Rye Sourdough Spaetzle with Caramelized Cipollini & Sautéed Mushrooms

Perfect for Oktoberfest (or Any-fest!), this amazing Rye Sourdough Spaetzle – with Caramelized Cipollini, Sauteed Mushrooms, and Tabasco Shallots – comes to us courtesy of Chef Ryan Mead of Portland’s Bent Brick.

I’ll be honest: I’ve been holding on to this recipe for almost two years now because I wanted to run it during Oktoberfest season. This amazing dish, which I first sampled while on a Portland Food Blogger Progressive Dinner, was created and generously shared with me by Chef Ryan Mead of The Bent Brick in Portland.

Chef Mead’s recipe was made to feed a multitude, so I’ve adjust both amounts and process to better suit home cooks. There are a number of steps to this recipe, but it goes together surprisingly quickly, and the results are outstanding. If you try it once, it is sure to become an annual Oktoberfest (or Any-fest) tradition.

The sourdough does take some planning, so be sure to start it about a week ahead of time. (Want to make it tonight? Just use a regular spaetzle batter.) Once you are ready to make the spaetzle batter, just follow the easy workflow found at the bottom of this post, it will take just 30 minutes from stovetop to table!

5 from 3 votes

Rye Sourdough Spaetzle

An uptown spin on a traditional German noodle dish.

Course Pasta

Cuisine German

Author Ryan Mead - The Bent Brick, Portland, Oregon

Ingredients

3/4 cup Rye Sourdough Starter
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon salt

You will also need:

Sauteed mushrooms instructions follow
Caramelized Cipollini instructions follow
Tabasco Shallots instructions follow
Handful of arugula

Instructions

In a mixing bowl, combine the starter, whole egg, egg yolk and salt. Mix on low speed until the eggs are combined.
With the mixer running slowly add the flour. When the flour has been fully incorporated place the mixer on medium speed and whip for 3 minutes. The batter should be the consistency of thick pancake batter when you are done. Don't overmix.

Cook the Spaetzle

Bring a large pot salted water to a boil. (Use about 2 teaspoons of salt per gallon of water.)
Using the spaetzle making tool of your choice, add batter to the boiling water a little at a time.
Do not put too many noodles through the spaetzle tool at once or they will clump together and get gloppy.
Cook noodles for 2-3 minutes, until they float to the top of the boiling water. (Do not overcooked, or they will get mushy.)
Place cooked noodles in a colander and run them under cold water (or better yet, throw them into an ice water bath) to stop the cooking process.
Set aside and continue process until all noodles are cooked.

Finishing up:

Toss cooked rye spaetzle with prepared caramelized cipolini and sauteed mushrooms. Garnish with Tabasco Shallots and arugula, Serve warm.

If you don’t have an “official” spaetzle tool [affiliate link], there’s no need to run out and buy one. You basically just need something with small holes in it that will allow the batter to drop down and into the boiling water in little drops, and many tools that are likely already in your kitchen will work just fine. (If you come up with a new idea, please share it with me and I will add it to my list!)

Potato ricer
Colander and spatula
Large flat cheese grater
Plastic bag – just poke a few holes in one corner and squeeze the batter through

5 from 3 votes

Caramelized Cipollini

Author Renée B. ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

1/2 pound cipollini cleaned & cut into petals
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 tablespoons bourbon

Instructions

Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. When the butter begins to slightly brown, add the cipollini and cook over medium heat until they caramelize, about 15 minutes.
Once the cipollini are caramelized add the bourbon and picked thyme. Cook for an additional 3 minutes.
Place the cipollini on a parchment lined sheet tray and cool.

Cipollini (pronounced chip-oh-LEE-nee) are small, flat, pale onions. They are sweeter and have more residual sugar than garden-variety white or yellow onions, but not as sweet as shallots. Their shape lends them well to roasting, and their sweetness makes a lovely addition to recipes that include caramelized onions.

