The Yeast Is Blowin' in the Wind.
A New Year's reflection on leaven and sourdough skillet cornbread!
Passover was no joke.
The Passover lamb gets all the attention—and perhaps rightly so—with all the bringing the lamb into the house for a week and letting it eat from the table and then slaughtering it and then painting its blood on the doorframe of the family home. I get it.
But in all the lamb-roasting and blood-splattering, we often miss the fact that the entire week leading up to the Passover is actually titled The Feast of Unleavened Bread: “For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses” (Exodus 12:19).
As a baker, I gotta say it’s pretty hardcore that God made everyone throw out their sourdough starter at the beginning of every year. That Passover was no joke.
So if every good Israelite tossed out their starter on New Year’s, where would you get your starter from after the Feast was over? You can’t get it from a neighbor. Literally all the old leaven is gone.
Where do you get new yeast when your friends hain’t got none and there’s no yeast cakes to be found at the supermarket?
Wild yeast is in the wind.
Every New Year, God’s people had to depend on the wind to bring new yeast to their lumps. God was teaching his people to depend on him for a fresh wind. Ultimately, every year when the Passover returned, the people were reminded of their need for a new leaven, a fresh wind, a new spirit to raise them from the dead.
In keeping with this “New Year-New Leaven” tradition, here’s a good sourdough skillet cornbread recipe. If you don’t have a sourdough starter lying around (why don’t you?), here’s the basic skillet cornbread recipe my wife and I have been making for over a decade (Thanks, Pioneer Woman!).
The great thing is how quick this whisks up, and it’s made with ingredients you already have in the cupboard.
How to Make a Sourdough Starter.
Get it from a friend.
Seriously, are you kidding?? I tried and failed THRICE to make a starter on my own, and wasted like three bags of King Arthur flour in the process.
Then I gave up.
And then I humbled myself and asked a friend for some of hers. And now my starter “Jennifer” has been thriving on my countertop for months. Go and do likewise.
Sourdough Skillet Cornbread
Ingredients:
1 c. yellow cornmeal
1 c. sourdough starter
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 c. buttermilk (or 1 tbsp. white vinegar added to 1 c. of milk)
1 whole egg
1/2 stick + 2 tbsp. butter
Make it:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Put the cast iron skillet on the stovetop and melt all the butter.
Mix all the dry ingredients; add sourdough.
Whisk in eggs, milk, and butter.
Pour the batter into the hot skillet, and slam it in the oven for around 15-17 minutes or until the top is nice and brown and the crust is crispy (depending on the circumference of your skillet).
Top the screaming hot bread with a drizzle of honey and nubs of butter, and serve!