Pepperoni rolls

Imagine a white pizza that's been rolled up instead of being left flat on the stone, and you've got the basic idea behind this pepperoni roll, which has always been a hit when I've brought it out.

Served with a nice salad, the pepperoni roll can serve as the main course for a family meal; or, cut into smaller segments, it can make a nice side contribution to a potluck dinner or a party. I've taken it to a number of places where food was expected, and it's always been a hit.

If the recipe looks familiar, it should. It is essentially a variation on sourdough pizza.

2 tbsp. butter or oil
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. sugar
1 c. sponge
1 tsp. rosemary (optional)
2¼ c. flour

1 tbsp. oil

½ c. chopped onion

½ c. diced bell pepper

1 c. shredded mozzerella cheese

¼ tsp. black pepper

½ tsp. thyme

½ tsp. oregano

½ tsp. basil

pepperoni

Soften butter, before adding next four ingredients. Stir in the flour, ¾ cup at a time, kneading in the last ¾ cup by hand. Add additional moisture as needed. Knead for about ten minutes, until the dough is stiff. Set in a warm place for the dough to double in size, about one hour.

After the dough has risen, punch it down and spread upon a jelly roll pan. As the dough sits for 10 minutes, sautee onion and bell pepper in oil until the onions are clear. Remove from heat.

 

Scatter mozzerella cheese over the dough,* leaving a half-inch of dough uncovered at the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle with the next four ingredients, then add pepperoni, beginning in the top left corner of the jelly roll pan, and moving left to right, top to bottom, so that the sides of the pepperoni touch one another, until you reach the portion of the dough with no cheese covering it.

 

Very gently, lift the dough at the edge of the pan farthest from you, and begin rolling it toward you. When the entire sheet of dough has been rolled up, pinch the edges shut to avoid any spills during baking.

 

Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

* In addition to shredded mozzerella, you also can sprinkle the pepperoni roll with other cheeses, including Parmesan, Romano, Asiago and cheddar cheeses. Go light on all these, as they are strong cheeses and can overwhelm the taste.

Variations

 

This works just as well with other fillings. I've made such rolls with sausage and mushrooms instead of pepperoni, and so on. As always, follow your own taste buds.

 

A note about flour: Different bakers prefer different flours. This recipe will work fine with all-purpose flour, but I have found that any of the various bread flours on the market will render a better flavor. If you prefer a multigrain experience, as I do, try making a roll with 1 c. bread flour, 1 c. whole wheat flour, and ¼ c. rye flour.

 

Got a variant of your own? Let me know.

Sourdough pancakes (and waffles, too!)

Want some waffles that aren't awful? Pining for pancakes with panache? Give your breakfast some bounce with something simply stupendous: sourdough!

Some of the worst pancakes and waffles I've ever had, are the sort that come from a mix in a box. Like anything else we eat, they can't help but taste better if they're homemade. Why would someone use a mix anyway? Pancakes particularly, but waffles also, grew out of a need for a straightforward, easy-to-make meal to get the day off to a good beginning when there wasn't much to cook with. If bread boils down to water and flour, with a dash of yeast; then pancakes are little more than flour, water and an egg. Strictly speaking sourdough is not necessary, but it doesn't hurt. In fact, it can add some flavor to something that might otherwise be a ho-hum shade of bland.

Here's the basic recipe I use. Note the standard rules on substitutions.

1 c. sourdough starter

2 tbsp. butter or oil

1 egg

2 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. baking soda

1 c. all-purpose flour

Soften the butter and place in a medium-size mixing bowl before adding other ingredients. Stir ingredients until they are thoroughly mixed. If the final mixture is too thick, add approximately ¼ cup of additional moisture to thin the batter out. My children prefer when I use buttermilk, but I also have had satisfactory results with milk. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat, when it is properly heated, spoon batter onto the surface. Flip pancakes when they are lightly browned around the edges and remove after about 30 seconds, when they have had time to cook all the way through.

I use the same recipe to satisfy my children's craving for waffles, with no alterations to the amounts of the ingredients. Feel free to experiment and adjust the recipe to suit your own palate.

