Ira is my sourdough starter - a culture of native yeast I've been cultivating in a slurry of water and flour (50:50) for a while now. Ira, is the offshoot of Kira, the colony that my friend has been growing for quite some time.
Feeding Ira creates a good amount of inoculated flour / water discard that I keep and allow to fully sour in the fridge. As the yeast eats, it creates waste that acidifies its home. Eventually, the waste is enough to kill off much of the culture.
This recipe can easily be scaled up or down.
What you need
- 200 grams of discard
- 132 grams of flour (can be mixed types but I use all AP)
- 32 grams of olive oil
- 9 grams (very loose measurement on this) each of any mix-ins desired
- 9 grams (also very loose measurement) of kosher salt
- Maldon salt for topping
Mix-ins
My current best list is:
- Dried minced roasted garlic - 2 parts
- Dried minced onion - 2 parts
- Italian herbs - 1 part
- Poppy seeds - 1 part
- Fresh ground black pepper - .5 - 1 part
- White sesame seeds - 4 parts
- Black sesame seeds - 4 parts
- Take 1 part each of the sesame seeds and grind them roughly in a mortar and pestle
What you do
- Mix everything together until it's can be kneaded.
- Knead dough by hand for a couple minutes
- Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and rest for a min of 45 min (counter top) and up to 24 hours (fridge)
- Preheat oven to 350
- Cut parchment to fit your baking sheets
- Cut each full portion of the recipe (the recipe as written makes 1 portion) into 6 wedges
- Roll out each wedge to fill between 1/3 and 1/2 of the baking area. Should be even thickness, maybe 1/4 of an inch?
- Repeat with other wedges - each baking sheet can fit 2 rolled out wedges (they should be rectangles after rolling)
- Use a bottle to spray the top of each rolled out dough sheet with water, and then sprinkle on Maldon salt. Press lightly into dough
- Optionally use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into 1/2 inch wide match sticks.
- Bake until mostly firm and dry and not burnt, about 20-30 min, rotating top and bottom racks and spinning the pans for even baking
- Cool on a wire rack
- If done right, they should snap like crackers.
These things are wildly addictive.