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Sourdough!! Complicated, expensive, time-consuming...NO! As I watched the pandemic creep across the world soon just after our move to this lil' farm, I also watched as sourdough became a hot topic online. I had been making white and whole wheat sourdough breads (without yeast) weekly for years to sell at farmer's markets. I knew the complications as I had fed our 75 hogs A LOT...did I say A LOT of raw dough and flopped loaves when I began learning! I was following King Arthur Flour's recipe back in the day but couldn't get my bread to look like my old reliable whole wheat bread loaves. What was the problem? In retrospect I had an IMMATURE starter that couldn't handle the rise.
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| Wouldn't this have been a good sale's pitch for Colvin Family Farm pork? "Raised on Fermented Sourdough!" |
As the months passed, my bread started to take on a semblance of a nicer loaf. My customers that had requested sourdough bread were ever patient and encouraging as I then began bringing these loaves to market just for them. I often hid them under the table until they came to our tent! By the next marketing season I was fermenting large batches of my bread in five gallon buckets and the loaves rose beautifully. You couldn't tell the difference between my sourdough and the regular whole wheat loaves by just looking. My customers wanted white sourdough also like they had seen at Amish markets. We called the white sourdough, sweet sourdough and the whole wheat sourdough, sour sourdough. Sour? Yes, because of the freshly milled hard white wheat that I was using was a more live and active food for the cultures, and they thrived! Besides being more healthy, they tasted a bit more sour. What advice can I give to a beginner? Well, let's demystify sourdough today.
I'm saddened how the online world has complicated the process of sourdough with many technical details about hydration levels, apocalypse stages, feeding times and schedules. These are professional terms that can stay in the bakeries. The process can be a lot easier for home bakers!
You will of course need a sourdough starter. It's ok if you've hid it in the back of the refrigerator like I did. After my first few flops, I hid it so it didn't "stare" at me every time I went in the frig! It was nearly black with age. It had been a gift from a friend, and I was a failure! If that starter can make a comeback, your starter can too!
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| This was after feeding it for a couple of days. I originally bought mine from Cultures for Life. This site has a lot of great free downloadable books! |
If you don't have a starter, there are many tutorials online on how to grow one, but I recommend buying this sourdough starter . (Different source than the above site.) This blogger is another mom who also has a great cookbook I've used and recommend also. The starter costs only a dollar, whereas most people are out to make a buck...PLUS. Don't be fooled by claims of a San Francisco starter or a hundred year old starter. Any special starter that lives in your kitchen a few months will have adapted to the yeast in your kitchen. It's not worth the extra price.
Once your starter comes in the mail, REJOICE for the fun is about to begin! We're not jumping right into bread as there are some fundamentals to learn beforehand.
When the package comes, DON'T open it right away. Be prepared for it to possibly POP and maybe you'll not loose some like I did years ago! When my gifted starter arrived, I took the top off an incredible small bottle (1 oz.) and lost about half of it on the floor. I was sick! That tiny bottle cost $20! So, be prepared with a small bowl and aim it towards the bowl.
Please trust me with the rest of my advice as it goes against what you'll read elsewhere. When I downsized my baking after "retiring" from baking for markets I only knew the hydration level world...adding equal amounts of flour and water to the same amount of starter I had by weight. I stuck with my scales and had a running math equation on the side of my refrigerator that helped me know how much of each I needed to add considering the weight of my jar. I felt proud of myself that I didn't have to wash the jar each time! But I just wanted to feed my starter quickly and move on instead of playing kitchen chemist!
One night as I was taking my flour out of the refrigerator to feed my sourdough starter a thought came to me. The ladies who traveled on the Oregon Trail didn't have digital scales to measure their ingredients! They made bread daily without all the Internet advice! I knew how it was supposed to look when done, so why not try just mixing it by feel? I had a back up starter in the freezer to save me if I killed this one. I took my jar of refrigerated sourdough starter and held it under lukewarm running water. Next I stirred it with a spatula. It was pretty soupy. With a growing lump in my throat I put in enough flour to make a slightly "thickish" pancake type batter. After stirring it well to make sure there were no pockets of flour, I put the cover on my jar and went to bed, praying for God's mercy as I walked down the hall!
The next morning I was greeted by a jar of bubbly starter! With one reckless success under my belt I took another bold move and used the starter as my flour in making pancakes. My usual recipe called for just a bit of starter with flour and water the night before. Well, that's what I had just done before bed. So I used my starter for my morning pancakes! When breakfast turned out FINE, I knew I was onto something similar to the gals traveling west. I've since discovered how resilient sourdough is, and you don't need to be a chemist to use it!
Here's what I did:
1. Add water to starter to make it a thin, watery mixture.
2. Add enough flour to your watery sourdough to make it have a slightly thick pancake batter consistency.
3. Mix well.
4. Cover and set on your counter for a couple of hours if you are going to refrigerate it. (This slows the fermentation, kind of like putting it on hold so you have it ready to use anytime you need it in the next 5 days or so.) If you are preparing to make something, wait 4 hours before you use it.
