In the true typical MaryFran trend of jumping from hobby to hobby and constantly picking up something new that 'looks interesting and I really should know how", I decided to try to perfect a sourdough bread. OH yes, I did.
I researched and I totally realized that I could buy sourdough starter from a variety of places online. For that matter, I could get sourdough starter from any number of people. However, isn't that cheating in the grand scheme of learning how to do it from start to finish? It seemed relatively simple, mix water and flour and let sit 24 hours.....repeat. And keep repeating until it is consistently doubling in size after you feed it. I was all in! I even went out and ordered a really neat little sourdough starter kit. This was going to be a breeze!
Except it was not. My first attempt wouldn't grow. I lovingly fed that sucker religiously. I watched it daily as it sat on my counter waiting for the magic bubbles to indicate active and natural yeast in the starter. I waited in vain for over a week and it never got the bubbles or doubled. I just wouldn't grow! I researched more, adapted some new techniques and tried again. I was still clinging to hope that my first round would experience a miracle and start to show signs of life so I kept that one going while I started round two. I now had two jars of starter that I cared for every morning. This time was going to be the magic, I just knew it! Every day while I would tend to them Jason would come into the kitchen and excitedly ask if we had any signs of life. Dejectedly, I would have to respond with negative shake of my head.
I watched more videos and read more articles. Everything and everyone talked about how sourdough was so forgiving, hard to kill and easy to feed and keep alive. Yet, here I was with two jars of seemingly dead starter. I was undaunted and started a THIRD jar of starter, trying new techniques that I had learned. (A quick perusal of sourdough starter instructions will show you that everyone does it a bit differently, with 'great success'.) By this time I was going through flour faster than a bakery at Christmas! Because every day I was adding four and water to each of these jars (and doing a daily discard so that my amount of sourdough starter didn't get out of hand). Surely one of them would be magical! By the time another week had passed with no growth in ANY jar, I had decided that enough was enough. Jars one and two were emptied and I started yet another jar of starter. Jars three and found had my full attention. Jar three never accounted to much. But finally, by some stroke of benevolence that fourth jar worked!
I was so happy, I had active starter. However, this starter didn't seem to grow EVERY day, it had days where it seemed angry with me. If I changed it to a different container (as in the special container I bought at the very beginning) it would not grow and double. If I missed the normal feeding time, it wouldn't double in size for the next two feedings (feeding is what you call the act of adding more flour and water). If I fed it anything other than Rye flour, it wouldn't double in size. This starter was anything but easy, it was downright finicky! I started to call it Finicky Fred. Of course Jason kept telling me that if it was finicky it must be a female. ha
I attempted to use the discard a few times, once by making pop tarts (which turned out way too sour to really enjoy) and once by making crackers (they weren't too bad). I then tried to make a loaf of bread. It was super tasty, but a little dense. Fred showed his displeasure by not rising the day or two after I made the bread. (I kid you not....it's insane). I stayed faithful to Fred. I kept feeding him the rye flour. I used jars that he liked. I kept my feeding schedule as consistent as humanly possible. I was determined to make Fred a nice strong starter.
Finally this past week I decided to switch to a whole wheat flour for a feeding (seriously Rye flour is a pain to find and is a bit more expensive). Fred did GREAT! I pulled some of the starter out and I set about making sourdough english muffins and Fred performed well! My dough rose and the english muffins turned out great. Even better when I fed Fred afterward, he doubled!
Hopefully finicky Fred is past his finicky stage and I can move on to making all sorts of fun things! He may not be finicky any longer
, but the name Fred has stuck!
