Today’s recipe is a dish towel.
No, today’s recipe is under the dish towel.
No, that’s not it either. Today I’m showing how to start making a single ingredient that, in three days, will go into an actual recipe.
Yeah, that’s it.
Ingredients
1 package active dry yeast
1½ cups flour
2½ cups lukewarm water (not pictured, because I’m not about to take a picture of water)
Directions
Bread has been a staple of every human society since the beginning of agriculture. But I’d never made it from scratch.
Weird, huh?
I don’t know if I thought it was going to be harder than it was. Or maybe I’m just not into things that take so long to do. And this step is the one that stopped me. You have to do the sourdough starter two to three days before you plan to make the bread. Who plans that far ahead?
So yeah, it takes some planning. But actually doing it couldn’t be much easier.
Just empty a single yeast pack into a bowl. (My wife likes to rip it open to make sure she gets all of it.)
Add the water and stir.
Actually, that last step is one where you can mess up. It says up in the ingredients “lukewarm water”. How warm is luke? According to the back of my yeast pack — not the one I used the first time, the new one I went and bought — it’s between 105° and 115°.
That’s only written once on the back of the three-segment package, though. So my first try, the water wasn’t warm enough. And the yeast never activated. I went and bought some more, and saw the temperature range on that. Okay, so “lukewarm” is over 100°. Got it.
Now that I had warm-enough water, it started to bubble after about 15 minutes.
Once it’s going, add the flour and stir again.
You should still see it bubbling after adding the flour.
Cover the bowl and set it someplace warm for two to three days.
If you just have to peek — and I do — you’ll see plenty of bubbling after a couple of hours.
Stick around to see what this looked like three days later, and what I used it for.
For a bit of detail about “authenticity”, check out the comments below. Follow some of the links to see how seriously people take their breadmaking.
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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27 Comments
I don’t get along with yeast. Which is why the MiL makes the bread in our house. I knew we kept her around for something . . .
I love sour dough! Can’t wait to see how your bread comes out!
NOOOOOOOOOO!
You’re making a poolish which is a baking pre-ferment. Sourdough is wild yeast. Commercial yeast will produce a very nice poolish to incorporate into your bread and will drastically improve the flavor but it really isn’t sourdough.
Check out The Fresh Loaf for their excellent definitions and sourdough starter instructions.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/faqs/glossary
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/lessons/sourdough
Kristin, you think you don’t get along. I killed the first batch.
Stephanie, it was worth the wait.
Anonymous, I didn’t know the term “poolish”, but I did know that lots of sourdough comes from wild yeast and bacteria. That’s why San Francisco is famous for their sourdough — they have better wild yeast and bacteria out there.
But that’s not something that most people can count on. It’s hard enough for me to plan my baking three days out. Trying to do a wild yeast starter is a hit-or-miss affair. Unless you’ve already got a starter you’re happy with, you don’t know when or if you’ll get something you like.
So this may not be the most “authentic” sourdough, but it’s more predictable, and it is more sour than a loaf made without doing any fermenting.
And thanks for the links. Now that I’m a born-again bread maker, I’ll be looking for tips for a while.
I’m a fan of sourdough, can’t wait to try it out!
Hi! I made the starter, but it looks more ‘liquidy’ than yours. Did yours separate quite a bit? I want to make bread with it this weekend, but wanted to know if yours looked the same.
Nancy, take a look at the post where I finally used it. It definitely sepatated a lot. As long as you give it a good stir before using it, you should be fine. And once you use the cup or two you need, add another cup each of flour and water back in if you want to keep the starter going.
Drew, how do you KNOW it’s ready to use? I whipped up a batch of your starter last night and I’m itching to make the bread.
Melissa, you can use it almost immediately. The longer it site, the more the flavor will develop. At some point it will run out of food (flour) and die if you don’t replenish it, so you can’t just let it sit forever. But give it at least two days.
Hi drew. how much bowls can each batch make? im talking about the one cup of starter with the normal ingredients.
When I made them, I got four bread bowls from the one batch. If I were doing it again today I'd use bread flour, which would give more rise, and I'd probably get six loaves from it.
hello,
i am recently getting into bread making.
it's very cold where i live and today when i just made a plain loaf without waiting for a starter my yeast wouldn't "bubble" intil i added a bit of sugar.
i would like to use your starter recipe, but i was wondering if i added sugar to get the process going if it would ruin it…
also, can i keep this in the fridge when as i continue to feed it over time?
Rose, a little sugar to get the yeast going probably won't change the flavor enough to notice. I always add a little now when proofing the yeast, even if the recipe doesn't call for it.
For the sourdough starter, yes you can keep it in the fridge. You'll have to let it warm up to room temperature before using it, or the yeast will stay dormant. And when you take some out, and replace it with more flour, leave it out until it has started bubbling to make sure it is still alive before returning to the fridge.
