Two sticks rubbing together make a spark. Two casual questions gave me an idea. Someone asked me a great question – what ‘order’ am I going to cook the recipes in.  And then my stepdaughter Faye asked about sourdough bread because it’s the artisan bread of the moment and she said ‘the best bread I’ve ever eaten was sourdough’.  My daughter Clare (when she eats carbs) also loves sourdough.  So I’m starting with the sourdough.

Sourdough is bread made from a live ‘starter’ as the leavening agent rather than using purchased yeast or a chemical leaven like baking soda or baking powder.  It is the heritage of bread.  Yeast occurs in nature. Before yeast came from the store in cakes or a tiny tin – cooks had a ‘starter’ for bread.  It’s flour and water that has captured wild yeast and started to ferment.  There a lots of good blogs on sourdough starter.   Here’s one from Kitchn that worked for me.  I also carefully read the King Arthur Flour Sourdough Guide.  There is a good section in cookbook on working whole grain levain (the fancy name for a starter).

I’ve jumped in with both feet and have white, rye and whole wheat starters on the go.  It’s a hurry up and wait feeling though – it’s a week before there will be any bread.

Does that mean there hasn’t been any baking? Get away.  I made these Champagne Strawberry Cupcakes and the brioche recipe of the Tour de France food blogger, Jonathan Harris-Bass.

Yes, there is a sports writer and foodie who is blogging a recipe a day for the duration of the Tour de France.  I can’t ‘cook along’ with him and actually have any kind of normal life or doing any of my own baking.  But he’s making me so homesick for France that I’m resolved to try some of his recipes.  This brioche recipe got the thumbs up from the Davinator.  Brioche is the best way to misuse eggs, butter and flour.

 

 

Tags: retirement questsourdoughsourdough starter