What you do when you have extra sourdough starter? Please do not discard the discard…you can make these waffles, they are so light and crispy!

My sourdough starter is really taking off…and it is so much fun seeing all the growth and the yeast smell mixed with the sour of the lactobacillus…what a fun thing to culture.

I got to a point that I can literally feed my sourdough starter only twice a month…even so, when this time comes, and I do not need to bake bread I feel so bad having to discard the extra starter, so I search and search to see what I could make with it…the choices are endless…so this week I decided to try the sourdough waffle.

I served these waffles with dulce de leche…the combination of the gooey dulce de leche with the light and crispy waffles with a hint of tanginess were just delightful.

The recipe calls for you to have some preparation a day before you can serve the waffles, so plan ahead. This recipe was basically originated from here with minor adjustment.

Ingredients:

• 100 g sourdough discard
• 50 g water
• 50 g all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons melted butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• ½ teaspoon baking soda

Method:

Combine the sourdough starter, water, and flour in a medium bowl. Cover and leave at room temperature on the countertop overnight.

In the morning, when ready, whisk together the eggs, melted butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, and the baking soda together.

Fold gently the egg mixture into the sourdough.

Preheat and grease a waffle iron. Pour approximately ⅓ cup of the waffle batter into the center of the iron. Close and bake until golden brown, by following the instructions of your waffle iron.

Serve warm with syrup or anything you like.

I hope you give this recipe a try in case you have extra sourdough starter…or just plan to have some extra to make these waffles.

If you enjoy this recipe you might want to check on Yeast Raised Waffle or Waffle Iron Churros.

Did you know that sourdough dough is fermented by a combination of wild yeast and lactobacillus? Lactobacillus is the bacillus used to produce yogurt, sauerkraut, cheese and other fermented food products.

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful day!

Simple recipe for Thai inspired chicken drumstick. Easy and loaded with Southeast Asian flavors.

This is a very simple and easy recipe. I got a big package of organic drumsticks from Costco which comes in small package containing 6 drumsticks each, which e very convenient. After searching for recipes, I decided to try this recipe from here, with some changes.

In this recipe you will need some unusual ingredient such as fish sauce, which is a very common sauce used in Southeast Asia. You will need to acquire a taste for this sauce, although in this recipe there is only a hint, therefore no need to worry about the pungent and smelly nature of this sauce.

It is tastier if you marinate the drumsticks for a few hours, thus saturating the chicken with all the flavors. These chicken drumsticks can be served with the Thai sweet chili sauce or as it is. They are tasty, juicy and packed with Thai flavors.

Ingredients:

• 6 chicken drumsticks
• 3 to 4 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro stems
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 3/4 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Black pepper to taste
• ½ teaspoon Sriracha sauce
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
• Thai sweet chili sauce, for dipping

Method:

Rinse the chicken drumsticks and pat dry. In a small bowl combine oil, fish sauce, honey, Sriracha sauce, turmeric powder, whisking well to mix them all.
Add the sauce onto the chicken drumsticks, make sure that they are all covered with the sauce. Add cilantro and garlic, rub into the drumsticks.
Cover and place the drumsticks in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
When ready to bake the drumsticks, preheat oven to 375F.
Arrange the chicken on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper.

Bake for 40 minutes or until a wooden stick inserted into the chicken a clear liquid comes through.

Serve with Thai sweet chili sauce if desire.

Thank you for visiting Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!

This is an Asian inspired recipe for a cottony, soft and fluffy sandwich bread. The bread has lots of “freckles”…chia seeds! This bread is great for sandwich or just as a toast.

As I promised last week, here is the recipe for the chia milk sandwich bread. This bread is truly light, cottony and stays fresh for a few days mainly because of the water roux technique and is widely used in Asian bakery. Apparently this “cooked” dough is able to retain more moist…I am not sure about the scientific explanation for it, but when comes to baking buns/sandwich bread I sure add the water roux (tangzhong) in my dough.

