I love sourdough bread and have, in the past, attempted to get a starter going and keep it going in order to have fresh homemade sourdough bread at whim. And every time I have failed for various reasons.
I had the brilliant idea that I could make this easier by using a Pampered Chef pitcher that my parents gave me years ago, so I pulled that out of the cabinet, washed it really well, and was all set to go. I found the following recipe in The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook and selected it because I have all of the ingredients on hand.
**
French Buttermilk Starter**
Ingredients
3⁄4 cup flour
Large pinch of yeast
1-1 1⁄4 cups buttermilk
For the first feeding
2 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons water
Instructions
1. Whisk together the 3⁄4 cup flour, yeast, and buttermilk in a medium bowl; the mixture should be thick like a pancake batter. Add a bit more flour to adjust the consistency, if necessary. Transfer to a plastic container or crock. Cover with a few layers of cheesecloth and secure with a rubber band; then cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let stand at warm room temperature 24 hours. It will be bubbly, begin to ferment, and smell delightful. There will be tiny yellow dots of butter from the buttermilk on the top.
2. After 36 hours when the starter begins to smell sour, feed it with the 2 tablespoons of flour and the water; whisk to combine. Let stand for 1 to 2 more days, until the desired degree of sourness is achieved. This started can be used 3 or 4 days after it is initially mixed. The longer you let it sit, the more sour it will be; you can judge how sour the starter has become by the way it smells. If you are not ready to use it after 3 or 4 days, let it stand a few more days to continue to sour, or store it in the refrigerator, covered loosely, until you are ready to use it.
All of this seems easy enough, right?
I looked at this self stirring pitcher, looked at the ingredients, and thought “I should double the ingredients because this pitcher is huge!” So I did. I dumped them all into the pitcher and realized, quickly, that the stirring mechanism doesn’t work very well when you’ve only got 1-2 inches of stuff in the bottom.
So I decided to move the starter to a 4 cup screw-top container instead and just hope that a cat doesn’t knock it over in the night. Then I went online and decided I really needed a stoneware crock, so I ordered that. Here’s hoping the plastic container suffices for the next 5 to 7 business days.
I suppose the better course of action would have been to remake the starter for the new container, after the flub in the Pampered Chef pitcher, but I’m out of buttermilk now so that’s not an option. I’ll know in a few days if it’s working or not. Right? I hope?