For extra flavor, substitute ½ c. whole wheat flour for half the all-purpose flour.

Sourdough pizza

If there's a better recipe pizza dough recipe than this one, I've yet to find it. Like any other American male in his early 40s, I've had my share of pizza over the years.

I've eaten pizza in other countries, I've eaten it at pizzerias, and I've eaten it in Italian restaurants. I've eaten pizza in New Jersey, I've eaten it in Indiana, and I've eaten it in New York. When it comes to flavor, not a single slice has beat the pizza I make in my own oven.

It's a simple recipe that I came across a few years ago, and since have adapted for my own use. I share it here with you, for your own enjoyment.

2 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. sugar
1 c. sponge
1 tsp. rosemary (optional)
2¼ c. flour

Soften butter, before adding next four ingredients. Stir in the flour, ¾ cup at a time, kneading in the last ¾ cup by hand. Add additional moisture as needed. Knead for about ten minutes, until the dough is stiff. Set in a warm place for the dough to double in size, about one hour.

After the dough has risen, punch it down and spread upon a pizza stone or baking sheet and allow to sit 10 minutes before adding pizza sauce. Season sauce to taste, adding cheeses* and toppings as desired.** Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, until cheese has melted.


* In addition to shredded mozzerella, I sprinkle the pizza with Parmesan and Romano cheeses, and with shredded Provolone, cheddar and Asiago cheeses. Go light on all these, as they are strong cheeses and can overwhelm the taste.

** Again, follow your own taste buds and desires. For pepperoni, I ring pepperoni around the edge of the cheese so they touch one another, and then ring the next circle just inside that one, and so on, so the pepperoni are always just touching one another.

Substitutions

Shortly before the Christmas holiday, I baked fresh bread for my daughter to take to school to give to her teachers.

Homemade bread, I have discovered, is one of the best things you can give to a teacher for Christmas. At a time when they are inundated with gifts from their students, a fresh loaf of bread is something that they actually will enjoy with their families, often over dinner that evening. As Christmas break this year was coming to a close, I got an e-mail from my daughter's art teacher. She loved the bread, and wanted to know the recipe.
Ah, the recipe. The wonder about making bread is that I don't have one particular recipe that I use consistently. I have a recipe I developed that I use as the basis for most of my loaves, but the exact ingredients that I use vary from loaf to loaf.

Here's my basic recipe:

2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 c. flour
1 c. sourdough starter
about ½ c. water

Melt or at least soften the butter, then add the starter, followed by the salt and sugar. Stir in the flour, one cup at a time, stirring at first, but gradually folding it in by hand as the dough gets stiffer. Add additional moisture as needed, generally about a quarter-cup at a time. When the flour is all mixed in, knead the dough for 10 minutes. Let the dough rise until it doubles in size, about an hour, then punch it down. Shape into rolls, loaves or otther shape; place these on a baking sheet; and allow bread to double in size again. 

Bake for 35-40 minutes at 375 degrees, or until loaves are brown.

That sounds so simple, doesn't it? The difficulty is, I can't remember the last time I ever actually followed that recipe. A recipe is like a set of rules for a good life; you look it as a guideline that has served other people well, but you never should treat it as a one-size-fits-all regimen. Instead, you learn to trust your instincts and make adjustments as you go, so you can find what works best for you. At its simpleast, bread is flour, water and yeast. Everything else is personal preference.

Today, for instance, my family and I went to visit some friends of ours in Somerset County. Since there would be nine of us all told, I doubled the recipe. A doubled recipe means I would need four tablespoons of sugar, and since four tablespoons is a quarter-cup, I used honey, which measures easily in quarter-cups, has a gentle taste and makes the bread smell sweeter.

Other sugars, such as brown sugar, white sugar and cane sugar also would work. It just depends on your preference.

Then there's the flour. Most cookbooks these days call for all-purpose flour, because it's the most common form of flour, and it's often cheaper than the flours made specifically for bread. I found years ago that I prefer the taste and texture of bread made with bread flour, so I go with that -- except that I enjoy the taste and texture of heavier grains as well, so I often mix bread flour with other varieties.

