, melted

3 cups frozen berries

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup marmalade

For the cream cheese frosting:

3 tablespoons butter, room temperature

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

Make the dough: Measure the milk into a microwave safe bowl and heat on high for 45 seconds. Pour it into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. Add yeast, butter, eggs, and sugar. Mix well to combine. Whisk the salt into the flour and then add it one cup at a time to the mixer, running on medium low. Allow it to mix, scraping the sides, until the dough is well combined, smooth and not all that sticky. If it is really sticky, shake in about 1/4 cup flour. Remove the dough ball to a greased bowl, cover with a damp cloth and set to rise in a warm place for 60 to 90 minutes. It should be just about double in size.

Make the jam filling: In a saucepan on medium heat, combine sugar, berries and marmalade. Cook until berries have melted and sugar is dissolved — about 20 minutes. Pour the mixture through a mesh sieve, pressing the solids to get the last of the juice out, into a clean saucepan. Return it to the stove. Simmer on medium low until the jam is reduced by about a third and coats the back of a spoon. Allow it to cool.

Form the rolls: Generously grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with butter and sprinkle the bottom with brown sugar, if desired. Mix the brown sugar, melted butter and cinnamon into a paste. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a rectangle, roughly 10 by 15 inches. Spread a thin layer of sugar-cinnamon paste on the dough, then a thin layer of jam (you will have jam leftover to serve with the rolls). Starting from the bottom long side, gently roll it up, pinching the roll closed at the top. Using a piece of floss or a serrated knife, cut into 12 or so inch-wide rolls. (To use floss — slide it under the roll, cross the strands on top and pull to cut.) The end ones will be smaller. Arrange them in the baking pan. Cover and allow to rise 30 minutes to an hour. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Frost the rolls: In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Put the mixer on low and add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, until combined. Finally, add the vanilla. Spread over warm rolls and serve immediately, with extra jam.

The post Delight the brunch crowd (and use your frozen berries) with Alaska wildberry cinnamon rolls appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

These delicious buns are sort of like the offspring of a soft pretzel and bagel. Before you get intimidated by the idea of making dough, trust me that these knots aren’t hard, especially if you have access to a standing mixer. They only rise for an hour. A quick dip in a bath of boiling baking soda water gives them a brown pretzel-y crust and flavor. They’re soft and savory and all kinds of perfect for watching the game or bringing to brunch. Smoked-salmon cream cheese kicks them up another very Alaska notch.

Everything bagel spice is available in the spice section of most grocery stores in Anchorage and at Costco. If you’re in a hurry, you can buy store-bought salmon spread or other cream cheese spread. Jalapeno is a favorite at my house. The knots are great split and toasted the next day.

Everything spice pretzel knots with smoked salmon schmear

Makes 12 knots

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water

2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey

1 packet active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 stick salted butter, melted

4 1/2 cups flour

2 1/2 quarts water

½ cup baking soda

1 egg, beaten

1-2 tablespoons everything bagel seasoning

1/2 cup smoked salmon, shredded

1/2 cup whipped cream cheese

1 teaspoon caper brine

Couple splashes of Frank’s hot sauce (optional)

Method:

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix together water, syrup, yeast, salt and melted butter on the lowest setting. Turning the mixer up a click or two, shake in the flour, a cup at a time, until it’s well combined and begins to coalesce into a smooth dough. Turn the mixer off and dump the dough onto the counter. Knead a few times until the dough comes together. It should be elastic and not very sticky. Form it into a ball. Scrape out the bowl of the mixer, spray the bowl with nonstick cooking spray, and put the dough ball back in. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let it rise for an hour.

When the dough is done rising, preheat the oven to 425, line a baking sheet with parchment, and fill a wide-mouthed soup pot or Dutch oven with 2 1/2 quarts of water. Stir the baking soda into the water and put it on the heat to boil. Dump the dough out onto the counter, shape it into a long rectangle. Cut the rectangle in half longways and then cut each half into six equal pieces.

