{I made this bread with the starter I began a couple of weeks ago. If I can do it, so can you!}
My onions and garlic are in the pantry, along with some things going in the dehydrator, and the canner is out!
I was stashing my jungle harvest (note to self: yes those little plants will get out of control, when will you learn that they laugh your flimsy stakes to scorn) in the freezer. I amassed about 30 lbs (filling my 20 qt.pot with enough left over for a big tray of oven roasted tomatoes) and finally got to work yesterday!
The ziplocks can be re-used for sure! They just have to dry out. Which is good, because I am hopeful there are more tomatoes to come!
Sourdough Corner
I'll put the chitchat at the end — let's get you started with… starter! By the way, if you have starter but don't love it, maybe just start again. It takes about a week in this weather!
No Discard Starter.
While it's fermenting, which should take about a week or so, maybe you can help me figure out the best way to present this tutorial. I realized this week as I was mentally preparing for the Great Sourdough Starting Tutorial that I need help figuring out how to manage this part of the content!
Maybe I should do it on Substack? I have started a new one called The School for Housewives. I will start posting just the actual method over there, in case you don't want the whole week's worth as I have it here. We'll see how it goes…
Week 1: This is going to be very easy and you should be confident. You will literally mix a little flour with a little water and leave it in a warm place.
You need a pint jar with a wide mouth and a lid and later, a quart jar. I used a mason jar but any more or less straight-sided jar will work. If you have one that is rather narrow and tall (I didn't), that will work best at first to be able to observe any bubbly activity, but a normal jar from the recycling is also fine.
You will eventually need bread flour (BF) so put that on the list if you don't have any. You will really want good quality rye flour, because any starter or dough sluggishness at any point in your process will be remedied with rye flour, as it has nutrients not found elsewhere. You will also want some whole wheat flour (WW) because your bread will be healthier with it. I actually mill my own and we will get to that, but when buying it, check the expiration date and try to buy it where it doesn't sit on the shelf for long.
Keep any whole grain flours in the freezer. They get an off flavor very quickly, which is one reason people think they don't like anything but white flour bread. I put the bag in a ziplock before freezing (either decant or not, up to you).
I recommend getting the best flour you can (often the store brand is from one of the good companies — depends on the store). I use King Arthur for my bread flour (I get it at the restaurant supply store where it's called Sir Lancelot, not bread flour). If you can find flour more locally milled, go for it! We'll get into milling your own at another time. At least, do not get bleached flour! Making your own is so much cheaper than buying it, so go for good flour.
Two gadgets I really do use all the time: this thermometer is similar to mine; and a kitchen scale that displays weights in English and metric and can easily be zeroed out (tared) and has a display you can read even when there's a bowl on it. This is similar to the one I have. It's great other than the part about being able to read it when it has a big bowl on it, but it's fine — and I've had it now for 14 years! I certainly didn't pay $67 for it. You'll find one that works well for you and I'll try to get a recommendation for one that is reasonably priced. These are affiliate links! You support me just a little when you order within 24 hours, using a tab you open from these links!
These directions are going to be like reading a knitting pattern.
Pay attention to the abbreviations (look back up here if you need to) and you'll get it.
I'm pretty sure that after this post, the directions will be more succinct! I hope so!
Three teaspoons (tsp) = 1 tablespoon (T)
Where I have said BF I have often used a small proportion of rye and/or whole wheat flour in place of some of it, for instance, 1 T of rye and 7 T of BF to equal 8 T of flour. But for ease of reading, I've left that out. If you can get some rye in there, it will vastly help your fermentation.
Day 1: in a nice clean jar, mix 3 teaspoons (1 tablespoon) of bread flour (you can use all purpose flour for now if that's what you have) with 2 teaspoons of warm water. Stir it up and cover it with the jar lid.
There's so little in here that I am mixing it with a slender knife!
That's all you need to get started. There's no “discard” until the end, and then just that once (maybe twice) — but you'll use it, not throw it away, because by then it will actually be starter!
A note about the lid: there is plenty of room in the jar for any gasses, which won't start right away anyway. So do not fret about this at all. I always put the lid on the jar. Don't tighten it with all your strength, but it's fine.
