Monday, February 25, 2008

[Bread] Sourdough recipe, using starter

Simple recipe, assuming you have a starter. If not, it's fairly easy to make your own - but if you ask around, odds are that someone you know is already keeping one alive, and (trust me) is more than happy to share. I'll credit the person who sent me this, if he sees this. ;)

I feed the starter with 3/4 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 2 tbsp potato flakes, and one cup warm water. Then I leave it out on the counter for 8 hrs. It gets all foamy or frothy. (If it's cold, put it in the oven with the oven light on)
When I'm ready to mix up the bread, I stir the starter with a wisk. And then pour one cup starter into my mixing bowl. Then I add 1/3 cup veg oil, 1 tbsp salt, 3/4 cups sugar, and 1.5 cups of warm water...stir that up with the wisk. Then I add 6 cups flour and mix it all together by hand. May have to add a bit more water or flour to get right consistency...but not too much more.
Once all is mixed into a lump of dough I cover the bowl with saran-wrap and then put it in the oven(with light on) to rise the first time for 8 hrs. Once that has risen I take it out and make 2 or 3 loaves and put those in loaf pans that have been sprayed with crisco for baking...Then I put the panned loaves in the oven(with light on) to rise the second time. The second rise may be 4-6 hrs depending. Lastly, I take the loaves out and set the oven for 350 degrees. Bake the loaves for 20-30 minutes. Use a bamboo screwer to poke in the bread to see if it is cooked through.

The way I do it, we feed it Friday night, make dough Saturday morning, make loaves Saturday evening, then bake Sunday morning. Even if they rise too much, don't worry - when we did it, they didn't rise any further in the oven.

No comments: