Any tips or suggestions?

We do this. Makes 4 loaves. We use Bosch mixer.

You can order a sourdough start or do a natural one. We got a couple cups of start from a friend a few years ago. Feed it half four half water or until the consistency of pancake batter and keep it in the fridge. Lid on loose. It expands.

If you let it sit a long time it will be more sour and have less leavening power but it will still work. Just takes longer to rise. May get watery grey or brown liquid on top. This is fine just mix it in. Great for sourdough pancakes and waffles too. Have fun.

1 quart fresh doubled start
½ C honey or sweetener
2 T coconut oil
5 Cups water.

Mix briefly.
Add 4 cups white wheat flour
Mix again

Add 1350g fresh ground whole wheat flour
Place 1 T salt on top
Mix for 2 minutes check consistency. Should be soft but not too sticky
Mix for 10 minutes

Divide in half place in bowls
Cover with greased plastic wrap gently on top of dough.
Let rise

When doubled divide each in half again and form into loaves.
Place in greased loaf pans
Cover with greased plastic wrap again
Let rise until doubled or looking ready. If you let them go too far they’ll explode/deflate. Carefully remove plastic wrap.

Place in a cold oven. We have two ovens and put two loaves in each oven.
Turn oven on to bake or convection bake.
375 or 370 respectively
Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Remove cool in pan 10 minutes

Remove from pans. Place on cooling rack and cover with a clean towel. Move to plastic bags once completely cool.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 1KPerDay,

quote:

Any tips or suggestions?

agree w/1KPerDay but he left out an essential ingredient:

Have a fresh whole cube of butter ready for when they come out of the oven; you will immediately devour most of one loaf merely assessing for engineering and structural features. Let it cool a bit before taking a very sharp bread knife to evaluate the crust & inner wonders.

Don't waste time with other toppings; slathering proper spec butter to apply to your test slices will be quite adequate.

Enjoy a few bites in each stage of cooling. Try to not oink a whole loaf down in this exercise.

I don't care for the plastic bags, as over a few days the character of the bread changes a bit. On the other hand, if you don't use plastic, and use a paper bag instead, the loaf will harden up considerably in just a couple days....another kind of change from the wonders of fresh-hot-sour dough bread.

Indeed. They usually don’t last more than a day with my kids though. Hot fresh sourdough with good butter and maybe some homemade plum jelly is about as sublime a food as I can think of.

I’m interested; we usually make regular whole wheat bread but would like to try sourdough.

How do you prepare your own starter?

I’ve had my sourdough for...40+ years. I used to make a loaf a week, not as frequently now. The old cowboy who gave me my starter and introduced me to it had several pieces of advice; I’ve learned a thing or two myself in the intervening years.

Get yourself a decent crockery jar to keep the starter in. It needs to be big enough that you can mix up a batch of hotcakes for Sunday morning, AND make a loaf of bread. Sourdough is a living organism and it needs to breathe, a crock allows this;

Use it regularly. I have found that sourdough does quite well if mixed up and used once/week. If you miss a week or two because of travel, it will take a week or so for it to come back and be good again;

Keep it in the fridge between uses, then take it out the evening before and bring it up to room temperature, mix up a batch before bed, and it will be perfect in the morning;

I use a bread machine. Put the dough into a bread pan for toast and sandwiches. Form a loaf on a pizza stone for a nice presentation for a dinner;

Maybe it’s superstition, but my mentor said, “Never touch the sourdough with a metal spoon,” and I never have;

King Arthur Flour has a pretty good recipe on its website.

Ours does fine if You leave it in the fridge all the time. And if you put in fresh flour and water it will be ready the next day to use. We use it frequently keep it in a Large glass jar and leave the lid loose.

There are multiple methods for wild sourdough starter but they are all pretty similar.

https://www.google.com/search?...-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us