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Sourdough Starters
Sourdough Starter #1
Categories: Breads
Servings:  1
•    2 c  Unbleached Flour
•    1 pk Active Dry Yeast
•    1 x  Water To Make Thick Batter
Mix Flour with  yeast.  Add enough water to make a thick batter.  Set in warm place for 24 hours or until house is filled with a delectable yeasty smell.

Title: Sourdough Starter #2
Categories: Breads
Servings:  1
•    2 c  Unbleached Flour
•    1 x  Water To Make Thick Batter
Mix flour and water to make a thick batter.  Let stand uncovered for four or five days, or until it begins working.  This basic recipe requires a carefully scalded container.

Title: Sourdough Starter #3
Categories: Breads
Servings:  1
•    2 c  Unbleached Flour
•    1 x  Warm Milk To Make Thick Bat.
This starter is the same as starter #2 but uses warm Milk instead of water.  Use the same instructions as with #2.

Title: Sourdough Starter #4
Categories: Breads
Servings:  1
•    1 x  Unbleached Flour
•    1 x  Potato Water
Boil some potatoes for supper, save the potato water, and use it lukewarm with enough unbleached flour to make a thick batter. without yeast.  This is a good way to make it in camp, where you have no yeast available and want fast results.  This is also the way most farm girls made it in the olden days.  Let stand a day or so, or until it smells right.

Title: Sourdough Starter #5
Categories: Breads
Servings:  1
•    4 c  Unbleached Flour
•    2 T  Salt
•    2 T  Sugar
•    4 c  Lukewarm Potato Water
Put all ingredients in a crock or large jar and let stand in a warm place uncovered several days.  This is the authors last choice for making a starter, but seems to be in all the cookbooks dealing with Sourdough Starters.  Use only as a last resort.

Title: Sourdough Starter #6
Categories: Breads
Servings:  1
•    1 c  Milk
•    1 c  Unbleached Flour
Let milk stand for a day or so in an uncovered container at room temperature.  Add flour to milk and let stand for another couple of days. When it starts working well and smells right, it is ready to use. NOTE:  All containers for starters not using yeast, must be carefully scalded before use.  If you are careless or do not scald them the starter will fail.

SOURDOUGH STARTER
2 C milk – put in glass or ceramic bowl (not metal) and set stand uncovered in warm place for 24 hours. Stir in 2 C sifted flour and allow to stand 2 days until bubbles and gets sour smell. Store in fridge in quart size jar or crock with looose cover. (If cover is too tight CO2 may cause explosion.) If liquid rises to top give it a stir. Starter gets better with age. Use it every 10 days or so and when you take some out add 1 C flour and 1 C water, set in warm place for 24 hrs. (or more) then cover loosely and refrig. If don’t use it activate it every couple of weeks by throwing out all but 1 C starter and adding equal amounts of flour and water. Try to keep 2 C. on hand. Let warm (take out over night) before using.

“World” Bread
STEP I:  CULTURE PREPARATION
1)      Remove the culture from the refigerator
2)      Add 1/2 cup of white flour and 1/2 cup warm water to the culture jar and mix briefly.  The total mixture will be about 2 1/4 cups.  It need not be lump free.
3)      Proof at 85 deg. F. for 6 to 12 hours until actively fermenting (as shown by bubbles on the surface).
(The Russian Culture requires about 2 or 3 hours to reach this stage if the correct temperature is maintained.  Time depends mostly on how many spores remain in culture at time of use.)
STEP II:  THE FIRST PROOF
1)      Mix all of the active culture with 3 cups of white flour and 2 cups of warm water in a 4 quart mixing bowl.  It need not be lump free.
2)      Proof at 85 deg. F. for 12 hours.
(The Russian culture requires only 6 hours at this stage.)
3)      RETURN 1 cup of culture to the culture jar. Add 1/3 cup of white flour and 1/3 cup of warm water and proof at 85 deg. F. for one hour.  Then refrigerate immediately.
STEP III:  THE SECOND PROOF
REMEMBER TO REFRIGERATE one cup of culture from the first proof before proceeding.
INGREDIENTS
•    4 cups culture from the first proof (if I have more I use it all.)
•    2 tablespoons butter
•    1 cup milk
•    2 teaspoons salt
•    2 tablespoons sugar
•    6 cups white flour
1.    Melt the butter over moderate heat (or heat in the microwave), add the milk to the butter, warm briefly, add the salt and sugar, and stir until dissolved.  Add this mixture to the culture and mix well.
2.    Add the flour a cup at a time until dough is too stiff to mix by hand.  Then turn onto a floured board and knead in remaining flour until the dough is smooth and satiny. (Knead about 15 min by hand.)
3.    Divide dough in half and form two balls.
4.    Pat each ball into a one inch thick oval and form loaves by rolling from the long side, pinching the seam together as you roll the dough to form the loaf.  (Put a flattened ball of dough in the Dutch oven.)
5.    Place in greased loaf pans and proof at 85 deg. F. for 1 1/2 to 3 hours.  When the dough rises 1 to 2 inches above lip of pan, it is ready to bake.

