Sourdough Bread - a measureless recipe

When it comes to baking, common wisdom says you have to measure everything precisely.

I only partially agree. If you want to replicate a recipe, you must measure precisely. But you can change things up and still get a good result. It won't be the same thing, but it might still be good.

The more you know, the more you can change. That's how many new recipes come about. It's also how some recipes go horribly wrong.

When it comes to making bread, measurements are all about ratios. But again, you can mess with the ratios and still end up with a good product.

A simple bread doesn't have a lot of ingredients - flour, water, yeast, and salt are the four most common components. There are some saltless breads, however. And yeast doesn't have to be commercial yeast. So that leaves flour and water.

And let me tell ya, bread dough has a pretty wide range of what's acceptable in terms of that water/flour ratio. Even better, it will TELL YOU whether the proportion is right. If you can knead it, you're in the right ballpark. If the dough is too wet, it will be a sticky, messy batter. If it's got too much flour, it will take way too much effort to knead.

There are some breads that are very, very wet, but you needn't worry about that at the moment.

One reason why it's good to learn how to make bread without strict measurements is that if you're working with sourdough starter, you don't always know what the hydration of that starter is. So you don't really know how much more water or flour you need to add.

Another advantage is that if you happen to mis-measure a bread recipe or if you run across a bad bread recipe, you'll know how to recover.

While this recipe doesn't require strict measurements, it's helpful if you can eyeball the amounts. It would still work if you eyeballed two cups where one is asked for, but you'd end up with a ginormous loaf of bread.

So here we go.

Sourdough Bread

About 1 cup of sourdough starter (eyeball it)
Flour (as needed)
Water (as needed)
Salt (about 1 teaspoon)

Put the starter in a large bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer). Add flour and water, in about equal amounts, to double the amount of dough in the bowl. Stir to incorporate the flour and water into the sourdough starter. This should be a batter-like consistency. If it's thicker than brownie batter, add a bit more water.

Cover the bowl and set aside until the batter is full of bubbles. Depending on your active your starter is, this could take an hour or two, or it could be an overnight or all-day process. It doesn't matter how long it takes, it's important to let it take all the time it needs.

If your starter gets bubbly and it's an inconvenient time for you to continue, just put it in the refrigerator and continue later.

When the batter is bubbly add about a cup of flour and about a teaspoon of salt and stir it in. If you have a stand mixer, now's the time to start kneading with the dough hook. If you're going to knead by hand, flour your work surface and turn out the dough.

Knead, adding flour as needed, until you have a smooth, soft, silky, elastic, bouncy dough. If you've made bread before, you know what consistency you're looking for. But generally it should be denser than batter and soft enough to hand-knead easily. It shouldn't be gummy and sticking to everything, but it shouldn't be so dry that it refuses to absorb more flour as you knead.

Form the dough into a ball and return it to the bowl. Cover it with plastic wrap. Let it rise until the dough has doubled in size. This can take as little as an hour, or it could be a loooong time, depending on how lively your sourdough starter was.

Again, if you need to stall the process, you can refrigerate the dough. If you need to speed it up a bit, put it in a warm(ish) place, like in your oven with the light on.

When the dough has doubled, turn it out, gently deflate it, and form it into the shape you like. Seal the seam and place the loaf on a parchment-lined baking sheet (or if you prefer, you can sprinkle the sheet with cornmeal).

Cover the loaf with plastic wrap and set aside until it has doubled in size. This should take about half as long as the previous rise. Again, you can slow the progress by refrigerating the dough, or speed it up by finding a warmer place for it to rise.

About 20 minutes before the loaf has finished rising, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

When the loaf has doubled, remove the plastic wrap, slash as desired, and bake at 350 degrees until the loaf is nicely browned and it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Remove the loaf from the oven and let it cool completely on a rack before slicing.

It's almost over: #TopChef (and how to revive an inactive sourdough starter)

The Top Chef finale is coming soon - it's on Wednesday, February 27 at 10/9c - and I'm ready to make my prediction for the winner.

Drumroll, please ...

I'm predicting it will be Brooke. 

She started off feeling like an underdog, but has gained confidence and has won quickfires and challenges.. In the quickfire in the Even the Famous Come Home episode, she made an apple crostata with cheddar cheese in the crust.

I mean, really, that's something I might make. In fact, there's a good chance I will make something similar soon. Hmmmm. Maybe that's why I like her - because her cooking style fits so well with mine. When she was talking about the judge's comment about her crostata, she said, "It never really feels like a compliment when you're in a room full of chefs and you've made the 'homey' dish."

But she ended up winning the quickfire. So "homey" wasn't so bad after all.

I also like her because she didn't get involved in a lot of the drama. During the Restaurant Wars episode, when the chefs were at the Judges table there were fireworks between Kristen and Josie, but Brooke didn't get involved.

One of the judges asked, "How did the day go for you, Brooke?"

She answered, "Quickly."

Another one of her dishes that I really liked was the raised chicken from the Glacial Gourmet episode. That was another dish that I could imagine making at home. I mean, I've made braised chicken before. Many times. Recently, even.

She doesn't like boats or heights or confined spaces, but deals with them all. I get it. I don't like heights, either. I completely get it. But she didn't let that stop her. When she was in a helicopter in the Glacial Gourmet episode, you could see how scared she was at first, but then she finally opened her eyes and enjoyed the scenery.

And then later, she said how much she loved the scenery. Go, girl! And then she had a blast dogsledding. That really looked like fun. That was one of my favorite little non-cooking moments in the season.

And then she won the quickfire and got immunity in the next challenge.

The dish she made sounded pretty crazy to me = lamb-stuffed squid. The judges loved it and it was the first time I remember her stepping that far out of her usual comfort zone. Although I thought the dish was a little crazy (and I'm still not sure if I'd like it) I liked that she could have slacked off since she had immunity, but instead she went with something madly creative. Of course, it also could have gone horribly wrong, but it didn't. And she ended up winning a Toyota Prius.

