This is for those of you who are thinking " What the %^&* is a starter? I have no clue what this girl is talking about."
A sourdough starter is used to leaven bread without any commercial yeast products. (leaven= raise) A starter is made by combining flour and water and letting the wild yeasts grow. They need a lot of care and a healthy environment to grow properly. It must be fed daily or twice daily by removing part of the starter and adding flour and water. When your starter is doubling after a feeding you can then use it to make bread.
Essentially they are like pets, you have to feed them, water them, and give them proper shelter so they will survive.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Starter Sitter or Traveling Starters?
Well my new little pets are growing very well, and made some awesome sourdough bread today. There's just one little problem. My starters need feeding at least once if not twice a day, and we are going to my mom's house tomorrow for a night or two and it's a two hour drive away.
So do I need a starter sitter? I don't want to sound crazy by asking anyone to babysit some bread dough, so they will be taking the trip with us. I could stick them in the fridge and hope for the best, but you wouldn't do that to your pet rabbit or hamster, now would you? These are live little critters, and I've spent hours tending to them and pampering them, and I'm not about to have them die.
They've been spoiled with a perfect 80° kitchen. (yeast thrive at 80-85°) It's a little hot for me, but it's been 100° outside the last few days here, so that's why the house is so warm. (thank you arizona)
So do I need a starter sitter? I don't want to sound crazy by asking anyone to babysit some bread dough, so they will be taking the trip with us. I could stick them in the fridge and hope for the best, but you wouldn't do that to your pet rabbit or hamster, now would you? These are live little critters, and I've spent hours tending to them and pampering them, and I'm not about to have them die.
They've been spoiled with a perfect 80° kitchen. (yeast thrive at 80-85°) It's a little hot for me, but it's been 100° outside the last few days here, so that's why the house is so warm. (thank you arizona)
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Someone please follow my blog
Ok this blogging is creepy when no one is reading it. Is anyone out there?
My starter has mold!
I really like sourdough bread, so I figured, why not make my own sourdough starter? Well, it's easier said than done. I've got so many scary looking starters on my counter, it looks like I've got the worst science fair project in history.
I started this about a week ago, and now I have 2 starters from the original. One wheat and one white. Then yesterday I noticed some fuzzy little invaders trying to sabotage my plan to have the best sourdough in the world (at this point i'll be lucky if it's edible).
So I did a search and found someone with the same problem that said just scrape the mold off, and feed it like normal. So that's what I did. I only needed 8oz of it, so I took the unfuzzy part and fed it with fresh flour and water. Today I don't see any mold yet, but every time I walk by them, I carefully inspect them (thank you ocd).
Last night I also made two new starters. One is yogurt sour, that one is scary! Have you ever been drinking milk, but didn't finish the last few swallows, and the next day you find a glass that looks like something Miss Muffett should be feeding the spider? (i don't remember if she fed the spider, maybe the spider scared her...)
The other is a different starter recipe with whole wheat and water. It looks promising, but I keep stirring it every now and then so if that darn mold is trying to grow, it will get killed by my little critters (yeast) I'm trying to grow.
That's all for now. This blogging is time consuming. I'll let you know tomorrow how my science project is going. Maybe I'll figure out how to put a picture up. Oh I hope someone starts reading this, because I seriously feel like I'm talking to myself.
I started this about a week ago, and now I have 2 starters from the original. One wheat and one white. Then yesterday I noticed some fuzzy little invaders trying to sabotage my plan to have the best sourdough in the world (at this point i'll be lucky if it's edible).
So I did a search and found someone with the same problem that said just scrape the mold off, and feed it like normal. So that's what I did. I only needed 8oz of it, so I took the unfuzzy part and fed it with fresh flour and water. Today I don't see any mold yet, but every time I walk by them, I carefully inspect them (thank you ocd).
Last night I also made two new starters. One is yogurt sour, that one is scary! Have you ever been drinking milk, but didn't finish the last few swallows, and the next day you find a glass that looks like something Miss Muffett should be feeding the spider? (i don't remember if she fed the spider, maybe the spider scared her...)
The other is a different starter recipe with whole wheat and water. It looks promising, but I keep stirring it every now and then so if that darn mold is trying to grow, it will get killed by my little critters (yeast) I'm trying to grow.
That's all for now. This blogging is time consuming. I'll let you know tomorrow how my science project is going. Maybe I'll figure out how to put a picture up. Oh I hope someone starts reading this, because I seriously feel like I'm talking to myself.
First Confession
I don't know how to blog. So like everything else in my life, I figured it's time to learn. I'm totally ADD and OCD, but I'm going to try to do this blog thing. I have tons of different things I'm interested in and just not enough time to do them all.
Some of the things I like: horses ( i have 3), baking, cooking and cake decorating (graduated from culinary school), china painting (painting on porcelain with paints that are fired in a kiln), applying acrylic nails (wanted to save money and have pretty nails), and much more I can't think of right now (thank you ADD).
So if you have any blogging tips for me, hopefully there's a place you can put them or send them to me. I'll try to post a really exciting blog sometime soon.
Some of the things I like: horses ( i have 3), baking, cooking and cake decorating (graduated from culinary school), china painting (painting on porcelain with paints that are fired in a kiln), applying acrylic nails (wanted to save money and have pretty nails), and much more I can't think of right now (thank you ADD).
So if you have any blogging tips for me, hopefully there's a place you can put them or send them to me. I'll try to post a really exciting blog sometime soon.
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