Sour dough?

[flowerpetal]

I was in a cleaning frenzy yesterday and my aim was set on the fridge. I foolishly rinsed out a jar filled with something that had soured. Was it home mixed salad dressing?

As soon as I began to run hot water into it I realized I was flushing away my sour dough starter. What happened; or what I said next is not printable here.

Are there any bread makers out there who have extra starter? I know I can grow my own; but I am charmed by starter that has been fed and nurtured for a long time. Anyone?

I’m also thinking about starting a friendship cake starter if anyone would be interested after Thanksgiving.

Thanks!

Share This

[carrieann]

I was just looking at the Amish friendship bread starter recipe from my childhood and thinking about getting that going again.

I remember my sister talking about the sour dough starter that SSCC had when she was in the Pastry Arts program there — Wonder if they’d be willing to part with any?

Share This

[Laurella]

We might have just what you’re looking for! We’ve got starter that has been going just in my husband’s family for well over 40 years. We have abused and neglected this starter and it still is robust and happy. These days we’re able to use it frequently since we’ve adapted a recipe from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day to use starter.

At any rate, if you’d like a cup of our starter, you’re welcome to it.

Share This

[Aim]

I can’t help but think of a section from Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential about the starter: “FEED THE BEAST! FEED IT!!!”

That said, Laurella, do you have a large amount of starter? Would you be willing to share with me as well? I also use the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book, and am looking to incorporate more whole grains and vary it with starter at times. If you don’t have enough, please post any tips you have for those of us who are starting from scratch!

Share This

[flowerpetal]

Laurella, thank you! You can contact me at spicemoon@comcast.net. If there is not enough for AIM, there will be enough from me eventually.

Thanks again.

Share This

[celeste17]

How do you start a sourdough starter and how do you keep it going?

Share This

[dawsonct]

Potato cooking water, flour, sugar, a pinch of salt and about 4 days at room temperature, covered loosely with cheesecloth.

Reserve in refrigerator, every week or so remove a cup of starter and add a flour/warm water slurry, leave covered at room temp until active again. Repeat forever.

If you bake VERY frequently, you might even want to see what kind of spores are floating around your kitchen and just go with flour, water, sugar, and salt.

–

I’ve heard that you can sometimes get a bit of raw dough from some friendly old-world bakers and get a starter from that, even if it dries out. You MAY, technically speaking, be smuggling an agricultural product, but if you succeed, wouldn’t it be ultra-mega cool to have a strain that may be hundreds, even thousands of years old!?

Share This

[Laurella]

I think I can spare enough for flowerpetal and for Aim. I could either try bulking mine up a bit more, or I could simply give each of you 1/2 c. of the starter, then you can feed your portions individually.

On the investigating your own spores front, I have a friend in New York who grew her own by letting it spend time in a brewery. One of the local breweries might be willing to help out.

Share This

[swimcat]

The last time I made Amish Friendship Bread I tossed all four bags of the leftover starter into our deep freezer. I read on the internet that that works, and when you want to use it again, you just take it out of the freezer, count it as Day 1, and once the starter thaws out it will ‘come back to life’. Who knows if this will really work or not (I only put them in the freezer a month ago and haven’t had time to bake), but I’ve got 4 bags with 1 cup each in case any of you want one!

Share This

[Author]

Posts