Form the pretzel knots. Roll each portion of dough into a log about 1 inch in diameter and about 6 inches long. Arrange the log in a U-shape. Take the end of the left arm of the U, cross it over the right arm and then tuck it under the right arm, to form a twist. Fold the twist downward toward the bottom of the U. Then turn the whole thing over. (See photos) If you have time, you can let the formed knots rise for an additional 20 minutes. Once all of the pretzels are formed, plop them gently in the boiling baking soda bath, three at a time. Turn them over after 20 seconds, boil 20 seconds more. Fish them out with a slotted spoon and set them on the baking sheet. Brush each one with beaten egg and sprinkle it with everything bagel spice. Slide the knots into the oven and bake for 18 minutes.

While they are baking, make the schmear. Mix salmon, cream cheese, caper brine and hot sauce, if desired, in a small bowl until well combined.

Serve the knots warm with schmear.

The post Make friends with everything-spice pretzel knots and smoked salmon schmear appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

It happened that he’d recently been to visit his grandparents in California and, as you do when you live in Alaska, returned with a suitcase-load of lemons. So we started making loaves and settled on a pretty decent copycat recipe. To achieve the required Starbucks bakery lemony-ness, we learned we couldn’t just rely on lemon juice without the recipe becoming too sour, so we used a spot of lemon extract to boost the citrus flavor.

We also tried different oils. In a slight departure from Starbucks, we decided the flavor and texture of the loaf with light olive oil was best, though other neutral oils work too. Leo doesn’t drink coffee, but I tested it and it goes pretty great with a latte.

Leo’s copycat Starbucks lemon loaf

Ingredients:

For the cake

3 eggs

⅔ cup white sugar

1 cup full fat sour cream

½ cup light olive oil (can sub grapeseed, canola or avocado oil)

Zest of one lemon

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 ½ teaspoons lemon extract

1 ½ cups flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

For the glaze

1 ½ cup powdered sugar

2 ½ tablespoons lemon juice

¼ teaspoon vanilla

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 5 by 9 inch loaf pan.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat eggs and sugar on medium until creamy. Add sour cream, oil, zest, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and lemon extract, mix until well combined. In another bowl, whisk together dry ingredients – flour, salt, baking powder. With the mixer running on low, gently shake the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until combined into a smooth batter. Don’t overmix. Scrape batter into the loaf pan, and bake for 52-55 minutes, or until a sharp knife inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Be careful not to overbake.

Once the loaf is completely cool, about 30 minutes, pour powdered sugar through a fine mesh sieve into a small bowl. Add lemon juice and vanilla and stir rapidly to form a thick glaze. Pour the glaze over the loaf and spread gently with a spatula to distribute. Slice with a sharp knife when the glaze has set.

The post If you’re hankering for Starbucks lemon loaf, try my kid’s copycat recipe appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

Big Breakfast Focaccia

(serves 6-8)

Ingredients: 2¼ teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast

2 teaspoons honey

5 cups bread flour (preferred) or all-purpose flour

1½ tablespoons + ½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons olive oil

¾ pound loose breakfast sausage

6–8 eggs

1½ cups sharp white Cheddar cheese

1½ tablespoons fresh herbs like rosemary, sage, and thyme, finely chopped

Method:

The afternoon before the day you plan to serve your bread, proof your yeast by whisking it and the honey into 2½ cups lukewarm water in a large bowl. Let it sit for a few minutes to make sure the yeast is active. (It should get foamy. If it doesn’t, start over with new yeast.) Add flour and salt and mix with a spatula to make a shaggy dough. Pull the dough from the bowl and on a floured surface with floured hands, briefly, lightly knead, not too much, just until all the flour is mostly combined. Form into a rough ball. Scrape out the bowl and then add ¼ cup of olive oil. Roll the ball lightly in the oil in the bowl and then cover it and refrigerate overnight. You can leave it as little as 4 hours or as long as 24 hours. It should at least double in size.

At least 2½ hours before you plan to eat, pour 2 tablespoons of oil on a rimmed 12×16-inch baking sheet and spread it to the edges with a spatula so it’s well distributed. Make a dough ball with forks. Facing the bowl, use 2 forks to hook and fold the edge farthest from you toward the center of the bowl. Turn the bowl a quarter turn, and repeat 3 more times, deflating the dough while forming a ball. Dump the ball onto the oiled sheet pan, and drizzle the extra oil on top. Use oiled fingers to gently stretch it into a rectangle shape. Allow it to rise for at least 90 minutes in a warm place, until the stretched dough mostly fills the pan.

