The Great Sourdough Experiment!

So, I have another hair-brained scheme.  I know, I know...  I said I was going to quit, but this just sounded so cool!  You ready for it?  Homemade Sourdough bread!  Yep, bread made from scratch, not requiring yeast, so it fits into my survivalist scrapbook, too.  I found a recipe for a starter (think Amish Friendship Bread - cause I KNOW you have all had your turn with an Amish Friendship Bread starter).  My buddy Chris wanted one, too, so I decided I would whip up a couple over the long weekend.

Well....make that 4....


Because it took on a life of its own once I got started.  Not that those of you who know me would EVER believe that I could get carried away with something, and over do or anything.  Right?  :~)

Anyway, I decided that this was just such a cool experiment that it needed chronicling.  So, I've been taking pictures and will now be the source of a running commentary on exactly how (or perhaps how NOT) to make Homemade Sourdough Bread.  Yes yes yes....you're welcome.  It's what I'm here for.

The Starter Recipe:

Mix one cup of warm water with one cup of flour.

Got it?  Well, I mean I could complicate it for you, by discussing the pros and cons of white flour versus whole wheat, bleached versus unbleached, all-purpose versus bread, but you get the general gist, right?  A cup of flour and a cup of warm water.  Ta da!

Now put your little creation, your little sourdough baby, into a plastic or glass container with a well fitting lid.  No metal, please.  And make sure you have some room for Sourdough Sam to grow.  You're going to be feeding Sam daily, and just like any other newborn, he's going to grow quickly.  Give him a nice evenly warm home (say, the 78degree kitchen counter?) and let him sleep until his next feeding.  Every day for 3-7 days, you will take out 1/2 cup and pour it down the drain.  Wasteful, I know, but necessary.  Now feed Sam a new 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of warm water.  That's it!  After a few days, Sam will start to develop a bubbly personality! 

I got so excited after creating Sam 1 and Sam 2 with all purpose flour (one for me and one for my friend, remember?) that I decided to create Wheaton with whole wheat flour.  Then I realized I had forgotten to warm the water when I made Sam 1 and 2.  Crap.  Would that make a difference?  Would the Sams not grow?  So, I made Sally with warm water, just in case.

I was still worried about Sam 1 and Sam 2 with their cold water, though.  So I popped Sam 1 in the microwave, and let him take a little carousel whirl for 10 seconds.  But what about Sam 2?  What if I added just a teeny little bit of yeast to make sure Sam 2 grew, what with his cold water impediment, you know?  Just like 12 tiny granules.  I can hear you harrumphing, you sourdough purist snobs.  I know that "real" sourdough doesn't have yeast and that's the point, but still...this IS an experiment, remember?  So Sourdough Sam 2 became Noah (heehee, get it? NOah, as in NO I'm not real sourdough? Geesh, tough crowd.)

I faithfully stirred and fed Sam 1, Sally, Wheaton and NOah (I'm still giggling at that...) for the next couple of days.  I took 1/2 cup out, and added 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of (this time) WARM water.  On the third day I was looking back over the directions and realized that it was not "remove 1/2 CUP" it was "remove ONE HALF".  Great.  I'd screwed up again!  But it just didn't make sense, which is probably why my brain read 1/2 cup in the first place.  How were you going to increase the volume of the starter if you took out the same amount you put in? 

And I hated pouring it down the drain...so just for giggles on the 3rd day I decided to keep my 1/2 cup from one of the white flour starters and the wheat starter.  Enter Sally 2 and Wheaton 2:

Speaking of Wheaton, he was REALLY doing well!  He actually blew the lid off his Tupperware on the 3rd day!  Made me wonder just what all is done to bleached white flour...you know?  What good parts of the natural flour do they kill with that bleach?  But anyway, all of the starters (what are we up to now, 6?) were doing well, even if not quite as bubbly as Wheaton.  The others usually developed "hooch" (no, I'm not making that up - check with the purist Sourdough snobs.  It is a real term.)  It was just a brownish liquid that collected on top as the solids settled, but which mixed back in easily when I added flour.  I did learn that the flour blended much better when I mixed it in BEFORE mixing in the WARM water. 

All My Children were developing this lovely beery smell though, so I knew that they were doing their 'thang'.  They had all grown up into such lively personalities that I decided it was time to hand Sally 2 off to my buddy, and let her continue her care and feeding.  And what the heck, I took her Wheaton 2 also, just 'cause I love her. Whew, that brought my nursery back to a more manageable size of 4 - Sam the Original, Sally, Noah and Wheaton the Original.  All were doing great, and I figured it was time to try baking!

I removed 1/2 cup (yep, I decided to stay with my original screw up, and it turns out it works great!) and I fed Sally, Noah and Wheaton but not Sam.  It was Sam's day to shine.  So I poured Sam into a ceramic mixing bowl and fed him 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of warm water.  I covered him with plastic wrap and left him to hang out on my front porch where it was sunny and warm.  (Not in direct sun, though.)  Within 2 hours Sam had grown into a bubbly and happy "sponge".  (Let's do use the correct terms, since we've already pissed off the purist Sourdough snobs.)  I brought Sam back in the house and got ready to make my dough.

I measured out 2 1/2 cups of sponge into a glass bowl. (Remember, no metal bowls or utensils - they can make your baby act up, I mean REact.)  That left me roughly 1/2 cup of sponge.  I poured what was left of Sam the Sponge into his freshly washed container and fed him 1/2 cup of flour and a 1/2 cup of warm water.  (HA! I'm never going to forget that WARM part again!)  Then I put him in the fridge with his friends Noah, Sally and Wheaton, to rest for a week until I feed them again or bake again.  Once they move into the fridge and off of your kitchen counter, their development slows.  Kind of like a teenager who hits that 16-17 year old wall.  They'll just sort of hang around the fridge eating occasionally, but not really growing a lot anymore.  But you can get them to liven back up anytime by letting them come to room temperature.  Like when you turn off your teenager's Xbox.

I added 2 1/2 TBL of olive oil, 5 tsp of sugar, and 1 1/2 tsp of sea salt.  I mixed that into the sponge really well with my handy dandy wooden spoon.   Then I started to knead in the flour.  Yes, with my hands.  But I washed them first!  I kneaded in 3 cups of flour until I had a nice lightly sticky solid ball of sourdough.  I turned my oven on for just a few minutes to get it nice and warm inside (but not HOT!), then I turned it off.  I covered my bowl with a kitchen towel and put it in my now warm oven.  And waited with baited breath for 2 hours....  Ok, I didn't really.  I went to Walmart and picked up the boys from school, then ran some other errands.  But I DID think about my bread the whole time I was gone!  When I got home 2 hours later, this is what my beautiful Sam had turned into:

Sam was huge!  He had easily doubled in size.  Like a teenager over summer break!  So I punched him down, you know, also like a teenager LOL, kneaded him again, and shaped him into a loaf.  Then I did the same little trick with my oven, and left him to puff up again.  Like a teenager.  Or have I beaten that particular euphimism to death?  Anyway, this is what he looked like before he rose again:

So into my toasty 350 degree oven he went!  And came out 30 minutes later as a fantabulous crispy golden colored thump worthy loaf of Sourdough Bread!!!  Ta da!  See, I told ya it was easy! ;~)