Feed Your Starter!

Yes, you will need to feed your starter at least every 10 days. The process is simple; you will no longer need to use any reserved potato water. Most recipes require 2 cups of “fed starter”. If you are ready to make bread…

1. 10 to 12 hours before making your bread, mix the same dry ingredients above with 1 ¾ cup filtered water or tap water left out for 12 hours. This helps remove chlorine.

2. Take your starter jar from the fridge; it will have separated. The clear liquid is “hooch”. You can either stir the hooch into the settled flour in the jar or pour it out.

3. Pour the jar contents into your flour, sugar, and water mixture.

4. You now will have about 4 cups of sourdough starter.

5. Cover loosely with a plate or a couple of cotton towels.

6. Leave the cover bowl in a warm dark spot in you r kitchen for 10-12 hours. (Depending on how warm your kitchen is, your starter may have bubbles or a clear hooch on top after the allotted time.)

7. Give the starter a stir

8. Measure out the amount of starter you need for you r recipe, and put the rest of the feed starter in a clean ja r with a screw top lid.

9. Put this starter in your fridge for your next recipe Keep the lid loose to welcome more natural yeast to your starter.

TIP: If you cannot make bread after 10 days, you can keep your starter alive by mixing 1 ⁄ 2 cup of flour, 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoon sugar, and 1 ⁄3 cup of filtered water. Which should make about 3 ⁄4 cup to feed your starter. Take your starter from the fridge. The starter will have separated, and the hooch on top will need to be stirred. Once mixed, pour out about 1 ⁄ 2 cup of the starter, then mix in as much of the 3 ⁄4 cup flour mixture that will fit, allowing for about 3 ⁄4 inch from the top of the jar. Once combined, loosely cover your jar and return it to the fridge.

Why I Bake – I started my baking obsession in the ‘80s, trying to make the perfect sourdough bread. I chose sourdough because I love the crunchy pull of the crust and the remarkable softness inside. I’ve attempted to perfect my skills with other bread, cookies, pies, granola, and now wheat-free. During this period, I’ve shared my experiments with recipes and baking techniques with family and friends, asking for their opinions. Some of my family now needs to be wheat-free, so I’ve dived into learning the techniques for using wheat-free flour. I’ve adjusted some favorite recipes and my family can’t believe they are baked without wheat flour. — Scott Rowley • edwardskitchen.com

Editor’s Note:

You’ll find as many references to the origins of butter as you will recipes in which to use it.

Consensus is that butter was an accidental discovery around 8000 B.C. in Africa. A shepherd discovered that warm sheep’s milk curdles into something delicious, once having been “churned” through the motions of traveling a container of its milk on its back. Thus, butter originated by the milk of other animals than cows.

• Butter is not the health-hazard that some suggest. True, smaller doses will do you better. But you’ll find no artificial trans fats - found in margarine - linked with bad cholesterol. The good fats, Omega 3 and 6 are found here in this slippery, golden lover. It’s also fortified with vitamins A, E, D and K.

• With such luxurious flavor, hues and velvety consistency, ancient Irish butter is believed to have been offered to pacify their pagan deity/ies.

• By the Middle Ages, butter was universally loved and craved from the poorest to the most wealthy families.

• When we hear terms like, “butter could melt in his mouth,” it literally means that butter’s melting point is the same exact temperature as the inside of a human’s mouth. Most butter in the world is made in India, called “ghee.”

Once, when I was traveling, the owners of a B & B where I stayed, served up one of the most delicious brunches I’ve ever had. Their secret? landolakesbutter.com. Who can compete with some of those incredible recipes? The original shepherds? Naaaaaaaa!

Butter