Yeast

First Ever sourdough starter--Day 1

When I was younger I was afraid of yeast breads. I didn't want to mess with them all because of the fear that 'I would mess them up'. Instead I stuck to quick breads that are nearly impossible to mess up (unless you confuse the salt and sugar as I did my first month here). But really--they are fail proof! After all why is it that we hear the word yeast and it freaks us out? Quite the conundrum.  You might ask who has all that time for all that rising, kneading, yeast testing, etc, and quite frankly some people do have a point. It is time consuming and requires alot of time and patience.

As I got older and more confident in trying new things in the kitchen I tried my hand at yeast breads and what I found was that they weren't all that intimidating. Probably the most frustrating thing is if your yeast is dead, but I have found that if you bake regularly this is usually not a problem. I would say I have gotten to be quite the expert since being in Poland. I bake yeast breads more than I do quick breads because bread is such an important and abundant food staple here. I also was introduced to using a fresh 'yeast cake' rather than instant yeast. I have to say I am starting to like the cakes better--I find them easier to measure out and they seem to be easier to tell if they have gone bad.

This past week I decided to try one of the things on my recent 'to do' list--Sourdough starter. I was quite excited as I started a 5 day process of 'fermenting' my dough mixture. Every day I would give it a few stirs and watch as it bubbled like a hot swamp in summer. Aga said the kitchen smelled like a bakery and I when the 5 days were up and I made the loaf and tasted it--oh man-- it was good.

I would have liked more of a 'sour' taste but I realize this could have been a variety of factors.

• The recipe said 5 days, but I wonder if I could have fermented the starter an additional day or so
  
• Perhaps the 'brown bread' type of flour made a difference in taste

I am sad to say that it only made 2 cups of starter and I have used the remaining portion today for Best-Ever-Oatmeal-Bread. Can you feel the excitement? it looks pretty good at its rising stage and the kitchen already smells (again) like a bakery. I have a pretty amazing looking banana bread loaf in the oven too. ;)