Sourdough adventures

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One of my recent kitchen projects has been starting a new sourdough starter. The sourdough I’ve mentioned here on my blog is absolutely phenomenal, but is high enough in sugar that I don’t like to make or serve it as often as my family would like to eat it.

After doing some searching around the internet, I came across some wonderful sourdough instructions at Heavenly Homemakers. Her instructions were so thorough that I figured it would be interesting to give the process a try.

The only thing is my starter didn’t react the same way hers did. Mine acted like it was on steroids or something. She mentioned that she was starting hers in Nebraska in January – and since I’m making mine in South Carolina in July I’m assuming that’s why mine went nuts.

The first day, a dark liquid formed on the bottom of the starter and it started smelling sour right away. I would have poured the liquid off, but since it was on the bottom, there wasn’t a way that I could figure out. I stirred it back in, and added the second batch of flour and water. When we came home from church Sunday night (day 2), this is what we saw:

It had bubbled up and completely filled the cheesecloth at the top. That surprised me – I thought it would just go through the cheesecloth. Apparently not. LOL! I stirred it some and this is what it looked like the next morning (day 3):

By Monday afternoon (still day 3), the liquid had risen to the top enough to be able to pour it off.

Wow – it was seriously SOUR smelling! After pouring off the liquid though, the smell is much improved. It still smells sour, but isn’t nearly so overpowering.

This morning the starter doesn’t look very alive at all. I don’t know if I should’ve left some of the liquid in it or not. We’ll see how it goes. It’s day 4 of the process, but I won’t feed it until later in the day.

I’m getting kind of anxious to get through the entire seven-day process to make the bread. Even though the sourness isn’t my favorite smell in the world, I can only imagine how good the bread made with it will taste. I also like how it only uses a few ingredients!