Printable – Care and Feeding of your Sourdough

THE BEGINNING

If you’ve received a container of live Sour Dough Starter, this is where you want to be.  This is assuming that you just received your starter.  You will return to this point every time you pull your starter out of the fridge.

The first thing you need to do is feed your starter, which should be about 1 cup. 
If you have a large family, you should *** increase the amount of all ingredients presented here to 2 cups.

TODAY

1. Take 1 C of water *** and put it into a bowl and set it on the counter for 30-60 minutes.   Chlorine evaporates quickly, and this will allow much of the chlorination that is present in tap water to dissipate.  Alternately, you can use any type of bottled water.  Chlorine will evaporate through the plastic.
2. Take your GLASS jar (with approx 1 C *** starter) out of the fridge and place it in a glass bowl.
3. Mix 1 C *** flour, 1/2 tsp *** Rapid Rise Yeast, and 1 TBL *** sugar or honey to your starter.  Cover and let rest in the refrigerator overnight. 
4. Meanwhile, wash your GLASS storage jar.
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   TOMORROW
   
5. The next morning, take 1 C *** of your mixture and put it back into your storage jar and put it into the fridge.  This will create your renewed starter.
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   SOMETIME NEXT WEEK
   
6. Your renewed starter will be ready to use again the next morning, or you can wait as long as 7-10 days.  Two weeks is pushing it, but I’ll admit that I’ve done it.
7. From this point forward, if two weeks go by and you are not ready to bake with your starter, you need to feed it by doings Steps 1-4 and discarding the other half.  BETTER YET, after feeding, put half of it into a jar and offer it to a friend.  Their starter is live and ready to use.
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   RETURN TO THE BEGINNING
8. This is the point where you probably got your starter from another friend.  Tell your friend, when they get home, return to the top of this page, THE BEGINNING, and start the process on their own.  If you don’t have printed instructions for them, tell them to go to www.grandpacooks.com and enter the code SDP2 into the search box.
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   USING YOUR SOUR DOUGH SPONGE
9. What you actually have now is a Sourdough Sponge.  You placed half of it back into the fridge for next time, this will talk about how to use the half that you kept out.
10. To use 1 C *** renewed starter, just add 2 C bread flour  (*** 4 C for a double batch) to the mixture. Add 1 tsp of yeast to help with the rise. At this point you should also add 1/2 tsp salt and just enough water to help the dough come together.  This depends on the humidity in the air, the temperature, and some other factors, so just dribble in water with your machine running.  You will see it start to come together. 
    • DO NOT OVERWATER.  If you do accidentally, just add flour ( 1 TBL at a time ) until you get a dough ball.
    • You can substitute 1/2 C wheat flour for 1/2 C of the bread flour.
    • DO NOT add yeast to the part that is going back in the fridge.

BASIC RECIPE

1. If you have a bread machine, just follow the timing instructions on your bread machine.  if you have a Kitchen Aid, stir with a bread hook until it starts to come together.  After it has balled, stir for 10 minutes.
2. Cover and let rest 20 minutes
3. Mix and knead by hand on a floured surface for about 5 minutes.  Fold into thirds, then flatten, and repeat.  Place in a lightly greased covered glass bowl for an hour.
4. Mix and knead by hand on a floured surface; folding in thirds, flattening and repeating two more times.
5. Form into the end product in bread tin or whatever you are using and let rise for 1 hour
6. Let finish rising for another 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, put a baking stone or cast iron skillet into the oven to help with heat regulation, and preheat the oven to 400º
7. Brush the top of your loaves with a mixture of 1/4 C water and 1 TBL cornstarch
8. Bake about 30-40 minutes or until internal temperature is between 195º and 205º – – NOTE:  Water boils at 212º.  If your internal temperature hits 210º or above you will have a very dry and awful loaf because the water has evaporated out of it.  198º is the perfect temperature.
9. Wait at least 30 minutes before cutting the loaf.

If you would like more information about the history of this particular batch of Sour Dough Starter, plus some recipes, visit GrandpaCooks.com and enter GSDSC into the search box.