About 45 minutes before you plan to eat, preheat your oven to 450° F. Make 6–8 golfball-sized balls of aluminum foil. Pour another tablespoon of oil over the dough and use your fingers to press lots of dimples into the dough, at the same time lightly stretching it toward the edges of the pan. Take your foil balls, dip 1 side in oil, and press them oil side down in equidistant spots on the rectangle of dough to make craters to hold your eggs. Sprinkle the focaccia with ½ teaspoon of sea salt. Put the pan in the oven and set your timer for 15 minutes.

While the dough bakes, brown your sausage crumbles. When the timer goes off, pull out the bread, remove the foil balls, and very carefully crack an egg into each crater. (If the crater doesn’t look deep enough, you can hollow it a little more with a spoon.) Sprinkle on sausage and cheese. Return to the oven for 10 more minutes. It should be golden, the cheese should be melted and browned, and the eggs should be done. Sprinkle with herbs before serving.

This recipe originally appeared in Edible Alaska. Subscribe!

The post Bake the biggest white cheddar, sausage breakfast focaccia appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

Every now and then I like to conquer a multi-step baking project. There was the sourdough bread trip last April, and before that, the Bakeshop-inspired starbread. Now, amid pumpkin season, I would like to present my tastiest project recipe yet: pumpkin brioche cinnamon rolls. I’m really hoping some aunties will try them and give me a review.

The steps are pretty standard for roll-baking people. The ingredients are not fancy — just canned pumpkin, some extra butter and a little instant coffee. Adapted from a recipe by New Zealand-born cinnamon roll master and blogger Erin Clarkson, these babies feature a soft pumpkin brioche dough, pumpkin-y cinnamon filling and a maple frosting you tart up with some coffee powder. (She calls them “buns,” because New Zealand.) It’s a PSL situation you don’t have to be ashamed of.

The big key to this recipe is a standing mixer with a dough hook. You can also knead by hand, but a mixer makes everything much, much easier. Another tip: Take that butter and cream cheese out and let it warm up before you work with it!

Pumpkin brioche cinnamon rolls

Makes 12 rolls

Dough:

2 ¼ teaspoons (one packet) active dry yeas

¾ cup milk, warm (roughly 110 degrees)

¼ cup brown sugar, loosely packed

4 ½ cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon cardamom

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 stick of salted butter at room temperature

Filling:

2 cups brown sugar

2 sticks salted butter, softened

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cardamom

⅓ cup canned pumpkin

Frosting:

4 tablespoons butter, room temperature

5 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 Starbucks Via packet or 2 teaspoons espresso powder (optional)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine yeast, warm milk and sugar and give it a swish with a wooden spoon. Allow to stand for a few minutes until you can tell the yeast is active because it bubbles. (If it doesn’t bubble, start over with fresher yeast.)

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt and spices. With the mixer on the lowest speed, add eggs, pumpkin, and vanilla to the yeast combination. Mix until combined. Gently shake in the dry ingredients, roughly a quarter at a time. Once the dough is starting to coalesce, increase the mixer to medium speed and allow it to run for a few minutes until the dough is smooth. Now, with the mixer still running, add butter, a slice at a time. Allow the mixer to run until the butter is all incorporated and the dough is smooth and elastic. This will take a few minutes and look weird at first. Trust the process.

Scrape the dough out of the bowl. Scrape any leftover dough bits out of the bowl and spray it well with cooking spray. Put the dough back in the bowl, cover with a damp cloth and put in a warm place to rise, roughly an hour, until it doubles in size.

Make the filling: Mix brown sugar, soft butter, spices and pumpkin until smooth.

Make the rolls. Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into a rectangle with your hands, long side up. Roll it out into a larger rectangle, long sides at the top and bottom, that’s about 24 inches by 16 inches. Spread the rectangle with filling all the way to the edges. Roll the dough tightly, staring at the long top side, into a long tube. Cut the tube in half with a very sharp knife. Move both rolls to a plate, cover and freeze for 20 minutes.