Bread flour always should comprise at least half the total volume of flour in your dough so the final loaf doesn't crumble and fall apart, so in practice, I use 1½ cups of bread flour and make up the remaining half with something else. For a while I was doing this entirely with whole wheat flour; but more recently I've been using combinations of wheat flour with other grains. Today, for instance, I included ground almond meal, rolled oats and rye flour.

Almond meal should never account for more than half the total flour, and rye flour should never account for more than one-fifth of the total amount. I've found it a good idea to limit the volume of rolled oats as well, since all these larger and coarser grains, while they enhance the flavor of the bread, run the risk of making it prone to crumbling.

And of course, the sourdough starter is made with naturally occurring wild yeasts that give the bread a sour, beery flavor. If you don't have a starter, or don't have time to proof your starter adequately, what do you do? You could add a single-serving container of plain organic yogurt to approximate the flavor, but I didn't have any yogurt, so I just added ¾ cup of water and ¾ cup of flour to make up the lost volume, and a teaspoon of baker's yeast to make the bread rise.

What about the extra moisture that gets mixed into the bread dough? The absorbency of flour can vary tremendously, even without all these crazy substitutions I like to make. You want the dough to pick up all the flour, but not to be so sticky that you can't get it off your hands easily. After you've made a few loaves, you start to get a sense for what it should feel like while you're kneading it, and whether you need to add a little more flour, or a little more moisture.

As to which kind of moisture to add, that also depends on what you're shooting for and how experimental you're feeling. The bread I made for my daughter's teachers was made with buttermilk, but you can use something else instead, depending on what's available. Regular milk will do just fine, as will water. Once I had some Coca-cola that had lost its fizz, and I used that. The main thing is to use something with water that will not hurt the yeasts. And remember: Whatever you put into the bread is something you'll be eating later on.

The bread I made today was different from the last loaf I made, and that was different from the one before it. As always, it worked out just fine. Bread is so easy to make, you have to try hard to screw it up.

Sourdough FAQ

Can I use a packet of commercial baker's yeast to create my sourdough starter?

If you want to. I personally find that I don't need to use baker's yeast to make a sourdough starter, and a starter begun with commercial yeast often produces a bread with less distinctive sour flavor than the real thing, but it works fine. If you are having trouble, go ahead and take the shortcut.

Should I use distilled, filtered or bottled water to create my starter?

You can, but there's no need. The chlorine in tap water won't hurt yeast, and I can honestly say the tap water has never been bad for my starter. If it concerns you, just leave the water sitting out for a few hours before hand, so the chlorine will have time to leave the water.

What sort of flour should I use for my starter?

I've made starters using whole wheat flour, bread flour, and rye flour, but there's no need to limit yourself to those. The only flour that you should not use is bleached flour, because flour that has been bleached has no live yeast in it.

Once your starter is off and running, many sourdough bakers like to switch it over to unbleached all-purpose flour, but that's not required either. I keep feeding my starter rye flour, because I like the flavor of rye grains in my finished bread.

Other web sites recommend feeding a starter honey or sugar, but yours doesn't. Why not?

In my experience, it's not necessary to add honey or sugar to the diet of a starter for it to thrive, so I don't do that. You can add the sugar or honey if you want too, though; it certainly won't harm anything.

I have Celiac disease. Can sourdough bread help?

If you have Celiac disease or any other medical condition that prevents you from eating bread, you should consult with a physician or dietitian for advice on what you can eat safely.

It is possible to have a sourdough starter using rice flour, which is gluten-free, though I have yet to try this.

I like the taste of sourdough bread, but I don't want to keep a starter. Can you recommend a good cheat to get the flavor?

The flavor is not exactly the same, but I've discovered that you can approximate the flavor of sourdough bread by stirring an individual serving size of plain organic yogurt into the dough for any conventional loaf of homemade bread.

I have a great bread recipe that I would like to adapt for sourdough use. How would I do that?

Bread recipes all call for adding water at some point. Instead of water, add the corresponding volume of proofed sponge. Keep in mind that you might need to slightly adjust the amount of flour the recipe calls for, or to add a little bit of water later on.