If you look closely at this picture, you might be saying, “Hey! That doesn’t look like thyme in there, Renée!” Well, you’d be right. I decided to put in some rosemary instead, and guess what!?! Loved it! That’s what home cooking is all about – taking a recipe and making it your own!

Cipollini are harvested in the fall, but can be somewhat difficult to find the rest of the year. You may be able to find them in specialty markets or Whole Foods. (I found mine at New Seasons.) If you can’t find them (or don’t want to bother) simply substitute a sweet onion for this step.

Sauteed Mushrooms

Author: Renée B. ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat.
Add the minced garlic and sauté for 30 seconds.
Add sliced mushrooms, stir to coat, and sauté, stirring with a wooden spatula and keeping them moving until they are dark brown, about 5 minutes.
Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
Set aside.

5 from 3 votes

Tabasco Shallots

Author Renée B. ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

2 medium shallots sliced very thin
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Tabasco or Sriracha
Salt to taste

Instructions

Toss ingredients in a bowl.
Season with salt.

30-minute Spaetzle Workflow

Put the pan of water to cook the spaetzle in on the stove on high.
Make the spaetzle batter.
While the water is heating, slice the shallots and and toss in Tabasco-vinegar marinade.
Cut the cipollini into petals and begin sauteing.
Slice mushrooms and begin sauteing in separate pan. (Yes, you will now have 3 pans going on the stove!)
Complete both sauteed mushrooms and caramelized cipollini and set aside to cool.
When the water has boiled, begin cooking the spaetzle.
Quick-cool spaetzle in ice bath and drain.
Toss with sauteed mushrooms and caramelized cipollini, garnish with arugula and Tabasco shallots and serve.

I do hope you will take the time to make this fabulous dish, and once again, thanks to Chef Ryan and The Bent Brick for their generosity.

What’s on your Oktobestfest menu?

How to Make a Rye Sourdough Starter

September 14 By Renée ♥ 19 Comments

Rye sourdough starter is – by far – the easiest sourdough to start. All you need is rye flour and water.

I have a confession to make: I’ve been holding out on you. For nearly two years, I’ve had an amazing recipe in my [digital] back pocket that I’ve been so excited to share, but it kept getting bumped for one reason or another. I’d have it scheduled, and then something else would come up and I’d think,What’s another week? or, I really want to run this one during Ocktoberfest season. Well, Oktoberfest season is upon us once again, and I am not letting it get by me this time.

Two years ago this fall, I went on an absolutely fabulous party-bus ride with some of Portland best food bloggers for a progressive dinner at four of Portland’s most esteemed restaurants. Our main course came courtesy of The Bent Brick in northwest PDX, and among the dishes served was the best spaetzle I’ve ever eaten – made with rye sourdough and dressed with caramelized cipollini [fancy-pants onions], sautéed mushrooms, and Tabasco shallots. If there is German pasta in heaven, it tastes like The Bent Brick’s rye soudough spaetzle.

I’ll be sharing the complete recipe next week, along with many [belated] thank you’s to those who helped bring it to us. But first, there’s a little prep work to be done.

This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.

In order to make Rye Sourdough Spaetzle (or rye sourdough bread, or rye sourdough pancakes, etc.) you need to put together a rye sourdough starter, which is – by far – the easiest sourdough to start. All you need is rye flour and water.

The Flour: I used Bob’s Red Mill Organic Dark Rye Flour.

The Water: I used tap water, and everything bubbled up just fine. Nevertheless, many sourdough professionals (I am not one) discourage the use of tap water in favor of distilled water, as the chlorine and other chemicals found in treated water can kill the microorganisms that need to flourish to create sourdough. If there is an overabundance of chlorine in your city’s water, you might want to think about using distilled water. All I can say about the issue is that the water treatment facility in my town uses enough chlorine that I can actually smell it when it comes through the faucet, and it wasn’t a problem for me. Just use your best judgement.