(It helps if the dough can rise in a very humid place.  When I am baking in the regular oven, I put the dough in a camping cooler with a bucket of hot water.  This keeps the dough warm and humid.  Problem:  I have to stack the pans.  If the dough rises above the lip, it hits the next pan and ruins the texture. This is why I want to build a new proofing box.)

(If you use so much dough that it rises above the lip of the Dutch oven, then you have trouble.  Takes experience to know how much dough to use.  This recipe can make 3 loaves for a 10″ dutch oven, or one 10″ and one 12″.  If it isn’t quite warm enough, I place one or two coals on the lid of the dutch oven to let the bread rise.

6.    Preheat the oven to 375 deg. F.  Ten minutes after putting the bread in, reduce heat to 350 deg. F. and bake an additional 45 minutes (or much less – watch carefully).  (Elsewhere in the book Ed. Wood recomends putting a tray of water in the oven for the first 10 minutes.  This is supposed to improve the crust and give it a French bread texture.  You see if it works.)

(For the Dutch oven I put 4 coals on the bottom of a 10″ oven and 9 on the top.  I cook it for about 35 minutes.  I use 5 coals on the bottom and 11 on the top for the 12″ oven. If it is very cold outside, it may take more time, and you probabably need more coals.  I baked bread in -20 deg. F. weather in January once.

7.    When the bread is removed from the oven, brush crusts lightly with melted butter.  Turn out of
pans and cool on a wire rack.  (When using the dutch oven, I just turn the oven over and the
bread falls out onto the wire rack.)

“Basic Bread”
Basic Bread (not from Sourdough Jack)
After proofing, remove one cup of starter to your frig.  Add a bit of oil, and salt (if desired, I rarely do) to the remaining sponge.  Begin adding flour one cup at a time.  Mix in flour until the dough begins
coming away from the bowl.  Knead dough, using extra flour as necessary.Allow to proof (with sourdough, time will vary on this.  Expect a minimum of two hours.  You want to double the size of the dough.)  Now shape and bake in 425 F oven for 20 minutes then turn oven to 375 and continue baking for 1 hour.

Variations.  I have used just this basic dough as a base for pizza (very nice) and as the dough to line a casserole dish, pour in a ground beef/tomato/italian seasonings mixture, and top with some reserved sourdough.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Also very nice.

