Sourdough Starter

Of all the delicious breads in existence, I wouldn't put sourdough very high on the list. However, now that I'm fascinated by bread-baking, I consider sourdough to be a necessary and exciting project. Maybe just the idea of telling people I have to go home to "feed my starter" is what I'm most looking forward to but that's neither here nor there.

I had to wait until after we returned home from Mexico because the first 3 days up to a week require daily "feedings."

I looked up Mark Bittman's recipe for sourdough and he uses a commercial yeast which he explains makes it less sour and, from what I've read elsewhere, seems to speed up the process a bit. As much as I love MB, I think I'm going to go more old-school on this first starter.

I found a guide here: http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm. I'm even ignoring the part of my brain that wants to use whole wheat flour and instead opted for the all-purpose unbleached flour. I'll keep it basic for now and see how it goes.

I'm using a large canning jar but haven't quite figured out what type of lid I'll use once it goes in the fridge. Meh.

Here is the entire recipe: jar, 1 cup of warm water, 1 cup of flour.

Here is what it looks like after I mixed it together. Kind of like a runny version of homemade Play-Dough. Delish!

Now I just have to remember to feed it every day...