Spaetzle - with sour dough discard (Updated)

Anyone who maintains a sour dough starter knows that, with sour dough starter comes sour dough discard... What to do with the discard?
Initially I would bake discard bread. Sour dough discared bread recipes simply use a little bit of starter in a more or less regular bread recipe made with instant yeast. But there is only so much bread any one person wants to eat - even a German person; and my freezer also has limited capacity. What to do with the discard?

The Internet is a beautiful place. King Arthur has a whole collection of discard recipes. Unfortunately, I am a recovering diabetic, so the discard sour dough cakes, cinnamon toast and even discard pancakes are not part of my diet.

Bread is part of my diet, because bread is heavenly - and that's what I choose to eat for my daily carb allowance. I am not a fan of most sweet items, so I won't waste my carbs on them. There is, however, a discard brownie recipe that I need to try out when I get a chance - but I digress...

Recently, I found another beautiful place on the Internet - a Facebook group "Perfect Sour dough" where people talk about - what else - sour dough. Someone there mentioned that you could make noodles with sour dough. This is how I had the idea to make German noodles - spätzle - with sour dough discard.

Here is the recipe I used:

Spätzle (German noodles)

350 g flour
50 g sour dough discard
4 eggs
1 tsp salt
12 TBsp water (200 ml) - adjust to desired consistency
50 g butter

The flour/sour dough ratio can probably be adjusted to your taste, but this is what I used. With the eggs in the mix, I imagine that not much of the final hold comes from the gluten.

Mix flour, sour dough, eggs, salt and water into a dough.
Push the resulting mixture through a ricer into boiling salt water.
Remove the dumplings from the water using a colander when they float to the surface.
Heat butter in a separate pot. Add the dumplings into the pot.


I posted an earlier version of this post on my blog f you have never made spätzle, I wrote a blog post "Taste of Home: Spätzle!!!" a few years ago. It contains pictures and detailed instructions.

Mistakes and other lucky strikes

 Introducing - the tastiest mistake I ever made.

This bread went through a comedy of errors beyond belief!

Making Sour Dough Bread - Step-by-step instructions for Oma's sour dough

 

Sour dough bread for the rest of us - or - Relax! It's gonna be OK.

Sour dough bread has always intimidated me.  The initial set-up, the feeding, the measuring, the timing, the commitment ... Maintaining a sour dough is like having a pet - and I'm not good with pets that don't remind me that they would like to be fed.  A sour dough was not likely to survive in my life.

But then, a few years ago, I set up a sour dough starter with the help of my adopted son. Truth be told, at the time I did it primarily to entertain said son, but sour dough has become a familiar and comfortable part of my life since then. 

In the beginning, for a few days - maybe even weeks, I obsessed over it, measured, fed, kept notes... but then, when I realized that this thing was doing just fine, I relaxed a bit.

Sour dough bread, it turns out, only sounds intimidating.  Once you get over the fear, it's really simple - and both the maintenance of the sour dough and the bread baking can be adjusted to work for the schedule of regular working folks.

Expat Oma Sourdough

This particular pedestrian decided to share the wealth with friends.  

Here is what I can bake reasonably well so far: 

1) Europa's Dream:

This is the one that started it all. 

A white/wheat Tartine style bread with a crunchy crust.  It reminds me of some of the crusty white breads I had in Germany.  I have tried importing them for years, but they never survive the flight without getting gummy. So I just had to learn how to make these myself.  

Ingredients: 

Flour (white and whole wheat), water, salt,  and naturally leavened sour dough.  

(No sugar or commercial yeast added)

2) Demeter's Delight

Living in the US, the real trick is to find a loaf that contains lots of grains but is not sweet! I don't understand what molasses has to do with bread.  Enter Demeter's Delight, a white/wheat Tartine style bread with added harvest grains.  A savory loaf with a nutty quality. 

Ingredients: 

Flour (white and whole wheat), water, salt, harvest grains blend (whole oat berries, millet, rye flakes, wheat flakes as well as flax, poppy, sesame and sunflower seeds) and naturally leavened sour dough.  

(No sugar or commercial yeast added)

3) Gaia's gift

This one is my favorite so far.  If  I had to be marooned on an island and I'd have to choose one food for the rest of my life, this one would be it.  It's a super-dense whole grain loaf that tastes great without anything, toasted with a little butter or - if you insist - with a meat topping and/or a cheese of your choice.  If you can't eat this one in one setting, it freezes like a dream. I prefer slicing it before I freeze.  I pull out one slice at a time, toss it in toaster and - heaven!

Ingredients: 

Flour (white and whole wheat), water, salt, Gaia's grains blend (rye, bulgur, oats, buckwheat, groats, millet, wheat bran, flax and sunflower seed) and naturally leavened sour dough.  

(No sugar or commercial yeast added)