Rye Sourdough Starter

Course Bread

Author Renée B. ♥ The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

Day 1:

1/2 cup rye flour
1/2 cup water

Day 2:

1/2 cup rye flour
1/2 cup water

Day 3:

1/4 cup water
1/4 cup rye flour
method:

Day 4:

1/4 cup water
1/4 cup rye flour

Weekly feeding (or every time starter gets used):

3/4 cup water
3/4 cup rye flour

Instructions

Day 1:

Using a wooden spoon, mix the rye flour and water in a mason jar or non-reactive bowl.
Cover loosely and place in a dark place at 70°F for 24 hours. (I put mine up against the counter right next to my stove.)

Day 2:

Add the rye flour and water to the starter. Mix with a clean wooden spoon for 30 seconds until the flour has been incorporated.
Cover loosely and place in a dark place at 70°F for 24 hours.

Day 3:

Add the rye flour and water to the starter. Mix with a clean wooden spoon for 30 seconds until the flour has been incorporated.
Cover loosely and place in a dark place at 70°F for 24 hours.

Day 4:

If bubbles have started to form and the flour has begun to ferment discard ⅔ of the mixture. Add the flour and water to the remaining ⅓ and mix for 30 seconds until the flour is well incorporated. If the mixture has not started to ferment repeat step 3.

Day 5:

The starter should be mature by this point and is ready to use. Use the starter you need. After use, see feeding instructions.

Weekly feeding (or every time starter gets used):

After each use of the starter, mix in the flour and water just like Day 4, with the exception of discarding any starter. Let the starter rest in a dark 70°F place for 12 hours and then place in the refrigerator.

♥︎ Want to learn more about baking bread? Click here to check out great baking classes from Craftsy ♥︎

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The Lazy Caretaker’s Guide to Sourdough

January 6 By Renée ♥ 11 Comments

I have a dirty little secret: I don’t feed my sourdough starter regularly. At all. Mostly it just sits in a jar in the back of my fridge under a little puddle of hooch, waiting for me to get a yen to make something sour-doughy.

My sourdough use waxes and wanes in bouts that can last weeks, or even months. In waxing cycles, when I am baking bread nearly every day, a loaf rarely hits the cooling rack before someone slices off an end. We have homemade bread for our sandwiches and for our soup. We take it in our lunches and feast on it warm with slathers of peanut butter and sprinkles of sugar.

But then I lose interest, and months can go by before I even give it a second thought again. Then Oh, what great consternation arises among certain citizens of our household! I get this a lot: “Mom, that jar of sourdough looks disgusting! If you aren’t going to use it, then just throw it away!”

Never!

I know good sourdough parents don’t have this problem. They feed their starter regularly, and they bake a loaf every three days like clockwork. This post isn’t for them. It is for the rest of us. The negligent. The lackadaisical. The throngs of home bakers who avoid sourdough altogether because they instinctively know that the waning times will come to them as well, and they just don’t want to deal with the guilt.

Well, guess what? No one needs to feel guilty. No me. Not you. Because a good sourdough starter will stay alive in the fridge with very little maintenance for extremely long periods of time, and can easily be activated when you want to use it. (OK, not really “right when” you want to use it: you need to plan about a day in advance.) Here’s my very easy protocol for waking a sleepy starter:

How to Wake a Sleeping Sourdough Starter

Put one tablespoon of starter into a non-metallic bowl. Stir in one ounce each of filtered water and flour. (I use a kitchen scale.) Allow to sit at room temperature for 8 hours.
After 8 hours, measure the starter (preferably on a kitchen scale). Add equal parts filtered water and flour. (i.e., If I have 2 ounces of starter, I add 2 ounces each of water and flour.) Let sit at room temperature for another 8 hours.
Repeat Step 2.

The total “revival” process takes about 24 hours, at which time my starter is usually bubbly, percolating and ready to use. If yours isn’t, try one more feeding and check again.

