Sour Dough Starter recipes Do you have one?

AMISH FRIENDSHIP BREAD

Mix liquid ingredients well

1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup oil
½ cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Add dry ingredients

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp soda
1 box vanilla pudding
½ tsp salt
1 cup nuts

Mix until smooth as in any quick bread.

Grease loaf pans with Crisco and coat with sugar rather than flour. Bake at 325* for 1 hour. Makes 2 loaves.

*****A favorite variation:*****

Omit vanilla pudding and add 2/3 cup G F International coffee Suisse Mocca and 1 ½
cups choc. Chips.

Hope you enjoy! It is so good it is from family!

I went searching and found an interesting tidbit about making starter batters with no yeast...

From A World of Breads by Dolores Casella

" My Favorite Starter
Put 1 or 2 cups of milk in a glass or pottery container, cover with cheesecloth, and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours. Then stir in an equal amount of flour and stir to blend well. Cover with cheesecloth again and set the jar outdoors in a protected place, for 12 to 24 hours, until it starts to bubble and becomes full of bubbles. This will take from 2 to 5 days, depending on the weather and on the wild yeast cells in the air. Put the starter in a covered container, being careful to leave room enough in the container for the starter to rise if necessary without spilling over, and store it in the regridgerator. Each time it is used replenish the starter by stirring in equal amounts of milk and flour. My batch of starter is so good that I have on occasion used all but a few tablespoons of it and, upon stirring 1 cup of each milk and flour, had it bubbling immediately... " (p. 144-145)

The starter batter I use:
2 c. lukewarm water
1 packet active dry yeast (or 1/4 oz of the live stuff)
1 1/2 c. flour

Whisk together in a medium bowl. Cover loosely and set in warm, draft free place for 8-12 hours, or overnight. On average, makes 1 1/2 cups to 2 1/2 cups.

The book says to use 2 cups flour, and let it sit for 48 hours, but is otherwise the same.

reply to post by Diseria


Thanks for the info. I understand that there is a real science to making these starters. From what I can gather, the flavor is derived from the wild yeast present in the air at the time of fermentation.

I started this experimating in a different part of the city, and have never been able to duplicate that original flavor.

One time I started a new batch, and I woke up to the "Blob" growing in my kitchen. It had bubbled to beat the band. It had over flowed the crock I had it in, covered the counter, flowed down into the sink, down the side of the cabinet, into the silverware drawer, into the cabinet below, and all over the floor. What a mess! It took me over an hour and a half to clean it up. That was almost the end of my Sour Dough making. But I finally realized I used rapid rise yeast. Big mistake!!!!!

So, I am enjoying playing around with all of the new recipes you are all giving me. Thanks again.

Dr Love: the Las Vegas trip is off for now. Maybe next time I can try out the bread you suggested.

I am still waiting for the "Oregon Trail starter" Can't wait to try it.

Originally posted by PORCUPINEPIE
But I finally realized I used rapid rise yeast. Big mistake!!!!!

Yeah, NEVER use Rapid Rise yeast, not only may it overflow but it tends to die out quickly and doesn't form a starter mixture you can keep indefinitely.


I've never tried one of the no-yeast no-starter formulas yet, but I've read about them. From what I can tell it's kind of a misnomer to say that the yeast comes from the air. There are plenty of wild yeasts that were living on the wheat heads that are already in flour.

Originally posted by PORCUPINEPIE
I am still waiting for the "Oregon Trail starter" Can't wait to try it.

Did you get it yet?

reply to post by djohnsto77


No! I think I will send another SASE. I really am looking forward to getting it. Especially with the cooler weather upon us. There is nothing like the aroma of baking bread to signal Fall and Winter. You just can't beat it.

By the way, good to hear from you djohnsto77.

Hello all,

Have you tried using miso (the flavoring ingredient in miso soup) as a sourdough starter? Be sure to use traditionally brewed miso (preferably those sold in glass jars), since it has the most live cultures. Don't use misos sold in plastic bags, since those misos are nonliving due to being pastuerized...otherwise the bags would swell and break before purchase.

I use rice miso, although misos come in many varieties. The rice miso has the least salt, though, which should be minimized for sourdough recipe purposes since too much salt can slow down the chemical reactions.

Here is the procedure:

1 heaping TBSP of rice miso

2 cups of warm water (about body temperature).

2 cups of your favorite whole grain organic flour.

Dissolve the miso in about 1/4 cup of warm water. (It can be broken up with a chopstick in a very small amount of warm water.)

Combine dissolved miso with water and flour in a glass or ceramic bowl. Cover the bowl with a loose cover and place in a draft-free location in a reasonably warm room. (When making sourdough starter, I keep the starter bowl inside a large canner, with the lid on.)

Stir the starter at least once a day. After 2 days (3 at most) you will see bubbles rising in the starter and smell a yeasty smell. At that point the starter is ready to use. Refrigerate any unused starter and, as with any other starter, freshen it weekly by stirring in more flour and water.

Now that Southern California is finally starting to feel more fall-like, with some actual rain promised starting tomorrow, I started looking through information I collected on sourdough bread and sourdough starters. Here's what I found:

1. San Francisco sourdough bread doesn't use a special yeast, it uses a special oven. Commercial baking ovens there have an built-in automatic jet that sprays steam into the oven atmosphere during baking. At home, this effect can be achieved by putting a shallow pan of hot water at the bottom of the oven. Or, place an empty roasting pan in the bottom of the oven when you are ready to start pre-heating the oven; then place a few handfuls of ice cubes into the empty roasting pan after you have placed the shaped loaves into the oven to begin baking. Voila!

2. If you want a vegan sourdough starter without the use of nightshade vegetables (like potato) and without refined sugar, try this:

3 rutabagas (or 4 turnips), peeled, cubed, and cooked in 6 cups of water until they soften. Remove the vegetables from the broth to use in another recipe, and cool the broth to room temperature.
2 cups whole wheat flour (or whole spelt, if you have a wheat sensitivity).
1 cup of sweet brown rice flour (natural food stores sell whole sweet brown rice, which you can mill in a grinder or a Vita-Mix food processor or other food processor).
1 package dry regular yeast (Not rapid-rise yeast!).
3-4 cups of above-mentioned vegetable broth (cooled to room temperature).

It's best to avoid adding salt to a sourdough starter, since salt slows down the fermentation considerably. Add the powder or cake yeast to 1/2 cup of the cooled broth in a glass or plastic container, not metal. Let that soften for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, blend the flours together thoroughly in a glass, ceramic, or plastic container. Add the yeast mixture to 1/2 of the broth and stir to combine. Add this yeast/broth mixture to the bowl of combined flours and blend. Add as much of the remaining broth as needed to make a very soft, spongy mixture. Don't worry about any remaining lumps, since fermentation will dissolve those. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and set in a draft-free location (like a covered bucket) in a reasonably warm room overnight. (Cold rooms do not prevent fermentation, but they do slow it down.)

After 48 hours or so the mixture will become bubbly. Check it once a day and stir it if needed to deflate the sponge so that it will stay in the container! Depending on the air temperature of the room, 2 to 3 days maximum are needed. At that point, the starter will be ready to use. Store it in the refrigerator in a loose-topped container to allow fermentation gases to escape. Replenish weekly with 3/4 cup of lukewarm water and 1-2 cups of whole wheat or whole spelt flour; stir to combine and re-refrigerate. Give away what sourdough starter you can't use yourself.

Note: If you are pressed for time, you can jump-start the sourness of a new starter by adding 1/2 teaspoon of brown rice vinegar to the original sponge.

[edit on 11/24/2008 by Uphill]