Between Craft Shows and sewing it seems I am spinning in circles. It has been a wish of mine to make real home started sourdough with no packaged yeast. Just the water and flour. It has finally happened. Tuesday was the first time I felt it was stable enough to use. So I carefully followed all of the instructions for bread using just my own homemade starter and after hours and hours my rolls were in the oven. ..... I went back to my sewing room, i had been working on several things in there all day. BIG NO-NO. I forgot I was cooking. One hundred and five (105) minutes later as I walked up the hall, The aroma hit me. Fresh bread! Oh man, so disappointed in myself. It did not burn, it dried. Like pottery. Fortunately as I was making the starter instead of throwing away the excess I kept one other starter, so I could give some away. It is so simple if anyone wants to do it. Here is what you have to do.
One cup warm water to one cup of flour. Stir it up well, cover and set on top the refrigerator (preferably in glass container) until it gets all bubbly and smells yeasty (24 hours). If it isn't bubbly just wait. According to everything I have read it can happen in 12 to 36 hours. I have a starter friendly climate and mine did well. After it is bubbly feed it 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of warm water. Wait again until it is bubbly. You might have water on top, that is fine (called hooch) just pour it off or stir it in. I kept mine. Now the next time it bubbles divide it in half. Throw half away and feed the other 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup warm water. Instead of throwing mine away - I made another starter.
After you have done this several times and it is obviously a good healthy starter it is time to feed it again then putting it in the refrigerator. Feed it once a week with 1/2 C f;our and 1/2 C water. Throwing 1/2 away before feeding.
To make your bread take the starter out and feed it 1 C flour and 1 C water let it sit on the counter until it is bubbly all the way through to the bottom. This is called a sponge. Make sure it is bubbly on the bottom too, it will look like a slow boiling cream soup or something. (you won't see it boiling, it just looks like it has been) After the sponge is ready take 2 C of it and put in a bowl with 2 T soft butter 2 t salt and 5 t sugar, mix it up and start adding flour until you have a soft dough. Mine has taken anywhere from 2 to 4 Cs. Not sure why such a difference. Just use the dough consistency to get the proper amount, not the recipe. Barely dry enough to be able to knead. Knead for about 10 minutes.or until a finger hole poked in pops right back out. Let sit until it doubles in size. Punch it down, shape into a loaf and let rize again. Sourdough start with no added yeast takes longer to rise. A LOT longer to rise. Best to start in the morning or let the last rising rise overnight.
My best advice is to not sew once you pop it in the oven.
Enjoy!