The Doctor’s Sourdough Bread
1 c  Sourdough Starter
2 c  Warm Water
2 c  Warm Milk
1 T  Butter
2 k Active Dry Yeast
1/4 c  Honey
7 c  Unbleached Flour
1/4 c  Wheat Germ
2 T  Sugar
2 t  Salt
2 t  Baking Soda
Mix the starter and 2 1/2 Cups of the flour and all the water the night before you want to bake. Let stand in warm place overnight.  Next morning mix in the butter with warm milk and stir in yeast until until dissolved.  Add honey and when thoroughly mixed, add 2 more cups of flour, and stir in the wheat germ.
Sprinkle sugar, salt, and baking soda over the mixture.  Gentlypress into dough and  mix lightly.  Allow to stand from 30 to 50 minutes until mixture is bubbly.  Add enough flour until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl.  Then place the dough on a lightly floured board and kead 100 times or until silky mixture is developed.  Form  into 4 1-lb loaves, place in well-greased loaf pans 9 x 3 size.  Let rise until double, about 2 to 3 hours in a warm
room.  Then bake in hot oven, 400 degrees F, for 20 minutes.  Reduce oven temp. to 325 degrees F. and bake 20 minutes longer or until thoroughly baked.  Remove from pans and place loaves on rack to cool.  Butter tops of loaves to prevent hard crustyness.  Makes 4 1-lb Loaves

David’s Sourdough White Bread
1 1/2 to 2 cups sourdough culture.  (I used the Alaskan, my vote for the best camping culture.)
1 tsp salt.
1 cup water.
Just enough quality bread flour to make a nice dough.  Not too dry.  (maybe 2 cups?)

Knead until you drop dead. (Long time)  Try to see if you can stretch the dough papery thin without ripping.  If you can come close you are done.  I have a large bread board I take camping that I used for kneading.

Shape the loaf into a rounded disk (it helps to grease your hands to do this) and set in a greased 12″ Dutch oven.  Put the lid on. Set the Dutch oven in the sun if it is too cool.  Keep an eye on it and move it back to the shade if it is getting hot. etc.

After about 2 hours of rising I begin to cook.  It helps to get experience cooking with charcol briquetts before you try to use the open fire.  I used hot wood coals from the fire.  It helps if the wood was hard wood like oak.  I cook the bread for about 1 hour.  When using briquettes I use about 7-8 on the bottom (for a 12″ oven) and 14-16 on the top.  With a wood fire I try to use a similar amount of coals.  Open the oven often during the cooking process to check on the progress. Beware that the top may look great while the bottom is burning charcol black!  Better to have too little heat on the bottom than too much!

Sourdough & Buttermilk bread
1 cup starter + 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup warm water
Let sit for 12+ hours.
Add 3 cups flour, 2 cups warm water, mix and let it sit overnight.  It should be stringy, glutinous, and smelly.
Add 1 1/4 cups COLD lowfat buttermilk, 4 cups flour and mix until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.  Turn out onto the counter and knead until it is silky smooth (15 min).  Add water or flour as neccessary — add water by wetting your hands and kneading.
Let it rise (cool <= 70 deg F) for 3-4 hrs.  Turn out onto counter, flatten and press out gas (shouldn’t be too
much).  Round the loaf and let rise again 1-2 hrs.
Again, flatten and press out gas.  Divide into 2 parts, and form loaves (I like simple round peasant loaves), and allow to proof upside down on a floured cloth.
Preheat oven to 375.  Sprinke cornmeal generously on tile or baking sheet surface.
After 30-40 min, turn straight side up onto a floured peel, slash the top, and slide onto tiles or baking sheet in 375 preheated oven.

Eat HOT, with a bit of sweet butter.

