Sourdough Bread

I did end up baking the bread last night, and the boys and I have been eating it today. 

It's pretty good.  Not as "sour" as other's I've tasted, but I'm assuming that's because it's a new starter and not one that's been going awhile.  I figure the longer you have the starter brewing, the stronger the taste will be?

I've mixed up the second batch of prepared sourdough starter dough, and have set it in the 'fridge with plans to use it for pizza tomorrow night.  I added some onion powder, garlic powder,and oregano to that dough to give it more "pizza" flavor.

I have a bunch of cherry tomatoes from the volunteer plants in the garden, soI will probably chop those up and see if I can make a sauce .. perhaps a pizza sauce for tomorrow night.

I have a pork tenderloin in the crockpot for tonight's supper .. only just put it in, so I hope there's time for it to get done before supper time.  Figure I'll match it with mashed potatoes and either carrots or corn.  Perhaps some gravy if I still have energy later. 

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!

Raisin Bread = Torture

Who else believes that fresh baking bread is torture ?  I mean, for the last hour of the bread machine cycle, you smell this delicious smell, that steals into your brain and makes you want to eat hot fresh bread right NOW! But you have to wait !  and the minutes tick by so slowly! ... and then it finally beeps .. and you get to take the bread out of the machine .. and you have to WAIT .. again! ... Wait a couple of minutes for it to be cool enough to get out of the pan and onto a plate .. and thenyou have WAIT AGAIN! .. wait for it to be cool enough to cut .. well, we didn't wait very long to cut it .. I just tried to do it very carefully, actually, we cut off the "muffin top" and basically tore it in strips so that we could eat it right away ...

Minutes after it's out of the machine, and this is the state of the loaf .. sorry I couldn't get the camera fast enough to get you a picture of the whole loaf .. another 10 minutes and there might be only crumbs left!

I wish this was smell-o-vision .. because I want you to be tortured too! :)

Sourdough Starter Day 2 & one bird singing

Well, the last time I swirled the starter was late yesterday afternoon .. just before supper.  When I looked at it this morning it had yellow liquid on top of the paste on the bottom.  I should have taken a picture, but what I did was take a spoon and stirred it really good. The consistency is less pasty and more like a wet dough .. so that is good... sort of stringy elastic but wet?  Hard to describe .. but I was encouraged.
  This is what it looked like after stirring.

Seems to be bubbling well for day 2.

Day 2:  Stir

So now, I just stir it or swirl it or shake it as often as I pass by and remember.  Not too hard a job today!

I am in the mood for fresh bread today, so I put some cinnamon raisin in the bread machine... when it comes out I'll try to remember to share a photo.

While I was at my computer, this bird was singing outside my window .. singing loud and clear!  Anyone know what type of bird it is?