Nobody's ever offered me a car for my cooking. How about you?

My favorite challenge - the one that I would have loved to cook along with - came in the Kings of Alaska episode. The chefs all made sourdough bread. I love making bread, and I love sourdough. I've got NINE different sourdough starters in my refrigerator right now. Some are relatively young, and one of them dates back to the 1800's.

But enough about me. Brooke made a sourdough that included dill. And she won the challenge..

Sourdough Tip:
How to Revive an Inactive Sourdough Starter

I've done a lot of posts about sourdough, including a step-by-step, day-by-day tutorial for getting a starter going. It uses nothing but flour and water, and although no system is foolproof, it has worked for me over and over.

BUT. Sometimes a starter doesn't get lively enough. Sometimes it bubbles but never rises up in the jar. Or sometimes you store a starter a little too long, and it it gets really, really sleepy. And it doesn't want to wake up.

Then what do you do? It's a question I get asked A LOT.

And the answer is pretty simple.

Throw out all but about a tablespoon of starter. You don't have to throw out the "discarded" starter. you can add it to a yeast dough for flavor, or add it to a quickbread for flavor, or add it to pancakes or waffles. The point is that you don't want to use it to grow your starter. You just want that one little tablespoon.

If the jar that you keep your starter in is particularly nasty-looking, you can take that tablespoon and put it in a clean jar.

Then, begin feeding the starter aggressively, doubling the amount each time, and feeding 2-3 times each day. After 2-3 days, you should have a very lively starter that's ready to use. And since you're doubling each time, you should have plenty to use.

And that's it. You should be ready to bake, just like a Top Chef.

I think my next sourdough will include dill, just like the one Brooke made. Yup, I like the way that gal cooks!

Who's your favorite? Who do you think will win?

I'll be hosting a Top Chef Twitter party on Tuesday, February 26 at 1 p.m est - that's the day before the finale. Follow me (@dbcurrie) on Twitter and you might want to follow @BravoTopChef too. Look for the hashtags #TopChef and  #winTopChefswag and join the party to win some stuff! No registration needed.

Get the party started!

Tweet this: Save the date: @dbcurrie + @BravoTopChef will be hosting a #TopChef Twitter chat on 2/26 at 1pm EST. #winTopChefswag

Content and/or other value provided by our partner, Bravo.

Building a Sourdough Starter

You may have read my sourdough series on Serious Eats, or you might have seen the recap here earlier, but this is the short version, pared down for use in my column in the Boulder Daily Camera - this version has a little less of the extras, with all the same how-to. Maybe a little easier to print out as a reference.

To make a sourdough bread – or any other sourdough creation, you need a starter. There are online sources for buying starters, but it’s pretty simple to build your own. All you need is flour, water, and a place to store your starter. A clean empty jar is perfect.

There are a few recipes that call for pineapple juice or potato water or raisins, but none of that is necessary. Flour, water, and time are all you need.

If your sourdough doesn't progress at the pace outlined in these instructions, don't fret. Some develop faster than others. It doesn’t mean there’s a problem; they’re all different, and that’s one of the great things about sourdough. Your starter is unique.

A sourdough starter is a simple concept—let some flour and water hang around for a while, and almost magically, the correct combination of yeast and bacteria will take up residence. That combination, when healthy and happy, creates an environment that's unfriendly to unwanted organisms.

One important thing to consider: it's a tradition among people who keep sourdough starters to name their starters. Yes, I’m serious.

Click to continue >>>

Sourdough Waffles

That sourdough starter you have bubbling away has more uses than just for bread, you know. How about some waffles?

Remember those wonderful mornings when Mom would fire up the waffle maker, and breakfast would be waffles dripping with butter and syrup, and maybe a side of bacon or sausages? Yeah, I don't remember that at all. As far as I know, my mother never owned a waffle maker. So I'm making my own waffle memories here.

The beauty of using starter for waffles is that the starter doesn't have to be completely active for it to make a nice waffle. It's used for flavor more than anything else, so a sleepy starter from the fridge or a fiercely bubbling starter on the counter, or a new starter that's not quite ready are all just as good. After all, the baking powder in the recipe gives most of the lift.

Of course, the flavor you end up will depend on your starter. A really mild starter will be much less assertive in the waffles than if you've got a seriously sour starter brewing. Either way, it's a great use for starter, particularly if you've been aggressively feeding, your jar is threatening to overflow, and it's not a convenient day for breadmaking.

Click to continue >>>

Project: Gluten-Free Sourdough

Since my Starter-Along series on Serious Eats, I've been working on a new project: gluten-free sourdough.

Making the starter sounded fairly simple. After all, I've made starters with whole wheat, spelt, and rye flour. I thought that the starter would be the easy part.

But nooooooooo....

The problem was that I grew mold at about the same rate I grew "good" bubbles. So I scrapped a lot of starters. The bacteria and yeast in a starter should be able to ward off the stuff you don't want growing, and it wasn't working with the gluten free flours I was using.

After growing a lot of fur, I finally (I think) found a way to ward off the mold and encourage the good bacteria and yeast at the same time. So far so good.

Click to continue >>>

Top 6 Questions About Sourdough Starters

My biggest project for 2010 was the Starter-Along series on Serious Eats, where I posted a photo and description of a growing sourdough starter. I also included a few extra facts about sourdough when the starter was in the middle stages, when it was just a matter of feeding and stirring on a regular basis.

I also republished that series here, on Cookistry.

That series generated a lot of extra traffic for me, and apparently it was good for Serious Eats as well, since it was the #3 post on Slice for the year. A mention on LifeHacker helped boost its popularity, but even before that, it was having a pretty good run based on the traffic that trickled through to Cookistry.

