Reposted from rec.food.sourdough. I've used this homemade starter
before to sour and flavor a loaf of bread made with instant dried
yeast because I didn't think it had enough wild yeast to raise the
dough. But I tried it without yeast this time and worked great, it
just took longer.

The bread is soft and kind of chewy, and the crust is thin and
crunchy. And if it behaves anything like the faux sourdough bread
I've made before, it'll stay fresh (mostly) for over a week without
petrifying or molding.

-Bob

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Finally made some *real* sourdough bread
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:31:27 -0600
From: zxcvbob >
Newsgroups: rec.food.sourdough

The starter was just flour and water that I've been feeding for a
while. Sometimes I use rye flour, but usually I use all purpose.

I put a pound of bread flour, and scant tsp of salt dissolved in a
cup of water in the bread machine. Added about a cup and a half of
starter, and ran the "dough" cycle. Two hours later, had a nice
very wet lump of dough that hadn't risen at all yet like it would've
had I used bakers yeast.

I turned it out into a greased Corningware casserole dish, then
flipped it over in the dish (so the top would be greased a little)
and put the lid on. Checked it an hour or two later and maybe it
had risen a little if I used my imagination...

So I let it sit out all night, and by this morning it has risen
nicely. I didn't dare punch it down. I put the lid on the
casserole dish and put it in a cold oven and turned the heat to 375.
Checked at about 35 minutes and it kind of looked done but not
browned at all and maybe a little moist in the center. I took the
lid off and baked another 10 minutes. It was nicely browned and
sounded right when I thumped it. I let it cool a little in the
dish, then turned it out and put it on a rack to finish cooling. I
squeezed it a little and the top crust was thin and had a nice crack
to it. Hopefully there's still some left when I get home :-)

[snip]

-Bob