Day 41

We hear that we should balance our time, lives, diet, investments, work-life… but as we enter the 5th month of the year and today being Mother’s Day, I reflect on how my days are tipping the scales. 

I have watched women in my life who are total givers of time. I have been and am blessed by them. More often I am answering to a moment’s need. Some days I bake bread for my family, others days are spent driving them. There are also races from the work computer to the laundry machine. I have been talking with friends (even if it’s on the phone) while cooking dinner and it feels like I am bringing back a lost art. 

This time of the year my body is also negotiating outside time and inside time. It is too cold still here in Maine for me to run barefoot to the garden or wander around the lot. I have no choice but to be patient. Patient with nature’s timing and with myself. I am like the bugs that become more active as the temperatures rise. 

If I was a sourdough starter living up North, I would have counted on the kindness of people like miners and settlers in Alaska (nicknamed sourdough) to protect me during the coldest months by keeping me close to their bodies.  

Like my sourdough culture, I do my best work between 70°F & 85°F and then glowing after spending some time in a hot chamber! 

One of my first cooking memories was outside, barefooted. I cooked under the not so guided and not so supervised watch of my grandma Hilda. I was small and remembered following her to the back of the farm house with my brother and cousins. She had a little pot covered in soot, with some rice and water inside. She balanced the pot on a 3-stone cooking fire and left us to tend it.

For the Sourdough Biscotti you can use a cold (old ferment/discard from the fridge) or room temperature (fed and bubbly) sourdough starter. I worked on this recipe for my friend Sarah, with extra eggs and fermented flour.

Sourdough Biscotti

1 cup of sourdough starter

4 eggs 

¼ cup of butter room temperature

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of wholemeal rye

2 ½ cups wheat flour

¾ tsp salt 

1 tbsp of baking powder

Melted chocolate for dipping.

1 cup of chopped nuts if desired to  mix in or to press on top of the logs. Of course you can use seeds or anything you would like for flavor and texture.

In a bowl cream butter and sugar until light.

Add the eggs and the starter and mix.

Add the dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until all well combined. You can let this ferment for a few hours if you would like.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or baking mat. Shape the dough into logs right into the baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes on a 375F oven until  golden.

Using serrated knife, cut logs on diagonal slices. Place the slices back in the cookie sheet and Bake 10  minutes on each side at 300F oven until biscottis are dried.