Budget Cooking Sourdough Baking

The write-ups are short and so are the recipes! Thenfeedthem.com focuses on providing tasty, easy, simple recipes for time-crunched, hungry, frugal, cash-poor people. Or just about everyone at some point or another.

No, there's not a lot about me here. I'm a writer, cook, and normal person, most of the time. I'll tell you a little about my life in my posts but not much (I'm kind of boring).

The filler is the food, not my life story! And, after all, "food is love." I hope you are filled to capacity. And cook to fill others, too!

May 1, 2019
3 min

Have a Lot of Sourdough Discard? Make Better Sourdough Cheese Biscuits/Scones

So, armed with an excess of sourdough discard, I decided to see if I could use up all of my discard while also making biscuits/scones that are light, full of flavor, and not too heavy on the butter or shortening. I wanted to achieve a biscuit better than the one my recipe from a famous flour company makes. The answer is, yes, I could build a better biscuit. Sourdough discard must have magical properties, because it makes fantastic biscuits--light, slightly tangy, high-risi

Jan 24, 2019
2 min

Have Sourdough Discard? Make Dark Rye Bread

I have a rye-based sourdough starter that I've been keeping fed regularly, and that means I have plenty of rye discard to use, particularly in whole grain breads like Dark Rye Bread. The bread is deep, dark, and delicious--really! It gets a touch of sweetness from brown sugar and molasses and extra depth of flavor from a little cocoa powder. The bread requires little attention and isn't a fussy project to make. I usually mix up the dough at breakfast time, leave it alone

Jan 23, 2019
2 min

Sourdough Everything Bagel Bread

The internet is awash with recipes for bagel breads, but I can't get excited about them, because they involve more steps and work than I want to invest in my bread and are generally a pain-in-in the butt (sorry, but they are!). I do like the idea--a soft but chewy yeast bread with nifty toppings. Nonetheless, I wanted to reduce the amount of steps required and omit the signature boiling of the bagel bread. Yes, the boiling produces a nice crust on the bagel bread, but no,

Jan 4, 2019
3 min

Healthier Breakfast Bread: Sourdough Cinnamon Buns

Traditional cinnamon buns rely on lots of butter, sugar, eggs, and sometimes oil or vegetable shortening for their texture and flavor. Sourdough Cinnamon Buns get their flavor and rise from the sourdough process. The buns take longer to make, admittedly, but most of the time is "hands off," rising time. Rather than loads of butter and other bad things, the buns come out soft and fluffy with a minimum of "healthy" fat from canola oil. The buns also are sweetened with a bi

Dec 20, 2018
2 min

Have Sourdough Discard? Make Christmas Scones

Sourdough Christmas Scones are filled with all sorts of good things, and, because they use baking powder as the primary leavener, they don't require a rise time. Yes, the scones do use up some of your sourdough discard, and yes, they are a bit more "yeasty" and lighter than regular scones. Nonetheless, the Christmas scones are closer to traditional scones than to sourdough bread. The scones get texture from oats and are studded with dried cranberries, dried orange pieces,

Nov 27, 2018
3 min

Sourdough Cinnamon Streusel Bread

This is a great bread to have as a special treat on a wintry morning--or any other morning, for that matter. The bread is crunchy on top and soft and squishy on the inside. It's also full of tangy dried cranberries that highlight the flavor of the sourdough starter. A brown sugar, cinnamon, and almond streusel twirls through the interior of the bread for extra appeal. I love the bread because it's easy. Just mix up the dough, let it park overnight or for about 12 hours,

Nov 9, 2018
3 min

Sourdough Discard Cheese Biscuits

If you like warm, tangy biscuits oozing with melting cheese, these biscuits are for you. The biscuits are worth making the sourdough starter, just to get the discard so you can whip them up. Sourdough cheese biscuits get their tang from the sourdough process and also from a little buttermilk in the dough. Two types of cheese--shredded and sharp cheddar chunks--provide a hit of real cheese flavor. Don't skip the chunks, they're one of the best parts of the recipe. The chu

Oct 25, 2018
3 min

Sourdough Pumpkin Bread Without Baking Powder

Many sourdough pumpkin bread recipes include baking powder, which, to me, defeats the purpose of the sourdough process--to make the bread rise. Admittedly, sometimes you want bread "right now" and don't have time for a long rising period. At other times, you may simply be looking for a way to use up discard. Been there, done that. Nonetheless, I like the idea of sourdough pumpkin bread that has risen without the assistance of baking powder. Yes, the bread requires a sub

Oct 3, 2018
2 min

Air-Fried Sourdough Wheat and Oat Bread

I've finally come up with a better way to cook my sourdough bread--use the air fryer. The air fryer really is just a mini-convection oven, and so it's fantastic for baking sourdough bread. The bread comes out nicely browned with a slightly crunchy crust, and it's soft and moist inside. Admittedly, you can't bake a giant loaf in the air fryer, but, if you're okay with making boules, the air fryer is great. You can bake the bread in a 6-inch round cake pan, if you'd like.

