Sourdough
Starter
Sourdough cooking uses a "starter" which is simply flour and water with
a yeast strain growing in the mix. You keed adding new flour and water
to this, using some of the mix in your cooking and keeping some back as
new starter. Nothing but flour and water will go into the starter.
Keep one cup of batter in a jar in the refrigerator as a starter. Use
it at least once every six months and it will remain good. When not
used for a while some liquid will form on the top of the batter and may
become a bit dark. As long as it does not mold it is fine. The day
before you want to do your sourdough cooking you need to make some
"basic batter". This simply involes removing your cup of starter
from the refrigerator and adding two and one half cups of flour
and two cups of water. Mix this in a glass bowl, cover and
let sit overnight. The next day remove one cup of batter and store in a
glass jar in the refrigerator. This will be the starter that allows you
to continue the process of sourdough cooking. The remainder is the
"basic batter" used in the following recipes.
Sourdough Bread
| 2 cups milk |
1/4 cup wheat germ |
| 2 tbspn butter |
2 cups wheat flour |
| 2 tspn salt |
4 cups white flour |
| 2 tbspn sugar |
1 pkg active dry yeast |
| 1/4 cup honey |
2 tspn baking soda |
Scald two cups of milk and melt butter and honey in milk. Allow to cool
to lukewarm, mix yeast in milk and stir to dissolve. Add to the basic
batter. Sift into dough two cups of wheat flour and wheat germ. Blend
sugar, salt and soda until smooth and sprinkle over top of dough,
stirring in gently. Set dough in warm spot, cover with cloth and let
set for 30 minutes.
Break down and sift in remaining flour until the dough is too stiff to
stir with a spoon. Turn out on floured board and begin to knead with
hands. Work in remaining flour, kneading with heels of hand 100 times
until the dough is light and satiny to the touch. Note: Quantity of
flour will vary - better too little than too much.
Let rise in a greased bowl. Punch down, divide into three equal
portions, and place in greased bread pans. Let rise. Bake 20 minutes
at 400 degrees with pans covered with aluminum foil. Reduce
temperature to 325 and remove foil. Bake until done - about another 20
minutes.
Sourdough
Waffles
1 egg
4 tablespoons cooking oil
1/4 cup instant or evaporated milk
Mix the above into bowl of basic batter. In a small bowl combine the
following:
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
2 tablespoons white sugar
Sprinkle the mixture of salt, soda, and sugar over the batter and fold
in gently. Let rest 5 minutes while the waffle iron heats. Cook at a
slightly hotter iron that you would normally use. I oil the iron before
each waffle and cook 4 minutes.
For pancakes use the waffle batter with two tablespoons oil instead of
4 tablespoons oil.