Bread making/baking can be therapeutic AND delicious!
Thanks to Aunt Sylvia, my interest in bread-baking began about the age of 9. I decided recently to jump back in to sour dough baking. I have had several sourdough starters over the years—from a generations old starter shared by a friend when I lived in Oregon to sour dough starter flakes (dehydrated sour dough starter) to several made-from-scratch sour dough starters, most recently I started a new starter last Friday. It is almost ready to use—first will be pancakes!
You will quickly find that, if you do any research on sour dough starters, no two are alike. They vary slightly in ingredients, mixing, storage, feeding and use. Feeding?? Yes, like a pet, you have to care for your sour dough starter. Initially, a few minutes daily. Once the starter is established (ready to use) weekly care (unlike your pets) is sufficient. Plan to use your starter at least once every 7-14 days.
Making sourdough bread (or pancakes, bagels, English Muffins, scones, etc.) not only conserves ingredients, but adds a wonderful flavor & texture to bread products.
Once you commit to using and caring for a sour dough starter, you’ll need a starter recipe. I will provide the recipe that I used most recently. https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/8392/sourdough-starter/ (I use a 6-cup mason-like jar with a plastic screw-top lid,)
INGREDIENTS:
1 package active (2 ½ Tbsp) active dry yeast
2 cups warm water
2 cup flour
In large non-metallic bowl, mix together dry yeast, 2 cups warm water, and 2 cups all-purpose flour and cover loosely.
Leave in a warm place to ferment, 4 to 8 days. Depending on temperature and humidity of kitchen, times may vary. Store in an over-sized non-metallic container and/or place sour dough container in a refrigerator storage container in case of overflow (mine ALWAYS overflow). Check on occasionally.
When mixture is bubbly and has a pleasant sour smell, it is ready to use. If mixture has a pink, orange, or any other strange color tinge to it, THROW IT OUT and start over. Keep it in the refrigerator, covered until ready to bake.
When
you use starter to bake, always replace with equal amounts of a flour and
water mixture with a pinch of sugar. So, if you remove 1 cup starter, replace
with 1 cup water and 1 cup flour. Mix well and leave out on the counter until
bubbly again, then refrigerate. If a clear to light brown liquid has
accumulated on top, don't worry, this is an alcohol based liquid that occurs
with fermentation. Just stir this back into the starter; the alcohol bakes off
One BIG thing missing in this recipe is the initial “feeding” process—daily feeding in the first 6-10 days (before you actually start using the starter for bread products). Each day, remove 1/3-1/2 cup of starter (discard in trash, not the sink—it is basically glue at this point) at the same time, replenish your starter jar with ½ cup flour and ½ cup warm (not hot) water. Mix with wooden or silicone spoon/spatula (no metal utensils) until mostly smooth, combine all, stir, cover. Do this once daily until you use the starter. Once you are using the starter, follow the recipe directions, paying attention to the color of the liquid in your starter (pink/orange (mold)—throw it out; brown/tan liquid—OK—stir to combine all (that is the fermentation process.)
I have included some additional links to interesting articles/information about sour dough. How often do you have food products that behave like sour dough? It is an interesting (and tasty) journey—ENJOY!
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| Sour Dough Pancake Batter |
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| Sour Dough English Muffins |
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| Overnight Sour Dough Biscuits |
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| Sour Dough Italian Bread |
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/voraciously/wp/2020/03/18/now-is-the-ideal-time-to-learn-to-make-sourdough-bread-heres-how/
https://qz.com/1823971/how-to-bake-bread-using-a-sourdough-starter/