A note about why people have trouble with starter: Your spot is not warm enough! That is the most common reason for bread-making woes of any sort. I use very few gadgets or special things in my kitchen work, but I highly recommend this thermometer (affiliate link) (well, the one I have seems to be discontinued but this is the closest) and literally use it many times a week for everything, from baking to roasting to smoking…
Stick it into the middle of your little starter mix and if it's not in the high 70s you need a warmer spot. Up on top of your fridge might be a good place. The oven with the light on… but it's a long time to have the light on… you could put a jar of hot water in a cooler and put your starter right in there. Use very warm water to mix. Maybe wrap your jar in a quilted cover or tea cozy?
Keep the temp in the high 70s (82 is not too warm) and under 85.
It will take longer if it's cooler, but if you can wrangle it, make yourself a nice warm spot. This is the key, this is it. Going forward, at all the stages, the thing to remember about your frustration is this: Things are probably not warm enough.
Day 2: Add 3 teaspoons (tsp) BF and 2 tsp warm water, stir well. You may see bubbles by evening — I did! (but my kitchen was very warm!)
A note about quantities: We are not doing 1:1:1 ratios. Stick with me here! A stiffer starter will work better, I find. Later you can land on the ratio that works for you. This stiffer starter is more forgiving.
Day 3: Add 6 tsp (2 T) BF and 2 tsp water
Day 3 in the evening, since I noticed a lot of activity — my mix already doubled — that then slowed down… I fed it again. You can do this the next day if yours is not getting going yet — remember, it will ferment but the timing varies. You are looking for bubbling and rising, hopefully double, but this may take another day: 4T BF and 8 tsp (2 T + 2 tsp) water
Above is how it looked after a few hours.
Below is how it looked after I mixed in some more flour and water — note the gluten is developing!
It might help you to write on the jar. I used a black sharpie that I keep in my utensil drawer.
And definitely put a rubber band on outside at the level of your mixture. That way you don't have to guess about how much, if at all, it has risen.
At this point, the mix is small in volume and the jar is quite large, so it will be tricky to tell whether it has risen. But it will soon be much more clear. (This is how a narrower jar would help if you have one.)
Day 4: 8T BF and 3 T +1 tsp water — Mix and let sit in your warm spot.
At this stage you might find it actually slows down a bit, and that's normal, if a little disappointing.
Day 5: 16 T BF and 6 T + 2 tsp water: the total mix is about a cup of starter and will fill 1/3 of a quart jar.
THUS: you need to use a very clean rubber spatula and transfer it to a quart mason jar, the size I normally keep my starter in going forward.
I don't have a picture of this quantity just after mixing, but by evening, it had risen more than double and was filling the jar (see below)! If yours has not shown this activity, make sure it's in a warm place!
On this evening, if you're getting full in the jar, you can make waffles or pancakes for breakfast the next day (or make them and after they cool, put them in the fridge or freezer for another day). I chose this recipe for its ease and intuitiveness.
Making it will use up some of your starter so that you have room in your jar to feed it again. Otherwise, to double the amount of flour, you'll end up needing too large a jar.
I will put the recipe and method for the waffle/pancake mix at the end. If your starter is not very strong (i.e. hasn't doubled), you can add a touch of yeast to the batter (NOT to your starter jar!).
You can certainly look up any sourdough recipe you like and use the excess for that. I recommend something that's not a loaf of bread, just because your starter is not quite strong enough for that. Muffins, quick bread, pancakes… whatever.
The good thing about the waffle/pancake mix is that it sits out all night and doesn't require a lot of brain power while you're trying to grapple with your starter.
After making your batter, still Day 5 (in the evening) feed: 6T BF and 4T water (this is almost 1/2 a cup of flour if that helps)
Day 6 (you should be back to around 1 cup of starter after making the waffles — I had a scant cup or 210 grams): Add 210 g. flour (or a scant cup) and 180 ml water (or about 2/3 cup).
By now you should notice the thickness of your starter and be able to eyeball the amount of water you need to achieve that thickness. If you add too much or too little, don't worry! Just add a little more flour or a little more water. Do not stress this part! The most important thing is how warm it is, not the quantity!
Now your starter should be bubbling and after some hours, rise double. You can experiment with it or hang in there when we check in next week with some bread baking! If the latter, pop the jar in the fridge. It will keep in there just fine!
