Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Sourdough Starter - Day 9 1/2 & 10

Well, there's really good news .. last night before I went to bed I checked the starter and it had quite a bit of foam on top .. so I figured I'd go ahead and harvest a little and prepare it for baking today. 
 

 Harvest: 4 oz (approx 1/2 cup) of starter.

Add to the harvest amount - 2oz flour & 1 oz water. Mix well and let sit overnight.

Here's what it looked like last night after mixing in the flour and water .. much thicker.
Here's what it looked like this morning. --->>>

I used this recipe to make a bread dough - the 8 oz of flour by weight is a little more than 1 1/3 cups. I eyeballed the salt and oil.


 
After adding that much flour, it was still quite sticky .. so I used more until it looked more like a bread dough ball and wasn't sticky anymore. atleast 1/3 cup more ...


 
Here's the bread dough after I got it to shape a nice ball ..

now to rise for 2-3 hours ... then shape, then let rise again.  When I get back from an appointment this afternoon, I'll see if I can't get it baked and a picture loaded for you then.

So I have the bread all set. 
Next, I harvest another 4 oz for pizza dough.  Add 2oz flour & 1 oz water.  Set that aside to deal with tomorrow.

And finally, feed the remaining starter. 

Day 10: Add 1 oz flour & 1 oz water.  Stir very well.


I think tomorrow I will not harvest.  As you can see, the jar has less in it now.  The math says it all .. if you are adding 2 oz, and subtracting 4 oz .. then you will end up on the minus side .. so if I wait a couple more days to harvest, then I will try to keep about the same amount of starter in the jar.  I might change jars though, this one is getting kind of messy! :)

Below you can see a picture of my prepared sourdough bread dough all laid out in a nice loaf. I used some corn meal as a light dusting on the pan and on top of the loaf.  I've got it in the fridge right now, so it doesn't rise too fast, and will bake it tonight after we get home from our "date night". 


I'll let you know tomorrow how it turns out!

Can't Wait!


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