Sourdough Hot Cakes: Making New Memories and Honoring the Old

Lately, I've been noticing that cooking blogs make sourdough complicated.  They want to measure humidity, add unnecessary ingredients, make huge batches of leaven to use only a small sample, and do tests to rate the activity of their starter.

Just reading what the modern cook has to say about sourdough intimidates me and I've known sourdough all my life.  Sourdough was a staple for prospectors, cowpokes, and busy pioneer women.  It is intended to be simple.

As far as anybody can figure, my Papa kept a sourdough starter for 70 years.  He was of the cowpoke variety.  Every morning he made sourdough hot cakes or "doughs."  His kids were raised on them and so were us grandkids.  I made it a point to make them an important part of life for my older children and now I have started with the younger ones as well.

 This afternoon, I made hot cakes with Little Moon.  It's a simple process, but far easier with out the help of a hungry two year old.

Instead of a proper recipe, doughs are more of a ratio.  Use one cup of starter for every two people and go from there.  For each cup of starter use 1 tsp white sugar and 1/2 tsp baking soda.  Yep.  That's it.

Pour starter in a large bowl and gently mix in sugar.

Place baking soda in a mug or small bowl and dissolve in a tablespoon of warm water.  Fold into starter.

This is the fun part! As the baking soda mixes with the starter, the batter foams and grows.

Spritz a preheated skillet with non-stick spray and spread batter thinly.  The pan should be over medium heat. When the surface starts to dry, flip the dough and cook for a minute or so longer.

Done and done.



Serve with maple syrup and butter no photos of this as the girls were more than over me photographing their food.  My Papa always ate his with two over-easy eggs sandwiched in the middle and an entire flood of syrup, washed down with black coffee of course.

The girls loved this new addition to their diet and before we sat down to eat we set the prettiest hot cake in front of my grandparents photo as an offering.  All rolled up, the way Papa liked to eat them for an afternoon snack.

Peanut Butter Cookies: A Bit of Kitchen Witchery

My mother would have a heart attack if she even suspected that I added magick to her peanut butter cookie recipe, but I did! I hate to admit it, but I do find a bit of satisfaction in knowing that. For all the mama traits the woman doesn't have, she gets an A+ in cookie making.  These are the ultimate in rich, creamy, melt in your mouth goodness and they are only composed of three yes, you read right only three ingredients. 

One of my favorite witches likes to say, "Live Your Magick!"  Since I am a full time mama, my magick is in mothering.  Yesterday just seemed like a good day to add a bit of extra memory making to equation, so Miss Busy and I mixed up a batch of these cookies.  Every time we make them, I tell her the three ingredients so that she will have this special recipe memorized by the time she is ready to try the magick on her own.  Since these cookies are one of my fond childhood memories, I include a bit on my own mothers magic as well: flattening them with a potato masher to get the little knobs on the top. 

Absolutely Wonderful, Amazing, Yummy, Melt in Your Mouth Peanut Butter Cookies

1 Cup Peanut Butter

1 Cup Sugar

1 Egg

Heat the oven to 350.

Cream together your three ingredients.

Shape into balls and roll in a bit of extra sugar to coat. This is the step where you add your magick.  While I am shaping the ball I concentrate on the good, warm memories I want my children to have of their childhoods.  I then channel that energy and a good dose of love through my hands and right into the cookie.  To enhance the intent of the magick, we sit together and chat while we enjoy them. 

Set on cookie sheet and flatten with a potato masher. This creates round cookies.  Here we talk about the cookies being the same shape as the moon.  Miss Busy isn't old enough to have very in depth conversations with, but she is already learning about the tides and moon phases. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes. 

Remove from oven and let cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. 

The hardest part about this recipe is waiting for them to cool.  Since they are really more like confections than traditional cookies, they cool very slowly and will scald your mouth if you are impatient enough to bite into one early.  Yeah, ask me how I know.  These are absolutely amazing with a glass of milk and I've been know to justify them as breakfast food.