Feeding the Sourdough Monster

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I was a whole wheat bread-baking hippie mom back in the eighties. I lived with well-thumbed copies of Laurel's Kitchen and Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book. For a few years I kneaded by hand, and I made pretty good bread. Then I got a bread machine, and those loaves were pretty good, too. But, eventually, we got busier (I started writing novels, for one thing), the daughter was not so impressed with Mom's home baking, the bread machine wore out.

For years my baking genie lay dormant. We ate store-bought whole wheat sandwich bread, and I only dreamed of French baguettes. 

But in the last couple of years, I've become obsessed with sourdough bread. The bread in my hippie baking days was made with processed baker's yeast, you know, the rapid-rise little packets, a modern industrial invention. 

Sourdough bread, on the other hand, is made with wild yeast that grows naturally in a mixture of flour and water, and is as old as human civilization. Anyone who's ever eaten a traditionally made baguette or a loaf of real San Francisco sourdough can tell you there's a world of difference. It's also a lot better for you.

I was determined to make my own sourdough bread, and whole wheat if possible. I ordered a dried culture. This one from South Africa is supposed to be especially good for whole wheat, but you can get cultures from all over the world, and they are all a little different. 

(You can also start your own, by leaving out a mixture of flour and water for a few days, but that sounded a little dicey for a beginner.)

I mixed up the dried culture with flour and water and put it in the oven to proof. 

But I soon learned that my oven proofs too warm. The starter went wild, foamed over the top of the jars, then collapsed! 

It had, basically, eaten itself. 

And I can tell you, it smelled terrible!! Think a mixture of acetone and dirty gym socks!!

Help! Back to the sourdough bread book and YouTube. Never fear, I learned. A good sourdough culture is hard to kill. This one could be revived! After five days of twice a day dividing and feeding more flour and water, the sourdough starter finally looked and smelled (heavenly) just like I thought it should. 

It was time to bake! Here's my little helper (granddaughter Wren) starting the dough.

Then it went into the mixer for kneading (not doing this by hand anymore!) then an overnight rise.

Yay! It worked!

Then a half hour rest--

Then shaping and another few hours rise--

Then, finally, baking!

I'm sorry to say there is no photo of the baked loaf because WE ATE HALF OF IT as soon as it was cool enough to slice.

And oh my gosh it was good.  

Not perfect--it could have risen more--but it was so amazingly delicious that the loaf barely lasted a day. There is just nothing that compares to the smell and taste of freshly baked sourdough bread bread.

I used unbleached organic flour, because that is what was recommended for starting out. So the next challenge is adding some whole wheat to the recipe.

But in the meantime, every time you activate your refrigerated starter, you are supposed to divide it in half. (And feed it!) 

But what are you supposed to do with your ever multiplying jars of sourdough starter??? 

Help needed!

Has anyone else tackled the sourdough adventure?

And if you have any fresh-baked bread memories, please share with us!