This recipe is pretty similar to your usual sandwich bread, only one extra step…and for me it is well worth it since the texture of the bread is much softer and lighter…

In this recipe I was able to bake 2 Pullman loaves, therefore all the stirring, mixing and kneading was done with the help of the Kitchen Aid mixer…please feel free to adapt according to your needs.

Oh! Since the texture of this bread is so soft and tender, it is great with peanut butter and jelly, egg salad…light stuff…if you know what I mean…

Ingredients:

Water roux or Tangzhong

• 40 g bread flour
• 200 ml water

Dough

• 4 tsp chia seed in 250 ml water
• 650 g bread flour
• 10 g yeast
• 7 g salt
• 45 g sugar
• 100 ml cream
• 20 g dry milk
• 40 g butter

Method:

Water roux

In a small pan, mix all the ingredients of water roux, place in a low heat and stir constantly until the temperature reach 65C (150F), or if you do not have a thermometer, cook until ripples form. Set aside to cool by covering with a plastic film.

Dough

Soak the chia seed in the water for at least 30 minutes.

In the mixer, add all the water roux, and all the other ingredients, except for the butter.

Turn the machine and stir for 2 to 3 minutes, until a ball forms.

Increase the speed to “2” and let it mix for 10 minutes. The dough will be very sticky, and less sticky as the gluten forms.
Add the butter and mix for 20 minutes more. Take a small portion of the dough (like a golf ball) and stretch gently until a very thin and transparent membrane (windowpane).

If the dough tears mix for another 5 minutes until you achieve the windowpane test. The windowpane test, demonstrated that the gluten is very well developed and it will create a very light crumb. The dough should be very elastic.

Remove the dough from the mixer and place in a bowl by covering with a plastic film.

Let dough proof until the dough tripled to its original size.

Knock back the dough and split into 2 portions (600 g each) and let it rest for 5 minutes on the counter. I end up with 1272 g of dough, and made 2 small buns with the 72 g of dough.

Divide each ball into 4 little balls. Flatten the ball and shape like a Swiss roll, flat again and roll it again like a Swiss roll. Repeat the same procedure with the remaining dough.

Place the Swiss rolls into the Pullman pan (23 x 10 x 10 cm or 9 x 4 x 4 in) and let it rise until almost 90% to reach the rim of the pan.
Cover the pan and bake in a preheated oven of 350F for approximately 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and flip the bread into a wire rack to cool.

Slice the bread after is cool.

Store the bread in an airtight container.

If you enjoy this Asian inspired bread recipe, you might want to try Pumpkin Dinner Roll or Chinese Steamed Bun.

Did you know that chia seeds are from the mint family? And yes, they are the same seed used in the terracotta figurines. Chia seeds are a great source of omega-3 fat and fibers. This seeds are native of Mexico and Guatemala.

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!

Easter is just around the corner, so what is more traditional than hot cross buns? This recipe uses tangzhong method, therefore the buns stay fresh, soft for many days.

This is my first time making hot cross buns…I used the same method that I have been using for a while…water roux…and added some orange zest to give a citrus kick…therefore these simple hot cross buns recipe has an Asian twist…it is glazed with simple sugar to give a shiny look.

This is a very simple recipe if you are planning to make hot cross buns…and it is great for anytime of the year as well. In spite to the superstition, hot cross buns baked on Good Friday would never go moldy, and could be kept as charms from one year to the next…I would not keep them for this long…but for a few days, I can assure you that the buns will stay fresh, soft and cotton like as out of the oven.

Again, this recipe is very flexible…you can color, I mean flavor the buns according to your palate…by adding dry fruits, spices… anything you desire…make it simple or majestic…

Ingredients:

Water roux or Tangzhong

• 75 ml of water
• 15 g of bread flour

Dough

• 1 ½ cups bread flour
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoon orange zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon dry milk
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1½ teaspoon dry yeast
• 1 large egg and complete to 100 ml with water

Crosses

• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup water

Sugar Glaze

• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon water

Method:

Water roux

Mix flour and water in a small saucepan. Cook over low to medium heat, stirring constantly until it reaches 65C/149F. The mix will turn to a paste and you can see the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat, cover with a saran wrap film over the paste and leave until lukewarm.

