I Made My Own Sourdough Starter, AMAZING Bread!

[Donna M.]

For the past week I have been nurturing a homemade wild yeast starter. It was finally ready to bake with today, and WOW! It made the very best loaf of bread that I have ever made.

At one point I almost gave up on the starter because it just sat there and did nothing for three days. Then, BAM!......it woke up and did it ever wake up. This baby really rises! The resulting bread was soft, fluffy, and yummy. Being a youngster, it will continue to develop flavor and character over time. It is so good already that I can't imagine how it could be any better. I am sooooo excited!

Click on the thumbnail for larger image

Day 4 of the starter


Day 7 of the starter


The Loaves of Bread


Sliced to Show Texture

[CarrolJ]

Donna M. wrote:
For the past week I have been nurturing a homemade wild yeast starter. It was finally ready to bake with today, and WOW! It made the very best loaf of bread that I have ever made.

At one point I almost gave up on the starter because it just sat there and did nothing for three days. Then, BAM!......it woke up and did it ever wake up. This baby really rises! The resulting bread was soft, fluffy, and yummy. Being a youngster, it will continue to develop flavor and character over time. It is so good already that I can't imagine how it could be any better. I am sooooo excited!

Click on the thumbnail for larger image

Day 4 of the starter


Day 7 of the starter


The Loaves of Bread


Sliced to Show Texture

Looks great Donna! Congratulations! Did you just let it go for 7 days without feeding in between?

[Donna M.]

No, I actually fed it every 24 hours for the 7-day period. Maybe I will post the recipe if people are interested, as it was quite unique. It was very different than any other recipe that I have seen.

[poolebrosnsy]

Please post the recipe. I would love it.
Margie

[Jellyqueen]

I would love to see this recipe also.....please post!!!!

JQ

[Donna M.]

Okay, I posted the recipe, but I don't know how to link to it here. Since they have changed the recipe posting format, everything is a little different and the option to post a preview doesn't work the same.

Edited to copy and paste the recipe:


Wild Yeast Sourdough Starter
by Donna M.

You can make your own wild yeast starter from scratch. The yeast is already on the grains you use in the starter. You just need to create the right conditions to wake them up!
1/2 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
1/2 cup whole grain flour (wheat or rye)
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups water (bottled or purified)
1/4 teaspoon cider vinegar (optional)

1 Starter
120 hours 10 minutes 10 mins prep
I bought whole wheat berries at the health food store and ground my own flour in a coffee grinder from them because I wanted the yeast on the flour to be really fresh, but this probably isn't really necessary. The pre-ground flour at the health food store is probably quite fresh, also, and you can buy very small quantities in bulk.
DAY ONE: Mix 2 Tablespoons whole grain flour and 2 Tablespoons pineapple juice. Stir well, cover and let sit for 24 hours at room temperature.
DAY TWO: Add 2 Tablespoons whole grain flour and 2 Tablespoons pineapple juice. Stir well, cover and let sit another 24 hours at room temperature. You may, or may not start to see small bubbles at this point.
DAY THREE: Add 2 Tablespoons whole grain flour and 2 Tablespoons pineapple juice. Stir well and let sit 24 hours at room temperature.
DAY FOUR: Stir mixture and measure out 1/4 cup--discard the rest. To the 1/4 cup, stir in 1/4 cup unbleached AP flour and 1/4 cup water. Let sit 24 hours at room temperature.
REPEAT Day Four until mixture expands to double its size and smells yeasty. Mixture may start to bubble after a couple of days and then go flat and look totally dead for a couple more days. If this happens, at about Day 6 add the 1/4 teaspoons vinegar with your daily feeding. This will lower the PH and wake up the yeast, which will then start to grow.
Once the yeast starts growing, starter should be fed equal parts of flour and water in a quantity sufficient to make enough starter for your recipe. Store the starter in the refrigerator when you are not using it. It needs to be fed equal parts flour and water once a week to keep it alive. Either use or discard at least half of it when feeding--THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT to maintian a healthy starter! If you forget to feed it for a few weeks, it probably will be fine but may take several feedings to get it back up to par.

[CarrolJ]

Donna M. wrote:
Okay, I posted the recipe, but I don't know how to link to it here. Since they have changed the recipe posting format, everything is a little different and the option to post a preview doesn't work the same.