How to Care for Your {Sourdough} Mother

Even the laziest sourdough caretaker must do a little maintenance. (I don’t know how long it takes to really “kill” a sourdough starter. I think the longest I’ve ever left mine alone in the fridge was about seven months.) To maintain my starter in the fridge, I do this every two to six months:

Drain off the hooch. (That grey-black stuff in there is basically sourdough poop.)
Throw out all but one cup of the starter. (I try to get some of the clean, bubbly starter from the bottom of the jar.)
Mix one cup of filtered water and one cup of flour into the cup of old starter. Put everything in clean jar,* cover loosely, and put it in the back of the fridge.

*I use antique jars with ill-fitting ceramic-lined lids: they do the job perfectly!

A final note for all you Lifetime Sourdough Bakers out there who tend your starter regularly and have likely cringed your way through this entire post: Please be kind in your comments. We all know that this is not the optimal way to take care of sourdough starter, but it works for me, and I know there are plenty of bakers just like me out there.

Sourdough Pumpkin Spice Scones

October 15 By Renée ♥ 15 Comments

The only thing better that the warm, spicy scent of these Sourdough Pumpkin Spice Scones baking is taking a bite of one fresh from the oven.

“Mom! These are Super-Good!!”

That was my 12-year old’s reaction this morning as she devoured a warm Pumpkin Spice Scone. And let me tell you, that is high praise!

In the past year, as I have transitioned from casual foodie to full-on food blogger, my two youngest daughters (the ones still home 24/7) have become quite the culinary critics. Don’t get me wrong – they still say thank you after every homemade meal (even when I just pack their lunches!) – but when I make something new and it isn’t quite right, they don’t hold back. Which is good; because like Mr. B’s epicurean advice, I trust and appreciate their input, and I know my recipes are better for it. I’m sharing this with you today to underscore the fact that when I get the reaction I got on this morning, I know we have a real winner.

Enjoy!!

P.S. My house smells warm and spicy and utterly spectacular this morning.

5 from 1 vote

Sourdough Pumpkin Spice Scones

Course Breakfast, Brunch

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 55 minutes

Servings 8

Author Renée ♥

Ingredients

Follow The Good Hearted Woman on Pinterest for more great recipes!

Scones

2 ½ cup flour
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ cup cold butter
1 cup 100% hydration sourdough starter
½ cup canned pumpkin**
1 tbs. molasses
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tablespoons milk only as needed

Spiced Sugar Topping

2 tbs. white sugar
½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Pumpkin Spiced Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbs. canned pumpkin
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
2 tbs. milk

Instructions

Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.
Stir together flour, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl. Cut the butter into ¼ cubes and blend into dry mixture with your fingertips or a pastry blender. It should look like very coarse crumbs with a few bigger pieces of butter distributed throughout.
In a separate bowl, mix sourdough starter, pumpkin, molasses and vanilla.
Stir wet mixture into dry mixture. This may seem a little dry at first. Mix thoroughly before you decide to add the milk. The dough should soft like a biscuit dough. Don’t play with the dough too much – the less you work with it, the tenderer your scones will turn out.
Form a 9-inch wheel of dough. With a long knife, cut it into eight pieces, like a pizza. Brush the top of the wheel with milk.
In a small bowl, combine the white sugar with ½ teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice and sprinkle this mixture over the top of the scone-wheel, using your fingers to smooth it evenly.
Cut the wheel into eight pieces, like a pizza and transfer them to the prepared baking sheet. Place them so that they are about ½ inch away from one another. Put the scones on the baking sheet in the freezer, and set your oven to 400° F.
When the oven is heated, take the scones out of the freezer, put them into the oven, and bake for 20-25 minutes.
Cool on wire rack and drizzle with Pumpkin Spiced Glaze.

