I decided to try my hand at sour dough bread. My boys have decided that they like a nice chewy bread with a crust. So today I made up my first batch of starter. I placed the following into a large glass mixing bowl:
-3 packets of dry yeast (I used 4 tsp of instant yeast)
-1.5 cups of warm water
1 TBS of sugar
2.5 cups of all purpose flour
I mixed it all in the bowl and it said to cover loosely to allow the gasses to escape so I threw a cloth napkin over the top. It’s suppose to sit in a warm spot in your kitchen for 2-3 days and get sour smelling and begin to bubble. At this point you can store the starter in the fridge or leave it in a cool, dark part of your kitchen (nothing cool and dark in my kitchen so I’ll probably put it in the fridge).
I suspect the instant yeast is the reason that my sour dough attempted a take over of the kitchen counter within hours of meeting up with sugar and warm water. It bubbled out, wildly!, all over the kitchen counter!!!! I managed to lasso most of it into the bowl again and this time I moved it to a 1/2 gallon canning jar. I’m hoping that the narrow space will force the dough up and back onto itself before it can manage another escape attempt!
I’ll update in a few days with a sourdough recipe. If you don’t hear from me, send help. Hopefully, someone with experience taming wild sourdough. 