Roberta’s Sourdough Rye
Starter:
1 grain (granule) yeast
1/2 teaspoon milk
1-1/2 cups whole rye (as fresh as possible)
1-1/2 cups water.
Combine above, should be consistency of pancake batter.  Store between 65F and 80F in a nonmetal container, covered.  Let stand 3 to 5 days, stirring twice a day until it starts to smell like a sour should.  If it smells real bad, then it got too warm, and you should start over.  After that, treat it like any other sour.
Roberta’s Sourdough Rye
1/3 cup Manuel’s starter
3/4 cup warm water
2 cups whole rye flour (as fresh as possible)
1/4 onion, separated into pieces.
Combine the flour, water and starter making a dough.  Push the onion pieces into the dough.  Cover tightly, leave at room emperature for 12 to 15 hours or more.
Add to above mixture
4 teaspoons yeast  (this sounds excessive, but who am I to argue)
2/3 cup warm water
3-1/2 cups whole hard wheat flour (as fresh as possible)
2-1/2 cups ?
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
1/3 cup warm water for kneading
Dissolve yeast in warm water, and combine with the rest of the ingredients. Keep the 1/3 cup water separate for kneading.  The trick is in the kneading.  Knead for about 15 minutes, and during this time use the 1/3 cup water to wet your hands — don’t add the water at once.  Knead for 15 to 20 minutes or until the dough is soft or becomes unpleasantly sticky.
Put dough in a clean bowl (no oil), cover, and let rise once only at 80F.  This takes about 1-1/2 hours — careful not to let it go over. Use the finger poke test (it’s ready when a wet finger poked into the dough leaves a hole that no longer fills in).  Shape the loaves properly (hearth or french style) and place on greased baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Let rise again at 80-90F (30-45 mins) but keep an eye out not to let it go too far.  It’s ready when a depression left by a finger (not a hole!) fills in slowly.
Slash the loaves well and place in a oven pre-heated to 450 F. Use a steam technique for 10 mins, then reduce heat to 325F and bake for 40 – 50 mins  until done (remove the pan of water after first 10 mins).
For the steam technique, I put 1 cup of boiling water in a metal pan on the bottom of the oven, and in addition, sprayed the loaves with water 4 times (once when I put the loaves in and then every 3 minutes).
Gives a nice crust as a result.

Sourdough French Bread
To make a tangy sourdough bread, you have to let it sit for a long time. When I made some sourdough French bread, a couple of weeks ago, I started the dough early in the morning, adding most of the flour and all the water it was going to need.  By the time it went into the oven, it was pleasantly tangy.  If I had wanted even more flavour, I would have started it the night before.  The longer it sits, the more flavor it will gain.

1 cup sourdough starter
2 t sugar
1 1/2 c warm water
2 t salt
1 package yeast
1/2 t soda
4 c flour
2 c flour (for kneading)
If you are going to start this bread the evening before or early in the morning, you won’t need the extra yeast.  If you start it 3 hours before dinner, you will need it.  Put the starter, water, and flour in a bowl. Put this in a warm place and ignore it for the rest of the day.  By evening, it should have doubled and smell like your starter again.  Mix the sugar, salt, soda and 1 cup of flour together.  Sprinkle them over the dough, and mix well.  Turn the dough out onto your bread board and knead it, using the remaining flour.
Shape loaves and place them on lightly greased cookie sheets.  Let rise until doubled in bulk, slash tops of loaves, brush them with water or a well-beaten egg, and place in 400 F oven.  (A pan of water on lower shelf of the oven can help make a crispy crust.)  Bake until medium dark brown.

Whole Wheat Potato Bread
This recipe came on my 100 lb bag of whole wheat berries!  Looks good, and the proportions appear about right – I’ve made lots of potato breads and I recommend them highly. This recipe shouldn’t be too hard to adapt to sourdough, I’d probably substitute 1 cup of starter for the yeast and 1/2 cup of warm water.

4 medium loaves or 6 – Number 2 1/2 sized tin can loaves
8 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon salt
4 tablespoons sugar, honey or molasses
4 tablespoons melted shortening or oil
2 tablespoons dry yeast, dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water (substitute 1 cup of starter for this)
1 medium potato, boiled until mealy in 2 cups water

Mash or beat the cooked potato in the cooking water until smooth.  Add 1 3/4 cups cold water to this mixture, and allow to cool to lukewarm. Add the yeast mixture and shortening.
Mix in half the flour, and make sure it’s mixed throughly. Cover and allow to double in size. Add the salt and 3 more cups of flour, or enough to allow hand kneading. The mixture will be quite soft. Turn out on a board and knead until it’s smooth and stretchy. Let the dough rest on a greased surface for 15 to 20 minutes. Knead again and shape loaves. If you use tin cans, fill them half full. Let rise till doubled, bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes.
For a quicker process, mix 1/2 cup of dehydrated potato flakes into the first 4 cups of flour and use a TOTAL of 3 3/4 cups of water in the recipe.
The bread is much finer and lighter than ordinary 100% whole wheat, and is an ideal dough for scones.