Recipe Notes

**You can use home-cooked pumpkin, but you may need to add a little milk or extra flour to the mix to adjust for the difference in moisture content.

Kaylen’s Bread

September 17 By Renée ♥ 70 Comments

Want to make someone feel really special? Want to feel great yourself? Give a loaf of homemade sourdough bread!!

This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they don’t bite.

Last month, I embarked on a new adventure – I started the of growing a sourdough starter and learning how to use it. Last week, after lots of research and careful thought, I made my very first loaf of sourdough bread. I’m not great at following much of anything to the letter, so I didn’t use one particular recipe – instead I studied a few that were recommended for beginners and put something together that made sense to me. And it turned out wonderfully!! My little loaf of bread was gone so fast that I barely had time to take a picture!!

My First Loaf of Sourdough Bread

Sourdough bread is more than just delicious and pretty though. “One study using sourdough bread made with specific strains of bacteria found that it could reduce gluten intolerance in people sensitive to wheat gluten. While that doesn’t mean that people diagnosed with gluten intolerance can eat sourdough bread with impunity, it does suggest that the bread is more easily digested than other breads made with wheat flour.” (Reader’s Digest) In fact, that was the idea that compelled me to start investigating Sourdough.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my BFF Jenny asked me to give sourdough a go in the hopes that it will benefit her daughter, Kaylen, a beautiful young woman with some serious digestive issues. Gluten is not Kaylen’s friend. But she misses bread – real bread that does not “taste like sand” (Kaylen’s words) – a lot. I’ve known Kaylen since she was six and love her like my own daughter – of course I will bake her bread. Last night, I dropped off the first loaf to her and here’s what I found on Facebook when I got home:

EASY SOURDOUGH BREAD - Want to make someone feel really special? Want to feel great yourself? Give a loaf of homemade sourdough bread!!

Want to feel really happy? Give someone you love a loaf of fresh bread!!

Made me cry. You just don’t get a better feeling than that, you know?

Here is my recipe for Easy Sourdough Bread, including links to those recipes I used for guidance.

4.8 from 5 votes

Basic Sourdough Bread

Super-basic. No bells, no whistles - just bread.

Course Bread

Prep Time 12 hours

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 12 hours 30 minutes

Servings 1 Loaf

Author Renée

Ingredients

3/4 cup sourdough starter unfed & room temperature
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water you may need more or less, depending on your starter's hydration. Mine is 100% hydration starter.
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

Instructions

In a stand-mixer, mix ingredients with bread hook until just combined. Let rest for 10-20 minutes. While it is resting, lightly coat a medium-sized bowl with olive oil. The bowl needs to be a big enough to allow the dough to double in size.
Knead dough with bread hook 5-10 minutes.
Remove from mixer, shape into ball and put into the oiled bowl, smooth-side down, and then flip it smooth-side up so that all sides of the dough are covered with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap.
Let rise at least 6 hours (or until double in size) folding twice during that time. (This long rise is what helps make it tolerable for folks with gluten sensitivity.)
Form bread into a boule (a round loaf) and place on a square of parchment paper. With a wet serrated knife, cut a couple of slashes on the top. (So far, I've always forgotten to do this and it wasn't the end of the world.) Cover loosely with a damp towel and allow to rise for 1 1/2- 2 hours.
In the last 30 or 40 minutes of the last rise, move your oven rack to the bottom third of oven. Put a cast iron Dutch oven with lid in the cold oven and preheat to 450º for 30 minutes.
Remove the lid from the Dutch oven and put the boule in by picking up the corners of the parchment and gently setting it in. Be very careful - the Dutch oven and lid are very hot. (I burnt myself the first time!)
Put the lid on the Dutch oven and bake for 12-13 minutes. Uncover and bake another 12-13 minutes.
Remove and place on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes. DO NOT slice the bread until it has set for 30 minutes - this is part of the baking process. Really.

