Hello all. I'm spanking new to the sourdough scene. So, I'm
posting my sourdough Trip Report.

Over the past few years I've become fascinated with making dough. It
started with pizza dough, then went to bm bread, and then I ditched the
bm and went to mixing by hand. Then I added pasta and Ravioli my
arsenal. Now sourdough!

Here's my story... All comments, advice, and even flames are
welcome.

First starter was tossed out because it was made with milk and flour
and stunk horribly sour after a few days. Second starter was also
chucked out because it was mixed with a metal spoon in a metal bowl. I
guess this is a no no and I didn't want to take any chances.
Finally, my current starter was made of flour and water and has been
out on the counter in a glass jar for almost 3 weeks now. Room temp is
about 64-67 degrees. It's about the consistency of pancake batter.
Every 24 hours I dump about a third into the garbage and replace the
missing starter with flour and water. I have a rubber band around it
to mark the level so I can track how much it rises and falls. The 3
inches of are rising about 1 inch or more every feeding.

After doing more research yesterday, I though maybe I wasn't feeding
it often enough. So I fed it after 12 hours and this time I dumped
half, instead of a third, to give my pets more 'food'. It rose 2
inches or more. Most of the bubbles were on the top but there were
also bubble thru-out the starter.

The reason I'm not keeping it in the fridge yet is I want to really
make this thing thrive. I figure the more cycles I put this yeast
through, the stronger it will get. In the fridge, I'm guessing it
will only go through 4 to 8 cycles a month. Besides they didn't have
refrigerators 500 years ago. I want to learn how to make it double in
size before I make my first loaf. Once I get it to make a decent loaf
I'll slow it down in the fridge. I'm getting very close.

Today I made pancakes for the first time. (with no extra Leaveners!!!)
I just used 2/3c starter, 1/2c flour or more, 1/2c water or less, 1T
honey,1/8t salt, 1T melted butter, 1 egg yoke, 1 beaten until peaked
egg white (I was in a hurry - measurements are approximate). I wanted
to let the batter sit in the 100 degree oven for an hour, but I only
had 20 minutes. It bubbles were rising to the top.

They Browned nicely! They were very yummy! I ate one off of the
griddle and I was decent. It had a unique flavor. Once the syrup and
a tad of butter were added, oh my! They were great! They didn't
rise as nicely as I'd hope but I'm thinking that my little yeasties
only had 20 minutes to do their thing. Next time I'll wait at least
an hour and see what happens. I know baking soda or powder would give
it a little fluff, but I just can't get myself to use any lifters.
(Btw, if you didn't know, the secret to golden brown pancakes like
the restaurants is NOT to grease or butter the griddle.)

Now I'm really getting antsy to make my first loaf. Using commercial
yeast is 100% not and option either! Flour Water Salt! That's it!
Ok maybe sugar, Maybe! Maybe Easter Sunday I'll give it a whirl.

~TD wrote:
> Hello all. I'm spanking new to the sourdough scene. ..

HI TD congrats on getting your starter going.

I'd say you still aren't feeding enough. Either triple the volume three
times a day or as I'm doing at the moment, and I'm really pleased with
it, I'm multiplying by 5 or 6 twice a day. Some might gasp at this as
they did when I said a tripled three times a day but it works great for
my starter. I found it best at batter consistency but to be honest I
prefer handling a dryer starter so I make it at this consistency for
just one of the feeds. With this increase you really don't want to be
keeping too much starter as you can go from just a couple of teaspoons
to two kilos of bread in 36 hours. I love this method. It's quick and
tasty. : -)

TG

TG, Thanks for the advice! I fed my starter more flour and water more
often and it at least tripled on the first feeding! I was too excited
to put my starter through another cycle, so I attempted my first loaf.


First loaf a super success! I went off of "My Favorite Sourdough"
listed in the FAQs.

I added Add 1.5 cups of starter, 2 cups of luke-warm water and 2.5 cups
of AP flour. Mixed and let sit for 6 hours overnight. It was huge
when I woke up. Almost tripled. Then I took out a cup for ongoing
starter. Then mixed togther 1.5 cups of hot (110*-140*) water, 2 T
nonsalted butter, 2 T Sugar, 2 t Salt in a bowl and blended until
butter is fully melted, sugar and salt is mostly desolved and tempature
is 100*. I added this liquid to the sponge (I think its called sponge)
and mixed in about 3 cups of King Aurthurs French Bread flour. I
placed plastic wrap over the bowl and let the dough sit for 20 minutes
to rest.

I dusted the work surface with flour and dumped the dough out on the
flour. I Very quickly cleaned the bowl with water and grease the inside
with butter. Then I poured a sprinkle of flour on top of the dough and
begin to knead the dough for about 15 minutes adding as little flour as
possible. The dough was still pretty soft. Put dough in bowl and
cover with olive oil painted plastic wrap. I left for work and the
dough rose from 6:30am to 8:30am. Here's where my wife took over. She
said it more than doubled by 8:30am She pressed it down fliped and
folded it and took our son to gymnastics. It rose a lot again for 90
minutes. Then she pressed, fliped, folded, and cut it in half to form
2 loaves and placed on lightly greased cookie sheet. She Covered
lightly with a olive oil painted plastic wrap for 10 minutes and let
rise. Not much activity or rising happen. She then uncovered and
slashed bread. She let rise uncovered for 15 minutes. She then put
the sheet on middle rack in 425* heated oven with pan of water at the
bottom. Crank oven to 450 and Spray about 5 squirts of water in the
oven every 2 minutes for the first 10 minutes. Turn the oven to 350
and let it cook until gets a shade before golden brown. She then Shut
off the oven and open the door about 3 inches and let sit for about 45
to an hour (sorry don't remember how long). It had a really nice
ovenspring and rose better then most of the breads I've made before. I
took it out of the oven and realized all was golden brown except the
bottom of the loaves. I put the loaves directly on the fibrament stone
and 5 minutes later they were very golden brown.

The taste was amazing. It seemed as if some bites had a more sour
flavor than others. This was better than most of my french loaves.
The crust was perfect. Hard and crusty and the inside was soft and
even moist. The air pockets were small and even. I still can't
believe this whole thing went off without a hitch. I took pictures and
may post.

Next time I will let it rise a little less in for the first 2 raise
sessions, so it will hopfully rise more after I shape the loaves. I
will as make deeper slashes than my wife (it was her first time
slashing).

I need to do more experimenting with my stone. I know how to use it
for Pizza but don't understand how to do bread without burning the
bottom.

~TD wrote:
> TG, Thanks for the advice! I ....> I need to do more experimenting with my stone. I know how to use it
> for Pizza but don't understand how to do bread without burning the
> bottom.

Hi TD,
You're welcome, I'm glad it worked well for you. This way of feeding
the starter has made a huge improvement in my bread. : -)

I took some inspiration from Mr Adams a while ago and I don't use a
sponge anymore. I feed the final dough with around the same proportion
of starter as I suggested for feeding the starter. It works great for
my taste. It works out to around 1.5 cups of starter to 5 or 6 cups of
flour. (Assuming you use a batter type starter). (20-25% inoculation) I
also took inspiration from the proofing times and proof for around 12
hours too. I don't knock the dough back these days as it seems to make
the dough lighter and taste batter. Give it a shot on part of the dough
and see what you think. Good luck. Oh, when you're confident with the
method you can try retarding the dough. I find this works better for me
with my schedule.

About the stone. Don't worry about it for now. A growing number of us
don't bother. I use cornmeal on a cookie sheet. Woks fine and I love
the taste.

TG