Sour dough starter
 

I am trying to make a sour dough starter. Following instructions from the internet, but most likely my quilting friends know best. Hints please

King Arthur flour has recipes & blogs full of the info you are looking for.
Sewverybusy

I peel two apples and cut them up, peels and all. Cover them with water in a jar for 4 or 5 days . Keep covered. Then strain the water, throw out the apple. Add enough flour to make a very wet batter. Let that sit for a couple days or until you can smell the sour. I add a cup to my bread recipe. Feed the starter with 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup water.

I bought the starter from King Arthur Flour. Buy the kit with the crock, you will be glad you did. My grandmother would saturate a clean piece of muslin with the starter, let it dry, and when she needed new starter she would use the dry cloth to reconstitute. I keep several pieces of dry starter muslin in a vacuum seal bag. Starter can be kept alive for decades.

that is extremely interesting, I should try that, I don't make bread often enough to keep my starter from finishing! (getting rotten)

I bought a starter kit years ago in San Fransisco.

Amish Friendship Bread
Starter-- 1 pkg active dry yeast dissolved in 1 c. warm water
1 c. buttermilk
1 c. flour
1 Tbsp sugar
Prepare as usual. Transfer to glass bowl and cover loosely with plastic wrap. A clear liquid will collect on top after 6-12 hours. Stir down. If not used within a week, refrigerate until ready to use. When ready to use, warm to room temperature.
Sponge--1 c sour dough starter
1 1/2 c warm water
2 c flour
Place starter and water in bowl. Mix well. Place in glass bowl, cover loosely and leave at room temp for 1-2 days. The longer out, the more biting the flavor.
Dough--2 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp sugar
3 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
Transfer sponge to bowl. Add oil, sugar and salt. Mix. In small bowl combine soda and 1 c flour. Gradually add to sponge. Continuing to mix, add flour 1/2 c at a time until dough doesn't stick to the bowl. Knead. Cover and let rise to double. Punch down and divide in 1/2. Roll each into 12 x 15" rectangle. Roll tightly from longest side, sealing sides and ends. Roll into smooth loaf and place on greased baking sheets, dusted with cornmeal. Cover, let rise to double.

With sharp knife, Make 4 diagonal cuts on top of each loaf and brush with melted butter. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes.
--Store starter in glass or ceramic.
--If not used within a week, store in air-tight container in cool place.
--For every cup dipped out, replace with 3/4 c flour and 3/4 c liquid. Stir and let sit at room temp for 1 day, cover and chill.
--If not used in 2 weeks, scoop out 1 cup, discard excess and replenish as mentioned above.

I have to laugh at the memory I have of the Amish Friendship Bread recipe, I had forgotten when it went around my church among the ladies. We all had it and all wanted to give it away. It's so good! I finally baked it all up and used it after church as refreshments to get rid of it. Truly good stuff!

Oooh, that sounds sooo good right now! Will have to try that recipe!

I found a recipe on-line for sour dough bread where the starter is made over night and does not have to be replenished all the time. (This is not for me as I do not bake bread that often.) However, I have never tried the recipe as it calls for "corn flour" which, when I checked the internet, said that it is called corn starch in the UK. I doubt that this is what is meant in the recipe as I live in California. Can anyone tell me about corn flour and where it can be purchased?

I have a recipe from the internet which, I have yet to try, that calls for "corn flour". I did a Google search and it said it was corn starch, which I doubt that is what is meant in this recipe. I liked the recipe as the starter was made the night before, not saved or stored. Since I don't make homemade bread that often this appealed to me as I didn't need to feed or store starter for long periods of time. Can anyone tell me where I could get corn flour?

Corn flour is sold as "masa harina" around here.

I have just made a starter with NO package yeast, 'catch wild yeast' like in the old days. I put my jar on the counter and opened the window while the breeze brought in the wild yeast to 'make' my starter. Amazingly it worked perfect for me. http://www.reformationacres.com/2010...h-starter.html

Sign up for her newsletter and get the chart to make just the amount of starter you need for a recipe.