Recipe Notes

If you don't have a cast iron Dutch oven, you can use a baking stone. If you use a baking stone, cover the boulé with a big roast pan lid or something like that. The idea is to create some steam for the first part of the baking process- this is what gives it that awesome chewy crust.

References for this recipe include:

How to Make Sourdough Bread – Pinch My Salt
Easy Sourdough Artisan Bread – Oregon Cottage
The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast: Breads, Pancakes, Waffles, Cinnamon Rolls and Muffins, by Caleb Warnock & Melissa Richardson

I’ve learned so much already about baking with sourdough; enough to know that what I do know barely scratches the surface, so if you are a sourdough baker and see something I’ve written that could use improvement, please leave a comment. Like most of us, I’m here to learn.

BREAD BAKING FREEBIE: Bread Making Basics is a free PDF guide available exclusively on Craftsy, featuring 24 pages of tips, tricks & recipes from incredible bakers and cake decorators. Download it instantly for free now (you can print it easily if you’d like) and enjoy it forever in the comfort of your own home or even on the go!

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Pinterest Overload

September 10 By Renée ♥ Leave a Comment

It all started this morning when I did a search for “sourdough” to get ideas. I found some pretty cool stuff that I can’t wait to try – you can check out the highlights on my Pinterest Sourdough Board. But then I made the mistake of “just checking” Pinterest to see what was new. OMG. There are a freaking lot of people with a freaking lot of taupe throw pillows, perfect lighting and too much time on their hands. Go ahead and call me old – I don’t care. I am, in fact, old enough to have had a boyfriend in college who owned the only “personal computer” on campus. Which is to say, it was the only one not hooked up to the campus Mainframe. And back then, as we watched that little green cursor blink on and off, we never imagined in our wildest dreams that someday the screen would be filled with images of pensive, long-legged girls walking through English lavender gardens, complicated up-do how-tos, buttery garlic pull-apart tutorials, and clever IKEA hacks – All At the Same Time!! So I am officially on Pinterest Overload. Thankfully, I’m also old enough to know I can’t do it all, so my self-image is still relatively intact, but Wow – so much input. And now there’s something on my mind that I just need to put out there:

To the Woman I Would Have Been If We Had Pinterest

Back When I Was 20- or 30-Something:

See your Pinterest Guilt over there? I know you can see it… stop ignoring me. Yes, there it is! What I’m about to tell you is going to be really hard for you to do, but you have to trust me. That’s it – now take it and put it into that little brown corrugated box over there – the one you were going to faux-finish before you layered it with three kinds of butterscotch cookies to send to your BFF in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey. Yes, that one. Now put your Pinterest Guilt into the box. No, you don’t need glittery tissue paper. Good job! Now fold the lid down, and tape it up. No, don’t wrap it, and don’t put a ribbon on it. And for Pete’s sake, don’t put a freaking bird on it! (I am a Portlander, after all.) Just close the lid and put that box out in recycling. You don’t need it, and it’s bad for you because it makes you feel badly about yourself. No, Pinterest in and of itself isn’t bad, but guilting yourself is. Because here’s the big secret… (Are you listening?)

You don’t have to do it all.

You don’t.

It’s OK.

It’s OK if your kids eat Cheerios for dinner now and then, or if your vintage reclaimed antique table is really a Pottery Barn knock-off. It’s OK if your house is a mess and you don’t know how to crochet your own swimsuit cover-up. You don’t have to be perfect, and you don’t have to Monkey-Shop every image you put up on the interwebs so that it looks like you are. OMG I wish you could hear me.

In fact, you can even miss a day or two of Vegan MoFo and everything will be just fine. Yes, I promise. Everything will work out fine.

So none of this has anything to do with Sourdough, which is probably why you stopped in, but I just felt like I needed to get that out. Now let’s get back on track with this: For the last month, I’ve been posting weekly about starting up a sourdough starter, and it occurs to me that you might be asking where to get sourdough starter. There are a couple of places, but the two easiest and least expensive ones I know of are (a) a friend with sourdough starter who will share, or (b) The Friends of Carl Griffith. For the price of postage, Carl’s Friends will mail you a little package of flakes in about six weeks (mine came in three).