Working with live yeast takes some practice. You'll have to learn how long your yeast can keep in your fridge. Just pay attention to what you do, and remember that what actually works in your kitchen is more important that what any recipe says.
This si my first attempt to make sourdough bread. I am making the started tonight. I am a little unclear about what you do with the left over started when you are done. I see you can "feed" it and I don't understand. It looks to me as if you never have to use yeast in again. Also can I freeze sourdough, and if yes at what point and how do I thaw ect….? Thanks for any help, this is a great site!
Natalie, that's right, you never have to add yeast again.
Keep it in the fridge. When you're ready to bake, take it out and let it come to room temperature. (Actually about 80-85° is better.) Then scoop out what you need.
When you're done, for each cup that you took add back in a half-cup of warm water and a cup of flour. Let it sit out for 2-4 hours before returning it to the fridge. This gives the yeast time to multiply and start on the new flour.
For freezing, wrap the finished bread tightly in plastic wrap — get all the air out — then wrap in aluminum foil. I've frozen it for several weeks this way. To thaw it, remove the plastic wrap, then put the foil back on and bake at 200° for about 15-20 minutes. This should be enough to warm it all the way through if it's long and thin, like French bread, and it will come out smelling like hot fresh bread.
You'll have to go a little longer for thicker shapes, like bread bowls or loaf-pan shaped.
1 . I keep my starter in a wide-mouth quart jar with a plastic lid in the fridge. I’ve kept it going for 39 years. The starter can go for 6-8 weeks without feeding but does take a day or two to get real active when taken out of the fridge and fed after that long.
2. Occasionally there will be mold form in the jar. Just scrape/pour off and feed. The mold is from the natural yeast spores found in the air
3. Remember, the Sourdough’s of Alaska took their sourdough crock to bed with them when it was 40 below so they would have an active batter for hotcakes the next morning….time to bake cannonballs!
Ron, 39 years is impressive. I’ve heard the bakeries in San Francisco have had theirs going for over a century, but that’s a business. For an individual, I wonder if yours is a record. Actually, I wonder who would even track something like that.
As for the Alaskans, I look at that instead as a sign that they should live somewhere more hospitable to humans. When you have to bring your groceries to bed with you, I’d suggest it’s time to re-think your living arrangements.
Drew, I found your website today, and absolutely LOOOVEE it!! I got a bread maker from a thrift store last Christmas, and usually don’t bake the bread in it, but just use it to mix the dough.
I actually made some bread bowls earlier this week (not in the bread maker), but remembered just how much I really enjoy sour dough, so I began to search for great recipes, and found your website! Thanks for all the great tips! I’m going home tonight to start my sour dough starter!
Hey Drew – I’m currently waiting for my first batch of sourdough bread to rise -can’t wait! Question for ya; when i went to stir my starter today, there was a slight crust on top of it. Is this normal? Or could it have been that too much air got to it during the 3 day wait process?
I wouldn’t worry too much about the crust. As long as it doesn’t completely dry out you should be fine.
Hi Drew,
I tried the Italian crust bread but it went to hard
Now I’m starting with the star. Do you know that the US and other 2 countrys are the only not using the metric system? So sometimes it’s hard to convert the measures and yes your blog is read beyond the US boundaries!
Anyway, as an engineer it won’t be a problem but I want to be very methodic and don’t screw somethig because I did not measure well. Question: What makes a bread to be hard? Overcook?
Thanks for the tips.
Oscar
Oscar, you’re not the first one to ask about metric conversions. Really, though, what I should be doing is measuring by weight. Especially for baking, where everything from how you scoop the flour to the amount of humidity in the air can make a huge difference in how much you’re actually getting.
If it was too hard, it either didn’t rise enough, or it fell before you got it in the oven. When I had just started baking bread I made focaccia and it came out like a cracker. I didn’t let it rise enough.
Since then I’ve had breads that I let them rise too much, and they collapsed like a souffle when I transferred them to the baking stone in the oven.
Don’t get discouraged, though. With a little practice you gt a feel for what the dough should look like, how sticky or dry it should be, and how much it should rise before you move on to the next step.
I made this starter on Wednesday to use tomorrow (Saturday). When I checked it tonight (Friday), it had formed a hard crust. Is this normal? Is this okay? I just stirred it up because I didn’t know what to do. Help!
Stacey, that can happen if it dries out. As long as it’s still moist enough under the crust to stir it back in you’re fine.
Your kitchen must be exceptionally dry. Next time try putting a sealed lid on it once it starts bubbling.
I really want to make this bread bowl – but I have stored my bag yeast in the freezer. Have I made a mistake right off the bat?
Dee, I keep my yeast in the freezer, too. Just make sure the water is on the high side of the temperature range before adding the yeast.
Or do you mean you keep the starter in the freezer? I know that can work, but I don’t know the best method for freezing and thawing to best keep it alive.
I had my starter going for about three years, then I froze some english muffin dough. I’m thawing it now, two years later. I’ll let you know if it’ still good.