Dough

Add the water roux and all the dough ingredients, except the butter to the bread machine bucket according to the manufacture’s guideline. Let the dough cycle run to the end.

Add the butter and run the dough cycle again, make sure that the dough reaches a thin membrane. The dough will be slightly sticky.

Remove from the dough from the bread machine bucket and let the dough rise for approximately 2 hours in a cover container or until it double its initial volume.

Punch down the dough and split into two, then each half into 2 until 16 little balls. Place the little rolls into a bread pan and let is rise until the size has double.

For the cross, mix the all-purpose flour with the water and pipe onto each bun. First horizontally across the buns and then vertically.

Bake in a preheated oven for approximately 20 to 25 minutes at 350F. In the meantime prepare the sugar glaze by adding the sugar to the boiling water, mix until all the sugar is dissolved.

Brush the sugar glaze on the bun as soon you take the buns out of the oven.

Serve warm or cold. The buns will be still very soft up to 3 days.

If you enjoy this simple recipe of Asian inspired hot cross buns, you might want to check on Asian Pumpkin Chia Sandwich Bread or Chocolate Layered Buns.

Did you know that originally hot cross buns were traditionally eaten on Good Friday? The yeast dough were made with lots of spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves. According to superstition

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!

Care for a gluten free bread recipe?  This might work for you as the bread turned out to be soft and pliable, and this bread makes great toasts.

Gluten is a very serious issue for people that have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, and lately has been in the news as a new way to boost health and even lose weight. Apparently 1% of the population has celiac disease and about 10% are gluten-reactive. Anyway, as far as we know my husband and I are not in neither group of population, but I found it interesting and challenging the concept of baking goods without wheat flour since gluten is “vital” for the “structure” of the bread.

I must agree with you that the list of ingredients seems “endless”, but so little is required after you gather all the ingredients, once you have it mixed, you almost forget how long and tedious was collecting them all. The recipe that I have below is a blend of many recipes for gluten free bread that I adapted from Delishville.

This bread tasted delicious right out of the oven, and if I did not know that was gluten free, I would have a hard time to believe it. But the problem was the very next day, the bread literally was hard like a brick…therefore in order to eat I had to either microwave or toast it.

BY the way, I did all the mixing in the Zojirushi bread machine, but fell free to mix it manually

Ingredients:

½ cup rice flour
¾ cup corn flour (starch)
¾ cup tapioca flour (starch)
¼ cup sorghum
2 eggs
½ teaspoon white vinegar
2 tablespoons agave syrup
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon xanthan gum
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon almond meal
1 teaspoon gelatin
1½ teaspoons yeast

Method:

Grease and lightly flour a loaf pan of 9 x 5 in with corn meal.

In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together. In a bigger bowl mix the water (warm), eggs, vinegar, agave syrup and margarine or butter.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the liquid mixture. The dough will be like a cake batter, mix for approximately 4 minutes.

Pour the batter/dough in the pan and let it rise in a warm place for about 40 minute to 1 hour or until it double its initial size.

Place the dough in preheated oven of 350F for approximately 50 to 55 minutes.

Serve warm, preferably on the same day.

For the gluten free toasts…

Slice the gluten free bread, place in a silicone liner and place in a preheated oven of 275F for 45 to 60 minutes by flipping over once until golden brown.

Let it cool completely in the wire rack. Store the toasts in an airtight container.

If you enjoy this gluten free bread you might want to check on others gluten free bread recipes such as Brazilian Pão de Queijo or the Asian Inspired Pão de Queijo.

