Cinnamon Rolls, Pita Pockets, Pizza dough, Soft White Bread, Rolls….

San Juan Island area is a beautiful place to live. The locals are very friendly, it has been fun to meet new people. I attended a transportation meeting to see about road safety and bike trails. I joined a prayer group from the church I attend and I was able to help out at the local soup kitchen this week and bring some of my bread.

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My oven is not fixed yet and I still have to be creative in using it, but I have adjusted and have been able to make up some variations using the pizza dough which was featured in the last post and on Pizza Quest (Pizza Quest has been nominated by the International Association of Culinary Professionals (the IACP) as one of three finalists for best food blog of the year).

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I really like the dough even though it is a morph dough and uses not only a sourdough starter but some commercial yeast(!) as well.

Here are the bread and rolls I brought to the soup kitchen using the pizza dough recipe as the base:

Soft White Pan Bread:

Rolls with Whole Wheat flour:

The bread was the same recipe as the pizza dough but I added a Tablespoon of  sugar to the dough. The rolls were the same except I added a Tablespoon of brown sugar and I also used whole wheat flour for the starter portion of the recipe. I was happy to see how quickly they were gobbled up at lunch.

I also used the pizza dough as a variation to make pita pockets:

You just take 3 or 4 ounces or whatever amount of dough you want, and roll it out about  1/4 inch thick. I threw down handfuls of sesame seeds  and rolled the dough out on the seeds. Allow your pockets to proof and throw it on a very hot stone to bake, flipping once, bake until done. Don’t overbake or it will be like cardboard or crackers. These were very delicious with soft interiors and seedy exteriors 😉

Also, I just had to make more pizza, pepperoni for this round:

Believe it or not, you can also use this dough to make great cinnamon rolls. Just add 1/4 cup of sugar to the dough and a tablespoon of vanilla extract. Then of course you roll out the finished dough and make it into cinnamon rolls:

Seems to be no end to the variations you can think of for this versatile dough. Post more ideas in the comments below, we could start a brainstorming session here!

Other news: My book, “Discovering Sourdough“, has been selling well since I posted it for sale a month ago.

I am in the process of converting it to Kindle format and should be done soon. I have to thank Dion for getting me going on converting the files, he has been not only an inspiration but a great help and it was his idea. Thank you Dion! I am still working on my 100% hydration sourdough book…. no telling when that will see print, but it has been a lot of fun working on it.

When you see the mist rise over the trees on the mountains, watch the sunrise and sunsets on this incredibly beautiful island and look out at the wild turkeys and geese from your backyard, not to mention the eagles flying overhead, there is no end to the inspiration here.

Not only that, but a cool rainy day is the perfect time to bake…..and to write about baking… and to dream about baking…

Happy Baking!