I hear you! BUT WHAT IF....What if I get the ratios off? What if I add too much water? What if I mess this up? Believe me, it is VERY hard to kill a starter while feeding it. You kill one by NOT FEEDING it. If I'm wanting a lot of starter for bread, I can add more water and flour than usual and the starter seems to feed to the capacity of the food source. It's really kind of COOL!
There are many options to fermenting your starter. I believe for sourdough to become a steady habit, it must be manageable. I shouldn't have to set alarms to keep me feeding, discarding (don't do it!) or whatever the big name bakers say. We're all busy, so let the starter work for you, not you for the starter!
Once you've added water and flour to your starter, cover it and let it sit on your counter. In the warmer weather fruit flies like to hover above mine. (They appear from nowhere!) In some of the pictures you may see a piece of Mylar/plastic wrap that I keep between my cover and the jar. This helps a lot. I like to feed mine in the evening as it will be ready to go by morning. If I'm not going to use for breakfast I PUT IT IN THE REFRIGERATOR for a slower fermentation before going to bed. I can use it straight out of the refrigerator anytime in the next five or so days. By then it will be wanting another feeding. Just as long as I use it sometime during the week it will eventually get fed again. This is the KEY TO AVOIDING DISCARDING any of your starter, which is so wasteful.
*Feed sourdough.
*Let it sit on your counter, covered for at least 4 hours if you are going to use it immediately.
*If you just want it on hand for quick recipes, let it sit on the counter about 2 hours (don't set a timer!) and then put it in the refrigerator. (I have to put my domed lid upside down in the frig for it to fit.) When you want to make pancakes, English muffins, crepes, or any other simple recipe, just pull it out and use it.
*If you plan on making bread, feed your sourdough and leave out for 4-12 hours before beginning your bread.
2 Cups of fed Sourdough Starter
2 Eggs
1/4 cup of melted butter
1/16th of a teaspoon of stevia powder or 1 T. honey/maple syrup
1/2 t. salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1. Since this mixes up quickly, preheat your skillets or griddle first. I use two cast iron skillets to make the process quicker.
2. In a large batter bowl, add all your ingredients EXCEPT your baking soda. Don't let your butter get too hot as it will kill your starter. (I melt mine in the microwave.) Just before you begin to make the pancakes, add the baking soda, mashing any lumps through a lil' fine sieve. Mix well, watching the batter foam up! (Gather the children around as this is fun to watch and is science at its best!)
3. By this time your skillets are ready to go! Test if you must by dropping a lil' water on them. If they drops "dance" on your pan, they're ready to make pancakes. Spray your skillets with coconut oil. (You won't have to do this more than once in my experience.)
4. I use a 1/3 C. measuring cup to pour the batter on the pans and spread the dough a bit with the back of the measuring cup. By the time I get the last pancake poured, the first is very close to ready to be flipped. Flip only once. Make sure you are cooking them all the way through. I put the finished pancakes onto a cookie sheet in a 200 degree oven to keep them warm till serving. Repeat!
You may be asking why I think recipes like this simple one is important. Well, I could have avoided feeding our hogs all the dough and dense loaves when I first began if I just fed our family (there were 12 of us at home at the time) these pancakes or the waffle recipe below! For a sourdough starter to be strong enough to raise bread, it will need about 3 months of consistent feedings. So I recommend learning to feed your starter and use it a couple times a week before starting to work on making a good loaf of sourdough bread.
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| One happy hog! |
Like any new skill, it must fit into your daily routine without ruling you. You will never get into the routine of using sourdough if it's hard to fit into your day. Like I said above, learn with some basic recipes first. Here is one more of our favorite ways to use sourdough. By making these recipes a few times it will not only build your confidence, it will strengthen your starter, readying it for bread making!
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| Quick Sourdough Waffles 2 Cups fed sourdough starter 2 eggs 1/4 Cup melted Butter (not too hot) 1/2 t. salt 2 T. honey or 1/8 t. stevia powder 1 t. Vanilla 1 t. baking soda 1. Preheat waffle iron(s) (I picked up a few at thrift stores to make breakfast prep quicker. 2. In a large batter bowl, add all your ingredients except for the baking soda. Mix well with a spoon. 3. Add baking soda by pressing it through a small sieve with the back of a spoon. Mix again. 4. Spray hot waffle iron well with coconut oil. (This only has to be done once.) 5. Using a ladle, add a bit of batter to the waffle iron. I spread it out a bit with the back of the ladle. If you put too much in it will overflow. You'll need to experiment with your waffle maker to know best. 6. Cook each waffle for 3 to 4 minutes or until your waffle iron signals it's done. Adjust to your liking. 7. Place waffles in a 225 degree oven on a cookie sheet to keep warm till serving. |
To let you know just how resilient sourdough starter can be I'd like to share an embarrassing story. I've been developing a REAL easy bread recipe for this blog. (It'll be in part two of this blog.) I've been experimenting on how much I can abuse it and still get a decent loaf of bread. I've taken away folds, changed the flour, (it was a white flour recipe to begin with) and used slack starter and even SOFT wheat that shouldn't make a decent loaf of bread! Well, the last time I made my artisan sourdough bread I prepared the night before "as usual". I took my jar of starter from the refrigerator, added water to it, and stirred it. At this point I got distracted with supper, or a teenager, or who knows what and that's where I unknowingly left the feeding process. The next morning I took my "fed" starter and began making bread. As I measured my sourdough starter I noticed it was runny. I was just finishing up when it hit me! The starter was thin because I hadn't added flour when I fed the dough the evening before! Well, I thought. This will be the ultimate test to see how sourdough behaves with abuse! Feeling pretty dumb, I went through the folds and rests and noticed how the dough responded as usual! What my sourdough needed was flour, and by making the bread it got what it needed. The recipe should be added to a book entitled "Sourdough for Dummies"! The picture at the top of this blog is one of those loaves that I thought were lost! So if that batch can come out well and a starter live, it should be the perfect beginner's loaf!