Grease a 13-inch by 9-inch baking pan and, if you’d like, line with parchment. Remove the dough rolls from the freezer. With a very sharp knife, slice each roll into six equal parts and arrange in the pan. Now you may cover and refrigerate overnight (Bring them to room temperature before baking). Or, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and let them rise for 45 minutes to an hour. Bake the rolls for 35 to 40 minutes. They should be golden on the top.

Make the frosting. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and cream cheese until fluffy, add the sugar, syrup, vanilla and coffee powder. Mix until well combined. Spread on the warm rolls and serve immediately.

The post These pumpkin brioche rolls with coffee frosting are a worthy project appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

Schooler is a meticulous sourdough genius at In Bocca Al Lupo, a restaurant in a bakery building that’s been raising loaves with natural yeasts for a century. He sent me an opus of a recipe for an impressive chocolate-cherry loaf that got psychedelic about the universe and bread science. By then, though, my usual life had ceased to exist.

I found myself on the couch editing a stream of breaking news stories that got darker each hour. My children fought and did flips and performed songs and begged me to pay attention. My youngest said he dreamed I was slamming a door in his face. My oldest quit going outside. The news rolled on. The price of oil sinking. The economy crumbling. New York City swallowed by illness. Friends losing jobs. Friends losing family members.

I started to have episodes of shortness of breath, but realized it was just panic. I texted Schooler that I couldn’t do it. The starter was dead on the counter. I couldn’t think.

Down in Juneau, Schooler’s phone pinged with my text while he was making take-out frozen pizzas in his empty restaurant, trying to reason how his business could pull through the summer with no cruise ship tourists. Feed my starter and wait, he texted back. I stirred in some flour and water. The next morning, it bubbled back to life. I texted him that I couldn’t figure out why the sight of it made my eyes fill with tears.

“It’s ok, friend,” he texted back. “It’ll be ok.”

Then I began to work my way through a simplified version of his recipe. I mixed, kneaded, waited, folded. The most important thing is to have a reliably warm place to rise the dough, preferably in the neighborhood of 80 degrees. I set mine on the boiler. Watching those first loaves rise felt like witnessing a miracle. They baked into sour, crisp-crusted masterpieces. The children ate warm bread with butter. In an inside-out world, so much comfort comes from witnessing a natural process that works out the way you expect, you know?

I’ve made 16 loaves now, and have messed up every step. I forgot salt and added it late. I didn’t let it rest. I let it rise too long. Even so, the loaves came out. I walked them over to my parents’ and set them on their porches. The key to all of it, I found, like with so many things that feel impossible, is to take it one step at a time and to do your best.

Beau Schooler’s basic sourdough bread

Makes two loaves

Ingredients:

6 1/3 cups unbleached bread flour

Heaping 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour (you can skip this and sub additional white flour)

2 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons room temperature water

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

3/4 cup sourdough starter, charged and at its peak

To charge up your starter:

Mix 2 tablespoons of active starter with ½ cup flour and ½ cup water, cover it with a damp cloth, and let it sit at room temp, away from drafts, for 10-12 hours or overnight. (I put mine in the oven with the light on.) When it’s ready, you should be able to take a chunk of it, drop it in water and it should float. If it doesn’t, feed it again, it’ll get there.

(Have leftover starter? Make brownies or pancakes!)

To make the bread:

When the starter is bubbly and ready, pour the water (except for the two tablespoons) into a bowl large enough to fit everything. Then add the flours. Combine by hand, kneading it into a shaggy mass. Allow it to rest for 30 minutes. Add the starter to the dough, knead it in by hand. The dough will be sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 30 minutes in a warm place.

Next you’re going to give the dough its first fold in a series of four folds, done every half hour. The first time you do this, stir the salt with the two tablespoons of water and fold it in. Then shape the dough into a ball and move it to a lightly greased bowl. It’ll stay in that bowl till you bake it.

On the folding technique, Schooler says: “You can do the folding in the bowl, no need to take the dough out. Imagine it as a square. You’re gonna take the side of the square closest to you, grab it from the edge and lift up, stretching it until it seems like it won’t stretch anymore without tearing, then press it into the middle. Repeat with the three remaining sides, then flip the whole thing over in the bowl, so the bottom is now the top.”