You don't have to be feeding your starter all the time. I don't. You feed it when you're getting it going and after you use it, but the rest of the time, you can keep it in the fridge.
We will talk about that more when yours matures.
As I made this starter, you see I put the notes on the jar(s), but I also jotted them down in the notebook — you might want to do that, but I was really doing it so I'd remember for this post:
(But I made a mistake on Day 3 here — it was 2 tsp. water.)
This represents a huge sacrifice on my part for your sakes so I hope you appreciate it!! This is as detailed as it gets, people! I told you to look elsewhere for help! I'm not good at this!!
The chitchat… and waffle recipe
People have their different methods.
This one is mine! Part of me wants to agree with whoever is out there tsk-ing over the thought that I could add anything to the vast stores of sourdough knowledge out there. But — part of me is pretty confident I have a little something to tell you!
Basically, the info I have found out there is divided among the people with big families who seem to be in the kitchen all day, making one or two loaves as needed, happy with giant jars of starter — and the artisan bakery experts who are somewhat fancifully and in a highly technical way, translating their undeniable experience into home-baking one loaf, which obviously is not going to work for us… and then there are the home bakers who have good thoughts but are also making one loaf.
Maybe I convey, despite all my efforts to convince you otherwise, a lot of energy over here, but I am a person who has always gotten rather exhausted if I have to do anything (shop, get people out the door for games or field trips, clean, garden) and spend a bunch of time in the kitchen. If I go grocery shopping, for instance, I schedule a very easy meal for that day and pull bread out of the freezer. I can't do both. It's too much.
And let me say here, regarding the other methods — it makes a huge difference to the hydration of the flour itself if you live in muggy Massachusetts with no AC or Arizona with AC. My flour will have more water content than that Arizona person's. So it really doesn't make a lot of sense to get into individual gram measurements.
You have to get the feel of things. Some direction really helps but the super technical people are overdoing it. Their precision helps them get consistent results but doesn't translate to others elsewhere, necessarily.
I didn't used to make sourdough (I started five years ago), but in my yeast baking days with lots of kids, I never made fewer than 4 loaves at a time.
This corner is for the housewife who wants to — and has to — make a lot of awesome sourdough, beautiful boules and bâtards as well as sandwich loaves, and who loves being in the kitchen but not all day every day. And who doesn't want to — and doesn't have room to — keep a large amount of starter.
When I started sourdough, I followed the directions I found and ended up with way too much starter. There are actually two reasons for that: because I started with too much and it took too long for it to ferment.
That's why I start you with so little and emphasize how warm it needs to be. This is my method!
The waffle/pancake recipe
PRINT: Overnight sourdough waffles or pancakes
Overnight sourdough waffles or pancakes, Like Mother, Like Daughter
Makes about 6 Belgian waffles and a platter of pancakes enough for 4 people. You can double the recipe (same amount of starter/yeast) if you want, no problem. Leftovers can be cooled and popped in the freezer or kept in the fridge for a day or two. Reheat in the toaster or oven. Naturally fermented waffles are far superior to the other kind! They are crispier and more substantial, yet also very light.
Directions
This recipe is in two parts. Read both parts to see what ingredients you need!
The evening before:
1 cup (210-250 grams) starter (when your starter is very active and mature, you can use as little as ¼ cup; just add water and flour to make one cup)
NB: [If you don’t have starter or your starter is not very active:
1 tsp. yeast]
2 cups flour (I like to use ½ c. whole wheat flour and 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour)
2 cups milk (or water; you can add dried milk powder the next day with the other ingredients)
Mix well with a whisk. Cover and leave out on the counter. You don’t have to worry: it’s fermenting – nothing will happen to the milk.
The next day:
Mix together in a separate bowl (you can just add directly to the overnight mix but it deflates it less if you premix and then add):
¼ cup melted and cooled butter or oil such as peanut, avocado, coconut, or cooking olive oil
2/3 cup of dry milk powder if you didn’t use milk in the overnight mix (sometimes I don’t want to use up my fresh milk for this)
2 eggs
1 tsp. table salt (more if you’re using flake salt)
1 tsp. baking powder
Add to the overnight mix and whisk gently, folding in.
Allow to stand for about 20 minutes while you prep your other breakfast things, heat up your pan or waffle iron, and tidy up.