And then, there were the questions. I’ve gotten them at Serious Eats, on my Facebook page, at Cookistry, and in person. Based on my unscientific polling software (my memory) these were the top six questions asked, along with my answers:

My starter doesn’t look like yours. Have I done something wrong? Should I start over?

No, nothing’s wrong unless you’ve got mold growing on the starter, or unless you’ve got no activity at all after about five days. Starters are all different because the flour, water and environment are different at every location. That’s part of the beauty of a sourdough starter. It’s unique to you and it can be a little bit different every time you use it.

Also, the photos I posted were just one moment in time. After feeding and stirring or later in the day, the bubbles probably looked a bit different. In general, the bubble activity should be increasing every day, but sometimes things stall. And if the starter is very active overnight, it can wear itself out and look quiet in the morning. Shortly after feeding and stirring, it should become more active again.

It’s bubbling, but it’s not rising up in the jar. What should I do?

When the starter is active enough to rise up in the jar, then it’s ready to use. That might happen in as little as a week, or it could take longer before it gets to that point. If your starter is still plugging along, bubbling but not getting increasingly active, I’d suggest dumping half to three-quarters of the accumulated starter, and then continue feeding and stirring the remainder.

The removed starter can be added to a regular bread recipe to flavor it. I have recipes here and here for using not-quite-ready starter.

It also might be the case that your starter is rising, but you’re not there to see it. If you feed at night, it might be rising up while you’re asleep, and by morning it has fallen again, so it looks the same. It might be a good idea to feed at a time when you can check the starter in an hour and see what it looks like at that point.

There’s liquid at the top of the starter. What’s that?

There are two causes. One is that the starter is too wet, so you can add a bit more flour to it. It should be a little thicker than cake batter. Almost muffin batter.

Second, that liquid might be what’s referred to as “hootch” and it accumulates when a starter has been sitting around a while and the critters have gone dormant. This might mean that your starter is much more active than you think. You can dump out some starter as I suggested above, and you can also increase the amount you feed. You can feed more at each feeding, feed more often, or both.

Does room temperature affect the starter activity?

Yes, very much. The starter will be most active at warm room temperatures, so if you keep your house cooler in the winter, it might be less active simply because of the temperature. You can move the starter to a slightly warmer location. The top of the refrigerator is good, or if you’ve got some other appliance that’s a little bit warm, you can move it there. Near a computer might be good.

You don’t want to get it too warm, so the top of the furnace or water heater might be overkill.

Having it develop slowly isn’t a bad thing, if you’re not in a hurry.

I made the bread, but it’s taking forever to rise. What’s wrong?

You might have harvested your starter before it was fully active. After you’ve had a starter going for a while, you’ll have a better idea what it looks like when it’s fully enthusiastic. But a slow rise isn’t a bad thing. Just let it rise at its own speed.

If it’s a matter of bad timing and you don’t want to stay up all night waiting to put it in the oven, you can put the loaf in the refrigerator for a really slow rise, and bake the next day.

Some sourdoughs rise slowly and don’t seem to want to double in size, but then they get tremendous oven spring. Yours might be like that.

The bread isn’t as sour as I expected. Can I fix that?

Sourdoughs are all different, but the sour flavor that people associate with sourdough comes from the bacteria that produce different acids at different points in the process. You can create a much more sour starter by stopping the feeding and letting the starter go hungry for a while. You can do this for a day or so at room temperature, or put the starter in the refrigerator for a little longer.

Sourdough starters develop more flavor as they age, so what you get from that first loaf isn’t what you’ll get after the starter matures for a while.

Also, you’ll get more flavor from the bread if it has a long, slow, cold rise – just like any bread. Rather than letting is rise on the counter, put the dough in the refrigerator and leave it there for a day or two before you form the loaf and let it rise for baking.

One thing to keep in mind is that all starters are different. The schedule you feed at, the flour and water you use, and the environment all change the way the starter behaves. Some are naturally more sour, they rise at different rates, have more or less oven spring, and produce different crumbs and crusts. That’s part of the fun of having a local starter.

And of course, the flour makes a difference. If you’re ready for it, you can start a new starter with whole wheat or rye flour, and see what new magic you can create.

Sourdough Pizza Dough - For Thin Crust and Pan Pizza

Thin crust sourdough pizza

Besides making bread from my one of my latest starters, I also made pizza. Two different ones, actually.

Here's how it went:

In the evening, I combined:

8 ounces starter, by volume
2 1/4 ounces all purpose flour
2 ounces water

I covered it and let it rest at room temperature overnight.

In the morning, I added:
2 1/4 ounces all purpose flour
2 ounces water

I mixed them and covered the bowl and let it rest for four hours.

Then I added:
4 1/2 ounces flour
1 teaspoon salt

I kneaded it until it was shiny and elastic, then formed it into a ball, drizzled it with oil, but it back into the bowl and let it rise until it was doubled, about 2 1/2 hours.

Sourdough pan pizza

I divided the dough into 2 pieces - one piece was roughly 1/3 of the dough, and the second was the rest of it.

I used the smaller piece to make a thin crust pizza that I baked in a cast iron comal. I put the dough in the comal on the stovetop, turned the heat on while I topped it with sauce, roasted red peppers, and cheese.

The oven was preheated on high heat. I turned on the broiler and put the pan in the oven finish cooking it.

The larger piece went into a cast iron frying pan and I topped it with a thin layer of cheese on the bottom, sauce, chopped fresh tomatoes, and more cheese.

Baked it for about 30 minutes until the crust was done and the cheese was bubbling.

Need to know how to grow a sourdough starter? Look here.

Sourdough Bread

Most of the time when I'm making sourdough bread, I'm working with an old starter. I've got six different starters in my fridge, and when I'm ready to bake, I pull one out, feed it until it's lively and I have enough to work with, then I take out what I need. I feed the remainder and put it back in the fridge for the next time.

