Thursday, June 9, 2011

My 1st Sourdough Starter {Try New Adventures Thursday!}

When morning sickness hit me full blown back at week 6, I mentioned to a friend that I was putting bread-baking on hold for awhile. When she heard that, she kindly lent me her bread machine.

The Best Bread Machine Cookbook Ever, Cook Book - Deli & Basic Sandwich Breads, A Bread for Every Season, Whole Grains, Multi-Grain & Salt-Free Breads and More - Hardcover-Spiral - First Edition, 5th Printing 1993 (. . . . Holiday, Celebration & Gift Breads - Breads with an International Flavor - Shaped Breads from Machine Dough)At first I was unsure about trying to adapt my favorite bread recipe for the bread machine--but then I remembered that I recently bought The Best Bread Machine Cookbook Ever. Sweet! Time to try some new recipes out...

The recipes that appealed to me most in the book were versions of sourdough bread, something I've never attempted before, because I've always been lacking a starter.

But no more! 3 days ago, I started my very first sourdough starter. It took about 2 minutes.

According to the directions in the bread machine cookbook, you simply combine 1 cup of flour with 1 cup of water and a pinch of yeast. Stir it, and then leave alone for a week, unrefrigerated. Then it's ready to be used!

Here's my starter on day one (I leave it covered with a clean kitchen towel):
Sourdough starter

And now on day 3:
Starter, day 3

I've done a little reading now on sourdough starters, and apparently you can make it with only flour and water. There are ALL KINDS of resources out there to help you make sourdough bread and nurture your starter. For now, I'm just going to follow the super instructions in my cookbook and see what happens.

Have you successfully made sourdough bread before?

If you're looking for more info, check out Kitchen Stewardship and Keeper of the Home's posts on sourdough bread. These ladies have you covered!
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Your turn! Link up your adventurous post below, link back to Alicia's Homemaking, and then visit the other participants and leave some lovely, encouraging comments. Our twitter hashtag is #TryNewAdventures.





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13 comments:

  1. I love sourdough bread! In fact, I've never made yeast bread. My mom taught me how to make sourdough and I find it so easy and delicious that I haven't learned yeast bread (yet). I made my current starter with just flour (whole wheat) and water. It really is that easy! I love the versatility of sourdough bread. I used to measure the water temperature with a candy thermometer, meticulously pour out my oil and honey, and make sure everything was just right. Now I estimate, eyeball, and generally have a blast making bread because I've learned that sourdough is very forgiving (at least the recipes I use!) and, more importantly, my family and I are forgiving. If it turns out more sour, denser, or less sweet some batches, no one around here minds. And I love that I'm making whole-wheat, organic bread with only 5 ingredients. That way I know it's healthy. :)

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  2. That seems so much easier than I expected! I will have to give this a try now.

    Are you feeling better? Has the morning sickness lightened up?

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  3. I usually stop making bread for the summer, but this looks wonderful. Thanks for the Links!

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  4. This seems like something even I could do! I tried making a 24-hour starter 3-4 years ago. It made a huge mess all over my counter overnight every time, so I gave up. (The recipe said to use a heating pad to grow the starter quickly. I think it was a little too quick!) I may have to try this!

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  5. I LOVE baking my own bread, but I've never made sourdough bread. I have seen Kitchen Stewardship's instructions on how to make it. Maybe I should try make a starter this week.

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  6. Sourdough bread has always seemed impossible for me to try making. Since no one in my family likes sourdough bread, I have yet any need to make it (whew!). LOL!
    You sound like you are feeling much better, praise the Lord!
    I still have a hard time making comment here using my blog URL (Our Lives) so I will be "anonymous" until whatever happened stops happening. :)

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  7. Yea for a bread machine AND the best cookbook ever! I can NOT believe making a starter is that easy I might just have to try this. Though I'm a little intimidated after ruining the pizza crust recipe. But, this looks easier. Hope the bread baking means you're feeling better!

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  8. Can't wait to see how this turns out. I have never made bread before, and plus my mom gets a ton of bread/buns/rolls from her workplace (from the union), but it would be nice to try different kinds. I love sourdough too.

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  9. I too just started making sourdough bread! I had a friend give me some of her sourdough starter to use. She made it COMPLETELY different than I plan on making it. She used dried potato flakes and sugar. I want to use just whole wheat flour and water. So I experimented and tried converting the starter to just whole wheat. It worked wonderfully and the bread was very yummy. It lacked a little in the rising category, but I think over time it will get better. Will make another batch this weekend. It's so fun! Look forward to seeing how yours works out!

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  10. That's awesome! I can't wait to see how it bakes up. I bet it'll be good :) I actually have only baked one loaf of gluten free bread and that turned out surprisingly well. I would like to get a bread machine again and maybe start baking some more. I love sourdough bread!

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  11. I love sourdough! Thanks for the info.
    And thanks for hosting!!
    x Marnie

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  12. Exciting! I have always wanted to dabble in bread-making, but would have to do it by hand as well. A bread machine sounds amazing! Excited to hear about your adventures with it!

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  13. I really like sour dough bread and when we lived in California we would go to San Francisco to Boudins to get sour dough bread. What is so cool is that they still make their bread everyday with some of the same starter that they started with back in the 1800's !! I think that is so awesome. I am really impressed that you made your own!

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