Mom's Sourdough Pancakes
My brother Bryan gave me some of my Grandma's sourdough starter to bring home with me from our recent trip to Utah. The starter was originally made by Grandma Kiser back when my Mother was a wee lass. My Mom made these pancakes quite often while I was growing up. I made them for the first time in my life this morning... I'm returning to my roots I guess. Berkeley ate 5. He loves them. Berkeley usually only eats 1 or 2 buttermilk pancakes when I make buttermilk pancakes... so the affinity for my Grandma's sourdough and Mom's pancakes must be in his blood or something.

Take the sourdough starter out of the fridge the day before you are having pancakes and let the starter warm to room temp. The evening before you are having pancakes add about 1½ cups of flour and 1½ cups of warm water to the starter. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside somewhere warm overnight (I use our electric oven with the oven light on). The next morning the starter should be bubbly. Set aside the original amount of starter and put it back in the fridge.

Mix together:

2 cups starter
¼ cup powdered milk
3 tbs melted butter (or oil)
1 tsp sugar
1 egg
¼ salt (omit if using melted butter)

Then add a mixture of:

½ tsp baking soda, heaping
1 tbs water

The mixture should start to increase in volume. Cook on a hot griddle (350-375°). Serve immediately. Freeze the leftovers (if any).

Sour Cream Cherry Coffeecake
I found this recipe in one of my cook books, but I modified it slightly since it called for cranberries and some other silliness. This particular coffeecake is more dense than my Blackberry Coffeecake (and one could argue more moist as well). This recipe probably would not be suitable for berries that release a lot of juice when cooking.

Crumb Topping
¾ cup flour
¼ cup sugar
2 tbs brown sugar
¼ tsp cardamom
8 tbs butter

Cake Batter
1¼ cup sour cream
1¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
8 tbs butter
1¼ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1½ cup flour
1½ tsp baking powder
1 cup cherries, halved

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 9x13 baking dish.

Crumb Topping. Combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, and cardamom. Cut in butter. Refrigerate.

Cake Batter. Combine sour cream, baking soda, and salt. Stir to blend evenly and set aside. Beat together butter, sugar, and eggs until creamy and fluffy. Sift together flour and baking powder. Combine flour with butter mixture and mix in. Beat in sour cream mixture.

Scoop cake batter into baking dish. Scatter cherries on top of batter. Use spatula to blend cherries slightly into batter. Sprinkle crumb topping over batter. Bake 40-45 minutes.

(Update Thu Feb 22 13:21:19 PST 2007 // fixed sour cream ingredient listing)

Hot Soy Milk (熱豆漿)
Recently I bought a case of organic soy milk from Costco. Kristy has wanted to add soy to our diet and I love the stuff, so I was happy to oblige. This morning I fixed myself up a nice hot bowl of "豆漿" (soy milk) just like I had nearly every morning for breakfast on my mission in Taiwan. Here is how to make it:

1 cup soy milk
1 tbs raw cane sugar
1 porcelain Chinese-style soup spoon

Place cane sugar in bottom of small bowl. Heat soy milk in microwave or over stove. Hold spoon inside of bowl and pour hot soy milk into spoon and allow to spill over into bowl (this prevents the sugar from dissolving too quickly). Enjoy!

Buttermilk Waffles
This waffle recipe makes decent waffles. I made them tonight for family and Angela asked me to send her the recipe. So here it is:

2 cups flour
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cardamon
½ tsp salt
3 eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk
8 tbs (1 stick) butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat a waffle iron. Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks, buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla. Combine with dry mixture. In a another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into batter.

Brush waffle iron with some butter or non-stick spray. Sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on the waffle iron for a crunchy exterior. Ladle batter into iron and cook the waffles and per waffle iron instructions.

(Update Sat Apr 29 20:18:37 PDT 2006 // fixed a grammatical problem)

Biff's Blackberry Coffeecake
I took the opportunity this morning to make use of some of the fresh blackberries available in the blackberry patch behind our back yard. This coffeecake is (more or less) a combination of a couple recipes I found in some of the cook books we have... plus a wee bit of improvisation of my own.

Fruit Mixture
3 cups fresh blackberries
2 tbs cornstarch
1 tbs sugar

Cake Batter
1½ cup flour
½ cup sugar
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp cardamom
¼ tsp salt
4 tbs butter
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Crumb Topping
½ cup flour
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cardamom
4 tbs butter

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 8x8x2-inch glass baking pan.

Fruit Mixture. In medium-sized saucepan, combine fruit, cornstarch, and sugar. Toss gently until blackberries look evenly coated with cornstarch and sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until bubbly. Cook and stir about 2 minutes more, then set aside.

Cake Batter. In a mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom, and salt. Cut in butter. Beat egg and combine with buttermilk and vanilla. Add to flour mixture and stir until moistened.

Crumb Topping. Combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom. Cut in butter.

Spread half of cake batter into bottom of baking pan. Pour fruit mixture on top of batter. Drop remaining batter onto fruit filling in small mounds. Sprinkle crumb topping over batter. Bake for 40-45 minutes.