A new starter is different. It's not quite as enthusiastic, and it's never as complex as the next few loaves. And it's unpredictable. The crust and texture from the first dough is not necessarily what it will be like for subsequent loaves.

After a while, the sourdough settles into the sort of starter that it's going to be from that point on. The first few loaves, though. are usually a little unpredictable. The crust, texture, flavor, and speed of rise can change from one loaf to another. After a while, though, it becomes more stable. You'll know what to expect.

This was the first loaf I made from one of my newest starters:

Sourdough Bread

8 ounces starter (by volume)
4 ounces water
4 ounces bread flour

Combine these, mix, and cover until it's bubbling and rising. Figure at least an hour, possibly more.

Add:
8 ounces bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Knead (I used a stand mixer. Kneading by hand is fine, too) Add water or flour as needed to get the consistency you need. I added one more ounce of water.

Form the dough into a ball, drizzle with a little olive oil and put it back into the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until doubled in size. This took about 3 hours.

Remove the dough from the bowl and form into a ball. Don't mash it to death - you want to keep the bubbles that have formed. Set the dough on a prepared baking sheet a peel and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside until it has doubled, then slash the dough and bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes until the bread is nicely browned.

Need to know how to grow a sourdough starter? Look here.

This has been submitted to Yeastspotting.

Sourdough Pizza Crust

I already posted about making sourdough starter, so here's the pizza dough I made from the starter.

I put 4 ounce of the 100 percent hydration starter into bowl and added 2 ounces of bread flour and 1 ounce of water, and let that sit, covered, at room temperature over night.

The next day, I put that into the bowl of my stand mixer and added:

8 ounces bread flour
5 ounces water

I kneaded that with the dough hook until it came together, then added:
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

I kneaded that until it was becoming elastic, the put it into a plastic bag with a bit of olive oil to coat. I left it there for 2 days (I had planned to leave it for one day, but plans intervened.)

I pulled the dough out of the refrigerator a couple hours before I need it, and left it on the counter to come to room temperature. I kneaded it a bit, stretched it to a circle about 14 inches in diameter, topped it with sauce, sausage, mushrooms, onions, green pepper and cheese, and baked it at 500 degrees until it was nicely browned and the cheese was bubbly. I considered a minute or two under the broiler to brown the cheese more, but left it as it was.


Darned good pizza.

This has been submitted to Yeastpotting.

Sourdough Bread

Now that I've walked you through making a sourdough starter, what's next?

The instructions in my "day-by-day" posts resulted in a starter with100 percent hydration.

To 4 ounces of that starter, I added 2 ounces of bread flour and 1 ounce of water, and let that sit, covered, at room temperature overnight.

The next day, I put that into the bowl of my stand mixer, then added:

8 ounces flour
4 ounces water


I kneaded that until it was well combined, then added:

1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

I kneaded a little more until it was just becoming elastic, then popped it into a plastic bag with a drizzle of olive oil to coat it, and stashed that in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, I took it out of the refrigerator, gave it a little massage, and left it on the counter to take the chill off, about 2 hours.

I formed it into a loaf, put it seam-side down on a baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal, and let it rise for about 2 1/2 hours. It had just about doubled. It could have risen longer.

I baked it at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. It had great oven spring and a nice crust. Good flavor, too.

This has been submitted to Yeastspotting.

Long-Term Storage for Sourdough Starter

Once you've established a soudough starter that's working well for you, how do you ensure that it stays alive when you can't tend to it?

Frankly, I've left starters in the refrigerator for months, and they've revived with no problem. Okay, they're a little sluggish at first, but they still spring back to life after a few feedings.

But what about some sourdough insurance? What if you have a starter that seems really, really good, and you don't want to lose it in some terrible refrigerator accident? What if you want to share your starter with a friend who lives in another state?

The simple answer is that you can dry it.

Freezing is an option, but I've tried freezing wet yeast in various stages of life, and it's been less than spectacular. Drying, on the other hand, seems more friendly to yeast. I've reconstituted starters that have accidentally dried out.

Storage

Spread nice and thin for drying.

Drying is simple. Take some of your fully-active starter and spread it as thinly as possible on a piece of parchment paper or a Silpat. The thinner you spread it, the faster it will dry.

Recently, I dried one sample on a Silpat and one on parchment to see which would dry faster. Surprisingly, the one on the Silpat dried faster. The photo above is after a couple hours and the edges were already flaking up. Either is fine. Other surfaces are fine, too, like a dinner plate. But since you're going to spread such a thin layer, you might as well use a large surface.

Leave your drying starter somewhere safe from random spills, pet attacks, and marauding insects. I leave mine inside the oven. Lights off, door closed.

Here it is, completely dried and flaking off the Silpat.

When the starter is completely dry, it will flake off of the sheets. Mine are dry by the next day, but of course that depend on how thinly you spread your starter and how humid your environment is.

Crumble, crush, mash or grind the flakes into a powder for easier hydrating later. Store the powder in a sealed container in the freezer for extra insurance. Remember how I said I had bad luck with freezing wet yeast? The problem is the moisture. Dry sourdough should be just as happy in the freezer as your active dry and instant yeast.

Revival

The dried sourdough starter powder isn't a substitute for dried commercial yeast - sourdough isn't that fast. To use it, you need to hydrate it and feed it and nurture it until you have enough starter to use for your baking. Since it's already active, this isn't like growing your starter from scratch - you should be ready to bake fairly quickly.

Start with about a teaspoon of your dried starter (let it come to room temperature to avoid the chance of thermal shock), and add it to a tablespoon of room temperature water. Stir, and let it hydrate fully - just a few minutes. Then add about a tablespoon of flour. You want a thin batter. Cover it and let it sit until you have active bubbles - this should take from a few hours to 12 hours - maybe up to a full day.

When you have lively bubbles, it's time to increase the volume. Add about 2 ounces each of water and flour, stir, and wait until it's bubbling vigorously. This should happen fairly quickly - a matter of hours, at most. Then add another 4 ounces each of flour and water. That should rise up in the jar within an hour or so. At that point, you're ready to use some of it for baking.