Should I cover my starter before I put it in the refrigerator?

A loose covering won't hurt your starter, but it isn't necessary unless your starter is drying out. I cover mine when it is in the refrigerator, mainly to keep it from absorbing smells from other items, which isn't usually a hazard on the counter.

Is it OK if the starter gets runny? What if it smells bad? What if the color changes?

Generally speaking, your starter should have the same consistency as pancake batter. If it is too runny, you can add a little flour to thicken it up; and if it's too thick, you can add a little water. The smell of your starter should remind you of a good beer. If it's rancid, throw it out and start over. The same thing goes for any unusual changes in color.

There's a brown liquid forming on top of my starter. Is this a bad sign?

Not at all. What you're seeing is hooch, a natural and slightly alcoholic byproduct of the fermentation process caused by yeast. A darker hooch will deepen the flavor, and the alcohol will break down during the baking process, so there's really no problem with it. If you don't like it, you can pour the hooch down the sink with no ill consequences.

What should the froth look like?

A healthy starter will have bubbles visible all along the side of the glass. A starter with bubbles only at the top isn't doing well, and may require some new feeding and stirring.

My starter became frothy much faster than you predicted. Did I do something wrong?

No, you're just lucky. Sometimes starters just zoom to life, and sometimes they take their sweet old time. It just depends on which strains of yeast take up residence in your starter.

When you feed the starter after it already had been established, do you still discard part of it?

Not personally. As long as you maintain a ratio of about one cup of water to one cup of water, just adjust the amount you're keeping to fit your container and your needs. If you know you'll need a lot of starter soon, to make several loaves of bread, just put it into a larger container and bulk it up with extra flour and water a day or two in advance to give it a chance to grow into its new size.

Does it hurt the starter if I stir it a lot?

Not at all.

Can I keep my starter as a lump of dough instead of as a batter?

I prefer to use a batter, because it's already set to go when I make my next batch of dough, but there's no reason you can't reserve a pinch of dough from your most recent loaf before you bake it instead, if that's what you would prefer. I have done that myself, and tossed it in the freezer, when I knew I would be away for a while and unable to make bread.

The starter works just great, but my bread isn't coming out right. What should I do differently?

The general rules of baking bread apply to sourdough bread as well. Flour will vary in its absorbency, and if your dough is too wet, you will need to add a little more flour to absorb the extra water. If it is too dry, add a little more moisture. You must always adjust your dough's moisture level by feel.

My first few loaves came out great, but lately my starter isn't working right any more. What did I do wrong?

There are plenty of things that can cause a starter to fail, including heat damage from accidentally baking it or leaving it too close to the stove, and even changing the type of flour you use. Some brands of flour are toxic to sourdough because of the chemicals they are treated with during processing.

It's also possible that after a few early successes, you started taking shortcuts that have sabotaged your baking. Make sure you're feeding your starter properly, and giving the sponge enough food and enough time to proof before you start baking.

If your starter has puttered out, you usually can revive it with a few fresh feedings. Of course, if it is producing a rancid odor or has changed color, you should toss it out and start over.

Can I use my starter to make pancakes waffles, pizza or something else?

Absolutely. If you can make a bread with conventional yeast, then you can make it with a sourdough starter. The simplest rule of thumb to adapting a recipe is simply to look at how much water it calls for, and then to use that much proofed sponge instead.

I don't have the exact ingredients your recipe calls for. Are substitutions all right?

One of the nice things about bread is that, for all the varieties you can make and you can eat, bread is essentially nothing more than flour, sugar and yeast. Varying the type and amount of those ingredients is what makes each person's bread taste different.

So, if you prefer the soft taste of honey, use that; if you prefer sugar, use it. You can even experiment with different kinds of sugar, until you find the one that you like most.

There is a world of variety in flour, and that of course is where the bulk of variation in bread recipes comes into play. Most of the recipes I've shared here call for all-purpose flour, because that is what most people have, but you can get a tastier bread by using other types of flour as well. The rule of thumb is that up to half the recipe can be whole wheat flour, and up to one-fifth can be rye flour. Beyond that, and your bread may become too crumbly.