This Thursday, I’m planning to make my first loaf of sourdough bread and I’m pretty excited about that. I’ll let you know how it goes, if the lighting works out right, that is.

Sourdough Starter: Week 2

August 27 By Renée ♥ Leave a Comment

Back when I was a little girl, somewhere between Mr. Ed and Charlotte’s Web, I fell in love with the name Wilbur. I’ve always wanted to give the name to a pet, but I’ve never had one for whom it seemed right – until now. You see, according to all the sourdough people I’ve read, maintaining a sourdough starter is kind of like keeping a pet, in that it requires ongoing care and attention, regular feeding, a certain amount of air, and a clean, comfortable place to live. So I’ve named my starter Wilbur. I just thought you should know.

Day 8 – Not as many bubbles today, and I’m wondering if maybe I need to feed Wilbur more. Normally on feeding days, you are supposed to add enough to double your starter. For example, if you have a cup of starter, you are supposed to add a cup of water and a cup of flour. But with these small amounts, I’m not sure I should be doing that – I’m still concerned about overwhelming those little critters – so I add 1 teaspoon of water and one teaspoon of flour.

Day 9 – Smells like sourdough. Not much happening though.

Day 10 – No activity, so I decide it’s time to feed him again. For the first time, I double the amounts, adding one tablespoon of flour and one tablespoon of water.

One hour after adding 1 T. water and 1 T. flour, my starter is happily bubbling away!

Day 11 – Not much happening. Bubbles are confined under a thin layer of water.

Day 12 – Remember that scene in Charlotte’s Web where Fern has to move Wilbur out of the house and into him pen in the yard? That was today. Wilbur is finally big enough to move to a new home – a vintage canning jar with a very loose lid. I moved him, fed him and said a little prayer. From now on, I am going to try to feed him every Sunday and Thursday.

Wilbur is getting settled in his new home.

Day 13 – Bubbling away in the fridge!

Day 14 – Still bubbling!

Sourdough Starter: Week 1

August 20 By Renée ♥ Leave a Comment

I think I worried more about my new Sourdough Starter this week than I ever worried about any of my babies when they came home from the hospital. I was lucky, baby-wise – from the moment they put that first newborn in my arms, I was in my element and everything came pretty naturally. On the other hand, my brand spanking new Sourdough starter is something entirely foreign to me and caused me to spend hours this week fretting irrationally about its health and future development. I did, however, identify a few similarities between the two; the biggest one being that the little critters are a lot more resilient and forgiving than we give them credit for sometimes, and more often than not they thrive, in spite of our inexperience. Here’s how my first week went:

Day 1 – After 2 hours of soaking, my flakes look exactly the same. (I tilted the jar slightly during the soaking time so that all the flakes were submerged, so adequate water was not the problem.)

Day 1 – As Caleb’s book instructed, I soaked my starter flakes in a tablespoon of water for a few hours. And nothing happened. I mean nothing! The flakes got a little soggy, but there was none of the breaking down I was told to look for, and certainly not any “milky water.” Just shrimp color flakes. At this point, I decided they looked too lonely at the bottom of that big jar anyway, so I moved them into a cozy little bowl (it’s about four inches in diameter). Then I waited for another few hours, probably six or eight total. Still nothing but soggy flakes. So I took my finger and kind of smooshed them onto the side of the bowl to break them up some, and went on to the next step, which was to add flour. (I used all-purpose flour.) Having had plenty of time to consider what to do next, I took the advice of Paul from Yumarama, who commented on last week’s post, saying,

“I’d suggest in your case with the very small amount of flakes to start pretty small in the wetting and feeding quantities. You don’t want to overwhelm the reduced number of yeasty critters right at the start.”

