The easiest sourdough bread recipe I know (NO KNEADING!) that many have asked me to share and it can be done with 100% whole wheat!

I wish I could claim this recipe as my own, but I cannot. I am not a sourdough bread maker guru. More like stumbling my way through successes and failures as I practice learning the true nature of my sourdough starter. This recipe comes from Jules at Stone Soup - Delicious Healthy Meals In Minutes. If you head over to her site (as I did today to grab the link for the recipe) you'll see a place to enter your email to receive updates. When you do this you'll get two of her e-cookbooks for free. Can't complain about that!

This is another one of those favorite "go to" recipes that I use time and time again and that I make for my family on a regular basis. These recipes aren't fancy, but they are good and when I'm a bit uninspired in the kitchen, not feeling good and overly tired, which has been true a lot lately, these are the dishes or items I find easiest to make and don't require a lot of thinking on my part.

I've decided that when it comes to sourdough baking, a lot of practice and not getting too hyped up if things don't turn out will lend to a much more peaceful kitchen. Unlike using yeast and white flour recipes where you can treat every recipe exactly the same, sourdough starters have a little mind of their own. Depending on the environment they are maintained in, how often they are fed (yep, just like pets, they really do need to be fed and watered preferably about 2 times a day), at what point after the feeding you choose to use the starter, how long you let your dough "sour" and what temperature it is in your home, you will get different results with your recipes. Now for some this sounds like a nightmare, but honestly it's not, it just teaches you flexibility and as you make more sourdough items you learn how to best use your starter.

What I love about this particular recipe is that it's so easy. Honestly, anyone who knows how to make a couple of measurements can quickly throw together the dough for this bread in about 5 minutes. About 8-12 hours later you should have a sticky mass of dough ready to be baked. No kneading ever needs to be done and out of the oven in 45 minutes you have an absolutely delicious, rustic loaf of bread with a crunchy exterior and a soft, slightly sour and a bit moist interior.

Ricciarelli or Almond Macaroons - Grain Free

I don't know about you, but I have numerous cookbooks where I tried several recipes from them and either wasn't impressed or completed disappointed. This summer I decided to do away with those less than satisfactory cookbooks and into the trash they went. Now I have my favorites left and at the top of that list is my cookbooks from Nigella Lawson. I've made dozens of her recipes and have had great success with almost all of them. There has been one or two recipes along the way that I didn't love quite as much as others, but that was more personal preference than it was the fault of a poor written or simply bad recipe.  I know I can pick up one of her cookbooks find a recipe that sounds/looks good and it will turn out, which equals a good cookbook to me. Well, these little superb Ricciarelli or Almond Macaroons from Nigella's How To Be a Domestic Goddess, didn't let me down!

Chocolate Coconut Flour Cake Sweetened w/ Honey

I was in a bit of a whimsical mood on this cake making day and Valentines day was on my mind. Out came the heart shaped cookie cutter and I had fun making some bite size pieces of cake.

This is one of those cakes I've been trying to master for a while. Frankly, I've been trying to figure out the best ways to use coconut flour in general. There has been a whole lot of trial and error and a whole lot more failure than successes, but that's how it goes sometimes. I happen to like challenges and I've been determined to come up with a chocolate coconut flour cake that can hold it's own next to one of those typical white flour cakes. Method is key to making this cake as it will make a drastic difference in how light the cake will turn out.


If you've never used coconut flour, I'd highly recommend trying it out. I purchase mine,  from Tropical Traditions. Actually I'm not sure who else even sells it.

When I originally started making this cake I was working with enough ingredients for only one layer. However, in this last attempt I split the batter in half between two pans and was very pleased with how it turned out. I haven't tried to put all the batter in one pan as of yet. It would likely work fine, I just question whether the cake might loose some of it's volume. The cake layers are not overly tall, so if you want a more typical cake with some height I'd recommend doubling this recipe and making 4 layers.

This is a dark and rich cake, but not overly sweet (that tends to be my style for baked goods), if you really prefer a sweet cake you could increase the honey by an additional 1/4 cup. For an icing, forgo the classic butter and powdered sugar frosting for a deliciously thick, homemade vanilla whip cream. It's the perfect companion.  For the pictures in this post, I baked the cake in two 8"x8" square pans. An 8" round would work too, but if you do a 9" round you'll probably want to check the cake after it has baked for about 20 minutes.