Sourdough Bread

I have discovered a weakness for this sourdough bread. Love it!

To give credit, where credit is due, I found the recipe at: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/03/12/sourdough-recipes-galore-honey-whole-wheat-sourdough-bread/#more-5391

And here is the recipe:

1 1/2 c. starter

2 c. milk (or water)

1/4 c. honey

2 eggs

3 c. flour for sponge + 3 c. flour for mixing + more as needed

2 tsp. salt

6 TBSP butter (unsalted, room temp.)

Be patient with me and with the recipe:

The night before you want bread:

Mix starter, 3 c. flour and milk. Cover. I found it helpful to start this in my food processor bowl. You can heat up the oven briefly (ie. turn on for one minute, then turn off) or use the oven light to help warm the sponge. This is the sponge.

In the Morning:

Mix sponge with honey and eggs. Add rest of ingredients. Mix with dough hook. Add dough if needed (dough should pull off side of bowl). Cover. Let rise 2-4 hours. (oven light or on/off oven as before).

Afternoon:

Butter 2 9x5 pans. Pour dough in (the dough is springy and elastic-y if its going well). Cover. 1 1/2 - 3 hours with oven light or on/off oven heat.

Time to Cook:

Bread should reach to top of pans or slightly above. Take then out of oven. Preheat oven to 375. Slash top of loaves. Bake 35-40 minutes.

What I like about it is that the bread feels very alive-it is stretchy, elastic, it looks like it could just keep growing and growing, and it is your own mini science experiment in your kitchen. Yes, this starter is the "mother". Little did I know that I would one day be in awe of the "mother" that my real mother used to keep on the counter.

I left my loaves out-no bags, no fridge, and still ate it on day 6. No mold. If you choose to freeze or refrigerate, give it at least 24 hours on the racks or counter to help it mature.

Good luck and have fun!

Sourdough Starter 2

For those of you anxiously awaiting the results of my science experiment, here it is.

Day Two, bubbles started to appear in my starter:





Day Three and it's bubbling like crazy:



And here's Day Three at night. The starter has started to separate from the liquid and the liquid looks dark. I poured off the liquid and fed the starter flour and water. What convinced me that this is working, is the smell. All of a sudden, my starter smells tangy, just like real sourdough bread.





Today's Day Four and there is no further change. I'm getting ready to bake in another day or two. I've heard that the sourdough will take longer to bake than regular bread-it sounds like close to 24 hours prep time...

Sourdough Starter

A sourdough starter is supposed to be easy so let us see what happens in the next few days. This is part of my creative kick, as I've always meant to try a real sourdough starter, not just the mysterious ones that appear in my life occasionally. (And sometimes have way too much sugar). And since I love bread, but would prefer to cut my added yeast varieties, I'm trying this out.

What I just did:

1. Find one large, glass jar.
2. Add 1/2 cup water, 1/2 flour (I used whole wheat. Mix.
3. Cover with a napkin, help on with an elastic (so the sourdough can breath and trap bacteria I understand)
4. Keep warm. (Mine's on the stove, but hopefully we get some warm days soon).

And then I plan to add 1/4 c. water and 1/4 cup flour every 12 hours. When it starts to bubble, you can feed it just once a day and with much less flour and or water. If black gunk grows (it's supposed to), pour it off before you feed it.

There are a bunch of tips I have ignored-you can start with cooking water, you probably shoudn't use tap water as I am... so we'll see how important the tips are.

Here's the starter!






Wish us luck!