Step three: The recipe

Bread is like life. Everybody has her own approach, and while some approaches are unquestioned disasters and some are unparalleled successes, the truth is that there isn't much obviously different from one recipe to the next. As you get accustomed to baking, you'll find what works best for you and the ingredients you have.

This is the basic recipe I use, and it's always received rave reviews. It's simple and it makes a fine bread. You'll need the following:

• 2 cups of sponge
• 3 cups of bread flour
• 3 cups of whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons of softened butter
• ¼ cup of honey
• 1 teaspoon of salt

Measure out two cups of sponge. (Set aside the rest for later.) To the sponge, add the honey, salt, and butter. If you don't have honey, use sugar instead. If you prefer not to use butter, you can use olive oil, or nothing at all. Mix the ingredients well, then stir in the flour one cup at a time. Knead in enough flour to make a good, flexible bread dough. You can do this with an electric mixer or a bread machine on its dough cycle. I use a big bowl and my bare hands.

The recipe is a good guideline but it should not be viewed as an absolute rule. Flour amounts are approximate. Flour varies in absorbency, and your sponge can vary in wetness. Treat it like conventional bread dough, and use more flour, or less, according to your judgment. Always trust your hands and eyes more than the recipe.

Let the dough rise in a warm place, in a loosely covered bowl so that the dough does not dry out. To get my bread to rise well, I turn the oven on to 200 degrees for a few minutes, then turn it off again. This warms the oven and makes it a great environment to raise bread.

Sourdough typically rises more slowly than yeast bread. My starter takes about three hours to make the bread rise, but some starters take less time and some much more. Let the dough double in bulk, just like yeast-bread dough.

Punch the dough down and knead it a little more. Twist it in your hands to make two equal balls of dough, and place them side by side on a baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Place it in a warm place to rise again, until doubled in bulk.

Place the baking sheet with the loaves in your oven, and then preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake the bread for 30-45 minutes. The loaf is done when the crust is brown. Turn the loaf out onto a cooling rack, and let it cool off before slicing.

Your total cost for the bread? A little less than a dollar.

About that leftover sponge: Save it. It is your starter for next time. Put it into the jar, add a half-cup each of flour and warm water, and stir it all together before putting it in your refrigerator. When you're ready to bake bread next time, just bring it out and start the proofing process all over again.

Step two: The Proof is in the Sponge

Several hours before you plan to make your dough, you need to make a sponge. If you are making bread in the morning, start your sponge the night before. If you are making bread in the evening, start it that morning. What's a sponge? It's nothing more than a bowl of warm, fermented batter, and now that you already have a starter, it'll be easy to make your sponge.

• Take your starter out of the fridge. Pour it into a large glass or plastic bowl. Meanwhile, clean the jar thoroughly. Remember, anything you don't remove will be part of your fermentation process next time around. I usually run mine through the dishwasher; if you wash it by hand, rinse it out with boiling-hot water.
• Add a cup of warm water and a cup of flour to the bowl. Stir it well, and put your sponge in a warm place for several hours. This process is called proofing, which is just another word for fermenting.
• Watch for froth, and sniff. When your sponge is bubbly and has developed a white froth, and it smells a little sour, it is ready. The longer you let the sponge sit, the stronger the flavor will be.

Proofing-times will vary. Some starters can proof up to frothiness in an hour or two. Some take six to eight hours, or even longer. You'll get a sense of how long yours takes, through trial and error. If you're going to bake in the morning, set your sponge out to proof overnight.

Step one: Get your starter started

Sourdough bread is fairly unique in the world of baking in that it involves keeping a living thing in your refrigerator.

Think of your sourdough starter as a pet. It is not particularly attractive, as pets go. You can't play with it, nor take it for walks, and it will never learn to fetch, but it is a pet nonetheless, one that you give flour and water to on a regular basis. In return, your pet will give you fresh, homemade bread as often as you want, and it will never chew on your slippers.

