I got an avocado to use in a recipe a couple weeks ago, but then the recipe kept getting pushed back and pushed back until the avocado was so overripe that I had to toss it. So I ordered an avocado in the next produce basket. It arrived just in time for the enchiladas I was making! It was not even remotely ripe yet. Oh well... We ended up having the enchiladas without any avocado and I planned a different avocado-topped recipe for later in the week. Two days later, when I got to the cornmeal pancakes, the avocado still wasn't ripe. So we had them without any avocado either. Which was disappointing, but not the end of the world. But now I'd gone through all of my planned avocado-using recipes and still had an avocado sitting in the fruit basket!

Perusing my cookbooks turned up this avocado toast recipe. It seemed like a nice, easy way to use up my ill-timed avocado, so I rolled with that.

It was pretty nice. Although, since we had some leftover bacon in the fridge, TF and I chose to add a slice of bacon and a fried egg to each of ours. The bacon added a nice hit of saltiness and umami. And the egg gave it a protein boost and made it a bit more filling and substantial.

Avocado Toast with Watercress

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 3 slices of bread, toasted
• 1 avocado, sliced or mashed
• 3 slices cooked bacon (optional)
• 1 c. watercress
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2-3 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. sunflower seeds, toasted
• pinch coarse or flaky sea salt
• 3 large eggs, fried (optional)

Directions

1. Place a few slices of avocado or spread a layer of mashed avocado onto each slice of toast.
2. If using bacon, cut each slice in half and place two pieces (ie. one slice) on each piece of toast.
3. Toss the watercress with the olive oil and lemon juice and put ~1/3 c. on top of each toast slice.
4. Sprinkle ~1/2 Tbsp. of sunflower seeds on top of each slice of toast.
5. Sprinkle with a little bit of salt.
6. If desired, top with a fried egg.

I had a butternut squash that needed to be used up and I needed bread. This recipe seemed like a good way of dealing with both things at once.

I probably should've given my starter a bit longer to ferment. It didn't really seem like it had reached peak activity by the time I was mixing up the dough. But I was tired and just wanted some bread, so I went ahead with it all the same. The bread came out fine. The flavour and crumb were nice. The crust was good. I'm sure it would've been nicer with a more active starter, but the results were decent even with my sub-optimal timing.

Butternut Squash Sourdough

Slightly adapted from Sourdough.com

Ingredients

First Preferment

• 25g sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 50g flour
• 50mL water

Second Preferment

• first preferment
• 125g flour
• 125mL water

Dough

• 264mL water
• 320g butternut squash, roasted and peeled
• 840g flour¹
• 18g coarse sea salt
• 240g second preferment²
• 50g sunflower seeds

Directions

First Preferment

1. Combine starter, flour, and water and mix thoroughly.
2. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 8-12 hours.

Second Preferment

1. Combine first preferment, flour, and water and mix thoroughly.
2. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 4-8 hours.

Dough

1. Combine water and squash in a blender and puré until smooth.
2. Combine flour and salt.
3. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the squash puré and the second preferment (you will not need it all).
4. Mix, working from the centre outward, until just combined and a rough dough is formed.
5. Cover and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
6. Turn the dough out onto an oiled surface and knead for 1-2 minutes.
7. Adjust the consistency with more flour or water as needed. The dough should be fairly loose.
8. Return the dough to the covered bowl and rest for another 10 minutes, then knead it (on an oiled surface) for another minute or two.
9. Rest and knead the dough one more time.
10. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a covered bowl to rest for 30 minutes.
11. Stretch and fold the dough, then turn it over and rest for another 30-60 minutes.
12. Keep stretching at 30-60 minute intervals for ~3 hours.
13. Flatten the dough into a large rectangle and sprinkle with half the sunflower seeds. Fold the dough into thirds and then shape into a ball. Return to covered bowl to rest for another 30-60 minutes.
14. Flatten the dough again and sprinkle with the remaining seeds. Fold into thirds and shape into a ball.
15. If the dough still seems a bit lethargic, give it a few more stretch-and-folds (at 30-60 minute intervals) until it seems more active.
16. Once the dough seems nice and peppy, divide it into 2-4 equal portions (depending on whether you want large loaves or baguettes).
17. Round each portion, cover, and rest for 30 minutes.
18. Shape each portion as desired and transfer to fridge overnight.
19. In the morning, remove the dough from the fridge and preheat the oven to 230°C (450°F).
20. Grease a baking sheet and sprinkle with with cornmeal.
21. Once the oven is preheated, pour a few cups of boiling water into a large pan and place it on the lower oven rack.
22. Transfer your shaped loaves to the prepared pan and slash as desired.
23. Place the baking sheet with the loaves on the middle rack (above the pan of boiling water).
24. Bake at 230°C (450°F) for 10-15 minutes.
25. Reduce heat to 180°C (350°F) and carefully remove the water pan from the oven. Bake for another 5-30 minutes (depending on the size of your loaves).
27. Once loaves are done (sound hollow when underside is tapped), turn the oven off and leave the bread in the hot oven for 10 minutes.
28. Remove from oven and transfer to cooling rack.