David’s Most Excelent Sourdough Pizza Crust
2 C sourdough culture  (I used the Alaskan again.)
1 t salt.
2 C Bread flour.
You might need more flour or less depending on the consistency.  You want a good kneading consistency.  You can let this get just a little thicker than regular bread dough to help the special shaping you will knead to do.
Mix and knead the dough well.  Knead about 600 strokes.  Then grease the bowl and return the dough to it and let it rise for a couple hours.  When it has risen well, gently press it down, and fold it gently but repeatedly to mix the dough and to push  or move the yeast cells onto new and fresh pastures.

Separate the dough into about 3 balls.  (Depending on the size of your pizza pans etc.)   From here treat it like you do your favorite pizza crust.  If you use cornmeal go ahead, etc.
I just grease the pans, and then press the dough flat with my hands until I get a good uniform covering of the pan.
I bake these for about 10 – 15 min in 350 – 400 deg. F. oven until they just begin to show any hint of browning.  Then I remove them and add spiced tomato sauce, peppers, onions, mushrooms, cheeses and etc.  Then I return these to the oven until the cheese it melted.

Alaskan Blueberry Pancakes
Made on the Alagnak River at our fishing lodge for many years 300  miles SE of Anchorage and ravished by many fishermen and stranded  weathered in guests.  I got so tired of writing down this recipe,  I  made copies when I went to Anchorage for supplies.

1 cup sour dough starter (I made mine from potato water)
2 cups flour
2 cups milk (I used powdered never had fresh available, but fresh ok)
1 tsp salt
mix above in crock or bowl (not stainless steel) cover with  kitchen towel or cheescloth, let stand overnight.  In AM when nice and bubbly
add:
2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
3-4 tablespoons melted shortening or butter
2 tsp sugar
fresh blueberries (if your lucky enough to have them growing around you)
Pour large silver dollar size batter on hot griddle,  cook and turn.  Serve with lots of syrup and butter and river coffee.  These also went great in backpacks for endurance on the trail.  The stronger the starter the stronger the pancake.

The American Slapjack
Ambrosia Batter
The name of this concoction is taken from the food of the gods often referred to in Greek mythology.  The title is appropriate considering the various delectable things that can be made with it.  No doubt when you mix up your first batch of sourdough griddlecakes or biscuits, you’ll agree.  Here’s how you make it:
1 cup starter
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups white all-purpose flour
Mix the above ingredients in a 2-quart bowl, cover and set aside for 24 hours in a place where the temperature ranges between 75 and 80.  Remember to use only a bowl made of glass or crockery, not metal.  Also make sure that your bowl is large enough to allow the mixture to double in volume without spilling over the side.  Ambrosia Batter is burdensome to clean up, especially after it has dried. Replenish the starter with 1 cup flour and 3/4 cup of warm water.