Make your pancakes and/or waffles the way you usually do!
We'll check in next week and see how the starter is going!
from the archives
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Maria says
Looks like for day 4 in your post you’ve got ‘1 tsp’ water (for 8 T flour) and in your notebook the same flour but ‘3T+1tsp’. Guessing your notebook is right, but just wanted to comment with this in case it’s a typo for anyone following along. If not, well, ignore me! :]
Maria says
Also, I like the idea of your new substack! Sounds fun
Leila says
Fixed it! THANK YOU. Will you be my proofreader 🙏
Maria says
I have been cursed with noticing all manner of details like this and it took a long initial ‘helpful’ period for me to realize people don’t actually like to be corrected. I should have been a proofreader ;]
Leila says
Well I WAS a proofreader (the one and only job I ever had, really, but it was good training and I was good at it). I KNOW I can’t proofread my own things, especially something like this where I worked it over so much and was starting with my loopy methodology! So really, thank you!
Mrs. Bee says
I do so appreciate the great effort necessary to make such a tutorial, and I’m very grateful!! You really have a knack when you explain something for getting rid of what may make it intimidating. I still remember how useful your pizza tutorial was, even if I don’t make my dough quite the same way (but I sure let it rest at the beginning!)
I have two quick questions: why can’t you begin with the bigger jar right away? Is it just too much space inside to trigger fermentation? Also, you wrote what to do on day 2, 3, etc. and also described the changes you saw in your started: does one go ahead with each day’s instructions, no matter what changes may or may not be observed, or is each instruction dependent upon actual visible changes to the starter? Thank you!!
Leila says
If you use the bigger jar, it’s harder to SEE if activity is happening. But you could!
I think you should forge ahead. If you don’t see SOME activity by day 3, wait for it… it needs to be warmer!
Leila says
Also, I don’t make my pizza dough that way anymore either! Now I do sourdough (sometimes a little yeast too, depends) and eventually I will post about it!
Pam says
I would love to know your sourdough recipe for pizza dough. I’ve always made large batches of my pizza dough with yeast and then divided and put in the freezer. Which has me wondering if you can freeze sourdough like that?
Leila says
I think so, but I’ve never done it myself!
Julie S. says
Thank you! This is so encouraging, and comes at a perfect moment! I love baking, and am finally back to baking all our bread; but I have never been successful with sourdough. (Admittedly, I don’t have the passionate interest many do; but I do want to actually succeed at sustaining a starter and regular sourdough loaves and other items coming out of my kitchen.) I had bought some good rye flour last week, and was thinking about trying to get a starter going again, only yesterday.
So often, your approach to things has been invaluable; this looks perfect for me, and I am both grateful and hopeful. I’ll get it started after the laundry!
Leila says
Thank you!
Make sure to put your rye in the freezer!
I think you will be hooked once you have a good routine!
Nicole says
Yay, yay, YAY! 😃 I am not kidding when I say that I’ve been looking forward to this post all week, and woke up this morning thinking, “Today Auntje Leila will post her sourdough instructions!!” 😂
Thank you, I’m so excited to try it. I successfully adapted my yeast sandwich recipe to max out my loaf pans (so 5 loaves at once) and it felt great. It’s still not going to last more than 4-5 days with my crew unless I seriously ration, lol, but I am much more confident with tweaking and scaling up now, thanks to your advice and encouragement to do so!
Leila says
Aw, wonderful!
Once you get into the rhythm, the best thing is to have a bread-making session a couple times a week so you can start stashing in the freezer.
Then you can get ahead!
Plan a few rice meals LOL
Nicole says
And I’m all about the new Substack!
Kelli says
May I recommend the kitchen scale we have used 2+ times a week for baking bread and cakes, weighing ground beef for burgers, and random science projects since 2021? It is also significantly cheaper. Weighing cake ingredients was a huge game changer!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06X9NQ8GX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I am also grateful for your detailed instructions. I actually prefer your handwritten screenshot, I find it endearing like my grandma’s coffee cake recipe. We live in the rainy PNW, and in spite of the temperatures being less warm, the humidity due to the amount of rainfall we get plays such a huge factor in how wet and therefore how much flour we need to add is tricky. Having a “feel” for the dough is an art for sure. Some of my kids have a natural feel for the dough better than I, and my best bread baker has recently returned to college. My family is sad that I have to take the bread job back over for the year.