Did you that the term “gluten” is derived from Latin gluten, which means “glue”? Many vegetarian dishes use gluten for imitation meats due to its textures and the ability to absorb broth, therefore the gluten acquires the flavor and the texture of meat.

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful day!

This is a very fun and simple bread recipe using the water roux method. The texture of this bread, due to the water roux,  is very soft, almost cotton like and the bread stays soft for more than 3 days. It is not very sweet because sugar was not added to the chocolate layers…

My husband was a little disappointed because he expected a sweeter chocolate layer…and he was like “looks like chocolate, but does not taste like it”. Once I explained to him that I used unsweetened cocoa powder, he settled for “Oh! So the chocolate color is just for  looks”. Anyway, to boost the flavor you can always spread jam or Nutella.

I used my Zojirushi bread machine, but this simple recipe can be easily done manually. I made them into three mini bread pans; they came out very “cute”.

Ingredients:

Water roux or Tangzhong
1/3 cup bread flour
1 cup water

Main dough
2 ½ cups bread flour
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons milk powder
100 ml of water plus 2 tablespoons water
1 ½ tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons yeast
2 tablespoons butter

Method:

Water roux

In a small pan, mix all the ingredients of water roux, place in a low heat and stir constantly until the temperature reach 65oC (150F), or if you do not have a thermometer, cook until ripples form. Set aside to cool by covering with a plastic film.

Main dough

In the bread machine bucket, add the water roux, and all the other ingredients, except for the butter, water and cocoa powder.
Turn the machine to knead mode until it forms soft dough. Add the butter and let it knead until the butter incorporates into the dough.

Divide the dough in approximately 2/3 and 1/3 portions. Remove the small portion and set aside by covering with a plastic film.

Knead the bigger portion until the dough is smooth and elastic. Remove from the machine and set aside in a bowl by covering the dough with a plastic film.

Place back the small portion in the bread machine and add cocoa powder and water as needed and let it knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover the chocolate dough and set aside in a bowl by covering with a plastic film.

Let both dough proof until the dough doubles to its original size.

Knock back both dough and let it rest for 5 minutes on the counter, cover both dough.

Flatten the chocolate dough into a rectangle shape of approximately 6 x 9 inches and the white dough to 12 x 6 inches. Layer the chocolate rectangle in between the white rectangle. Flatten the rectangle and cut in 2 equal portions. Layer one piece on top of the other and flatten again. Repeat this procedure a couple of times.

Cut the flatten dough into 3 equal pieces. Then again cut into 3 equal strips. Gently roll the strips and place 3 together and make a braid. Place the braided bread in the tins. Cover the tins with plastic film and let them rise in a warm place until the dough has almost tripled its original size.

Meanwhile, preheat oven at 350F. Bake for approximately 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush with melted butter. Remove from the tin and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

If you enjoy this Asian style bread you might want to check on red bean buns or cinnamon rolls.

Have a great week and thank you for stopping by Simple Recipes!

Back in Brazil, we used to cook seafood with coconut milk therefore this recipe is inspired by Brazilian cuisine.

Ingredients:

1 small green bell pepper
1 small red bell pepper
1 small onion
1 teaspoon of minced garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lb medium to large size shrimp, cleaned.
½ cup coconut milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

In a medium skillet saute garlic, onion, and the bell peppers in olive oil.

Let it cook for approximately 3 minutes by lowering the heat, add the coconut milk and let it simmer for 2 more minutes.

Increase the heat and add the shrimps, salt and pepper.

Cool for another 2 minutes.

Serve hot with white rice.

Did you know that shrimp have a high resistance to toxins? Since shrimp are an important source of food for large animals, their high resistance to toxins may contribute to high toxin levels in their predators.
Shrimps are high in calcium, iodine and protein. Shrimps have significant levels of cholesterol, but do not contain saturated fat, it is considered healthy for the circulatory system. Moreover, shrimp is considered a low caloric food.

Thank you for stopping by Simple Recipes and have a great week!