I don’t eat a lot of bread, because the rest of my family prefer that foam rubber white stuff. I really don’t like the flavour or texture of white bread so I just do without most of the time. I do like the flavour and texture of sour dough bread and it is really easy to make too. When I am in the mood for bread I make myself a sour dough starter and make bread every few days. I am usually the only one who eats it (besides the chooks that is) but it is still worth the effort. My starters tend to go great for a few months then die from neglect in the back of the fridge when my bread craving passes. I thought I would do a post documenting the process of making a bread starter and making bread using it so the life and inevitable death of yet another starter isn’t in vain.
Making a starter
It’s as easy as mixing up a half cup of bread flour with a half cup of warmish water and leaving it on a kitchen bench (away from insects and critters) covered with a damp tea towel. If you need precise measurements you can find them here, but they really don’t have to be precise. I can see that the discovery of bread came from a happy accident made by a less than fastidious cook at some point in human history; maybe someone left flat bread dough out and forgot about it, decided to use it anyway and discovered that it tastes better that way. So much of our staple foods seem to be created by being left to their own devices.
I have read a few posts about starting the yeast with pineapple juice to kick start the yeast production (something about acidic conditions and extra sugar); I don’t have pineapple, but I do have apple so here we go on another experiment (I just can’t follow a recipe to the letter can I?). Apple juice isn’t particularly acidic but it is sugary, so to counter that I decided to add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (that was sitting in the pantry).
So the starter recipe is;
1/2 cup organic plain flour
1/2 cup apple juice
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Dump it all into a seal-able jar and mix it up well. Leave it on the kitchen bench covered with something.
![20171229_102218[1]](https://i0.wp.com/chroniclesofahumpydweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/20171229_1022181.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
Ingredients collected
![20171229_102844[1]](https://i0.wp.com/chroniclesofahumpydweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/20171229_1028441.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
The starter all mixed up and ready to go
![20171229_102851[1]](https://i0.wp.com/chroniclesofahumpydweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/20171229_1028511.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
Day one
![20171229_102857[1]](https://i0.wp.com/chroniclesofahumpydweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/20171229_1028571.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
It can sit up on a shelf away from animals (maybe not flying ones though) next to my sprout jar
![20171231_111000[1]](https://i0.wp.com/chroniclesofahumpydweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/20171231_1110001.jpg?resize=676%2C901&ssl=1)
Day three
![20180104_061937[1]](https://i0.wp.com/chroniclesofahumpydweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/20180104_0619371.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
Day five…yes, I forgot to take a photo when I fed the starter on day four
![20180104_061927[1]](https://i0.wp.com/chroniclesofahumpydweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/20180104_0619271.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
This is a photo of the side of the jar (badly lit), you can see the bubbles go right through the starter
The recipe is in two parts; the first afternoon you mix the basic dough and leave it overnight. The recipe says leave it on the counter, but since one of the ingredients is milk the fridge is a better place for the covered bowl in our hot Australian climate.
![20180105_160701[1]](https://i0.wp.com/chroniclesofahumpydweller.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/20180105_1607011.jpg?resize=676%2C507&ssl=1)
This is the dough mix after sitting in the fridge overnight. You can see that the yeast has done a great job starting the rising process
Next time I make them I think I will leave them to rise a little in the doughnut pans before cooking. The starter can be moved to the fridge and only taken out to feed it or make something. Bread is the next thing on the menu…..next post.
OMG … another thing onto my list, but this looks way easy … I don’t really do white bread, unless I’m starving and theres nothing else available lol, it doesn’t really agree with my constitution π … but I’ve wondered about this, but haven’t got around to trying it π Thank you !
It is way easy. I don’t do it if it takes a heap of time and effort. White bread is so boring to eat isn’t it, and all you are left with is indigestion.
Argh and then some! Takes Me about 3 days to digest that crap.
I love Easy π
Thanks π
Make sure the water is not chlorinated. I had to learn that the hard way.
No chlorinated water out here in the bush. We catch all our own water from the roof when it rains.