I love this bread! It is so, so good! The crust is perfect, the crumb is just right, the flavour is excellent. It's easy to adjust the inclusions to your taste. And the timing is pretty laid back.

The first time I made it, I made it with dried cranberries and slivered almonds and followed the proportions given in the original recipe. The second time I opted for dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds to make it school safe and upped the hydration a little bit. I also played around with the timing and hydrations levels in the starter/preferment. I think the first preferment worked better, but the higher hydration in the second batch was an improvement.

Fruit and Seed Semolina Sourdough

Slightly adapted from Sourdough.com

Ingredients

First Preferment

• 13g starter (100% hydration)
• 26g hard (strong/bread/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 26mL water

Second Preferment

• first preferment
• 83g hard whole wheat flour
• 83mL water

Dough

• 230g fine semolina flour
• 233g hard whole wheat flour
• 275mL water
• second preferment
• 10g coarse sea salt
• 1g malt syrup mixed w/ 10g flour
• 22g olive oil
• 7g fennel seeds
• 70g nuts and/or seeds of your choice
• 110g dried cranberries

Directions

Morning or early afternoon of Day 1

1. Combine the starter, flour, and water for the first preferment and mix very well.
2. Let stand, loosely covered, at room temperature for 4-8 hours. (4 hours for warmer rooms, 8 hours for cooler.)

Evening of Day 1

1. Add the flour and water for the second preferment to the first one and mix very well.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the semolina flour, whole wheat flour, and water for the dough and mix until combined.
3. Loosely cover both containers and let stand at room temperature overnight (8-12 hours depending on room temperature).

Morning of Day 2

1. Add the preferment to the flour-water mixture and fold/knead it in.
2. Work in the salt and malt-flour mixture as well.
3. Cover and let stand at room temperature for one hour.
4. Add the olive oil and fennel seeds to the dough and stretch and fold it/knead the dough until the new ingredients have been incorporated. (It's okay if they're not evenly distributed at this point.)
5. Flip the dough over, cover, and let stand for another hour.
6. Add your preferred nuts and seeds and work them in as above.
7. Turn the dough over again, cover, and let stand for another hour.
8. Add the cranberries (or other dried fruit) and work it in as above. (One again, it's okay if things are a little uneven at this point.)
9. Flip the dough, cover, and let stand for an hour.
10. If the dough seems lively and light at this point, you may proceed with shaping. If not stretch it and fold it again and return it to its covered bowl for another hour. Keep repeating the hourly stretching process until the dough has reached a good level of activity. This may take 8 hours or more in a cool room.

Afternoon/Evening of Day 2

1. Once the dough is pleasantly airy and supple, place it on a lightly floured surface and press it flat.
2. Fold the dough into thrids (like a letter) and press it down a bit again.
3. Roll it up jelly-roll style, starting from a short side to form a loaf.
4. Place the loaf in a floured banneton, cover, and chill for 8-12 hours.

Morning of Day 3

1. If dough was still sluggish before shaping, allow the loaf to stand at room temperature for an hour or two before baking.
2. Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F).
3. Grease a baking sheet and sprinkle it with cornmeal.
4. Boil a few cups of water.
5. Carefully turn the loaf out onto the prepared baking sheet.
6. Lightly brush the surface with water and sprinkle with a bit of cornmeal if desired.
7. Once the oven is preheated, slash the loaf as desired.
8. Pour several cups of boiling water into a large pan and place it on the bottom oven rack.
9. Bake the bread on a rack set above the pan of boiling water.
10. Bake at 230°C (450°F) for 15 minutes.
11. After 15 minutes, carefully remove the pan of boiling water and reduce the temperature to 180°C (350°F).
12. Continue baking for another 20-30 minutes.
13. When loaf looks and smells done, remove it from the oven and tap the underside. If it sounds hollow it's done, otherwise return it to the oven for another 5-10 minutes.
14. Once loaf sounds hollow when tapped, turn off the oven. Leave the loaf in the warm oven for 10 minutes.
15. Remove bread from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

The yeast is all gone. The yeast has been all gone for over a month now. Where is all the yeast?