Well, I had already added a tablespoon of water and didn’t want to take any out for fear of taking some of the cultures of too, so I left the water alone and just added one teaspoon of flour, which still seemed like a lot for my little less-than-half-teaspoon of starter flakes. Then I covered it loosely with plastic wrap and set it on my counter. Here’s what it looked like:

Sourdough Starter – Day 1

Day 2 – No changes. None.

Day 3 – Still no changes. I start to get a little worried. Maybe I put in too much flour. Maybe there’s too much water. Maybe I should have put it in the fridge. Maybe it needs to be warmer. Even though there is a ton of flour in there, I sense that I need to feed it, so a put in another 1/4 teaspoon of flour.

Day 4 – No changes, except I am worrying more.

Day 5 – I “think” there is something happening! Just maybe. No visible changes yet, but it just feels different.

Day 6 – Yay! I can see tiny little bubbles!!! I think it is possible I have not killed it! I am so excited!!! I am supposed to feed it every 3-4 days, so I add another 1/2 teaspoon of flour, but no extra water.

Sourdough Starter – Day 6, before adding more flour.

Sourdough Starter – Day 6, after adding more flour

Day 7 – More bubbles! And even more exciting, my little bowl of starter is starting to smell like sourdough!! Oh, I am so exited!

Day 7 – More bubbles!!

Sourdough Starter: Week 0

August 13 By Renée ♥ 2 Comments

The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast, by Caleb Warnock & Melissa Richardson

A while back, my BFF Jenny gave me a copy of “The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast,” a book all about starting and using “sourdough starter” in baking, by Caleb Warnock & Melissa Richardson. The premise of the book is simple: the authors claim that “commercial yeast is so foreign to our bodies that many people are allergic to it. But natural yeast converts dough into a digestible, vitamin-rich food that’s free from harmful enzymes and won’t spike your body’s defenses.” They explain that almost all yeast used today was created in a lab, stating “for the first time in 6,000 years, humans are eating bread that is not made with natural yeast.” In other words, according to the authors, it isn’t the gluten that is causing so many to develop Celiac and other related digestive diseases; it is the synthetic yeasts that we ingest that are predisposing our bodies to gluten intolerance.

Jenny gave me the book because she has a daughter who has some pretty severe gluten intolerance issues and she is curious if the nutritional claims hold up in real life, but she’s just not a bread baker (her words), so she asked if I could pretty please help. Well, I’m not a great bread baker either, but I’m eager and willing to learn. And really, taking a crack at keeping a sourdough starter wasn’t a very difficult decision for me to make – first, I would walk barefoot through a fiery hot pool of bubbling butterscotch for Jenny; and second, I’ve always wanted to try sourdough from the ground up: My mother kept a sourdough starter when I was very young, and the pancakes and bread she used to make for us is are a wonderful food memory for me.

Honestly, I wish I could just write out giant chunks of Caleb and Melissa’s book – they’ve done their homework, they outline their hypothesis well, and frankly, it makes a lot of sense. But I’ll leave that to you to read if you wish and draw your own conclusions. Here, I’m just going to concentrate on sharing the natural yeast (i.e., sourdough) process – and hopefully some wonderful recipes – with you.

Getting Sourdough Starter

To aid readers in the process, when you buy the book, Caleb will mail you dry sourdough starter for the price of a self-addressed, stamped envelope. (That’s a SASE, for you aging Zoomers.) I mailed my request off and had these little babies in hand a week later.

They look kinda lonely all by themselves in that great big jar!

Starting a Sourdough Starter

The directions in the book say that I need about one tablespoon of starter to “get started,” but Caleb only sent me about ½ a teaspoon, so I’m just going to push through and see what happens. I also consulted these great directions for reviving Sourdough Starter at Yumarama, and I’ll update you on the progress next week on Sourdough Tuesday.