Sourdough Starterhotcakes Food

SOURDOUGH STARTER/HOTCAKES

Steps:

• Soften yeast in water. Add flour and stir to mix. Put in a glass, ceramic or china container with a loose lid. (Never use a metal container for sourdough starter, and be sure it's plenty big, as the starter expands.) Let set at room temperature for 3 days, stirring once or twice a day. The starter will "work" and will have a definite sour odor. After the starter has soured, it can be stored in the refrigerator until used., SOURDOUGH HOTCAKES:, The night before you plan to make hotcakes, take the starter out of the refrigerator and add to it 2-1/4 to 3 cups flour and 1/2-cup lukewarm water. This amount can vary in order to get the right consistency. (Swend sometimes uses as little as 2 cups flour when his starter is thicker.) , The next morning, dip out enough for the "heel", about a cup of the starter, to save for the next time. This is returned to the refrigerator. , To the rest of the starter, add 2 or 3 tablespoons sugar (to help the hotcakes brown) and 2 teaspoons salt. Beat in 2 eggs. Just before it's time to bake the hotcakes, add 3/4 teaspoon baking soda. Stir just enough to mix., Bake on a skillet or a cast-iron griddle, which has been greased with a bacon rind. (You can use oil, but Swend contends a bacon rind is better.)

SOURDOUGH PANCAKES

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs.
• In a separate bowl, add sugar, salt, baking soda, and water and mix until incorporated. Add to beaten eggs. Add Sourdough Starter to mixture and beat with wooden spoon. Do not beat too long.
• Spoon on griddle in 1/4 cup amounts. When bubbles appear on top of pancakes, turn over. Cook until golden brown.
• In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, and honey and mix well. Add the flour and mix until all of flour is incorporated. Cover with a towel or loosely with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place overnight. Refrigerate.
• When using the starter, remove 2 cups to use for the pancakes. Add 2 cups flour and 2 more cups warm water to the starter. Cover and refrigerate. If you don't use your starter for more than 3 days, it needs to be fed. Remove 1 cup and discard. Add 1 cup flour and 1 cup warm water, cover and refrigerate.

SOURDOUGH STARTER I

Steps:

• Combine instant potatoes, sugar, water, and yeast in a covered container. Let the starter sit on a counter for 5 days, stirring daily with a wooden spoon.
• On the morning of the fifth day, feed the starter with 3 tablespoons instant potatoes, 3 tablespoons sugar, and 1 cup warm water. In the evening, take out 1 cup of the starter to use in a sourdough recipe. Refrigerate the remaining starter.
• Every five days, feed the starter 3 tablespoons instant potatoes, 3 tablespoons sugar and 1 cup water. If starter is to be used in a recipe, let the fed starter rest at room temperature 6 hours before use. If starter is not being used in a recipe, keep refrigerated and discard 1 cup of starter after each feeding.

SOURDOUGH STARTER RECIPE BY TASTY

Steps:

• Day 1: Add 50 grams whole wheat flour, 50 grams bread flour, and 100 grams warm water to a clear lidded container with a capacity of 1 pint or more. Mix until there are no dry spots. Scrape down the sides of the container with a spatula. Cover with a lid.
• Use a rubber band or piece of tape to mark the mixture level. This will allow you to track any movement (eventually it will grow!) Set the starter in a warm spot. Let sit for 24 hours.
• Day 2: After 24 hours, open the container and look for signs of fermentation in the form of bubbles on top, volume growth, and/or a funky, slightly sweet acidic smell. If you see some of these signs, proceed to the next step. If not, cover the starter again and let sit for another 12-24 hours, until these signs appear. If the temperature in your house is cool, it may take a bit longer.
• Once the starter has gotten a bit bubbly and funky, it is time to discard and feed. Discard all but about 25 grams (2 tablespoons) of starter (see Note below on how to minimize waste!). Add another 100 grams warm water and stir to dissolve the remaining starter. Add 50 grams of bread flour and 50 grams of whole wheat flour and stir until there are no dry spots. Cover and let sit in a warm spot for another 24 hours.
• Days 3-15: Repeat the feeding process every day for 7-14 days. Eventually, a few hours after feeding, the starter will begin to grow, almost doubling in size, then deflate again. Once your starter is rising and falling regularly, it is in a good place.
• To test the readiness of the starter, do a float test: Fill a cup with cool water. Use a clean spoon to take a scoop of the starter (be careful not to stir the starter and deflate the air bubbles that make it float) and carefully plop it in the water. If it floats, it is gassy and alive and ready to make some bread! If not, don't despair, it can take a while to get going. Either wait longer if it has only been a few hours since feeding, or if it has been closer to 24 hours since feeding, discard and feed again.
• After passing the float test, the starter is ready to use for baking! You may find you like to use your starter when it is young, only a few hours after feeding when it just passes the float test. At this point it will smell sweet. If you want a more sour taste, use the starter 6-12 hours after feeding, when it will be more mature and smell a bit more vinegary and funky. This is up to you!
• Mold: If you see any fuzzy moldy spots on your starter that are black, red, or blue, unless it is very easy to scrape them off the top, unfortunately you need to start over. Sometimes, a while after feeding or being in the refrigerator, the starter will develop a dark, clear liquid on top. This is called hooch and is harmless. Just pour the liquid off!
• Flour: Use what you have. If you only have all-purpose flour, you can use that. If you only have bread flour, use that. If you only have whole wheat flour, you can use that, just know that you may need to feed more often because it gets funky more quickly.
• Discard: It may be tempting not to discard most of your starter every time you feed it because you don't want to waste, but we discard for a variety of reasons. We are giving the starter a lot of fresh food and water to eat. If we don't discard, the starter will retain a lot of that funkiness and also eventually grow to be huge if you just keep adding water and flour to it. I like to discard into another container and keep that container in the refrigerator until I need it for other baking projects. You can fold the discard into banana bread, pancakes, cookies, etc.
• Storage: Once your starter is up and running, you can either keep it at room temperature and feed it daily, or store it in the refrigerator. To store in the refrigerator, do a regular discard and feed, then place in the refrigerator. A day before you want to begin making bread, pull the starter out and let it come to room temperature. Then, discard and feed as usual.
• Scaling: This starter recipe calls for equal amounts of water and total flour by weight. You can scale this recipe up or down as needed, depending on how much starter the recipe you are going to make calls for.
• Enjoy!