Sourdough Starter

[roosmom]

I posted the changes I made in my journal. But here is the second try....worked out good. Here also is the recipe.

and here is my first two loaves of SD bread. I will not do the crust like this again. It is to crusty for me. But It tastes good.
I let the starter sit on the counter under the lights an extra day. The recipe pages overlap.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Oooooohhhh, those look beautiful! I'm jealous.

 

[miss_thenorth]

I tried the sourdough starter that just had flour and water. it didn't work. I might consider using the recipe with yeast, but my kitchen is not warm enough anymore ( or at least consistently) to get a starter growing, so I guess I will wait till spring.

I really want to get a culture growing.

 

[roosmom]

I tried the sourdough starter that just had flour and water. it didn't work. I might consider using the recipe with yeast, but my kitchen is not warm enough anymore ( or at least consistently) to get a starter growing, so I guess I will wait till spring.

I really want to get a culture growing.

Miss_thenorth, When I tried the first batch it didnt work for me either, and that is the recipe I posted on here with yeast. The second time, same recipe and it worked.
I have under the counter strip lights, they throw off quite a bit of heat. If you glance at my journal on the third ? page I show pics of what I did. I wondered (doing this the second time) what a person could use if they didnt have the lights. Maybe a metal pan with a metal bowl and lid, sitting on top of your crockpot turned way down low? Just a thought.

Thank you Drakemaiden. They taste good too. Notice at the bottom of the recipe it says you can put yogurt, or beer or butter milk in it? YUMMY I am going to try the beer.

 

[miss_thenorth]

I tried the sourdough starter that just had flour and water. it didn't work. I might consider using the recipe with yeast, but my kitchen is not warm enough anymore ( or at least consistently) to get a starter growing, so I guess I will wait till spring.

I really want to get a culture growing.

Miss_thenorth, When I tried the first batch it didnt work for me either, and that is the recipe I posted on here with yeast. The second time, same recipe and it worked.
I have under the counter strip lights, they throw off quite a bit of heat. If you glance at my journal on the third ? page I show pics of what I did. I wondered (doing this the second time) what a person could use if they didnt have the lights. Maybe a metal pan with a metal bowl and lid, sitting on top of your crockpot turned way down low? Just a thought.

I put mine on top of my fridge. There is a small gap between it and the cupboard above, and there is always heat coming from the fridge. I figured if it was gonna work anywhere, it would have worked there. Right now my house is about 67-68F and I figured even on top of the fridge it won't be warm enough. I am not giving up on this, but I do feel I have to wait until the house temp is warmer.

 

[roosmom]

AT the risk of you getting mad at me for not dropping it...I have an idea.
So if you put the bowl on top of the fridge, you put it over the gap right? Take a box and cut it so it forms sides and a top over the bowl. That way you are keeping the heat in just a little longer. I used meat thermometer to check my temp, lol.

 

[Cassandra]

I have a jar of sourdough in my frige that is probably a year old. I got it from that ozark trail (or something like that) website. If you send them a SASE, they will send you some dry powder starter that you mix with water and flour. You start out by adding a little bit (tablespoons) of water and flour in equal amounts. Then increase the amount of water & flour you add as the days pass--feeding it once a day.

The directions I had were not very clear to me, so ended up making some judgment calls that turned out to work in my favor. One, it didn't specify what kind of flour. I know when it doesn't specify, that it usually means plain. I didn't have any plain flour though, so I used self-rising flour. That's probably the only thing that saved me. LOL

By the way, I store mine in a quart mason jar. It has a dish rag over the top that's held in place by a jar ring. I also don't have a very warm place in my kitchen, so I just didn't worry about it. I figured either it will work, or it won't. It didn't seem to have a problem with the 70-ish degrees.

The other thing I didn't see was all the doubling and growing. Mine never did that. I thought I had failed. Then, maybe after the forth day or so of starting it, I fed it (I think 1 cup of warm water, 1 cup of self rising flour.) I stirred it vigorously with the handle of a wooden spoon, and it just started bubbling! I would stir and stop. As soon as I stopped, bubbles would rise to the top.

Once that happened, I assumed it was alive.

I use it just every once in a while. Each time I take it out of the fridge it has an inch or so layer of discolored liquid on top. (sickly gray colored, actually) This is normal. You can stir it back in or pour it off. I keep probably half to a cup of starter in the frige. Then when I need it I add 1 cup of warm water & 1 cup of self-rising flour and stir it. It comes right back to life.

Sometimes I take some out for pancakes or waffles. Not really baking cause my oven doesn't work right now. But it's still kickin'. I think it's a lot like me. It doesn't want to be fussed over much.

Cassandra

 

[miss_thenorth]

AT the risk of you getting mad at me for not dropping it...I have an idea.
So if you put the bowl on top of the fridge, you put it over the gap right? Take a box and cut it so it forms sides and a top over the bowl. That way you are keeping the heat in just a little longer. I used meat thermometer to check my temp, lol.

Lol, not getting mad here any time soon. I think I would have to check the consistent temp above the fridge for a few days to make sure we are even in the ball park. Too bad you couldn't just send me some of your starter. they'd probably have a field day with it at the border . Did you actually stick the meat thermometer IN the starter?

 

[tfpets]

Oh this is so yummy, I think I accidently grew sourdough starter on top of the fridge, thats where i keep the bread Oh, that would be something else, wouldnt it?

I am going to do this though, I really am. I am already a Queen of Eats in my home. Can you imagine this winter if I whipped out homemade Sourdough Pancakes?

I tried once and just retched when i stirred the starter... I was certain I was gonna kill us....but sourdough is my absolute favorite! Are you sure this is safe? I really really wanna do it.

We dont heat the house here, it stays warm enough for us most of the time, so it would HAVE to be on top of the fridge, unless the pilot light in the oven gets warm enough? Then again, its 80 degrees outside today.

I may get the stuff in town and try again. Have to go down for rice, essential oil, feed, etc....

I need to do something with 20 pounds of flour I bought, I was gonna put it on the ground to identify a predator in September, then we caught the skunk! Didnt need the flour any more!!
Thanks, your bread is Beautiful! You do such neat stuff!
Tina

 

[DrakeMaiden]

miss_thenorth -- copy that (I wanted to start sourdough starter at the end of summer but didn't because of the same cold house issue), but I just thought of something. If you were determined to put the effort in you could use a cooler and rotate jars of boiled water in once a day -- I'm assuming in the morning to keep it warm until you warm the house more at night??? OR . . . another thought just came to mind, you could use a homemade incubator (just a light bulb in the roof of a little styrofoam cooler). If you went that route, you'd want to use a recipe with yeast added, because you won't catch any bugs that are floating around in the air, like with the traditional sourdough starter.

roosmom -- yummy! Can I come over for some bread? What are you going to serve with it?