Repeat the folding process three more times, each time a half hour apart. Always cover it and let it rise in a warm place. Then let the dough rise, covered, in the warm spot, at least two hours, or so that it’s at least 25% larger. Depending on what else you’re doing, you can go as long as 5 hours.

When the dough has risen, gently dump it out onto a lightly floured counter and cut it into two equal portions. Take each one and gently fold it into a ball, then place them seam-side down on the counter. Cover with a towel and let them sit there to relax for like half an hour, “until they start to slack out and flatten like pancakes,” Schooler says.

In the meantime, lay two dish towels inside clean bowls and generously flour them. (Schooler rubs the flour into the towels on the counter before he puts them in the bowls.)

Next, take one of the dough balls and gently pick it up, placing it down in front of you on the lightly floured counter, smooth side down. Imagine it as a square with 4 corners, Schooler says.

“Grab north and south corners, stretch them out and then press them into the middle, slightly overlapping each other, then do the same with east and west, out and then into the middle, overlapping each other. Repeat,” Schooler says.

You should end up with a taut ball. Place the ball, seam-side up, into the rising bowl with the dish towel. Repeat with the second dough ball. Cover loosely with a plastic shopping bag, then let it rest on the counter for about 15 to 20 minutes before moving to the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, place a lidded dutch oven, or two if you have them, into your oven and heat it to 475 degrees.

Once the oven is preheated, take out your dough or doughs, depending on how many Dutch ovens you have heating. You will flip the dough, seam side down into the hot dutch oven. (Careful!) Quickly, take a razor, a box cutter or sharp knife, and cut a X across the top of each dough ball, about a 1/4” deep, and all along the top.

“Grip it and rip it, don’t be scared or the knife will catch and tear your dough, maybe even deflate it,” Schooler says.

Put the lid back on the dutch oven (or ovens) and place in the oven. After 20 minutes, take the lid off the pot. Let the dough bake 20 minutes more, uncovered. Let it get dark, almost burned.

“Don’t be a poser about it,” Schooler says. “Trust the process.” (I was a poser and used to take mine out after 16 minutes, because I have a short double-oven and it always burned. But then I discovered: If you have an oven like mine, you can bake the bread for longer and avoid a scorched bottom by putting a pizza stone on the rack beneath it.)

Take the pot out of the oven and dump the bread onto a wire rack to cool.

Schooler says: “They say you shouldn’t cut into hot bread, but they’re liars and are just telling you that because they’re insecure. Do whatever you want, it’s your bread.”

This recipe was originally published in the Anchorage Daily News.

The post Make a sourdough loaf like an Alaskan with Beau Schooler’s recipe appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

I have been riffing on star-shaped breads a bunch lately. They really aren’t that hard, and they look cool and make a great gift. Recently, I decided to do a mash-up Bake Shop tribute star. (Their sweet roll recipe is online if you want the real thing, btw.) I don’t glaze mine or sprinkle almonds on top, favoring butter, but you could do that if you wanted to really go with theme.

This dough recipe is really flexible and forgiving. Some people can’t deal with anise, and you can absolutely leave those spices out. You make your star savory with pesto and goat cheese or parm. You can make one with Nutella. It’s a great thing to bring to a Christmas party. The main thing, though, is you have to leave yourself time for the dough to rise. If you want help with how to form the star (it’s easier that it looks) there are many videos on YouTube.

Bake Shop tribute Christmas star bread

For the dough:
⅔ cup whole milk, warm (roughly 110 degrees)
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ cup salted butter, melted
1 packet or 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 eggs, beaten
½ teaspoon anise seeds (optional)
½ teaspoon mace or nutmeg (optional)
½ teaspoon salt
3¼ cups all-purpose flour

For the filling:
2 tablespoons raspberry jam
5 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

One egg, beaten

Optional glaze:
1 ½ cup powdered sugar
Juice of one lemon

Optional: Slivered almonds

Instructions:
To make the dough: combine warm milk, sugar, melted butter and yeast in the bowl of a standing mixer. Wait about 10 minutes or so, until the yeast is bubbly. Attach the paddle attachment and mix in the eggs on low speed. Add the salt and spices. Add the flour a cup at a time until a soft dough forms. Remove the ball of dough from the mixing bowl, scrape it out, spray the bowl with cooking spray, and return the ball to the bowl. Cover with a damp dishcloth and put in a warm place. Allow to rise for an hour until it doubles in size.

