Sourdough

What I REALLY do when I make a loaf of sourdough bread with my sourdough starter:

First, the starter is made. My starter is old, but you can already use it to make pancakes or bread after it has sat for only a few days.

Second, I’ve learned that I am a low-energy sourdough maintainer, so I’ve adjusted things to suit my careless approach. I now keep it in the fridge so that it doesn’t need to be tended to every day. I aim for 3 feedings a week, but some weeks I only feed it once. I’ve never had to add more yeast to it.

Third, I observe (look, sniff, touch) my ingredients, it takes only moments to see that my sourdough starter is too thick (add extra water at next feeding time), or too runny (add extra flour and sugar at next feeding time), or has been neglected too long and has separated or it isn’t bubbly anymore (add a touch more sugar and yeast).

My origin sourdough starter recipe:

• 1 cup warm water +1 cup sugar+1 Tablespoon active yeast. Stir together and let it sit till it bubbles, then stir in 1 cup white flour.
• I keep this in a very large canning jar in the door of my fridge. I aim to shake it daily and add a half cup more flour and water to it every other day (some weeks it is only once a week that I feed it). I only add more sugar (half cup) on days when I am taking half the sourdough starter away to make bread. I’ve never had to add more yeast because as long as the sourdough bubbles, there is enough yeast in there.
• If I can keep this starter  alive and thriving, then this starter could live for decades, impressively reducing the amount of yeast I need to buy and use to make bread.
• The night before I want to make bread with it, I take the starter out of the fridge, add a half cup flour, water and sugar to it and stir it well. Let it sit overnight to warm up before expecting it to raise my bread dough.
• As indicated in a recipe below, sometimes on feeding days I like to take half of the sourdough out before feeding it, and make delicious sourdough pancakes. While I cook the pancakes, I add 1 cup flour and water to the sourdough and mix it in before placing it back into the fridge. Pancake batter does not need to be brought up to room temp first before using.

Bread:

The starter has sat out of the fridge long enough to come to room temperature. I pour half of it into my dough bowl, place the rest of the jar back in the fridge. While I am pouring it, I am examining it’s texture: It is usually perfect, but sometimes it is too thick (add 1/4 cup milk or 2 fluffy beaten eggs to the dough) or not bubbly enough (add 3 Tablespoons sugar and 1 Tablespoon yeast soaked in 1/4 cup warm water to the dough).

I sprinkle 2 cups of flour on the sourdough and knead that in. Sometimes the starter needs more or less flour to feel doughy and kneadable, so add the flour a half cup at a time until the texture feels right. I let it sit for ten minutes, then examine it again. Do not over-knead. We just want all the wet things to have touched the flour, and all the dry things to have touched moisture. We just want a smooth ball.

Lately at this stage I add 3 Tablespoons (or more) Cinnamon powder, 1 teaspoon Nutmeg, and 1 cup (or more) of raisins and knead them in JUST until most of the raisins have married with the dough. This step is entirely optional, I just really enjoy raisin bread.

Then I drizzle about a 1/4 cup of olive oil over top and gently smooth that all over the surface of my ball of dough.

Cover with a clean tea towel and let it sit in a warm place where the dough can rise for at least 2 hours.

After a few hours, I turn on the oven in order to preheat it to 350. While the oven heats, I oil my bread pan and then I check on my dough. I punch it down and then form it into a ball again, place it in the pan, smooth another teaspoon or two of olive oil or butter on top and then cover it with the tea towel, and leave it sitting on the stove top for at least 20 minutes while the oven heats up. It will rise a bit more.

Sourdough Starter for bread and pancakes: (scroll further down for the friendship cake version)

• 1 cup Lukewarm Water
• 1 cup White Flour
• Stir them together with wooden chopsticks and let it sit overnight.

Caution: DO NOT USE STEEL/METAL on your sourdough starter. Metal does not allow the important little bio-beings to survive. Use plastic, or wood, or glass, or pottery.

Next day, and every day hereafter:

• Divide the starter in half
• In a fresh pot stir 1 cup flour and 1 cup water with wooden chopsticks
• Add half of the old starter
• Set aside overnight

To make pancakes with the disposable bit of starter…

• In the old pot stir:
• The remaining half of the starter
• 1 egg per person
• ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
• ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoon Salt

Fry in hot butter and serve with Maple Syrup or Raspberry Jam

Easy Sourdough Bread

Makes one loaf of either type of bread ~ Preheat oven to 400F

Soak for ten minutes until it froths:

• 1 Tablespoon Yeast
• 1 cup Warm (not hot – 80F) Water

Stir dry ingredients together:

Mix wet ingredients together

• Let the dough rise in a covered bowl for around 3 hours in a warm, not drafty place.
• Stir the dough every hour or so.
• Place loaves in bread pans coated in sunflower oil and let rise while the oven heats up
• Bake for 25 minutes

SOURDOUGH Starter FOR CAKE and for sharing as Friendship cake:

Back when I was a young mom, we’d occasionally pass this to each other in the form of a special gift. We’d give our friend a baked cake – often still warm!, a pot of the sourdough starter day one, a list of the day to day directions, and a copy of the recipe for the cake.

Making the original starter:

• Dissolve 1 teaspoon yeast in 3 teaspoons warm water.
• Let it sit for ten minutes
• Stir.
• Add 8 teaspoons flour and 1/4 cup sugar.
• Slowly stir in 1/4 cup warm milk.

Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and let sit for 24 hours. This is your starter starter.

• Day 2: stir
• Day 3: stir
• Day 4: stir
• Day 5: Add 1 cup milk, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour. Stir, it might look lumpy and that’s ok.
• Day 6: stir
• Day 7: stir
• Day 8: stir
• Day 9: stir
• Day 10: Add 1 cup milk, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour. Stir.

Divide this base into 3 parts. Set one aside for your next starter. Pack one up to give to a friend along with day by day instructions. Use one part to make the following delicious coffee cake.

SOURDOUGH CAKE

Do not use electric mixer.

• 1 cup oil
• 2/3 cup brandy
• 6 eggs
• 4 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 teaspoons vanilla
• 4 chopped apples
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 5 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons baking powder

Beat eggs

Add oil and stir

Pour in one part of the sourdough starter (remember in the last recipe you divided your ten day old starter into three parts? Use one of those parts.)

Add sugar and stir.

Sift the dry ingredients together and then add to the recipe and stir.

Fold in brandy, vanilla and apples.

Optional: also add a cup of raisins or walnuts.

Pour into 2 greased loaf pans and then bake at 350 degrees F for 40-50 minutes.