Rachel’s Bread

28/06/2025

Not too much baking this week, but my brother & his wife have a peach farm!! ❤️🍑 My SIL helped concoct a peach upside down sweet roll recipe because we had so many peaches! They were amazing!

Peach Rolls
(this made 2 9x13 pans…perfect for 15 people at the beach)

Dough:
1 cup sourdough starter
4.5 cups flour (add more while mixing if too sticky)
2/3 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 tsp salt

Filling:
1 1/2 sticks butter (3/4 cup)
2 cups brown sugar

In the baking pan:
1 stick butter (1/2 cup) melted
1 cup brown sugar
Chopped peaches (about 4 cups)

Mix up until well combined, allow to rise for 8-12 hr. Perform stretch and folds to strengthen the dough if that’s your thing, but not necessary) Roll out on a well-floured surface, about large rectangle about 1/4 in thick….spread with filling.

Roll up tightly longwise to make a very long roll.

To the bottom of 2 9x13 pans add the butter, brown sugar, and chopped peaches.

Cut the rolls with floss/sting, or with a sharp knife and place over the peaches to rest/rise for about 2 hr. In a warm place.

Preheat oven to 350°, Bake for 45 min. When cool enough, flip the whole pan over onto a parchment covered cutting board, allowing the peach/brown sugar mixture to drip down into the rolls.

Summery deliciousness!!

13/06/2025

Just a few cinnamon rolls this week, but this was my favorite recipe so far this summer. (“week 2” but I did an early experiment for a friend, so my third attempt)

I have heard that it’s actually bad form for cinnamon rolls to rise like this & pop vs. giving them enough room to spread out. What do you all think?

I like it, and the recipe was great: https://wildthistlekitchen.com/sourdough-cinnamon-rolls/

Try it!!

03/06/2025

Bowling Green Friends— last day to order some cinnamon rolls or sandwich bread for porch pickup Friday or church pickup Sunday.

Message me for the order form if you want in!

31/05/2025

Summer fun means EXPERIMENTS over here!! That might not sound fun to you, but my grandpa was a chemist, and I consider myself a food chemist sometimes when I get to play with some of the different elements of baking! 🧑‍🍳👩‍🔬🍞

I did a practice round this week, but if you are local & would like to try some delicious experiments…I am making the following for select weeks of non-travel:

1) sourdough cinnamon rolls (which I have never been confident in a consistently good recipe for)

2) sourdough sandwich bread (I do have a sandwich bread that is OK, but is not amazing, and not something I would stand behind because I do not really want white sugar in it for YOUR health….I’m going for healthy AND certifiably good.)

Comment or message me & I’ll get you on my list—

$5 for 6-pack of cinnamon rolls,
$5 for sandwich bread

You can get a lot or a little, up to you on your sampling capacity! 😂🥰

20/05/2025

✨ Listening—

Last summer I stopped bread classes & subscriptions & practiced some sourdough inclusion loaves on our random weeks at home. Oh that was delicious and fun!

THIS year, I’ve been listening, and my ear to the ground keeps coming back with the same 2 reverberations from all of y’all— you would like to have:

1) sourdough cinnamon rolls (which I have never been confident in a consistently good recipe for)

2) sourdough sandwich bread (I do have a sandwich bread that is OK, but is not amazing, and not something I would stand behind because I do not really want white sugar in it for YOUR health….I’m going for healthy AND certifiably good.)

So I’m asking for the brave (local) volunteers to help me experiment this summer— let me know & I’ll get you on my list—

$5 for 6-pack of cinnamon rolls,
$5 for sandwich bread

You can get a lot or a little, up to you on your sampling capacity! 😂🥰

20/05/2025

Yes!! In the fall I made my first Mac & Cheese with sourdough starter instead of just flour for the roux & it DID have that something-extra umami in there that you couldn’t put your finger on— so good!

I have not tried this recipe (below), but if you have a recipe you like for Mac & Cheese I totally recommend trying some starter in there with the sauce! (It is basically what a normal roux would have except instead of just raw flour, you are subbing sourdough starter— which is better for you because it has been fermented/partially “digested” for you by the yeasts!)

If you’ve got sourdough starter anyway— use it!

🙌🏼Just dropping in to say.. Using discard as a thickening agent in my soups and gravy has been a game changer!👀

Credit : Brookes Swim

Ingredients:
Mac & Cheese:
* 16 oz elbow pasta
* ¼ cup butter (57g)
* ¼ cup flour (35g)
* ½ cup sourdough discard (140g)
* 1½ cups milk (360g)
* 2½ cups half & half (600g)
* 4 cups cheddar, shredded (440g)
* 2 cups gruyere, shredded (220g)
* 1½ tsp salt, ½ tsp black pepper
Breadcrumb Topping:
* 1½ cups sourdough breadcrumbs (160g)
* ¼ cup melted butter (57g)
* ½ cup parmesan, shredded (50g)
* ¼ tsp paprika

Instructions:
Breadcrumbs:
1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. Pulse sourdough bread in food processor.
3. Spread crumbs on a baking sheet and bake 5 min, stir, then bake 10 min more until golden. Cool.
Mac & Cheese:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 3 qt baking dish.
2. Cook pasta 1 min shy of al dente. Drain and set aside.
3. Whisk milk and discard until smooth.
4. In a large pot, melt butter, whisk in flour and cook 1 min.
5. Add half & half gradually, then discard/milk mix. Cook until thick.
6. Add salt, pepper, and 5 cups of shredded cheese in batches until melted.
7. Combine cheese sauce and pasta. Layer into dish with remaining 1 cup cheese.
8. Mix breadcrumbs, melted butter, parmesan, and paprika. Top pasta.
9. Bake 30 min until bubbly and golden.

Tips:
* Use freshly grated cheese for best texture.
* Undercook pasta slightly to prevent overcooking.
* Store leftovers in fridge up to 4 days; reheat with a splash of milk.

14/05/2025

These are the moments that I feel the most “Paula Deen”….when I put the butter pats on top of things & let them do what they need to do! 😂

11/05/2025

So good— pour some oil in a pan and let it sit, push up some bubbles and add some toppings- don’t let an overproofed loaf of bread go to waste when you can make this!

13/04/2025

Challah day!!! I love bread classes anyway, but when I get to see my friends AND get to know their family…wow! That’s double sweet ❤️

Thanks for braiding with me, y’all— I know you ate a lot of bread today…but that’s why we call it bread day!

28/03/2025

Last week to sign up for my Challah class coming up on April 12th!

You can come make challah with us, learn some of its historical significance, and take yours home to bake and eat! (And if you have never braided bread, there is a first time for everything 😎)

https://www.facebook.com/share/19TP4tgLmf/?mibextid=wwXIfr

27/03/2025

“Lord, make me to know my end,
And what is the extent of my days,
Let me know how transient I am.”

Psalm 39:4

My kids and I read this psalm this morning. David is wrestling through how quickly life passes and how short each of our lives are.

As I have baked over the years, and especially these last few, taking time to carve designs on the top of a food item that I know is quickly gone, sometimes I’m left wondering how much it is worth that extra care taken.

But God doesn’t spare any beauty and detail as He orchestrates all of creation. Even though our days here are short, they are MUCH more full of beauty baked in, than I could ever carve on top of a pile of dough.

Stop & look around (literally or figuratively) in your life today…and see some of the details God has lovingly carved into the fabric of your life. I bet there’s more than you know. ❤️

18/03/2025

Open bake experimenting the other day— learning more things! I love doing experiments & then I get to randomly feed our youth group!