To assemble: Make the filling by combining the melted butter with the brown sugar and cinnamon, set aside. Turn the dough out onto a sheet of parchment. Slice it into four equal pieces and gently shape them into balls, taking care not to over-handle. Roll the first ball out on the parchment until it’s a rough circle, about 9 inches in diameter (you can use a round cake pan for a guide if you want). Place the whole thing, parchment and dough, on a sheet pan. Spread with a nice layer of the cinnamon mixture. Roll the next layer on a new piece of parchment and turn it over on to the first cinnamon-covered layer, carefully peeling off the parchment. Spread it with a thick coat of jam. Repeat with the next layer, spread with cinnamon mixture. Finish with the last layer. If you’d like, you can place a 9-inch cake pan over the stack of layers and cut around it to make a perfect circle. I prefer my stars a little more free-form.

To form the star: Lightly press the base of a small, round drinking glass, roughly 2 ½ inches in diameter, in the center of the stack of dough sheets. That part won’t be cut and will become the center of the star. With a large knife, big pizza cutter or metal pastry scraper, working from the edge of that circle to the edge of the dough stack, make four slices like a clock, at 12, 3, 6 and 9, cutting into four equal parts. Then slice each of those sections into four equal parts for a total of 16 sections. Gentle take two sections at once and twist them away from each other twice. Pinch the ends together and tuck them under to form the points of the star. Once you’ve formed the star, brush with beaten egg and allow to rise for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake the star for 20 minutes, or until the middle sounds hollow when you tap it.

Optional garnish: Stir together powdered sugar and lemon to form a glaze. Drizzle it generously over the star after you pull it from the oven. Sprinkle with slivered almonds.

You can also find this recipe in the Anchorage Daily News.

The post This stunner Star Bread tastes like sweet rolls from the Bake Shop in Girdwood appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

But, I wondered, what would happen if I made the rolls myself? The answer is they are so irresistible that you’ll have to fight to keep from eating them before they cool. Make THESE into a breakfast slider and I don’t know exactly what will happen, but it will be awesome and you’ll want to do it again.ADVERTISING

I tested this recipe for several weeks and the rolls were always sweet and delicious, but what I was going for, that lofty, squishy texture, was hard to achieve with only simple ingredients. Also, you should know that these rolls take time. The rise is what makes them soft. I recommend finding a very warm place, like maybe inside a microwave with the light on underneath, to rise them. A warm rise is key. (Think about Hawaii.) This recipe, which uses bread machine yeast and pineapple juice, is the simplest of the recipes I made and came the closest to the grocery store rolls.

Homemade Hawaiian-style rolls

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon canned pineapple juice

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups bread flour

1 egg white

Method: Microwave 1/2 cup pineapple juice and 1/2 cup water in a glass measuring cup for 1 to 2 minutes on high until warm to the touch. Pour into the bowl of a stand mixer outfitted with the dough hook attachment. Add sugar and stir with a spoon to dissolve. Sprinkle yeast on top and stir again. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. The mixture should bubble, indicating the yeast is live. Add the oil and salt. With the mixer on medium speed, add flour, 1 cup at a time, and allow to mix for 5 to 10 minutes, until well combined. Pull the ball of dough out of the bowl. Knead it gently for about 3 minutes, until it’s smooth. Spray the bowl with cooking spray, return the dough to the bowl, cover with a damp towel and sit in a very warm place to rise for two to three hours. When dough has at least doubled in size, grease a 9-inch square pan. Punch the dough down gently and form into a ball. Grease a 9-inch square pan. Cut the dough ball into three equal pieces with a sharp knife. Cut each of the pieces of dough in three and form each of those portions into a ball. Place the balls in rows in the pan and allow to rise for an hour. Roughly 15 minutes before you plan to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix egg white with 1 tablespoon of pineapple juice and brush the rolls. Bake for 28 minutes.

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