Edited to copy and paste the recipe:


Wild Yeast Sourdough Starter
by Donna M.

You can make your own wild yeast starter from scratch. The yeast is already on the grains you use in the starter. You just need to create the right conditions to wake them up!
1/2 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
1/2 cup whole grain flour (wheat or rye)
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups water (bottled or purified)
1/4 teaspoon cider vinegar (optional)

1 Starter
120 hours 10 minutes 10 mins prep
I bought whole wheat berries at the health food store and ground my own flour in a coffee grinder from them because I wanted the yeast on the flour to be really fresh, but this probably isn't really necessary. The pre-ground flour at the health food store is probably quite fresh, also, and you can buy very small quantities in bulk.
DAY ONE: Mix 2 Tablespoons whole grain flour and 2 Tablespoons pineapple juice. Stir well, cover and let sit for 24 hours at room temperature.
DAY TWO: Add 2 Tablespoons whole grain flour and 2 Tablespoons pineapple juice. Stir well, cover and let sit another 24 hours at room temperature. You may, or may not start to see small bubbles at this point.
DAY THREE: Add 2 Tablespoons whole grain flour and 2 Tablespoons pineapple juice. Stir well and let sit 24 hours at room temperature.
DAY FOUR: Stir mixture and measure out 1/4 cup--discard the rest. To the 1/4 cup, stir in 1/4 cup unbleached AP flour and 1/4 cup water. Let sit 24 hours at room temperature.
REPEAT Day Four until mixture expands to double its size and smells yeasty. Mixture may start to bubble after a couple of days and then go flat and look totally dead for a couple more days. If this happens, at about Day 6 add the 1/4 teaspoons vinegar with your daily feeding. This will lower the PH and wake up the yeast, which will then start to grow.
Once the yeast starts growing, starter should be fed equal parts of flour and water in a quantity sufficient to make enough starter for your recipe. Store the starter in the refrigerator when you are not using it. It needs to be fed equal parts flour and water once a week to keep it alive. Either use or discard at least half of it when feeding--THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT to maintian a healthy starter! If you forget to feed it for a few weeks, it probably will be fine but may take several feedings to get it back up to par.

This is most interesting! I was about to write you and tell you that I definitely must have killed the Carl 1847...now I'm wondering if doing something like you recommend with this one...the vinegar thing might help? What do you think?

For those of you who think that it must be easy to kill a starter...not so! I did a really dumb thing and left the starter in my oven and forgot it was there and turned the oven on when I was reconstituting it from flakes the first feeding! I have been trying to recover it for several days.

[Donna M.]

Carrol, I doubt the vinegar would help out here. Once the yeast are dead (the heat killed them), they can't be revived.

I will send you more starter! In fact, I am leaving shortly to go to the store and I will pop some in an envelope right now and drop it at the P.O. I already have some ready in the fridge.

[CarrolJ]

Donna M. wrote:
Carrol, I doubt the vinegar would help out here. Once the yeast are dead (the heat killed them), they can't be revived.

I will send you more starter! In fact, I am leaving shortly to go to the store and I will pop some in an envelope right now and drop it at the P.O. I already have some ready in the fridge.

Thanks! Well at least I know I didn't give up easily! I must have fed it at least 7 times!

[Chipfo]

Donna M. wrote:
For the past week I have been nurturing a homemade wild yeast starter. It was finally ready to bake with today, and WOW! It made the very best loaf of bread that I have ever made.

I have been thinking about making my own native wild yeast starter, I found some methods on the internet for doing so, I am curious as to how the wild yeasts around here would do. Congrats on your homemade starter!

BTW, I made another loaf last night using the Bahrain starter and your recipe, only this time I beat 2 eggs in the milk, turned out great. It made more dough adding the 2 eggs (more liquid so more flour) so I cut off enough to fit into the loaf pan and made an addition free standing mini loaf along with it, so instead of hacking into the loaf fresh from the oven we ate the mini loaf

[WaterMelon]

that looks really great, donna! I didn't receive the starter (it's ok), maybe somebody at the PO loves bread too . Perhaps I'll try your recipe sometime soon!