On our last trip to Bowling Green we stayed with some of our dear friends who have recently converted to making all their own bread! They were wonderful hosts and made some of their bread for us, sent us home with more and gave us some of their starter!
This last week I tried my first loaf from this starter, unfortunately it did not raise as much as my friend's wonderful bread, but as Chris kept reminding me it was my first try and it still tasted great! My friends felt that the reason their bread raised so high was that they were using a local honey which interacted well with the local bugs that work as leavening for the starter. I used some local honey as well but I think my main problem was that I didn't allow the starter to "proof" long enough. It was bubbly when I started making it but it didn't have much of a 'sour' smell to it.... what can I say? I was excited about eating it and pretty impatient!
Above is one of the loaves from my first try, it was kinda short and dense, but so tasty both loaves were nearly gone before nightfall! Sometime I want to discuss some of the advantages of sour-dough over baker's yeast bread but for now I just wanted to share the joy of bread! Hope you made something tasty this week!
yum! i have been keeping my starter (a sweet sourdough w/potato flakes & sugar) for about 2 years now. have some sitting on my counter right now to mix tonight. yum! glad you're doing it
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