Day 7 If you are behind

Elisabeth or Chef Cathy, can you share a link to the you-tube video?

We made the bread using my starter - which was all organic white flour - plus organic rye & whole wheat. We cut the amount of yeast by 2/3, from 1 1/2 T to just 1/2 T, as Mom was afraid to use just sourdough. It didn't seem to rise that great on the counter but it really puffed up in the oven! I was expecting a stronger sour taste though, but it wasn't. I put what's left of the starter in the fridge and will take it out a few days before the next batch.

When you are first learning sourdough - go ahead and add the typical yeast if you want. This is all about learning to add and use sourdough - even if you are not "purist". The ideal is the long slow rise of sourdough, for digestion and bio-availability of good nutrients. Adding some sourdough to a fast rise yeast is at least better than not, and making your own bread is better than not. So go along as you can, always stepping yourself up when you can.

Thanks Elisabeth! We have been making bread (not sourdough) with our own adaptation of the Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day book / method. So for that bread it is 3 c water 1 1/2 Tablespoon yeast 1 1/2 T salt and then enough flour to make a dough - about 6 1/2 cups - we use about 2 c of rye, a cup and a half of wheat & the remaining 3 c white (unbleached). My quart jar of sourdough (made with just white flour) is probably 3 c. flour at least, and probably 3 c water too... so I'm thinking just adding salt and the other flours (rye and whole wheat) to that & mixing it and letting it rise... The last time we made bread (we still have some left) i was just beginning the sourdough challenge and just added the sourdough - i think it was about 2 cups - to the regular bread recipe.

Hi Yvonne! I just used the sourdough starter that we made. I had to throw out my first one because it had mold on it. My second one is doing great though. I pour out half every 12 hours and feed it again because my house is warm and it seems to go quickly. I used half organic rye and half organic white this time. On the 7th day I made the bread. I thought it would not be strong enough to rise yet but it did! Good look with your bread and let me know how it goes~Elisabeth

Elizabeth, that's awesome. Did you use any yeast in the bread or was the starter the only leavening? I'm going to make some bread in a couple days. I made oatmeal cookies with it today - taking them to the library lunch tomorrow - they came out great!

And Chef Cathy that's great - i didn't realize you can freeze it! How do you make it active again after it has been frozen?

Awesome Elisabeth! thank you for sharing. Yes - active is the key when you are using it. I usually make all sorts of things when I have alot of active starter, then freeze them. That way I can maximize my hot oven, and consolidate my "mess" and clean up. Then you can store the starter in the fridge until you want to do another round of baking - you can also freeze the starter - or a small amount - to give away or to have in for yourself

Chef Kathy, I wanted to tell you that I made my first sourdough bread yesterday and it came out amazing! I followed a recipe from you tube and used my sourdough starter. It is very bubbly and active now and the bread tasted great. I don't have a scale or even any measuring cups. I just eyeballed the water and flour amounts. Also I don't have a Dutch oven so I just sprayed my oven with water from a spray bottle and cooked the loaf on an oven tray. I have baked bread often in the past, but never with sourdough so this was a new adventure! Thanks again for the challenge and I look forward to your class. PS I have also made English muffins, pancakes and tortillas! Once my starter got more active, everything came out alot better.

Thank you.

This is just a starter, where you need to keep feeding it - you can throw out the batter as you go here - as you produce the starter because this is accumulating the correct and lively bacterial counts that it needs to work. So I hate throwing it out but yes - it doubles - so if you dontt want so much just keep doubling, say a cup of it. It is the "condensed" amount of critters you want in there - not the amount of starter. And - yes - go ahead and refridgerate it after you are done - once you have gotten the concentration - dont refriderate the in beween batters - it wont be complete. All you need to do to start another baking project is to take it out of the fridge, let it come back to room temp and give it a feeding to make it active again.

Oh and the English muffins - i used about a cup or slightly more of starter (didn't measure just eyeballed), a little salt, about a half teaspoon of baking soda, and enough whole wheat flour to make the right consistency. (My starter is all unbleached flour). I used the ball jar tops and it made 3 muffins. I used a cast iron skillet for the 'griddle'. One ran over because i filled it too full. I didn't add any liquid (egg or milk) because i didn't want tons of muffins.

Chef Cathy that brings me to another point... I realize this system won't work for me because i don't bake every day! Or eat pancakes every day! I need a starter that i can keep in the fridge and just take out ever couple weeks or so. Not one that keeps doubling in size and growing me out of house and home! I did put what was left in the jar (quite a bit, about 3 cups) in the fridge and haven't fed it since i made the English muffins.

I had the same issue, Elizabeth. They were heavy and gluey, as if they didn't rise enough, although there were lots of air bubbles which would say they did... I looked up sourdough English muffins on line too, and all were made with milk, not an egg - but the egg should make it lighter. I didn't put anything in mine and cut the recipe to 1/4 because there are only two of us and i can't eat that much! We still have more than one loaf of bread left from the bread we made when i was just starting the starter.

Hi Chef Cathy, I made my English muffins today and they came out tasting well but the texture is wrong. The dough is very dense, heavy and gluey. There was no rise or any lightness. I added baking soda, an egg, a little bit of honey and no oil or milk because my starter was already runny. I added organic white flour until the consistency was right. Perhaps I did not stir it enough? Would love to know your thoughts. I will try again tomorrow. Also I signed up for your course and am really excited! Thanks, Elisabeth

Chef Cathy can you give tips for storing your starter or making it go dormant?

Hello Chef Cathy,

I am a little overwhelmed with the amount of sourdough. Not sure when we will make bread again as we still have the bread we made when i was just starting the sourdough.

I do plan to make English muffins today. First, for other participants, you may want to resend the .pdf of the recipe. Mine was upside down and I wasn't sure how to turn it around. Although i guess if you print it it wold be OK.

Since we have the book, i looked in there. When you were making this in the forum you used an egg and i don't remember you using any milk. The recipe lists milk but no egg. Which is it, or doesn't it matter?

I'm only going to make 2 English muffins, for our breakfast. I'm leaning towards using one egg and just enough flour to make the batter the right consistency... or maybe i won't use anything at all since i really want to use the sourdough. I'll let everyone know how they turn out. I didn't make pancakes since we're not big pancake eaters.