Monthly Archives: October 2016

Sour Dough

Sour Dough Bread

In a clean plastic container make starter that will go back in the fridge.
1 cup sourdough starter
1 1/8 cups water
1 1/4 cups flour

Mix and let stand for 24 hours. Then put back in the fridge.

With the starter that is left make your sponge.
Add to your starter.
1 1/8 cups water
1 1/4 cups flour

After about 4-6 hours your sponge will be bubble and grow in size.

When your starter is ready, make the dough.
In a large bowl mix 5 3/4 cups of flour and a palm full (approx 2 tbl) of salt.
Add 1 1/8 cups of water
Add sponge
Mix with a wooden spoon. Let stand for about 30 minutes. Knead for about 3-5 minutes. Cover with a towel and let stand for 4-6 hours until it doubles in size. Cut in thirds and knead for a few minutes. Fold in sides to form a ball. Spread some corn meal on a cookie sheet and place your three balls on the cookie sheet. Let stand for another 4-6 hours until double. It may take more or less time depending on the room temperature.
Place baking stone in the oven and preheat to 475 degrees.
Bake for 17 minutes, lower heat to 350.
Bake for 10 minutes and remove, cool on racks and cover with a towel.
Store and enjoy!

Sour Dough Starter

2 1/2 cups flour
2 cups water

Let stand for about 3 days until it gets bubbly and starts to smell sour. Mix container as above for starter to put back in the fridge. Throw the rest away. Do this every day until it takes about 6-8 hours to get real bubbly. Put in the fridge, your starter is now ready to use. Note: if it takes a long time to get going you can add a little bit of cake yeast.

Some notes:

  • The recipe above calls for 1 1/8 cups of water. In the summer I usually use closer to 1 cup of water. I think it’s because of the humidity in the air that I don’t need as much.
  • You can use any all purpose flour. I prefer Ceresota unbleached flour, it really does taste better.
  • When I first made my starter it just never took off. I was just about to give up and had a little chunk of moldy cake yeast in the fridge. I figured what the heck and threw it in there. That was just what it needed.