The American Slapjack
This country really did not have a homegrown cookbook until 1796 when Amelia Simmons had her modest work of 47 pages published.  Under the title American Cookery, it was first in offering guidance to the use of such indigenous foods as corn and potatoes.  This humble compilation was likewise the first to make mention of America’s own pancake, the Slapjack.  The recipe given here faithfully reproduces this favorite of early American fare.
Unlike some griddlecake recipes, the American Slapjack contains no chemical leaveners of any kind.  Although they are not bad in themselves, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda do lessen slightly the flavor produced by the long maturing period of Ambrosia Batter.  American Slapjacks have the wonderful flavor of an unrepressed, newly-fermented wild yeast.  This is the pancake for those who want the full rich flavor of  sourdough in all its glory and savor.
American Slapjacks require more time than most sourdough hotcakes.  In the early days this presented no problem because the lady of the house was usually up well before the rest of the family.  Today, with our faster pace of living, these griddlecakes might present difficulty if it’s a quick breakfast you want.  Try making them on a Saturday or Sunday morning when you are not rushed.  Once the Ambrosia Batter has aged for 24 hours, American Slapjacks require about an hour to re-ferment after they are mixed.
1 recipe Ambrosia Batter
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 Tablespoons melted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix the egg, milk, honey, butter and salt in a two-quart bowl.  Add the Ambrosia Batter and beat rapidly for about one minute to mix and aerate the batter.  Cover and set aside in a very warm place (85 to 110) for 45 to 90 minutes.  This will cause the batter to ferment again and become light and bubbly.  After the refermentation period, move the batter very carefully to the griddle so as to avoid knocking out any of the leavening gas.  Ladle carefully and fry on a lightly greased griddle.  Makes about 40 dollar-sized hotcakes, enough for 3 or 4.
The secret of successfully bringing this recipe to flavorsome perfection is finding a spot warm enough to re-ferment the batter rapidly.  Provided that it is not above 120, an oven on a setting  of WARM is the ideal place.  Remember to ladle the batter with great care once it has become foamy.  The presence of the gas bubbles is what makes the pancakes light.  When directions are followed carefully, American Slapjacks are the lightest of all the sourdough griddlecakes and have the best sourdough flavor.

Mendenhall Sourdough Gingerbread
Servings:  4
1 c  Active Sourdough Starter
1/2 c  Hot Water
1/2 c  Molasses
1/2 t  Salt
1 t  Baking Soda
1/2 c  Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
1 ea Large Egg
1 1/2 c  Unbleached Flour
1 t  Ginger
1 t  Cinnamon
1/2 c  Shortening
Cream brown sugar and shortening and beat.  Then add molasses and egg, beating continuously.  Sift dry ingredients together and blend into hot water.  Then beat this mixture into creamed mixture.  As the last step, add   the sourdough starter slowly, mixing carefully to maintain a bubbly batter.  Bake in pan at 375 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until done.  Serve with ice cream or whipped cream while still hot if possible

Sourdough Egg Rolls
Here is my personal recipe for delicious rolls using sourdough. I used “Carl’s” sourdough starter for these rolls, and kneaded the dough using my bread machine. You may need to adjust the quantity of the ingredients to suite your particular starter consistancy and cooking environment, as these ingredients are listed by volume and not weight. While the sourness is lessened by the use of the eggs and milk, you can still taste the wonderful flavour of the particular sourdough you are using. This recipe makes about 6 large rolls with tender thin crust. Enjoy!
2 Large Eggs
1/2 cup 1% Milk
2 tbs sugar
1/2 tbs salt
2 tbs gluten
1 tbs crisco
1 tbs honey
1 cup bread flour
3 cups all purpose bleached white flour
1/2 cup sourdough starter
Put all ingredients into bread machine pan except the starter (in order shown). Set bread machine for DOUGH and turn on machine. After the ingredients have pre-heated and machine starts to knead the ingredients, add in the starter. Allow the bread machine to fully knead the mixure.
When bread machine completes the kneading phase, shut off machine and remove dough. Grease a tray or whatever you want to bake the rolls on. I use a well greased (with crisco) metal tray. Put some crisco on your hands and grease surface of dough. Cut off pieces of the dough and roll into thick roll of dough by rolling the dough between your palms. Stretch the dough a bit by pulling it and tie it into knot. The size of the cylinder of dough should be about 12″ x 1.5″ diam. Set dough knot onto tray, and continue until you use all the dough. Keep a good amount of space between each roll because they will rise a lot (hopefully).
Allow to raise for as long as you normally would with your particular starter. I let mine raise for about 3 hours.
Put tray of rolls into oven and a container of hot water in lower rack of oven. Loosely cover the container of water. (Use an oven-safe container and top.) Turn oven to 300 degrees. Do not pre-heat the oven. Bake at 300 degrees for approximately 15 minutes. Spritz hot water into oven every few minutes. The rolls should rise in oven. Turn up oven to 400 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes, or until rolls seem to be browned nicely.
Remove tray from oven and remove rolls from tray and allow to cool.
This recipe makes about 6 rolls.