Sourdough Part 2

Hopefully yesterday’s post has given you the confidence to give homegrown sourdough culture a try.  I tried raising sourdough on my own before but wasn’t confident enough to stick with it until a dear friend gave me some of her sourdough culture that had been in her family for decades along with a batch of recipes.  She was so generous that I want to extend the favor. 

Feeding the sourdough (the good kind – if you want just water and flour starter, google it!):  add 1 cup milk, 1 cup flour, and 1/3 cup sugar. 

How often, you ask?  If keeping it on the counter – daily.  If keeping it in the refrigerator – weekly.  Now, you may recall that yesterday I said you can keep it in the fridge for up to 6 months without feeding it.  This is true, but you do not want to consume it immediately after an extended period of stagnation, without first feeding it for a few days straight to freshen it up.  It will not taste good, and your belly will hurt.

My favorite website for sourdough bread recipes is sourdoughhome.com.  You cannot not rush the rising times.  They seem very long, but that is the nature of good sourdough.  Be patient.  It will be overly dense and won’t rise well if you rush it.  The sourdough culture must have time to work its way through the entire dough. 

The above website doesn’t have recipes for cinnamon rolls, pancakes, and muffins.  Basically, for those, you can throw a cup or so of sourdough starter into your favorite recipe while adjusting the other ingredients to maintain the right consistency for the added probiotic benefit and flavor of sourdough.