Order or make a sourdough starter today! Use these basic recipes and your starter will be ready for my new sourdough bread recipe in the weeks to come!
1. Add water to starter to make it a thin, watery mixture.
2. Add enough flour to your watery sourdough to make it have a pancake batter consistency.
3. Mix well.
4. Cover and set on your counter for a couple of hours if you are going to refrigerate it for a slow ferment. If you are preparing to make something, wait 4 hours.
5. Use straight from the refrigerator for pancakes, waffles, pizza crusts, crepes and MORE!
I'll be back with part 2 as soon as possible. I know you want to hear how to make a great sourdough loaf with minimal technical details! I'm loving the freedom my sourdough now gives me!
Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Jude 24,25
Abundant Blessings,
Val Colvin
The Farmer's Wife
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| We're closing in on finishing our home renovation! Steve put on a new roof, a back "porch" dining room/patio and has removed the siding from the house. He is installing new windows and lap siding too! |
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| The living room has taken on a new look! |
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| The house with new smart siding and new windows. It feels like a new house! |
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The living room window was huge, cloudy and broken so it wouldn't open. Steve replaced it with three workable windows. |
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| Green Onions |
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| We pulled all our beets last week and enjoyed a large pot for supper before canning the rest. We got 13 quarts of beets and (below) 18 quarts of beet/Swiss Chard greens. |
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| Beets! If you think you don't like beets, try them in your garden to see how truly sweet they are straight from God's hand to you! |
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| Our lettuce was rolling in until the weather went over 95 degrees OVERNIGHT! The spring lettuce shot up, bolting while all the tiny summer transplants sizzled. Now we are waiting for the summer lettuce to mature. I'm spoiled to huge two gallon Ziplocs of fresh lettuce in my refrigerator! |
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| I cut our first harvest of broccoli last week also. Broccoli must like minimal watering since we've had a DRY spring. We use drip irrigation fed from our well to water. |
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| I don't remember harvesting cleaner broccoli! There wasn't a worm in the batch! |
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| We've begun to harvest our summer crops. Oh the possibilities are endless with squash, zucchini, cucumbers and broccoli added to the lineup in my refrigerator! |
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| Charity and I dehydrated squash while we were busy in the kitchen. Honestly, I'm not thrilled with squash's preserving methods. Freezing it takes a lot of space that we're trying to cut down on this year in the freezers, and it is VERY watery when you take it out to use it. Dehydrating it limits how I can use it. I let a slice sit in a tiny bowl of water for 3 days and it didn't get to a consistency I felt good about. Then I overheard a conversation at church about how the old-timers used to preserve it in vinegar and water. A lightbulb went on in my head! I put okra up just like that and we LOVE it. So, today I'm going to try that method. I'm excited! |
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| We froze 10 gallon bags of broccoli spears from our first picking! Some things just have to go in the freezer. |
Like I've mentioned in the past I love to learn something new each growing season. This year I've taken my love of flowers and cottage gardens and have taken the challenge of flower farming on a very small scale. I'm growing around 35 different flowers along with the perennial flowers and herbs that are already in my gardens. The new varieties are bred to be used in arrangements. I'm experimenting with the abundance of greenery that grows in the fence rows and along the side of our lil' road to add to my arrangements. I don't expect to be an expert this season, but it sure is fun learning!
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| A look of the cottage garden from the canning garden angle. |
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| Balloon Flower |
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| Yarrow |
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| Echinacea |
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| I've learned to burn holes into landscape fabric to plant annuals into. |
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| Daisy |
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| Plum Sunflower |
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| Sunflowers |
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| Levi is making me rock pathways from rocks from a nearby quarry's trash pile! Photos by Charity |
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| I learned to support my flowers so storms don't blow them over! |
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| Bachelor's buttons |
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| Snap Dragons growing through the support netting. |
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| Daisies and Chinese Forget-Me-Nots |
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| Arrangements for church |
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| I harvested about 143 heads of garlic and left them in the canning garden to cure since it has been so dry. Well, that's how you get a whopping storm to pellet your farm! Steve and Levi rescued them the next day and they are drying on our potato curing rack now in our garage. |
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Garlic curing in the field. ha ha! |