If your starter is more sluggish in coming to life, you can feed at a less accelerated pace and wait for it to regenerate enough to bake with it. If you get no bubble activity at all, either your starter didn't survive the drying and freezing, or something went wrong with the re-hydration process. You can try again, making sure that your water isn't too warm for the starter and that the starter has reached room temperature. If it still doesn't bubble it's probably dead.

Needless to say, it's a good idea to test your dried frozen starter once in a while to make sure it's still alive.

Growing a Sourdough Starter, Day by Day

This entire day-by-day series, along with recipes for sourdough bread and sourdough pizza ran on Serious Eats as the "Starter-Along," with one post each day until we got to the recipes. The participation in the event was amazing, as readers asked questions and posted photos of their developing starters.

This is the complete series in one post, from Day Zero where we discuss the equipment needed, all the way through the last day of the series which shows the aftermath of a neglected starter.

If your sourdough doesn't progress at this pace, don't fret. Plenty of people who came along on this journey had starters that lagged behind and caught up later. Some were slow overall, and some sped to the finish line ahead of everyone else. Some folks neglected a feeding or two, but were successful in the end. This isn't meant to be a rigid formula, but more of a guideline. If I can predict anything at all about your starter, it is that it will somehow be different than this one. Because they all are unique.

A sourdough bread recipe is here, and a pizza recipe is here, when you're done with your starter. There are more here as well. those are just to get you started. hehe.

Day Zero

A sourdough starter is a simple concept—let some flour and water hang around for a while, and almost magically, the correct combination of yeast and bacteria will take up residence. And that same combination, when healthy and happy, create an environment that's unfriendly to unwanted organisms.

But now that every grocery store stocks dry yeast, why bother with sourdough? The simple answer is flavor. You'll never get the same results from dry yeast that you will from sourdough. Another reason is uniqueness. Sourdoughs cultivated in different areas will result in different breads. Not only will the flavor be different, but the crust, crumb, and rise will be different. It's as far as you can get from the concept of nationwide mass-produced industrial bread.

There are so many questions about how to grow a sourdough starter, and so many different methods. To me, some of which seem awfully complicated and technical considering sourdough is as old as the pyramids. I forgo the chemical soups and stick with basic flour and water.

Right here, we've got a day-by-day chronicle of a the life of a starter. Print it out or come back every day for a new dose, whatever you like. But either way, this should help you grow a sourdough starter of your own, even if you've never tried before. Just imagine that I'm here with you, each day, building my starter at the same time. And of course, if you leave comments or questions, I'll answer as soon as I can. I hope you'll join me!

Here on Day Zero, in the quest for your own bubbly new pet, there's not a lot of pre-planning required. All you really need is some sort of reasonable containment vessel, like a canning jar with a lid (you won't use the lid while you're growing the starter, but you'll use it when you store it), some flour, some water, and something to stir your mixture. Oh, and a measuring device. A scale is nice if you want to be precise, or you can use volume measures, or just eyeball it as best you can.

I use plain tap water for starters, fresh from the faucet. If your water is highly chlorinated, you might want to leave the water sit overnight so the chlorine dissipates. If your water is otherwise nasty tasting, it doesn't necessarily mean it will be bad for sourdough, although it might be. If you're worried, buy a bottle of water. Tomorrow, when you've got your jar ready, we'll get started.

Oh - and one last thing to consider. It's a tradition among people who keep sourdough starters to name their starters. Mine are all in the Mongo family, and they include Colorado Mongo, French Mongo, and my newest pet, Mongo Grape.

Now might be a good time to start thinking about a name for your new gooey little pet. Yes, it seems silly, but it's a fun little tradition. So, what are you going to name yours?

Day 1 

My goal with this project was to come up with a method for getting a sourdough starter going that would be easy for anyone. I also didn't want to end up with an excess of starter that would have to be thrown away. So I started with a very small amount. I find that starters seem to work better if they're very wet at the beginning, so I started with 1/2 ounce of flour and 1 ounce of water. That's all.

It's best to measure with a scale, but if you don't have one, don't worry. 1/2 ounce of flour is pretty easy to measure consistently (even though we're breaking all the rules of measuring properly here). Here's how to do it: Use your handy tablespoon measure and dip it into the flour, then press it against the side of the container so that you're compacting it in the process. Move it back and forth a bit to level it, and you'll be close enough to 1/2 ounce for this starter recipe. Add one ounce of water and stir it up.

Cover the jar with plastic wrap and store on the kitchen counter. Do not refrigerate Now, forget about it until tomorrow.

While your just-started starter sits, the enzymes in the flour get to work, and some of the starch in the flour starts converting to sugar. And then the hoards arrive. Bacteria, yeast, and all sorts of critters join the feast...at least for a little while, until all the little beasts battle it out to see who survives. I'm betting on the bread beasties. How about you?

Day 2

When I first checked my starter today, the yeast had just started coming to the party in my jar—there were already a few tiny bubbles.

Many sourdough starter recipes require a lot of feeding, but if you think about it, yeast isn't running around the jar like PacMan, it's sort of floating around and eating what's nearby. Stirring is just as important as feeding. Maybe more so.

On Day 2, I didn't feed at all, I just stirred the mixture whenever I thought about it. That's actually a good thing to do throughout the process. You don't need to stir on schedule, but whenever it's convenient, give it a little stir, whether it's a couple times a day or a dozen because you happen to be in the kitchen.

By the end of Day 2, there were more obvious bubbles in the mixture.

I gave it one more stir at the end of the day, and let it rest on the counter until morning. How's your starter doing? Of you're following along, just stip it throughout the day or when you can. No need to stick to a rigid schedule. Leave starter out on counter, covered with plastic wrap, overnight. See you tomorrow!
By the end of Day 2, there were more obvious bubbles in the mixture.

