Sourdough Mania

For years the whole sourdough starter, waiting and waiting four dough thing....intimidated me. I've ground wheat and baked bread for nearly 20 years.....but somehow it seemed to scary and time consuming to try sourdough. But sourdough is Michael's favorite. I had planned to conquer this last year...and didn't....so I was on a mission this year! 

Latest in living room deco - dough souring

I got a starter on Sunday (has it only been 5 days? WOW). I've fed the thing, babied it, emptied it and made 9 batches of English muffins, two loaves of bread (I shortened the wait by 5 hours and so they are flattish...but when you need a sandwich you need one!), and this a.m. a batch of sourdough pancakes.  I've discovered if the dough sours 8 hours most my family will be happy. If it sours for 24 hours Michael and Jared will LOVE them.  


By making English Muffins two times a day for a couple of days, I've managed to get 6 muffins in the freezer....and by baking daily for a bit longer I should get a bit more...so when life is too busy to make them they'll have a couple days' supply in the freezer.  I plan to post all the recipes...but time is short during the week.  Here's the recipe I'm using most for English Muffins.  I've tweaked it to work for me (using Bill's method of cutting so I have uniform muffins because I'm THAT way), and I find the process is easier for me than the baking process of my Uncle's. I use Uncle Bill's recipe and the process from the above link when we don't want sourdough.  Michael and Jared really like sourdough. Though the whole wheat muffins from Uncle Bill were gone within a morning too. 

Haste makes flat - wish that worked on ME as well as the bread! 

This is the recipe I used for Sourdough Pancakes. 

Left made in cast iron, right made on electric griddle

The verdict from the kids....they like THIN best. My suspicion is because the sourdough taste is new and on thin the syrup/sourdough ratio is more in favor of sweet....and you taste the graininess of the, well, GRAIN, more in the fluffier pancake. Both kinds have disappeared.....


I started dough souring to make more English Muffins tonight...so most of my starter is gone....I'm feeding it throughout the day and we'll try bread or pancakes again tomorrow. I'm working to get enough in the freezer to see the kids through my trip to Tokyo next weekend. LOL 

Starter resting and growing in the living room - just like us! 

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...