Leila says
Yes, thank you! No way did I pay that much!
But then, I can’t recommend another one… so that is very helpful!
Donna L. says
Hello Auntie Leila and may I say, Hallelujah! I have always loved the way you explain in exquisite detail about the recipes, projects, and gardening ideas you have–I am a better woman for having this knowledge! Thank you!!!
May I ask a {probably} ridiculous question, please? How does the flour and water make the sourdough starter? Is it some little wild Yeast Beasties on the rye and wheat? Is it some sort of miraculous way of coaxing it out of thin air? I have always thought one must buy an already begun starter–so I am intrigued by this!
Leila says
Well, it’s not really ridiculous… it is somewhat mysterious, isn’t it?
There are yeasts in the flour, and then there is also the creation of lactic acid as a product of the bacteria digesting the sugars. You can read all about it here for instance: https://yoursourdoughstart.com/science-of-sourdough-bread
Leila says
I mean it’s not a ridiculous question! The whole thing is so mysterious!
Donna L. says
Thank you so much for your kindness and your explanation~ My previous sourdough starter was in the oven, with the light on, to become more active–and someone who didn’t know about it, turned the oven on and it is no longer! I am going to give it a go! A blessed Sunday to you and all of your loved ones!
Leila says
Oh gosh!
I am going to have to remember to post about the precautions one must take when putting anything in the oven that should not actually be baked! Usually I prop something up against the controls — and it’s to remind MYSELF not to turn it on!
Grace says
I use a little sticky note that says “remove dough from oven before preheating” and stick it right on the controls so I can’t push any buttons!
Leila says
This is the way. Like the NO note on the Apollo 13 eject button for the capsule
Jessica says
I started my own starter about a year ago, and it took so much discard! I wish I had had your instructions then. I had to make my own because we use Italian wheat. My husband was GF until we moved to England a few years back and discovered that he could eat wheat products there. There was great rejoicing! Then we moved back and had to figure out what to do here. Thankfully we can get 55 lb bags of Italian flour and it’s good for bread making and actually quite affordable. I’m so happy to be able to bake normally and with the insane bread prices this is actually much cheaper!
My starter seems to work just fine for bread, but it has never doubled in size. It bubbles well and smells yeasty, and my dough rises without issue. Do you have any suggestions? Does it need to double? I usually feed it with my bread flour, but I do have a whole meal flour that I use occasionally (it’s harder to get so I have to be choosy about what I want to use it for.) Should I try feeding it more consistently with the wholemeal? I’m also working with a thinner consistency–more like pancake batter, if that perhaps makes a difference.
Leila says
That is so wonderful that you can use Italian flour!
If your starter is working for you, then it’s good. If you want to make it stronger, you can try adding some rye along with your flour when you feed it. I wonder how you could source rye from somewhere trustworthy…
I prefer a stiffer starter. It’s harder to mix in when you’re mixing your dough (at first, but it’s not really a problem) but it’s stronger, doesn’t rise and fall so quickly, and is less sour.
Cirelo says
I have been researching some theories about this common experience of people who don’t tolerate gluten in America and can do wheat in Europe. I was very dissatisfied with some common opinions like “it’s the roundup,” because wheat isn’t typically a GMO product in America. So that didn’t seem to be the issue.
After following the low-fodmap diet for my tummy troubles, I found an interesting article on the Monash University website talking about this issue. Many people who react to wheat aren’t reacting to gluten at all but are actually reacting to the carbohydrates in wheat, called “fructans.” Fructans can vary (dramatically!) in varieties of wheat (e.g. being lower in Spelt), but can also vary on the weather and climate wheat is grown in! So after years of being gluten free I realized after careful testing I don’t have a sensitivity to gluten but to fructans. It’s been pretty liberating to have this specificity for myself, of course it makes other peoples’ eyes glaze over when I try to explain, so it’s really for my own ability to know how much of something I can tolerate. My supposition now about European wheat is that the varieties and climate lend a lower fodmap bread.
