Summer Happens... Even to Your Sourdough Starter. ☀️🫙
Life gets busy, especially during the summer.
Between cooking, grocery runs, and long days as a private chef in Muskoka, I accidentally left my sourdough starter in the car for a few days. In the summer heat. Not exactly its ideal environment.
While it certainly wasn't at its happiest, it was a good reminder that sourdough starters are incredibly resilient. Heat and neglect will often slow a starter down, but it's surprisingly difficult to actually kill one.
To get mine back into baking shape, I started with a larger feeding using 80% bread flour and 20% whole rye flour at 100% hydration. I let it ferment for about 24 hours before switching to smaller feedings every 12 hours. Within a couple of days, it was active, bubbly, and back to its usual self.
If your starter has been sitting in the fridge a little longer than planned—or you've accidentally neglected it over the summer—don't rush to throw it away. A few consistent feedings are often all it needs.
If you're planning a vacation this summer, I also have a YouTube video that walks through exactly how I store my sourdough starter before I leave, how I revive it when I get home, and a few common sourdough myths that are worth busting.
Friday Dock Party Tradition 🚤🥂 Tarte Flambée
One of my favourite traditions while working as a private chef in Muskoka is the Friday dock party.
Every Friday afternoon, I like to put together a few snacks for everyone to enjoy down by the water. Some weeks it's caviar, fresh oysters, smoked fish, or charcuterie. Other weeks I'll make something warm straight from the oven. It changes every week, which keeps it fun and gives me an excuse to try new ideas.
This week's feature is Sourdough Tarte Flambée, cut into small squares so everyone can grab a piece while enjoying a glass of White Burgundy on the dock. It's simple, elegant, and exactly the kind of food I love serving in the summer.
I first learned to make tarte flambée while working for Chef Daniel Boulud, and it's been one of those recipes that's stayed with me ever since. The combination of an ultra-thin sourdough crust, tangy fromage frais, smoky bacon, and sweet onions is hard to beat.
It's one of those dishes that looks impressive but is surprisingly simple to make. The sourdough adds incredible flavour and creates a crisp, crackly crust that almost eats like a cross between pizza and a cracker.
The best part is how versatile it is. Keep it classic, or use it as a canvas for seasonal toppings. Mushrooms and truffle, zucchini and ricotta, smoked salmon, or even figs and goat cheese all work beautifully.
If you're looking for something a little different for your next barbecue, cottage weekend, or wine night with friends, this is a recipe worth adding to your list.
Monster Cookies (a.k.a. Chaos Cookies 😈🍪)
There are a handful of recipes that make an appearance every single summer when I'm working as a private chef in Muskoka, and these Monster Cookies are right at the top of that list.
They're one of those recipes that disappear almost as quickly as they come out of the oven. Every time I bake a batch, someone wanders into the kitchen asking if there are any more. At this point, I've learned to make extra.
The combination of sourdough discard, 50% spelt flour, salty pretzels, chocolate, raisins, and colourful candy creates the perfect balance of chewy, crunchy, sweet, and salty. They're a little nostalgic, a little over-the-top, and completely addictive.
If you have some sourdough discard sitting in the fridge, this is one of my favourite ways to put it to good use.
🍪 Monster Cookies
Yields: 12 cookies (60g each)
Total Dough Weight: 720g
Ingredients
- 92g All-Purpose Flour
- 92g Spelt Flour
- 3g Baking Soda
- 3g Salt
- 37g Sourdough Discard
- 110g Butter, room temperature
- 73g Granulated Sugar
- 62g Brown Sugar
- 55g Egg (about 1 large egg)
- 10g Vanilla
- 55g Dark Chocolate Chips
- 37g Pretzel Sticks, broken into small pieces
- 46g Raisins
- 55g M&Ms or Smarties
👩🍳 Method
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- In a bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and mix until fully incorporated.
- Mix in the vanilla, followed by the sourdough discard, until just combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until everything comes together.
- Fold in the chocolate chips, M&Ms (or Smarties), raisins, and broken pretzels.
- Let the dough rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. If the dough is very sticky, let it rest in the refrigerator instead.
- Scoop into 60g portions and place on a parchment-lined baking tray.
- Bake for 11 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through baking. Remove the tray from the oven and gently press a few extra toppings into the tops of the cookies. Return to the oven and bake for another 2–3 minutes, until lightly golden and just set.
Reader Question of the Week 💬
This week's question comes from Melissa, who recently started milling her own flour with a Mockmill.
I recently purchased a Mockmill, and I'm milling my own grains now to bake sourdough. I'm working on a test to determine the correct hydration amount for my flour. But I'm curious how you determine the quantity of water to hold back from the autolyse to add in with the levain and salt. Is there a golden percentage to reserve to add in as water 2?
First off, congratulations on the Mockmill! Freshly milled flour is one of my favourite ways to improve both flavour and nutrition in bread.
As for the question, there really isn't a magic percentage.
For most doughs, I usually hold back 5–15% of the total water. That gives me some flexibility once the dough starts coming together. Freshly milled flour can vary quite a bit depending on the grain, how finely it's milled, and even how fresh it is, so I like to let the dough tell me what it needs rather than adding all of the water at once.
If the dough feels strong and can handle more hydration, I'll gradually work in the reserved water while adding the salt and levain. If it's already feeling soft and sticky, I'll simply use less of the reserved water.
One thing I've learned over the years is that freshly milled flour is often thirstier than commercial flour, but don't chase a hydration number just because someone else uses it. Focus on how the dough feels in your hands. That's a much more reliable guide.
If you're just getting started with milling your own flour, I also recommend milling a day before baking whenever possible. It gives the flour time to cool after milling, makes it easier to work with, and fits nicely into a home baking routine.
If you'd like to learn more about choosing grains, storing wheat berries, double milling, hydration, and getting started with fresh flour, I've put together a complete guide on the website:
It's one of my most comprehensive articles on fresh milling, and I think you'll find it helpful whether you've just bought your first mill or you've been milling for years.
This week in Muskoka 🏄♂️
After six straight days in the kitchen, my day off had one priority:
The kids.
We spent the day on the lake, and watching my 8-year-old absolutely rip on the wake surfboard was about as good as it gets. I may have snuck in a few sets myself, but seeing her confidence grow every summer is way more rewarding.
As much as I love baking and cooking, these are the moments that remind me why taking a day off is important. The bread can wait until tomorrow.
Now it's back to the kitchen for another week of baking, cooking, and feeding sourdough starter—but for one afternoon, the chef hat stayed at home.
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Happy Baking,
MJD
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Want to learn more from me? Check out my online video resources 👇
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