Sourdough Bread

I did it! I made my own yeast-free sourdough starter, and baked my first sourdough recipes, Buttery Sourdough Buns and Rustic Sourdough Bread. Both recipes were from King Arthur Flour. They both had a very fine texture and flavor, and were very moist.  I decided to make four small loaves of bread instead of two larger ones to suit our needs better. My next adventure will be using the unfed starter to make cinnamon rolls.

Buttery Sourdough Buns

Rustic Sourdough Bread

 Here is my annotated version of the King Arthur Flour directions for sourdough. Our house is very cold, so I had to set the starter bowl into another bowl of hot water and then store them both in the microwave - not running, of course.  

Sourdough Starter

Day 1. Combine scant cup of whole wheat or rye flour with ½ cup lukewarm, non-chlorinated water. Cover loosely. Let sit for 24 hours in a warm place (70 degrees).

Day 2. Stir down the starter. Discard half or use for another purpose. To the remaining half add a scant cup of unbleached white flour and ½ cup water.

Days 3, 4 and 5 or until starter is working sufficiently. Twice a day, as close to 12 hours apart as possible, Stir down the starter. Remove a generous ½ cup of starter and discard or use for another purpose. Add a cup of flour and ½ cup of water to the remaining starter and stir well.

Using starter

When starter is doubling every 6-8 hours it is ready to use. Pour off all but ½ cup of starter. Feed the starter 1 cup of flour and ½ cup of water. Let rest for eight hours. Take out what you need for the recipe, no more than a cup, and store the remaining starter in a glass container in the refrigerator until you are ready to start feeding it again. Feed the refrigerated starter once a week with the cup of flour and ½ cup of water, leaving it out of the refrigerator for two hours to warm up and start working, then returning it to the refrigerator.

Using refrigerated starter

Remove from refrigerator. Pour off or stir in any liquid which is on top of the starter. For half a cup of starter, add a scant cup of four and ½ cup of lukewarm water. Mix until smooth. Cover loosely and let rest for 12 hours. Feed again every 12 hours until starter is doubling or tripling in 6-8 hours.

Here are the links to their original directions:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2012/04/05/creating-your-own-sourdough-starter-the-path-to-great-bread/

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2012/04/08/maintaining-your-sourdough-starter-food-water-and-time/

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/buttery-sourdough-buns-recipe

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/rustic-sourdough-bread-recipe