IT has been awhile (April 18, 2010, to be precise) since I’ve dealt with sourdough – and if you’ve clicked through to that date – you know how well that ended. Still, I am nothing if not pessimystically optimistic that I CAN – NO! – I SHALL make sourdough.
Course, to make sourdough, one needs sourdough starter.
And, ermmm, a week.
My last attempt at a starter, courtesy of a very specific site found via da Google, ended, well, see above; so when I found what looks to be a wicked simple sourdough starter in a twelve year old bread machine book by the nice folk at Gold Medal Flour, I thought I’d give it another try.
INGREDIENTS
•1-1/2 tsp yeast
•4 cups warm (105º to 115º) water
•3 cups flour
•4 tsp sugar
Now, the Gold Medal folk called for “bread machine yeast” and, ermmm “better for bread” flour – but I went with my regular Fleischmann’s out of the jar in the fridge and some plain ole unbleached white flour.
Mebbe that’s where things went wrong…
In any event, sprinkle the yeast over your warm water in a large glass bowl and let sit for five minutes or so until it softens and dissolves.
Stir in the flour and sugar, then beat with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth – about a minute.
So far, so good…
Cover loosely and let stand at room temperature for about a week – until the mixture is bubbly and sour smelling.
I transferred my mixture to another glass bowl before draping a towel over the top and heading off to bed, thinking of the lovely, sourdough possibilities waiting in just another few days.
Imagine, then, my surprise at finding this oozing, seeping STUFF running over the counter – there was absolutely no mention in the book from those supposedly nice folk at 
Gold Medal about oozing and seeping – just an image conjured of this nicely mannered bowl o’ stuff doing its thing on the counter and minding its own business.
Well, at this point, the damage was done, so I lifted the kinda gross kitchen towel and looked upon the contents.
Not pretty.
But then again, it’s not really supposed to be, is it?
I thought about scraping down the sides of the bowl, but thought it best to just leave it all be; so I have placed the bowl onto a plate, just in case we have a repeat of last night’s oozing and seeping, and draped it with a bit of paper toweling.
That’s all I should have to do until next Friday.