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When it’s too hot to bake, turn to Dutch oven for sourdough biscuits, bread
Who says you can’t bake when it’s hot out?
Usually I’m the one declaring that baking season is officially over once the daytime high surpasses 90 degrees, but that was until I had success last weekend baking sourdough biscuits in a Dutch oven using charcoal briquettes.
I’d attempted to make Dutch oven sourdough biscuits on a massive grill where the only heat source was hot coals under the oven, but the biscuits turned out sticky, dense and inedible.
But on a trip to Southeast Oklahoma last weekend, I made the biscuits again, this time using the correct method of placing about twice as many coals on the top as the bottom.
(UPDATE: As Statesman photo editor Nell Carroll points out, there are burn bans through Texas that restrict the use of charcoal briquettes, especially in parks, which have been the cause of several wildfires around the state. Use caution and reconsider your method if cooking in dry, windy conditions.)
The results were stunning: Light, flaky, perfectly sweet biscuits that I could smell even before I removed the charcoal-covered lid.
Before we left Austin, I used this sourdough biscuit recipe as a guide and premixed the dry ingredients (2 cups all purpose flour, 3 Tbsp. sugar, 1 tsp. salt) in a large zip-top plastic bag and put 1/4 olive oil in a small jar.
As for the sourdough, I had been dividing and feeding a sourdough starter that my friend Doris Ann gave me a few months ago. We met recently through our husbands, who long ago played music together in the Canadian province of Alberta, which is where the sourdough originates. (It’s hard to kill anything that can survive in Northern Alberta, she assured me.)
During the great Snow Day of 2011, I made a beautiful loaf of bread using a recipe from Peter Reinhart’s (misleadingly titled) “Artisan Breads Every Day.” (Maybe I watch too much TV or play with my kids too much, but there’s no way I could make his version of artisan bread every day. They are good recipes, though.)
I hadn’t had a chance to use the sourdough again, and I thought that it would be months until the weather was cold enough to make me want to fire up the oven to use it.
It must have been the cover of Texas Monthly’s “How to Cook Like a Texan” issue, with Tom Perini holding a big ol’ Dutch oven full of sourdough biscuits, that reminded me of all the other things you can do with sourdough that don’t involve an oven in your kitchen, especially when you have one of those cast iron beauties.
No matter if you are using Dutch ovens as a vessel in which to bake bread inside a conventional oven or using them in place of an oven, as cooks have been doing for almost 400 years, they work so well because they distribute and hold heat so well.
You can bake everything from bread to cherry cobbler in a Dutch oven, but these biscuits will be my favorite for a while.
Dutch oven sourdough biscuits
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 oil
2 cups active sourdough starter
Thoroughly combine dry ingredients in a large bowl or gallon-sized zip-top bag. In a large bowl, mix oil and sourdough starter and combine with dry ingredients. Dump dough on a lightly floured surface to knead and fully combine ingredients. Knead for about five minutes and let rest for 10 minutes. Break off pieces that are larger than a golf ball but smaller than a baseball. Roll lightly into a ball and place in a well-greased Dutch oven. (I use bacon grease.) Replace the Dutch oven lid and let biscuits rise for an hour. In a chimney starter, heat about 20 briquettes until they white around the edges. Place 12 coals on top of the Dutch oven and place oven on top of six additional coals. After 25 minutes, briefly lift lid to check on the biscuits, but they’ll probably need closer to 30 minutes to cook until done.
— Addie Broyles
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment Categories: Cooking, On the road
Comments
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By Mike Oxlong
April 27, 2011 4:04 PM | Link to this
I used to give my little brother Dutch Ovens all the time hahahahaha ah the memories this brings :)
By Pam Picard
April 27, 2011 4:53 PM | Link to this
Looks great. Interesting approach.
By Paul
April 27, 2011 4:57 PM | Link to this
Will have to try that recipe out real soon.
I’ve been making sourdough bread for a little over two years now after starting my own starter. For those times where I have to feed it but don’t plan to make bread I usually make sourdough pancakes …
whisk oil and egg, then whisk in powder ( make sure no lumps ) then whisk through the starter and pour into pan / griddle. I’ll often throw in some flaxseeds or quinoa so I can pretend they’re healthy even with a slathering of maple syrup.
By Christian McDonald
April 27, 2011 11:31 PM | Link to this
Oh … we need to have some outdoor Dutch Oven cooking discussions! As a Scouter, I have a deep love for cast iron and use it often at home and at camp. If only I could take an oven on that 10-day backpacking trip in New Mexico this summer :-)