Sep 22, 2018
3 min

Sourdough Discard Pumpkin Scones or Buns

I intended to make pumpkin scones with my sourdough discard but then decided I didn't want to bake immediately. That's one of the beauties of sourdough. It generally will wait. Rather than adding baking powder to my scone batter and baking it immediately, I opted for simple, yeast-risen pumpkin buns. Sure, they took longer. That was my intent. I mixed up the batter after lunch, formed the buns, and then went about my business until dinner time. At that point, I needed

Sep 3, 2018
2 min

Sourdough Discard Day: Rye-Raisin-Nut Buns

It was time--again--to feed the starters. This time I decided to make breakfast buns, specifically rye-flour-based raisin buns with walnuts. The process for making the buns seems long, but it's easy, and you don't have to do any kneading--just stirring. Plus, the rise time is pretty accommodating. You can start the buns the morning of the day before you want to serve them. Or, better yet, get the buns started on Saturday evening (hey, big night at my house!), let them ri

Jul 28, 2018
2 min

Using Up the Sourdough Discard: Mixed Berry Scones

Today's offering uses up sourdough discard/starter to create a lighter, fluffier scone than the usual biscuit-like version. Mixed Berry Scones incorporate buttermilk and canola oil, no butter. They are quite moist and keep longer than regular scones, which can turn into hockey pucks if you don't eat them within a day or two. With white whole-wheat flour, dried cherries, blueberries, and cranberries, the Mixed Berry Scones provide helpful nutrients and fiber. Orange zest c

Jul 17, 2018
3 min

Simpler Sourdough: No Knead Honey-Oat Bread

Why make life more complicated than it is? Resist the temptation to make the sourdough process a hassle. It isn't. Humans have been using the sourdough process to make bread for thousands of years--yes, "artisan" bread in the true sense--producing loaves of some sort in limited quantities often using techniques that have been passed down through generations. The "artisan" bread you find in bakeries may consist of flour, water, salt, but it may have additional ingredients,

Jul 11, 2018
2 min

Sourdough Discard Project: Soft Hamburger Buns

Okay, I'm probably nuts, but, yes, I do make hamburger buns using the sourdough process. The buns are easy to make, taste good, and, besides being great with burgers, are easy to slice and pop in the toaster for breakfast in lieu of boring toast. I get the buns started early in the morning, feed them more flour at mid-day, and bake them in the evening. I think the texture is better when you feed them at mid-day, but if that's too much of a pain, no problem. Just mix every

Jun 25, 2018
3 min

Sourdough Discard German Chocolate Cake and Cupcakes

My husband wanted chocolate cupcakes but I had sourdough discard to use up, so I decided to improvise and use the discard to make him cupcakes. I mixed up the batter, and that was fine. It looked pretty normal. The problem was, though, that I had enough batter for a couple dozen cupcakes, not the one dozen I had planned. Rather than just baking the lot and freezing part, I opted to make a one-layer German Chocolate cake with half of the batter. The German Chocolate Cake

Jun 23, 2018
2 min

Sourdough Orange-Cinnamon Ripple Bread

I had to feed my starter again and was determined to make something a little different. Sourdough Orange-Cinnamon Ripple Bread is the result. It's similar to a cinnamon quick bread but full of yeasty taste and more like a slightly sweet bread than a cake. The ripple bread is easy to mix up in the morning and forget until the evening when it should be ready to go in the oven--no kneading required. Orange zest gives the bread extra tang, and cinnamon, sugar, and ground waln

Jun 22, 2018
2 min

No Knead Sourdough Chunky Cheese Bread

This is a variation on another sourdough cheese bread I make, and this one is full of chunks of cheddar cheese. It's got the tangy taste of sourdough and the sharpness of cheddar, plus a little onion and dill flavor for contrast. Unlike in some other cheese breads, in which the cheese tends to meld with the batter, this version is full of pockets of melted cheddar. Be sure to use a sharp or extra sharp cheddar for full flavor. Although I use mostly white whole-wheat flour

Jun 14, 2018
3 min

Sourdough Apple Rum Raisin Buns

Once upon a time sourdough was used to raise most cakes. The sort of cakes we eat now--like Betty Crocker layer cakes--simply weren't available. What was more common were sweet yeast-bread-type creations more like hot cross buns or pannetone. What I'm offering you today is in that vein. Sourdough apple raisin rum buns are slightly sweet little buns filled with moist apple pieces and rum-plumped raisins (or use dried cranberries if you're out of raisins or half of each, if

May 30, 2018
3 min

Extra Starter/Discard Day: Make Sourdough Carrot-Pineapple Rye Cake--Without Baking Powder or Bakin

Today's sourdough offering is a carrot cake with umpf. No mamby-pamby carrot cake with cream cheese icing. This one has heft and a lot of rich taste without the need for loads of cream cheese, butter, and sugar. I use a rye-based starter for the cake and add additional rye flour to the batter, which gives the cake a deeper, darker flavor. Plenty of crushed pineapple, grated carrots, coconut, walnuts, and raisins make the cake almost like a fruit cake only much, much bette

May 11, 2018
2 min

Use Up That Sourdough Bread: Make Panzanella

Because I make a lot of sourdough bread, I inevitably have leftovers that I need to use. One of the best ways is to make sourdough croutons. Just cut up the bread into squares, put them on a baking sheet, and toast them at 325-350 degrees until they're crunchy--15-30 minutes depending on how fresh the bread is to start. You can toss the bread cubes in olive oil and spices before you toast them, but I generally don't bother. So then you have a lot of croutons. What do you

Welcome to thenfeedthem.com!

The write-ups are short and so are the recipes! Thenfeedthem.com focuses on providing tasty, easy, simple recipes for time-crunched, hungry, frugal, cash-poor people. Or just about everyone at some point or another.

​

No, there's not a lot about me here. I'm a writer, cook, and normal person, most of the time. I'll tell you a little about my life in my posts but not much (I'm kind of boring).

The filler is the food, not my life story! And, after all, "food is love." I hope you are filled to capacity. And cook to fill others, too!