Sourdough Starter and Bread

These 2 huge loaves of Sourdough Bread just came out of the oven. Thank GOD it is a success! This is the first time I made my own sourdough starter (even though the first batch did not work out, the second batch turned out well.) I asked the LORD to please turn the culture into sourdough since He turned water in wine and He did ;)

I have not tasted sourdough bread before and I always hear others say they are delicious. Now that I have tried and tasted it, I agree :) I did a barter trade with Annabel - I gave her a loaf of my bread in exchange for one of the best minestrone soup I have ever tasted. So satisfying - time for a nap ;)

This morning I took out a cup of the sourdough from the fridge. It has been "chilling" for the past few days. I found a simple sourdough bread recipe from the Internet and I dumped all the ingredients into the bread machine, pressed "dough" cycle and went to do my BS homework.

This was how the dough turned out after 20mins of kneading.

I did not do much to the dough, just "punch" it after the "dough" cycle and divided it into two portions.

After resting for about 1 hour, it more than doubled in size. I placed some walnuts onto one of them and the other I left it as it is. Baked them in a 200 degrees C oven for about 25 mins.

A sourdough culture is a mixture of wild yeast and lactobacillus bacteria living in a mixture of flour and water. Over time, the culture will tend to become a mixture of one of three wild yeast strains, and one of five different lactobacillus strains. It is of particular importance in baking rye-based breads, where yeast does not produce comparable results. In comparison with yeast-based breads, it produces a distinctively tangy or sour taste, mainly because of the lactic acid produced by the lactobacilli; the actual medium, known as "starter" or levain.

This is my first batch of sourdough starter which has gone bad. On day one the starter was bubbling quite well and I thought it was okay. Unfortunately a bad bacteria got into the starter on day 2 thus causes the layer of water in between it, thus producing a bad smell - like vomit. I had to discard the two bottles and make a new batch below.

Sourdough Starter Recipe

1/4 cup water

3/8 cup wheat flour

Mix the two ingredients together and cover loosely with a hand towel.

Set it aside in a warm (not hot) place for about 12 hours. Take a look at your starter after 12 hours to see if it has started bubbling. If not, give it a stir and leave it for another 12 hours. After 24 hours, "feed" your starter with 1/4 cup of water, 3/8 cup of wheat flour. Continue to "feed" your starter every 12 hours. After the 3rd feed, remove about half the amount of the starter before adding the next round of water and wheat flour. After the starter is active for about a week, you can keep it in the fridge and continue to "feed" it once every 2 weeks or so.