So in a fit of domesticity I decided I needed a bread maker to make my own bread because the only part I dislike about bread making is the kneading right? (thats probably a lie but its what I tell myself). So I picked up this beauty (and for only $5):
(not my actual bread maker, but its the exact same as the one I have.)
And then I said, well if I have a bread maker then I should make sourdough starter so I can use it to make sourdough. Simple enough, we made a lot of sourdough as a kid. I thought though that I wanted to make like...really good sourdough bread so I wanted to look around for a different starter then the basic one my mom used (equal amounts of flour and water and a pinch of yeast). I kept coming across yeastless recipes..apparently this is the way that "real" sourdough is made and starter made from bakers yeast will never have the same complexity. Instead you take advantage of natural yeast and bacteria (hopefully good bacteria..) in your home environment to ferment the starter. Hmm, sounds...science-y....and yay! culturing microorganisms!!!
So this is what I did, I mixed 2 cups of flour (apparently I should use whole wheat or rye flour because it has more natural yeast...I was not making a special trip to the store, I used bread flour) with 2 cups of warm water, 2ish tablespoons of sugar and a bit of salt and here she is:
Just mixed up and ready to...ferment....
and just 3 hours later:
Already starting to get some...growing....action...truth be told I am more then a little nervous as to what kinds of things are growing in there, but I have been assured by several websites that as long as the liquidy layer is not pink and that after a few days it has a fresh, fermented, beer like smell and not a bad just sour smell then its good to go...
As the great Jeph Jacques once said in Questionable Content, baking, its like science for hungry people!
http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1679
