Monday, September 9, 2013

Sourdough Adventures

My experience with sourdough starter has been sketchy at best. I tried once and failed miserably. It was a recipe that That was a few years ago, and I've not had much desire to try again. Until this weekend.

Not sure where the desire came from. Actually, I think I do. It started with pizza. I made pizza dough because I've seen some amazing pizzas on Pinterest and I wanted to try them. Pizza one night became pizza the next night with a friend (different dough recipe, worked really well, will do it again). And then...

I started other things. I made socca (a kind of flatbread) with gram flour. I added some hot madras curry powder. Great stuff. Made it again tonight actually in the cast iron skillet (and accidentally smoked up the house).

The sourdough was a "why the hell not." The last time I tried starter, it was a "glean the yeasts from the air" kind that just didn't work. This time, I tried using active yeast.

Hallelujah! It worked!

The apartment smells like yeasty heaven. I love sourdough and I love making bread and I can't wait for tomorrow when I can finally make something with this starter.

Anyway, I found the starter recipe here, at Cake Duchess, and you can find directions for making and maintaining the starter there.

Sourdough Starter
Ingredients:
2 cups warm water 
1 package active dry yeast 
2 cups all-purpose flour 
1 tbsp sugar