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bikingandbakingMore rides, both in Zwift and out on the streets; got a tiny bit of sunburn on my legs yesterday when I went out for a 50k/31mile ride because I forgot that that was a thing that happens. dphilli1's allergies were acting up, while I wanted to get some more miles & hills in. Plus knock off a 50k for George Swain's virtual brevet series, although I doubt I'll finish the challenge as I'm not sure I really want to spend an entire day doing loops from home to rack up 150k or 200k, and I started too late to manage 8 50ks before the end of May. But 50k is generally a nice ride length, and needs no water refills, so I'm sure I'll do a few more of those.
I headed out to Walden again, the hilly way (Belmont Hill/Concord/Trapelo), and then made the way back a little less flat this time. Legs feel good; set a few PRs and silvers on Strava, which means that I'm probably ahead of where I was last year, hill-wise, even if by this time last year I'd ridden most of a SR series. I do think the climbing and intervals indoors are helping -- I dragged myself up the Zwift replica of the Alpe d'Huez in just under two hours, which I was proud of (although if I'd gone just over I'd have a better carrot to strike for next time, oh well):
Mostly, it was just gorgeous out, with New England being its lovely spring self:
Today, instead, I rode indoors with friends and then cooked and baked -- made some enchiladas (no photos) for dinner for the week, and since I ran out of the lovely hipster english muffins I had been eating (Stone & Skillet), I made my own. These came out phenomenally well, to be honest; I wanted something edible and these far surpassed that. I did singe the first few I grilled but not too badly. And my sourdough starter is definitely not active enough; great flavor, no lift, so you'll see notes in here on how to either salvage this recipe halfway through, or how to just give it some yeast to begin with and just use sourdough for flavor.
Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins
Based on:
https://lemonsandanchovies.com/2020/03/sourdough-cinnamon-raisin-english-muffins/
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-english-muffins-recipe
Makes ~22
1 cup sourdough starter (discard or fed)
3/4 cup raisins, soaked in warm water for 30 minutes
1 1/2 cup milk, warmed, or warm water + dry milk powder (non-dairy milk seems like it'd be fine)
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour (plus additional to make dough un-sticky, possibly up to 1/2 cup)
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
optional: 1 1/2 tsp yeast
Cornmeal for dusting
The night before baking: thoroughly mix starter, milk, maple syrup. Then add both flours, cinnamon, salt, raisins and knead with dough hook until smooth. Add additional flour until not horribly sticky. Cover and let rise at room temperature overnight. (Original recipe also gave option to proof in a proving-setting for 5 hours and then refrigerate up to 24hr, didn't try that.)
If it doesn't rise significantly (mine did not), proof 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast in a little warm water + pinch of sugar. Mix into dough + add flour to bring it back to reasonable dough consistency. Let rise for 1-2 hours until actually doubled. Or if you do not want to wait for slow sourdough to rise/know it will not rise well enough, you can proof the yeast in the warm milk + maple syrup at the beginning, and do a 1-2 hour rise for the initial rise.
Next morning: bring back to temperature if refrigerated. Punch down gently, knead in additional flour if sticky. Dust pastry board/counter with cornmeal, roll 1/2 inch thick and cut into rounds with ~3inch biscuit cutter. Combine and reroll scraps as needed until you've used up all the dough. Dust tops/sides with cornmeal and let proof another hour -- if coming out of fridge, may be more like 2 hours. They should near-double in height, although they won't expand sideways that much.
Preheat oven to 325F (mine is convection -- may cook faster than non-convection). Lightly oil/butter a cast-iron skillet or flat griddle and cook each muffin on each side (low-to-medium on my burners) until lightly brown (2 min/side). When they're all done, finish the whole batch together in oven for 15 min.
dphilli1's allergies were acting up, while I wanted to get some more miles & hills in. Plus knock off a 50k for George Swain's virtual brevet series, although I doubt I'll finish the challenge as I'm not sure I really want to spend an entire day doing loops from home to rack up 150k or 200k, and I started too late to manage 8 50ks before the end of May. But 50k is generally a nice ride length, and needs no water refills, so I'm sure I'll do a few more of those. I headed out to Walden again, the hilly way (Belmont Hill/Concord/Trapelo), and then made the way back a little less flat this time. Legs feel good; set a few PRs and silvers on Strava, which means that I'm probably ahead of where I was last year, hill-wise, even if by this time last year I'd ridden most of a SR series. I do think the climbing and intervals indoors are helping -- I dragged myself up the Zwift replica of the Alpe d'Huez in just under two hours, which I was proud of (although if I'd gone just over I'd have a better carrot to strike for next time, oh well):
Mostly, it was just gorgeous out, with New England being its lovely spring self:
Today, instead, I rode indoors with friends and then cooked and baked -- made some enchiladas (no photos) for dinner for the week, and since I ran out of the lovely hipster english muffins I had been eating (Stone & Skillet), I made my own. These came out phenomenally well, to be honest; I wanted something edible and these far surpassed that. I did singe the first few I grilled but not too badly. And my sourdough starter is definitely not active enough; great flavor, no lift, so you'll see notes in here on how to either salvage this recipe halfway through, or how to just give it some yeast to begin with and just use sourdough for flavor.
Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins
Based on:
https://lemonsandanchovies.com/2020/03/sourdough-cinnamon-raisin-english-muffins/
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-english-muffins-recipe
Makes ~22
1 cup sourdough starter (discard or fed)
3/4 cup raisins, soaked in warm water for 30 minutes
1 1/2 cup milk, warmed, or warm water + dry milk powder (non-dairy milk seems like it'd be fine)
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour (plus additional to make dough un-sticky, possibly up to 1/2 cup)
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
optional: 1 1/2 tsp yeast
Cornmeal for dusting
The night before baking: thoroughly mix starter, milk, maple syrup. Then add both flours, cinnamon, salt, raisins and knead with dough hook until smooth. Add additional flour until not horribly sticky. Cover and let rise at room temperature overnight. (Original recipe also gave option to proof in a proving-setting for 5 hours and then refrigerate up to 24hr, didn't try that.)
If it doesn't rise significantly (mine did not), proof 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast in a little warm water + pinch of sugar. Mix into dough + add flour to bring it back to reasonable dough consistency. Let rise for 1-2 hours until actually doubled. Or if you do not want to wait for slow sourdough to rise/know it will not rise well enough, you can proof the yeast in the warm milk + maple syrup at the beginning, and do a 1-2 hour rise for the initial rise.
Next morning: bring back to temperature if refrigerated. Punch down gently, knead in additional flour if sticky. Dust pastry board/counter with cornmeal, roll 1/2 inch thick and cut into rounds with ~3inch biscuit cutter. Combine and reroll scraps as needed until you've used up all the dough. Dust tops/sides with cornmeal and let proof another hour -- if coming out of fridge, may be more like 2 hours. They should near-double in height, although they won't expand sideways that much.
Preheat oven to 325F (mine is convection -- may cook faster than non-convection). Lightly oil/butter a cast-iron skillet or flat griddle and cook each muffin on each side (low-to-medium on my burners) until lightly brown (2 min/side). When they're all done, finish the whole batch together in oven for 15 min.