There has been a lot of panic buying during this pandemic. I think there have also been a lot of people who are suddenly doing a lot more home cooking, so there's a bit of increased demand right now. This is all understandable. And, given that, I was expecting a few things to become grocery store rarities for a little while: frozen veggies, toilet paper, rice, beans, maybe even milk and eggs. (Eggs have turned out to be even more in demand and harder to get than I had guessed, but I was at least expecting some increased demand. Also, we have chickens, so not being able to get eggs at the grocery store really isn't an issue for me.) What caught me completely by surprise was the sudden run on flour and yeast. And the yeast part of the equation, in particular, has been especially problematic.

Flour has been in stock (at admittedly low levels) intermittently since this whole thing started. Yeast, on the other hand, just flat-out vanished pretty much immediately and hasn't been seen since. During my first pandemic grocery shop I saw that all but two industrial-sized packages of instant yeast had gone. I thought about grabbing one but concluded that a) even I don't need to buy my yeast in bulk quantities quite that large and b) I really prefer "traditional", non-instant yeast. I figured I'd just grab some in a week or two once they'd restocked. My yeast supplies were getting a little low, but they weren't critical yet, I'm sure it'll be fine, right?

Fast forward a few weeks and now I'm almost completely out of yeast and there's still none to be had at the grocery store. Uh-oh...

This bread was my stop-gap solution. I made bagels on Monday. I made enough dough for 12 bagels, but I only baked 11. I mixed some water into the remaining dough, plonked it into a mason jar and let it ferment overnight. The next day I made what was supposed to be an unleavened/naturally fermented seed bread. But I dumped my faux starter in along with the other liquids and mixed it into the dough. I then proceeded to make bread as normal.

The resulting bread definitely isn't a sourdough, but it is distinctly flavourful. It's a hearty loaf, to be sure. Not as light and fluffy as many of the breads I've made, but it's decidedly lighter than other unleavened/naturally fermented loaves I've experimented with in the past. I'd say this is a nice middle ground. And I was able to pinch off a bit of the dough and pop it back into the mason jar with a bit of water to ferment and get ready for the next batch of bread!

Semi-Sourdough Seed Bread

Adapted from the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

• 430g hard whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 100g of bagel dough mixed with 100mL of water and left to ferment overnight
• 1 1/2 c. water
• 3 Tbsp. sunflower seeds
• 2 Tbsp. everything bagel topping
• 1 tsp. sesame seeds

Directions

1. Combine flour and salt and mix thoroughly.
2. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the reserved dough mixture and 1 c. of water.
3. Mix the flour into the liquids working from the centre outward.
4. Pinch off ~1/4 c. of the dough and combine with 1/4 c. of water in a mason jar. Set aside for your next batch of bread.
5. Turn the rest of the dough out onto the counter and begin kneading. Work in additional water as you knead. You may not need the full 1/2 c.
6. Once the dough has taken up enough water, begin kneading in the seeds. Aim to knead for a total of 20-30 minutes.
7. Shape into a ball and set in a covered bowl to rise. It will likely need 2-4 hours for this first rise.
8. Once the dough no longer rebounds after a wet finger is pressed ~1cm into it, knock it back. Knead for a few strokes if you wish.
9. Shape into a ball and allow to rise again. This rise will probably only take ~2 hours. Maybe less.
10. Knock the dough back again and shape it into a loaf. (I chose a round hearth loaf for this one.)
11. Allow to rise for an hour or so.
12. Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F) and place a pan of boiling water on the bottom rack once the oven is preheated.
13. Spritz the loaf with water and slash the top.
14. Bake at 230°C (450°F) for ~10 minutes.
15. Reduce oven temperature to 180°C (350°F) and remove water pan.
16. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for another 30 minutes.