Sourdough starter is a living stuff.  It needs to be fed. It will reproduce (grow) if fed, watered and kept warm. It doesn’t like chemicals like chlorine (bleach!) or fluoride.  It slows down when cold. So much like us.

So feed it and water when you want it to grow. Give it the same amount as it is. (if you have a cup of starter, add a cup of flour and a cup of water.)  If you want to use it soon, use warm water. If you want to use it later use cold water. If you don’t want it to grow, feed it, use cold water and put it back in the fridge.

When it gets hungry it produces a liquid…. Yellow or grayish and it smells more sour.It's called "hootch"  (because it smells like cheap beer).  If you like the sour taste stir in the liquid and use it. If you don’t like the sour taste, pour off the liquid and proceed.

For bread that I want to bake with in about 6 hours I will use more starter and warm water.  If I want it to raise over night, then I use less starter and cool water.  If I want to be sure that all the gluten/carbs (or what ever it is that is fermenting)  has a chance to break down, then it can go through a “twice rise”…..

So to start in the late morning and have bread for evening: 2 cups active starter, ¾ cup warm water, 1 heaping teaspoon of real salt, 1/3 cup olive oil or butter or coconut oil and about 3 cups of flour.  That all goes in the KitchenAid stand mixer (greatest kitchen tool ever made!!) bowl and kneaded with a dough hook.  Add flour as needed so that the dough is “twirling on it’s bottom” as it rotates in the bowl. It should clean the sides of the bowl.

SIDE NOTE: If you use whole wheat flour, put in about 3 ½ cups, mix until incorporated and then turn off the mixer for about 10 minutes to let the flour re-hydrate.   If you just keep going with the kneading, the bread will be dryer. (I like a soft moist bread.) Then continue with the kneading.

Turn the dough out onto the counter and shape into two loaves. Round or not. Long and skinny or not. Or shape like a loaf. Or put it into a bread tin aka a loaf pan. If I use a loaf pan, I spray it with a cooking spray that is not canola. Otherwise I put it on parchment paper.  Then I spray a parchment paper lightly and place over the loaves and cover that with a lightweight dishtowel. This keeps the top of the loaf from getting crusty hard as it rises.  When it is doubled or as big as you would like it to be…. Heat the oven to 350, bake for 34-37 minutes. The crust will be pale. Sickly looking. But the loaf should sound hollow when you tap it.  As soon as it comes out of the oven, brush the top with butter. Somehow that has worked to magically “goldenize” the crust. At least usually.  Enjoy. AFTER it is cool, store in plastic bags. If you are going to share with a friend, use the Red Riding Hood method of a nice basket with a tea towel wrapped around the loaf as you skip off down the path of friendship.

I don’t slash the loaves.  I don’t bake in a hot oven. I don’t put water in the oven. I don’t like crusty bread that leaves a trail of crumbs.


This is some information that I have gleaned from various online sites about sourdough nutrition: 

Sourdough bread preparation improves nutrition by:

·         pre-digesting starches, making the bread more easily digestible

·         lowering insulin response/improving glucose tolerance

·         protecting Vitamin B1 from the damage of the heat of baking

·         breaking down gluten, which may result in a bread that gluten-sensitive people can eat

·         activating phytase to hydrolyze (dissolve) the phytates, thus freeing up minerals such as:

o   zinc, iron, magnesium, copper, phosphorus
Read more at http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/03/05/food-for-thought-health-benefits-of-sourdough/#Hvzmx3rBiMPxggS8.99 

Ah yes, what I have learned being unemployed. 
Today I made laundry soap. Again.  I have made several batches and read all the recipes for grating and boiling and stirring and setting and frankly I am tired of it. Once I made it and it totally separated and after it was a fluffy dry white mass (that crumbled when I looked at it) floating on some yellow liquid: I threw it away. Dumped it right down the sink. But I tried again after I found this recipe during one of my reading days... http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/02/no-grate-homemade-laundry-soap.html
 It was the easiest and used boiling water, borax, washing soda and Dawn dish washing liquid. I made a jug at a time in no time at all.  Literally it would take me about 4 minutes to make enough for 3 weeks.
  But the bar of Fels Naptha sat in the bag waiting to be used.  And I couldn't  waste it. So I put it in a quart jar and filled it with hot water.  It sat on the counter for a week and each time I walked by I swirled the contents of the jar until it started to remind me of lemon pudding. So I cranked out a batch today.  1/4 cup each of Borax and washing soda stirred into about a cup of boiling water (I microwaved it in a glass measuring cup).  After it dissolved  I poured in in the jug and added a 1/4 cup of the liquid from around the bar of Fels Napta. There is still a sizable chunk of soap in the jar but the liquid around had the consistency of egg whites.
And then I shook the jug. And it looks great. I could add 4 gallons of water and use 2 cups per load (tongue in cheek!) but who wants a 5 gallon pail taking up space in the laundry room.  So I will use about a fourth of a cup per load and see if that gets the laundry clean. I don't want to over think this. And I will post photos tomorrow. Which is today. Cus it is midnight and I am sitting in amazement that the weather man was right on this time. Freezing rain at midnight. Hitting my window at midnight. I wish I had a job where I was right 1 out of 5 times and still had everyone listening to me!

just a note:  I love this stuff. It is working well for me. But next week after my 7th grade son does his science experiment on it I will let you know how it compares to the Tide laundry detergent that I have left purchased laundry detergent I have left.