My Sourdough Starter--March 2014

A few weeks ago, after I had amassed hours of research on sourdough bread starters, it was time to get to business.   So what is starter?  Have you ever gotten a friend to give you a baggie of "stuff" to make Amish Friendship Bread?  Well, that is a starter.  It is a leavening agent to help rise bread.  In the recipes I am going to make, it is a substitute for yeast.  The starter I am going to try, includes three ingredients:  non-fat milk, all-purpose flour and yogurt (which is not used in many recipes).   I liked adding the yogurt as I felt it would bring some good bacteria to the mix--more than is commonly found in my house.  Many of the starters used water instead of milk, but, I thought I would get better flavor from the milk based starters.

The first fragile days of the starter's life

You can see (maybe) a layer of clear fluid and lots of gas bubbles
--this is how the starter looks after a feeding

Sunset Sourdough Starter, 1998

1 cup non-fat or low-fat milk

1 cup all purpose flour

3 T plain yogurt (I used plain, non-fat Greek)

1.  For best results, use fresh, just opened milk and yogurt.  Warm milk to 90-100 degrees.  Stir in yogurt.

2.  Pour into a warm 3-6 cup container (plastic, glass, ceramic or stainless steel) with an airtight lid.  I used a freezer quality ziploc bag.  

3.  Cover and let stand in a warm (80 -90 degree) place until it has the consistency of yogurt--18 - 24 hours.  The mixture should be thick, so it won't flow readily when the container is tilted.  A single clot may form or smaller curds may be suspended in clear liquid.  Stir to mix in any liquid.  If it turns bright pink, discard and start over.  

4.  Once a clot forms, add flour and stir until smooth.  Cover airtight and let starter stand in a warm place until it is full of bubbles and has a pleasing sour smell, 3-5 days.  Again, if a clear liquid forms, stir to blend.  IF liquid turns pink, discard and start over.  To store cover airtight and refrigerate.  

SO, I misread the instructions and added all three ingredients at step #1.  Oops!  Seeing as I had already screwed up, I just went with.  There wasn't much to lose if I messed up, right?  But, guess what--it all worked out.  I let it sit for the first day in the ziploc baggie.  On the second day I checked it, and yes it was thick like yogurt.  I didn't "smoosh" it that day. But the next day it had that clear layer...and bubbles, so I smooshed it.  For the next week and a half, I smooshed it anytime I saw the layer of liquid.  Except for the two days I was out of town and forgot about the starter.  Bad Momma!    

After mixing in the clear liquid, the starter immediately
starts feeding again.  New bubbles form right away--its alive!!!

To maintain the starter, feed each one cup of starter,  1 cup each flour and warm milk, stirring well.  (I forgot to warm the milk the last couple of times, with no problem!)  

To increase the starter supply, say you want to make bread, you can add as much as 10 cups each flour and milk/water.  Then let it stand up to two days--waiting for the clear liquid to form again.  

To store, refrigerate in an airtight container.

To use, bring it to room temperature.  You can speed this up by setting the container in warm water.

At the three week point, I knew I had a good viable starter.  When I open the bag, it smells wonderful--kind of tart and tangy.  I wanted to try something easy, so I made some apple pecan muffins.  When those turned out, and I wasn't too worried as the recipe had baking soda in it too, I was ready to try some real bread...oh, and pizza dough!  And down the road, french bread and bagels, too!  LOL  Lots to play with.

Pumpkin Pecan Muffins, ready to go in the oven.

  

Baked and ready to go with Rod's morning coffee!

Adapted from Sourdoughhome.com Blueberry Muffins
1 Egg
1/4 tsp Salt (I leave this out)
1 c Sourdough Starter
1 t baking soda
1/2 cup blueberries  (I used apples the first time, pumpkin the next time)
1 t vanilla
1/4 cup oil (I used vegetable oil that I was trying to use up)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 c sugar
1/4 cup chopped nuts (my addition)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Prepare muffin cups--remember to spray if you don't use liners.  I use silicone, regular sized liners.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.  Stir in blueberries.  Combine wet ingredients in another larger bowl.  Add dry ingredients to wet ones--don't overwork the batter.  Spoon immediately into cups--I filled them about 3/4+ full and made 12 muffins.  Bake 20 minutes.

These were delicious and not too sweet, but the whole wheat flour made them denser with a grainy crumb! The changes I made to the recipe were keepers, but,  I wonder if the texture would have been more muffin like with a starter made with all-purpose flour instead of the whole wheat I usually use.  So that begs the question, do I need to have a whole wheat starter and an all purpose starter?

Next time I talk about the starter I will give you the recipes for the pizza crust and whole wheat bread.