I gave it one more stir and let it sit overnight.

Day 3

Since things were bubbling nicely today, it's time to start changing the water/flour ratio. I fed the starter with one ounce each of water and flour. I stirred the mixture a few times during the day when I thought about it, and left it on the counter as before. Bubble activity is increasing!

So, what's going on in there? You don't need to know the science to nurture a sourdough, but it is interesting. While most people think of a sourdough starter as a natural yeast, it's more than that. It's actually bacteria and yeast working together. If you were counting, the bacteria in a starter would outnumber the yeast by 100 to 1. Don't worry about the bacteria though—they're the nice kind.

Day 4

Today I wanted to tweak the water-to-flour ratio in my starter, so I fed it one ounce of flour and half an ounce of water. Stir it up and leave it on the counter.

Now I've got a 50/50 ratio of water and flour, or if you're used to thinking in baker's percentages, that's 100 percent hydration. This is the final adjustment—I'll keep it at this thickness from now on.

At this point the bubbles are looking good and the scent has changed—the starter smells a little bit like buttermilk. Considering the bacteria is the related to the bacteria that ferments milk into yogurt and cheese and, yes, buttermilk, this makes a fair amount of sense.

Bubbles look good and the scent has changed - like buttermilk.

Day 5

From now on, it's all about feeding once a day and stirring whenever you think about it. Unlike some recipes that require each feeding to double the existing amount of starter, I feed the same amount each day. Just add one ounce each of flour and water. We won't try to double it until we're getting ready to bake with the starter.

To be brutally honest, when I'm feeding a starter, I usually just eyeball the quantities. But I measured this time just so you can follow along precisely, if that's what you want to do. Don't sweat it too much, though.

Why are we stirring the starter? It does more than just move the yeast around to available food. Stirring making it easier for the yeast to get oxygen. The yeast needs oxygen to reproduce, so while you're growing your starter, you'll get more yeast if you stir it more often. Stir vigorously, or whisk it, if you prefer, and leave it on the counter as before.

Ah, pretty bubbles.

Day 6

You've got the hang of this. Today, do it again: feed your starter 1 ounce each of flour and water, and give it a stir when you think of it. Bubbles are looking good!

Not all starters are the same, so if you aren't seeing the same bubbling I am, don't worry too much about it. I've seen starters that have a slow start, but suddenly burst into action rapidly and vigorously. That's part of the charm of sourdoughs—they're quirky.

Part of what happens in a sourdough is that the bacteria converts the sugars into lactic and acetic acid, which lowers the pH level to a point where a lot of the nasty microbes won't be happy. However, the yeast in sourdough likes the acidic environment just fine.

The good yeast can live in the acid environment and the bad critters pack their bags and go away. And unlike regular yeasts, sourdough yeasts don't eat maltose (a type of sugar) so they leave that for the bacteria to munch on. The bacteria add to our starter's flavor, and the yeast add the bubbles. Meanwhile, everyone else gets out of the swimming pool.

Bubbles are looking good.

Day 7

Just like the previous few days, today we're going to add another ounce each of flour and water. Bubble activity is definitely increasing. One thing to look for is how fast the bubbles come back after stirring. It's one thing to see bubbles first thing in the morning, but it's not ready to bake until it's a little more lively.

One flavor tip: unlike the yeast in a sourdough that needs oxygen to reproduce, the bacteria carries on whether there's available oxygen or not. And the bacteria only produces lactic acid when the oxygen has been depleted. So, if you like a sour sourdough, let it sit undisturbed for a while. The yeast will take a little nap, but the bacteria will be busy creating that sour flavor that's sought after in sourdoughs.

In other words, you don't have to be too nice to your starter. A little neglect at the right time can be a good thing.

It's getting close, but it's not quite ready yet.

Day 8

How are your starters? Mine is really getting active. Lots of bubbles, close together, and they come back quickly when I stir the mixture down. It also is starting to feel different when I stir. Before, it felt like stirring a cake batter, but now it feels frothy. Today, we'll add the usual ounce of flour and ounce of water and stir it occasionally.

When a starter is new, there are all sorts of yeasts and bacteria that come into it from the air, the flour, the baker's hands, and the water. In the beginning, they're all competing for survival, but the particular strains of yeast and bacteria that create a sourdough work together so well they're almost a sure bet to out-compete anything else in the mixture. Now that the bacteria and yeast are so active, there's not much chance that anything else will invade.

While not every sourdough culture will be wildly successful in terms of flavor, texture, rise, or any other criteria, the yeast and bacteria do a pretty good job of keeping out the types of things that could make you ill. Which is pretty amazing, if you think about it.

Day 9

It's looking good.

Give your starter a good long look. This might be the day of your first harvest.

One thing to check out is whether the bubbles are just on top, or whether there are bubbles throughout the jar. The frothy feeling yesterday was a good sign, and now when I look at the side of the jar, my starter is showing bubbles throughout.

Pay careful attention to what happens after feeding and stirring. The mixture should rise in the jar when you're done. If you've got a small jar and a lot of starter, you might find starter crawling all over your countertop in the morning.

I've seen this more than once when a starter has decided to become very active during the night. This is why you don't want to seal the jar tightly. It's better that starter oozes out gently rather than causing a small explosion.

Since my starter is looking quite active on Day 9, I went ahead and removed 4 ounces of the starter and put it in a bowl. I added 2 ounces of flour and 1 ounce of water, stirred it, and covered the bowl. Leave this mixture on the counter overnight, and you can actually bake with it tomorrow! (Make sure you have bread flour, kosher salt, and olive oil on hand for tomorrow and you'll be ready to bake your first sourdough bread!)

Meanwhile, the starter in the jar gets a meal of its usual one ounce each of water and flour.

