Did you know that there's wild yeast in the air? It's the very same yeast that causes bread to rise. These wild yeast are regional, too. The widely-known tang of San Francisco's sourdough bread is different from a sourdough made in New York or France.
Upon researching sourdough starter, I learned that there are a good many recipes to try--where to begin? My frugal nature says to use small measurements to avoid too much waste (and there is a great deal of waste when making a sourdough starter), and the only recipe I found that accommodates was at Petite Kitchen.
Here's what I've done today:
I mixed together 2 tablespoons pineapple puree* with 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (because that's what I have). It went into a cleaned-out cheapo parmesan cheese container with the lid screwed on and the top popped open. It's sitting on my kitchen counter with a rubber band around the top level of the dough for scientific examination. :)
*A friend of mine works at a job where she cuts fruit and, as a result, all the off-sized pieces either go in the trash or are taken home by the kitchen staff. I obtained 1/2 cup of fresh pineapple from her and pureed it with 2 tablespoons of cold water to use for this experiment. The remaining puree is covered in the refrigerator for future use.
You can expect to see a daily starter status update, good or bad, success or fail.
Upon researching sourdough starter, I learned that there are a good many recipes to try--where to begin? My frugal nature says to use small measurements to avoid too much waste (and there is a great deal of waste when making a sourdough starter), and the only recipe I found that accommodates was at Petite Kitchen.
Here's what I've done today:
I mixed together 2 tablespoons pineapple puree* with 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (because that's what I have). It went into a cleaned-out cheapo parmesan cheese container with the lid screwed on and the top popped open. It's sitting on my kitchen counter with a rubber band around the top level of the dough for scientific examination. :)
*A friend of mine works at a job where she cuts fruit and, as a result, all the off-sized pieces either go in the trash or are taken home by the kitchen staff. I obtained 1/2 cup of fresh pineapple from her and pureed it with 2 tablespoons of cold water to use for this experiment. The remaining puree is covered in the refrigerator for future use.
You can expect to see a daily starter status update, good or bad, success or fail.
Have you ever made your own sourdough starter? Do you have any suggestions or tips to offer?
6 comments:
I made mary the breadchick's starter. I made pancakes once with it and they were good, but currently that starter is sitting in the back of my fridge.
I've never had any luck with sourdough, I will be very interested to here how you get on. Hopefully better than I did!
Mary--I'd love to see the Bread Chick's starter. There seems to be some transition on her blog right now. Do you have the recipe elsewhere?
Sam--So far the starter smells a little beer-like, after only 24 hours! I hope that means it's working.
I'm glad to see you're giving this starter a try. Though I can't take credit for the recipe, it certainly has worked very well for me. Give it plenty of time to get going, it can a while, depending on the environment. Let me know how it goes.
It seems like most of her photos aren't coming up, but she blogged several days on it in March. There are photos on her March 27th post that look like Luc (yes I gave my starter a wierd French name). The starter recipe is March 21st. I can't seem to get the permalink but it's at http://www.breadchick.com
Hello, petitekitchen. My little experiment is going very well still--I now have big bubbles happenin' and a stronger yeast smell! Whoo-hoo!
Mary--thanks for pointing me in the right direction! I LOVE that you named your starter. Luc--it reminds me of the movie French Kiss.
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