This year marks the ninth annual sourdough month on my Twice as Tasty blog and five years of sharing my sourdough recipes and personal sourdough through this column. This month, I’m focusing on some of my favorite dense, slow-rise fermented doughs.
For all of this month’s recipes, you need an active sourdough starter. Use your already healthy and bubbly starter, acquire one from an experienced sourdough baker, start your own from scratch or wake up a dormant starter forgotten in the back of your fridge.
I bake with the sourdough starter I was gifted in 2014. In the past 11 years, I have shared it with hundreds of people, including many Flathead Beacon readers. My sourdough starter has traveled with me by car, plane and boat. I’ve also left it at home when I’ve traveled and, every time I’ve returned, successfully woken it from dormancy.
A long-unfed starter might look ugly, dried out or topped by a protective black surface liquid called hooch. But in my experience, a few fresh feedings revives it, making it stronger and more flavorful than a newly made starter.
If you’re a first-time sourdough baker, request starter in the Sharing fermented starters Facebook group. For the cost of shipping and materials, a member of the group, perhaps me, will offer to share their active starter. If you already have a lively sourdough or other starter, it’s a great place to return the favor. If you’re not a Facebook user, you can reach me at TwiceAsTasty.com to request my sourdough starter or an in-person sourdough workshop. The blog’s recipe index also leads to information on making and caring for sourdough starter.
Once you have a strong starter, sourdough success comes from fitting your baking into your lifestyle. For me, that usually means baking every one to two weeks. Each time I want to use my starter, I take it from the fridge and let it warm to room temperature. If it doesn’t start to bubble as it warms, I feed it a tiny amount to coax it awake. Once I measure the starter into my recipe, I feed what remains in the jar, let it sit at room temperature for about an hour and then return it to the fridge to slowly ferment until my next baking day.
A quick search of the Flathead Beacon or scroll through my blog’s recipe index reveals all of the sourdough recipes I’ve shared in this column, from Sourdough Pizza Dough to Sourdough Crescent Rolls. You’ll see some common themes, including minimal kneading, a long fermentation time and baking cold dough. These techniques not only fit my schedule and lifestyle but also let sourdough’s wild yeast and bacteria break down the phytic acid in wheat bran, making it easier to digest – and taste even more sour and delicious.
So get ready for a delicious month of sourdough baking. I’ll share my recipes for low-gluten naan, bagels, rye bread and more, as well as tasty ways to use these creations.
Julie Laing is a Bigfork-based cookbook author and food blogger. Learn more about this month’s sourdough workshops at TwiceAsTasty.com.