If your starter isn't quite active enough, and you don't see bubbles up and down the side of the jar, don't despair. You can keep feeding it until it's ready. If the jar's too full to keep feeding, you can take a little over a cup out and use this proto-starter in a not-quite-sourdough bread.

Day 10

Yesterday, since my starter was bubbling along the sides of the jar, I set aside four ounces of the starter and mixed it with some flour and water in a bowl.

Today, that proto-dough in the bowl has risen and bubbled nicely. Time to make bread!

But what about the rest of the starter in the jar?

And here's a side view.

It's bubbling away, even more than it was on Day 9. Congratulations, you're ready to start making some pizza dough!  Follow the link to the recipe at the top of the page. You will start by harvesting 4 ounces of your sourdough starter and mixing it with 2 ounces bread flour and 1 ounce water in a bowl. This will rest overnight at room temperature.

And the rest of your starter? Feed it again today, one ounce of water and one ounce of flour. If you don't have time to bake over the next few days, don't fret. As long as there's room in the jar, there's no need to discard any starter.

Day 11

Hey Starter-Alongers! How are your starters? Mine was bubbling and happy on Day 11, and I fed it again with one ounce of water and one ounce of flour.

At this point, you can continue feeding regularly and harvesting starter when you want to make bread, pizza crust, waffles, and other sourdough products. As long as you feed it regularly, it can keep you company on the kitchen counter for as long as you like. Of course, if you don't harvest regularly, that jar will start getting full and your starter will start crawling out of its containment an making a mess on the counter.

To slow down the starter's need for feed, all you have to do is refrigerate it. I always feed right before refrigerating so it has enough food to last in cold storage, and then I check on it the next day. If there was a lot of activity over night, I give it another feed and stir, just to make sure everyone's tucked in and full, and then I forget about it.

The mixture in the bowl looked like this:

And this one became a pizza dough.

Day 11 + a week

People often worry if they've killed their starter by leaving it in the refrigerator for a long time without feeding it. The thing is that when it's refrigerated, the yeasts slow down and become practically dormant. A yellowish liquid usually forms on top, referred to as "hootch" by sourdough folks. Hootch isn't a big deal. Sometimes the hootch starts looking like it's got black sediment in it. This also isn't a big deal. It's yeast cells that have died off, but chances are that there are plenty more still alive.

Just for the fun of it, I left some starter unfed and at room temperature for a week. At that point it smelled strongly of acetone. Not something you'd want to eat. I stirred in some flour and water, and it sprang back to life even better than before. So it wasn't dead or dying, it was just napping and waiting for a little food and a little stirring.

I've never had a refrigerated sourdough go bad on me completely, but it's possible that you can get mold or really nasty stuff growing in an unrefrigerated one if you leave it undisturbed for long enough. I know, because I left some starters for even longer than that week. Some simply fell into a deeper sleep while others developed truly nasty odors and some grew fur. I didn't try reviving any of those - the acetone-smelling one was about my limit. I figure that it's easy enough to grow a new starter if I have to. I might have gone to greater measures to revive one of my foreign starters, though. Maybe.

Conclusion

So there you have it - sourdough starter from start to finish to bake to neglect and resurrection. Of course, at any stage, your sourdough might fall behind or leap ahead of mine, but that's okay. Different sourdoughs develop differently, so there's no need to panic if you don't have bubbles on the third day or if your starter smells like beer instead of buttermilk.

And if it fails completely, you can always try again. We've wasted very little in product, and not a lot of time. Next time, try bottle water or a different brand of flour, and see if your results are different.

And of course, this isn't the only set of directions for building a sourdough starter. People swear by a lot of different methods, so if this doesn't work, try another method. All that matters is that in the end you've got an active culture that you can bake with.

Wine Sourdough (Now, with Bread)

I had the bright idea of starting a sourdough starter with wine flour added to the mix.

Well, that didn't go so well. After a couple of days, my starter had spots of blue-green mold growing. They were mostly on the sides of the jar, but the starter had an off smell, so I tossed the whole thing and pondered my options.

The thing about sourdough starters is that once they're established, they do a pretty good job of warding off the things that you don't want growing. So I decided that instead of starting a new starter with the wine flour, I'd add the wine flour to an already-established starter and let it grow for a while.

I took my Colorado starter from the fridge, stirred it, fed it, and waited until it got bubbly. Then I moved some of that starter to a clean jar, added some flour, water, and about a teaspoon of wine flour. I kept both starters on the counter and fed them until they were both very active.

It didn't take much time for the starter with the wine flour to change its character - or at least its scent. It smelled winey, for lack of a better description. The starters were equally active, and there was no sign of mold or other contamination in the one with wine.

So far, so good...


Making Wine Sourdough Bread

I fed both of them equally, and when they both surged up in their jars, I harvested 4 ounces from each starter and put it into the bowl of my stand mixer along with 8 ounces of bread flour and 4 ounces of water.  I stirred that up and covered it, intending on leaving it overnight on the counter, but in a couple hours, it had more than doubled in size, and I knew that I needed to slow it down or bake with it. Baking was NOT a good option, so I prepped it for storage and later baking.

I started kneading with my stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, and decided that it needed a bit more flour. I added 1 more ounce of bread flour and 1 teaspoon of salt. It was already pretty elastic, so I added 1 tablespoon of olive oil and kneaded just long enough to get that incorporated.

I drizzled a little olive oil into a plastic bag and put the dough in there. Zipped the top, and chucked it into the fridge to contemplate its unruly behavior.

The next morning I took it out of the fridge, gave it a gentle massage, and left it on the counter until it had warmed to about room temperature. About 3 hours before I got back to it. I could see bubbles throughout.

I floured my countertop lightly and removed the dough from the bag and shaped it into a log. Put that on a cornmeal-sprinkled baking sheet, covered it in plastic wrap, and let it rise until doubled. Got busy with other things, and forgot to check the clock, but it was probably just shy of 2 hours. Meanwhile, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees.


