10:25 am - 32 degrees outside - blue sky, sunshine, 3-4" of snow on the ground...
Who can make the better bread
starter...? That is the current question right now in our house.
I want to make sure that our
kids know how to cook, so they pretty much have free reign to experiment in the
kitchen – as long as they clean up after themselves! Our daughter has been on a
sourdough bread kick lately, and that somehow got turned into a challenge of
who could make the better bread starter.
Caitlyn chose a sourdough
starter that she found on the Homestead and Chill blog - recipe posted below.
Caitlyn chose this starter recipe because it had good reviews.
I chose an Amish friendship
bread starter that I found on The Benson Street blog – recipe posted on Starter
Dough Bake Off – Part 2 – Amish Friendship Bread {click here}. I chose this starter
recipe because I’ve made Amish friendship bread ages ago and once you have the
starter you can add in different flavors to switch it up.
 |
| Caitlyn's starter is on the left, and my starter is on the right. |
SOURDOUGH STARTER
by
Homestead and Chill
Ingredients:
500 grams of organic white
bread flour
1 large apple, grated (keep
skins, but avoid the core)
360 mL room temperature
filtered water
Large glass air-tight container
Digital kitchen scale
Step 1: In a large mixing bowl, weight out 500 grams
of organic white bread flour. Different flours weigh varying amounts, so it
must be weighed to be accurate.
Step 2: Grate your large apple. Keep the skins, but
avoid the core. Add the grated apple to the bowl of flour. Some homemade
sourdough starter recipes do call for flour and water only, however, flour and
water can be pretty sterile. With the addition of apple, it basically stacks
the odds in your favor that your starter will get active!
Step 3: Measure out 360 mL of room temperature
filtered water. Add this to the bowl of apple and flour, and mix thoroughly. Avoiding
chlorinated water is pretty important when it comes to any fermentation
process, including making sourdough. You will likely need to get in there and
use your hands to do so, so wash up really well first!
Step 4: Dump, pour, or
otherwise scoop the flour, apple, water combo into an air-tight container. The
container needs to be large enough to allow for at least doubling in size, if
not more.
Step 5: It’s time to close the container up and watch
her rise! But first, using some kind of washable marker that writes on glass,
draw a little line on the side of your container at the top level of the
mixture – this is so you may monitor its growth.
The mixture will now sit for 3
days. Keeping it in a spot that is about 70° to 75° degrees is ideal.
DAY
FOUR - (72
hours after Step 5) After 3 days, the mixture should be a bit bubbly. It most likely
has risen, and should smell sweet and tangy, sort of like apple cider vinegar!
It may have also darkened in color a bit.
Step 6: It’s time to do the first discard. To
discard, first stir the mixture to knock out any air to let it fall back down
to a more condensed state. Then you want to discard half of that amount (you’ll
find out what to do with the discarded portion towards the end of this post).
Step 7: After you discard, now it’s time to “feed”
your starter. With your 3-day old sourdough starter, mix in another 250 grams
of bread flour and 170 mL of tepid filtered water. Mix thoroughly.
Step 8: Re-mark the top of the mixture height on your
container if needed. Now let it sit for another 2 days or 48 hours.
DAY
SIX – (48
hours after Step 8) There should be a lot of activity and small bubbles now. It
has most likely risen even higher than the first time.
Step 9: Repeat Steps 6 and 7 – the discard and feed.
After mixing and discarding, add the same 250 grams of flour and 170 mL of
water, and then a few extra splashes of water – maybe about 30-40 mL more –
until the desired consistency of a “wet, sloppy dough” is reached.
Step 10: Cover the sourdough starter and let it sit
out one final time. This time is only for 24 hours.
DAY SEVEN – If you starter is
bubbly and active after those last 24 hours – congrats, you did it! You now
have a sourdough starter that is ready to bake with.
Step 11: You bake with it! Here is a Simple No-Knead
Sourdough Bread Recipe {click here}.
What to do with discarded
sourdough starter? So many options! If you have chickens, they really enjoy
eating the discarded starter. It is full of healthy probiotics for them. Some
people make pancakes, pizza dough, muffins or all sorts of things with it.
Worst case scenario, throw it into your compost and bury it.