Jessica says
This is very interesting. I’m glad you’ve found something that works for you! I’ve wondered if it is partially the glyphosate, because wheat doesn’t have to be a GMO to be sprayed with round-up to desiccate before harvest, as is common here. The UK and EU do both allow glyphosate, but from some recent research, it looks like the UK and Italy have lower percentages of glyphosate usage than other countries in Europe. But the climate idea contributing to different fructans is an interesting one as well! And it would explain why organic wheat from the US might still not be ok for some.
My husband even tried a slice of bread made by a friend that was ground at home from organic (I think? don’t totally remember) wheat berries, sprouted, and sourdough, and it still made his stomach hurt. Whereas in England, he could eat even the cheap grocery store bread. But this is a route that has been helpful for some of the friends we have with gluten-intolerances (buying cleaner wheat, and then grinding their own for sourdough or even sprouting it for greater digestability).
Ellen says
What flour do you use? We tried Jovial Einkorn but it makes very crumbly bread and is quite pricey.
Donna L. says
Hello~ May I ask where you buy the Italian flour, please? We have a few people who are gluten-sensitive, so this would be a miracle!
Donna L. says
This question about the Italian flour was for Jessica~ 🙂
Jessica says
We buy Antimo Caputo’s 00 flour, in 55lb bags. If you are baking your own bread, then the large bag is the most cost effective! We have bought it from Amazon and a few other smaller companies that specialize in selling Italian food. It’s always worth shopping around and comparing the total cost with shipping included. I think our most recent purchase it ended up being only a little more than $1.50/lb because we found it on sale and got free shipping.
Of course if you want to just try it out and see if it works for your family, you could start with a 2lb bag and see how it goes. But if you’re going to use a lot, it’s by far the cheapest to buy the 55 lbs!
We also buy the Caputo’s Integrale (Wholemeal) flour in an 11 lb bag, this runs to more like $3/lb. I use this more sparingly as last year it was hard to find it in stock anywhere.
Hope that is helpful! I would just search it and see what you can find. 🙂
Donna L. says
Thank you ever so much for this! I appreciate your information and thoughts behind it, too! 🙂
Leila says
Is it at all possible to buy the wheat berries they make the flour from? Those would store for a very long time and probably be cheaper?
You’d need a grain mill of course (and a sifter to get a white-ish flour)
Jessica says
It’s a good thought. From my (brief) research, I just don’t think there’s a market for imported European wheat berries in the US yet, which is interesting, because there is clearly a market for the flour! I know that with the Caputo 00 flour, restaurants are using it to make Neapolitan style pizza, and that’s why you can buy a 55 lb bag of it that someone has already imported. To find wheat berries, I think you’d have to find a company somewhere in Europe selling them, and import it yourself, which means you’d be paying the full shipping cost and whatever import taxes on top. Of course, it’s so much harder to try and find this kind of thing because search engines are tailored to your country, so it’s very difficult to search for something in an international market, as the results are always tailored to the US!
Mariah says
I am so excited!! Hooray, hooray, hooray! I have been waiting for it to be baking season again and with marvelous serendipity, I can read bread wisdom from Auntie Leila! I started my starter and baked off a loaf already but that one was rather a hockey puck. (Several things wrong with that loaf: I added the bran too soon; I didn’t grind the wheat fine enough/ use a fine enough sifter; I forgot to add the salt [salt is flavor! Not to mention helping retard the yeast so the bacteria have a chance to sour]; and I didn’t bake it quite long enough so the crumb was slightly gummy. I will do better next time! And it was good enough to go with soup.)
Now that it is September and cooling off (highs in the 90s and 100s instead of 110s — yes, I live in Phoenix) I am prepared to turn on my oven once or twice a week…! But I am still eagerly awaiting the method of getting multiple loaves in one bake! I suspect I will have to acquire some more bread pans. At the moment I bake my loaf in my 2.25 quart Le Creuset pot because it has a lid.
Leila says
Oh yes, forgetting the salt is devastating! Happens to the most seasoned baker, alas!
Get it?? Seasoned??
Lori says
Thank you for all this, especially how not to start with a huge amount of starter and discard. I love your baking and sourdough posts!
Something I found helpful: when I began making sourdough loaves in earnest, I discovered that those little pyrex shot glasses with measurements on the side were really helpful to me – I could begin and maintain a tiny amount of starter and see the activity against the measurements on the side. It was really encouraging!