I made tortillas yesterday and they are crazy easy to make with 3/4 cup of starter.
http://www.reformationacres.com/?s=tortillas

It definitely multiplies!

Onebyone that is interesting. Never heard of that but great idea.

Walmart has it with the regular flours.

http://www.wildyeastblog.com/sourdough-corn-bread/ Found this recipe and will try it later in the week.

Corn flour
 

Thank you for the info. I have seen masa harina in the stores as we have a large Hispanic population. I will buy some and give the recipe a try.

I am curious if this is true? ,

my friend told me that sour dough bread made in the east coast will always be different than the west coast because we have a different species of bacteria here

and even if the correct bacteria is brought from the west coast our dominant bacteria still takes over the process.


I have never made sour dough bread so haven't a clue if this is correct does anyone on the forum know?

This may be true. There are wild yeasts in the air and depending on where you live could make a difference. My sourdough started is made from wild yeast, here in New Mexico and also in Florida. The Florida bread is different, but also have to remember that we are at an elevation of 7200 ft here in New Mexico and in Florida elevation is about 12 ft. I will also give my started a few grains of sugar to "feed" it although some say that isn't necessary. I freeze my starter too, bring it back to life when needed.

Thank you for the information as I have always been curios , my friends is from CA and always says our east coast sour dough bread is not the same as the bread in CA even with the same recipe and mix due to the specific organisms that only live there,

The more you bake bread the more yeast spores you will have in your kitchen. The bread gets better and better the more you make it. I make 2-4 French loafs a week. Water, yeast, flour, salt. That's all. I use the steam pans to bake them and get the crackly crust. My family can inhale a fresh baked loaf for a snack. I make sourdough about once a month to keep the starter going. I have two sets of the Baparoma Steam Baking Master pans. Theses pans use to be common and inexpensive. If you find a set get them, they bake perfect crusty loaves. [h=2][/h]

Here is the online book about the steam pans. Great bread recipes and tips included. http://www.megaheart.com/pdf/baparoma.pdf

This explains why my DIL makes the best sour dough bread. She makes all her bread.

DH brought home the "fixings" for Friendship Bread in a plastic bag. He got it from a co-worker. I wasn't too crazy about doing it and I suppose I didn't do what I was supposed to do. (its a long time ago) The plastic bag swelled up and exploded in the kitchen. I cleaned up that mess for a long time. I found dried particles of it in places I never imagined. Joke was on me !

Just dug out my sourdough packet with lots of recipes and the starter recipe.
2 cups of flour, 1 tsp salt, 3 tbs sugar, 1/2 tsp granular yeast, 2 cups lukewarm water.
Stir til mix is a smooth thin paste. Put on lid and set in a warm place to sour. Stir it several times a day. In two or three days it will be ready. Recipes use 1/2 cup starter.
Sourdough pancake recipe: To 1/2 cup starter add 2 cups or flour and 2 cups lukewarm water. Beat until smooth and let stand in a warm place overnight. Reserve1/2 cup starter and put into refrigerator in a covered glass jar. to the pancake dough left add 2 level tbs. sugar, 1 tsp salt, and 3 tbs melted shortning or oil, beat in 2 eggs. dissolve one tsp soda in one tbs water and fold gently. Do not stir after the soda has been added. Cook on a greased griddle about 360 degrees.

Our Friendship bread went around our school and into the small community. After a while there were no friends who didn't have it going at their house One of my friends told me she had resorted to using it all to make the bread in muffin tins --a different flavor for each batch -- then freezing it all to use for breakfast, etc. I tried that and soon my freezer was bulging. That's when it all ended. Seriously it makes delicious breakfast muffins.

My son has made several sourdough starters but he only uses King Arthur bread flour.

I made a starter per King Arthur site. All the directions are there with tons of info. I wanted to make m own with no yeast, only flour and water. When you read info here and there you may think you will have an active starter in a week or two. Think again. You will see that many things affect the timing. Mine took three weeks to become strong enough. If there is one bit of advise I would give you it would be to be patient and read all about starters on King Arthur.