A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words

But, does that mean that without one I need to write that many words? Because I just don't have the time today. The move is going pretty well. It's begun to stall, though, which I'm unhappy about. Hubby seems to have gotten unmotivated, and life with three kids is getting in the way. It is moving along slowly, though.

I have a little recipe for you today. For anyone who actually keeps a sourdough starter around the house, here's a fun and very easy bread recipe I came up with last night:

Ingredients:

4-4 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
about 1 1/3 cups liquidy sourdough starter (often called barm)
1 packet of yeast
1 tablespoon of salt
water for additional moisture

How To:

Put 2 cups flour in large bowl with salt and yeast - mix.
Pour sourdough starter into dry mixture and stir with large spoon till combined.
Gradually add the rest of the flour and enough water (alternating the two ingredients) to obtain a very thick batter consistency - it will be sticky, but you don't care because you don't have to knead it.
Cover in same bowl you mixed it in and allow to rise till doubled in bulk.
Stir down (like punching down the dough but you deflate it by stirring with a spoon).
Pour into well-greased tube cake, bundt cake pan or whatever you might have that is tall enough to accomodate the dough once it has fully risen (since it is very soft dough, you don't want it to overflow).
Allow to double in size.
Bake in hot oven (I've got a gas oven that doesn't have any temps on it, so use your best judgement here - maybe 400° F or something) till it sounds hollow when tapped and the top is lightly browned.

I also think you could have some fun with adding nuts, herbs or sun-dried tomatoes to this recipe at the point where you stir it down. I just ate some sliced and toasted with butter and jelly for breakfast, and it was delicious. The low number of ingredients and the lack of time spent kneading made this a very easy bread to make. The sourdough starter gives it the flavor of a bread that has spent much more time rising than this one did. It also has a moist, airy texture that is almost spongey and it slices easily because of the bundt cake form it has. It will certainly become a busy day bread around our house.

I hope the all one of you who happen to have sourdough starter on hand enjoy the recipe. And, maybe it will convince the rest of you to attempt to make some starter as well. I will try to think to add a picture to this post later so you can see the fun shape of this bread. Until then... well... until then.