For all the pastry lovers out there: help yeast “rise to the occasion” in dessert recipes, too!
At La Cucina Italiana, we tried apple pie with a sourdough yeast starter for the pastry dough… and let’s just say that everyone asked for seconds.
Another slice, please!
Uses for sourdough starter
We usually associate sourdough – a leavening agent composed of many versions of “good bacteria” – with bread or traditional cakes with long leavening times like panettone. But you can use it for many recipes outside of the usual tradition: try it in any recipe, sweet or salty, to add a little extra volume and flavor to your dough.
It’s necessary to consider longer leavening times (just leave the sourdough to rise overnight and bake in the morning), but the taste and digestibility? So worth it. Apple pie with sourdough: a recipe that reminds us of home and tastes like the sweetest kind of comfort food. This is a perfect example of how to use sourdough for an everyday dessert recipe.
As a general rule, if you make bread, you need about ¼ of the weight of sourdough flour for every ounce of flour (so for every 4 oz. of flour, you’ll need 1 oz. of sourdough starter). This ratio should be increased when making desserts: butter, eggs, sugar and other ingredients make the dough heavier, so it will need more leavening agent to grow to its “best potential.”
Recipe for apple pie with sourdough pastry dough
To prepare apple pie with sourdough, freshen the sourdough starter in the morning and use 4 oz in the evening for the recipe.
Add 4 oz. of warm cow's milk or vegetable milk, a teaspoon of honey and 4 oz of flour.
Mix the dough well until it is smooth and even.
Cover and let the dough rise overnight in a warm, dry place.
The next day, whip two eggs with 6 oz. of sugar until the mixture is thick and frothy.
Add the seeds of a vanilla pod, a pinch of salt and cinnamon, 4 oz of extra-virgin olive oil (with a lighter flavor) and another 4 oz of flour.
Mix all the ingredients from bottom to top until they are mixed and then add them to the yeast, gently blending the two mixtures together.
Line a mold with baking parchment and pour batter into the base of the baking dish with the sourdough starter.
Let rise for another 4 hours.
Bring the oven to 390° F.
Peel and slice 1 ½ lbs of the apples for the pie.
Season with a drop of lemon, Calvados (a light apple or pear brandy), a tablespoon of sugar and cinnamon.
Spread the apple slices over the dough, pressing them lightly on the surface, without deflating the dough.
Bake for 20 minutes at 390° F, then bake for another 40 minutes at 350 °F.
Buon appetito!