When the dough was doubled, I slashed it a couple of times and then baked it for about 40 minutes.

It's got really good flavor and texture, and just a hint of something different from the wine flour. The purple color is gone, except just a hint, when you look at it in the right light.

My plan for the starter is to keep feeding it with flour and water, much like grape- or pineapple-infused starters abandon the fruit after the starter is established. I figure that if the wine flour influenced the critters that grow in the starter, that influence should stay - and possibly increase over time - even as the percentage of wine flour decreases. We'll see. Meanwhile, it's a viable and sort of purple starter.

This has been submitted to Yeastspotting.

Sourdough Pizza Crust

I've been playing around with sourdoughs a lot lately, and this time I decided to make pizza instead of bread. This starter wasn't one of my really old ones - it was only a few weeks old, but it had been sitting on the counter the whole time being fed and used and fed some more..

Sourdough Pizza

8 ounces (by weight) sourdough starter (at 100 percent hydration)
16 ounces flour, divided
8 ounces water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

I combined the starter, water, and 8 ounces of flour in a bowl, mixed it well, and covered the bowl with plastic wrap. I let it sit overnight.

The next day, I added the rest of the flour and the salt, and kneaded it until it was well combined, but not completely elastic.

I put some olive oil into a zip-top bag, put the dough into the bag, and stashed it in the fridge for several days, until I was ready to use it.

When I decided to make the first pizza (day 3, I believe) I cut off a portion of the dough, kneaded it a bit, formed it into a ball, and covered it with plastic wrap to let it warm up and rise a bit - about 2 hours.

I rolled it out, topped it with a basic tomato sauce and shredded cheese, and baked it at 550 degrees on a preheated baking stone for about 7 minutes. Mmmm.... pizza.

Wine Sourdough

I've been having so much fun reading the comments about my Sourdough Starter-Along series on Serious Eats and the comment from Facebook friends.

And then, a comment by dhorst on SE about her grape-infused starter named Blossom made me think about the wine flour I got from Marche Noir Foods. This is a flour-like product that's made from the leftovers after grapes have been pressed to make wine. It's a dark purple and smells sort of like raisins.

I've had this wine flour sitting here, waiting for inspiration to strike. I was thinking I might save it for cookies or some baked good for Christmas, but I just hadn't settled on a particular recipe... and then I saw dhorst's post and I knew I had to give it a try.

Now, I've got a new starter using the usual all purpose flour and water, but with the addition of one teaspoon of the wine flour. I have no idea if this will work or not. It's a pretty color, though.

And meanwhile, I'm still pondering other recipes where I can incorporate the wine flour. We'll see how it goes.

Sourdough-Flavored Fast-Rise Bread

I had some excess sourdough starter, and I had some rapid-rise yeast that I didn't have plans for, so  I decided to put them together and see what might happen. I wanted a loaf of bread, I didn't have time for sourdough, but I didn't want to make a typical somewhat-flavorless rapid-rise bread.

It worked better than I thought.

I hesitate to call it a sourdough bread, since it used commercial yeast to rise. But it tasted like sourdough. On a day when I didn't have time for anything more leisurely or complicated, it was pretty darned good.

Sourdough-Flavored Fast-Rise Bread

3/4 cup warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) rapid rise yeast
8 ounces (by weight) sourdough starter (at 100 percent hydration)
3 cups (13 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the yeast and water, then add the starter and flour. Knead until the dough is silky and elastic. Add the salt and olive oil, and continue kneading until both are fully incorporated.

Form the dough into a ball, drizzle with a bit of oil, and return it to the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for an hour, or until the dough has doubled, if it rises faster.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and sprinkle some cornmeal on a baking sheet.

Remove the dough from the bowl, and for it into your preferred shape. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Remove the plastic wrap, slash the dough as desired, and bake at 350 degrees until nicely browned, about 40 minutes.

Cool completely on a rack before cutting.

And here's another yeast/sourdough hybrid.

This has been submitted to Yeastspotting.

Sourdough Spider-Shaped Bread

In preparation for Halloween, I decided that a shaped bread would be a good project. I made this one from sourdough since I had some bubbling on the counter waiting to be used. But any not-too-soft bread recipe would be fine.

If you don't have spare sourdough starter lurking around, use your favorite bread recipe, or try this basic bread here or this semolina loaf.

You need a somewhat firm and nicely elastic dough for a shaped bread. If not, they can rise unpredictably, particularly during baking. And even with the right dough, shaped loaves can do some interesting things in the oven. Which is why I start early on these projects, so I can work out the bugs.

For the sourdough, I took about a cup of starter, added about 3/4 cup of water, 1 teaspoon salt, and enough flour to make a workable dough. Kneaded until it was elastic, then set it aside to rise in an oiled bowl until it doubled. It took a couple hours.

The oven was already set for 350 degrees, so I left it there.

I kneaded the dough, then cut it in half. One half was the body shape. In theory, this could be two balls of dough, but then you're risking that they're going to separate or move in strange ways. I formed an oval-ish ball, then made the "waist" to divide it at about the 1/3 point.

I cut the second half of the dough into four pieces and formed them into 4 long ropes. I arranged them on a parchment-lined baking sheet first, to form the legs. Again, keeping the legs as one piece for each pair of legs ensured that they wouldn't separate from the body during rising and baking.

 Then set the body on top.

I covered it with plastic wrap...

 ... and let it rise until it was puffy and doubled, about an hour.

I baked it at 350 degrees until it was nicely browned, about 40 minutes.

He looks a little different baked, hmmm? It's always interesting to see how the shaped loaves shift and move as they bake. He's taller now, and fatter. But his legs are shorter. You can see where the paper underneath crumpled as the legs contracted a bit.

It's a nice loaf of bug. Or, as my husband said as he saw it on the table, "Breadsticks and everything."

This has been submitted to Yeastspotting.