The secret to a good sourdough starter is a culture of wild yeast (Saccharomyces exiguus) and bacteria that form a stable symbiotic relationship in a mixture of flour and water. The lactobacillus bacteria, similar to the bacteria that make yogurt and cheese, eat the byproducts of the yeast's digestion process; and produce increasing quantities of lactic acid. The yeast can live in this acidic environment, but not much else can. As the yeast grow and reproduce, they produce carbon dioxide bubbles in the batter, and produce the alcohol that gives their bread its distinctive taste. As long as you feed the starter, they can live for centuries.

Some sourdough bakers recommend against making your own starter if you're new to sourdough baking, but the truth is, it's one of the easiest things in the world. Just mix some flour with some water, and nature will do the rest. Here's how to make your starter:

1. Select a container to keep your starter in. I now keep mine in an empty pickle jar with a lid, but when I first started baking sourdough bread, I used an empty plastic cashews container. You can use a stainless steel mixing bowl if you want, but be careful. Some metals will react to the starter and kill it. A glass or Pyrex container is best.
2. Measure a half-cup of warm water, and pour it into your container. Now measure a half-cup of flour, and stir it in. As a rule of thumb, the starter should be about the same thickness as pancake batter. I made my first starter with whole wheat flour, but any type of flour will work, as long as the flour is unbleached. I've made starters with other flours too, including rye.
3. Keep your starter in a warm place in your kitchen. Every 24 hours, remove half of it, and then stir in another quarter-cup of flour and another quarter-cup of warm water. Why should you remove half the starter? Because as the yeasts grow, they are consuming food throughout starter, and the way to keep them well-fed is to double the size of the starter every 24 hours. If you didn't throw half of it away each time, thereby removing half the yeast culture, then in four days, you'd be adding four cups of flour in order to keep the starter fed. You don't have to throw the discarded starter away, though; you can use it to make some fine waffles or pancakes.
4. Within a few days, you should see air bubbles all through your starter, and you should smell something pleasantly sour, like beery. The starter may even start to look puffy. This is all good. When your starter develops a bubbly froth, it is done. You have produced a sourdough starter.
5. Once your starter has begun to froth, put it in refrigerator, with a lid to keep out odors from your other food. At this point, you will need to feed it only once a week, although you can get away with feeding it less frequently. (I once let mine go for four weeks, with no ill effects.) Your starter is difficult to kill, except by heat. Even starving it is difficult, and freezing will only put it to sleep.

Not all starters are created equal. Some will froth and grow very quickly, and others will take this side of forever. You can game the odds in favor of a more vigorous starter by getting two or three of them going at the same time, and discarding the weakest performer like you would do if you were breeding animals. Split the strongest-performing starter into multiple batches, and repeat the process until you find a starter you like.

After your starter has begun bubbling, mark on the side of the jar how high it reaches just after you feed it. Then, every hour or so thereafter, mark again how high it has risen. This will give you a view of how active your starter is, and how quickly it grows.

Once you have your dream starter, remove a few teaspoons of starter, dry them out, put them in a plastic container, and freeze them. Then, if your active starter goes wrong, you can restart it with one of its frozen cousins.

You can do this

I first discovered the joy of baking bread four years ago, when my daughter was in second grade, and we decided to give her teachers fresh, homemade bread in the shape of a bear.

Like many other Americans, my experience with bread for most of the previous 36 years had been largely confined to what was on the shelves at the supermarket. Bread was something to be tolerated, spread with butter or covered with fixings. That bread itself could have a distinctive flavor was a new notion, as far as I was concerned.

But when my daughter and I tried one of our own loaves of buttermilk bread, I realized what I had been missing. To my taste buds, that first bite of homemade bread was a homecoming.

As I have discovered in the years since, bread is one of the most satisfying foods there is, and one of the most fundamental.

Sourdough is also the most natural form of bread. By using a live starter in which wild yeast can grow, you can make bread the way people did for thousands of years before baker's yeast became commercially available in the 19th century.

There are no great secrets to making a good loaf of sourdough bread. All you need are some basic ingredients, a few basic tools and the interest. If you can make bread, you can make sourdough bread.