I also ran across this video a few months ago and it was so intriguing to me: a dry starter, kept in the flour:
Have you ever heard of that method? I am very curious if anyone has tried it.
Leila says
I have looked at that lady’s methods and obviously she has good results. I have looked at all the methods LOL… and of course they overlap a lot.
I like to keep a stiffer starter for sure. Here I’m going to show you how I do it. What’s interesting is that my daughters each do something a little different. Each housewife figures out what works for her. If you were not going to use your starter much, keeping it in the flour would really work well.
I love that Anja brings the old world methods to her readers!
Remember, the goal we are working towards here is to make big batches of bread. That’s the part missing in all these tutorials, seems to me…
Lori says
Yes – I also liked that Anja was hearkening back to traditional ways of doing things.
I can see, though, that our end goal of making big batches of bread needs a different method than tucking a bit of starter away in the flour!
Thank you for sharing what you’ve learned with us, and keeping track of your methods. It is helpful and encouraging! 🙂
Leila says
Thank you!
Margaret says
Yay! Thank you for the simple method- it makes me BANANAS to dump half the starter each day. The way I found your blog well over a decade ago was in a hunt for a spent grain bread recipe, so I’m alway happy to get bread ideas from you.
Leila says
It’s wonderful that you found us here via the spent grain! Such a random post from me… typical… can’t post about sandwich bread but here’s this totally niche thing!!
Well, it did the trick!
Morgen says
Question! I’m on day 3 and today my starter looks nice and bubbly, so exciting! But it smells REALLY strong. Like paint almost. I’m using a flip top jar that seals tightly so I left it open a crack after feeding it just now (this is just the day 3 evening direction) but is it supposed to smell pretty strongly?
Leila says
Yes it will smell strongly of a whiff of alcohol and maybe yeasty as well. As long as it is a good color (no mold ie red spots or black or anything like that) and bubbly, you’re good!
Don’t seal it tightly. Leave the jar slightly unscrewed if you’re using that flip top.
Morgen says
Thank you! It looks great, I just wasn’t prepared for anything besides that usual sourdough aroma.
Leila says
You will have to use your common sense (and sense of smell) but give it another day and see if loosening the lid a bit helps!
Mrs. T says
Auntie Leila, thanks for taking the time to document the sourdough process. I used to buy a loaf from Aldi pre-Covid and the price was “decent”. Now, they’ve upped the price and it’s only half the loaf! So I’ve been wanting to give it a go. I only have AP and WW flour, so I’ll start with those. If do not have success, I’ll purchase a bit of rye. I always like to have a new kitchen project going into the fall/winter.
Question about your tomatoes. I currently have a huge crop coming in, but no time to can just yet. Plus, it’s too stinking hot. I plan on freezing them whole until I can get to it. Do you thaw yours before beginning the sauce process? I know the skins slip off easily when thawed, do you still have to put them through a mill to remove the seeds? What recipe do you use? I’d love a little more detail on your process if you have the time… last year I had enormous crop of tomatoes right around the time I had my ninth baby at the end of August. So I had the children roughly chopped them, purée them, and freeze it that way. But I’d love to can this time around. I am currently in the second trimester with number 10, and feeling that burst of energy that comes with it. I have canned before, but not beginning with frozen tomatoes! I love the idea.
Leila says
The batch of tomatoes I just put up were frozen basically whole (the Juliets are perfect; some of the bigger ones need to be cut in half to make sure they’re all good, or cut off a bad part first, but no real processing) and then I just popped them in the pot with all the sauce things. I didn’t thaw them, but I did put about a cup of water at the bottom of the pot to prevent any burning before they thawed from the heat! If I had had some cheap red wine I would have put that in.
When it was all cooked, I used the immersion blender for the first pass, and then I (meaning Phil) put it all through the Foley food mill.
That was sort of a pain…
Then I made a small batch, and that time I took the tomatoes out and slipped the skins off the big tomatoes (Amish Paste and San Marzano) and cooked it all up. I figured the Juliets, which are much smaller, were fine to simply blend with the immersion blender.
Next time I will do that — pull off the skins of the bigger ones and not worry about the rest of it.
Mrs. T says
Thank you! So kind of you to respond so quickly.