Chicken Librarian Makes: Sourdough Starter
Hey friends! I'm back with another Chicken Librarian Makes! Yesterday, over on Facebook LIVE, I showed how to make your own sourdough starter and then we made sourdough banana muffins! As promised, here's the video and then step-by-step instructions, tips and tidbits, and then some recipes.
Recipe adapted from King Arthur flour
Ingredients:
1 cup flour (113g), whole wheat or rye preferred
½ cup (113g) water
Instructions:
1. Weigh out flour and water, or measure them out. Combine flour and water in a non-reactive container-glass, plastic, mason jar, etc. Make sure the container is large enough to accommodate the growing starter. A quart jar should be large enough.
2. Make sure you stir everything together. There shouldn’t be any dry flour left in your container.
3. Mark your container with the level of flour/water mixture and put the time and date on it.
4. Cover loosely with cheesecloth, plastic wrap, or another breathable fabric.
5. Leave sitting in a warm spot for 24 hours.
6. After 24 hours, weigh, or measure, your starter. Then discard half your starter. (You should throw out any discard until it becomes active then you can start saving it!).
7. Then feed the starter left in the container 1 cup (or 113g) of flour and ½ cup (or 113g) of water. Combine thoroughly so there’s no dry flour left. Then cover lightly.
8. Again, mark your level, note the date and time. Let it sit in a warm place for 24 hours.
9. Repeat Steps 6 and 7 until your starter is nice and bubbly and has doubled in size within 1-4 hours. This can take anywhere from 5 days to several weeks.
10. Once you’ve reached this stage, discard half the starter and give it one final feeding. After this feeding, it is considered ready to use.
To use starter:
Remove however much starter you need for your recipe. If your recipe calls for more than 1 cup of starter, give it a couple of feedings without discarding, until you've made enough for your recipe plus another cup to keep and feed again.
Discard:
Don’t throw out your discard! You can make lots of yummy things with the discard. And also, on the off chance you use up all your fed starter, you can use the discard. Just revive it and feed it like you would your normal starter.
Here are some sourdough discard recipes that you might want to try:
1. Discard Waffles or Pancakes
2. Pizza crust (our favorite pizza crust now!)
3. Discard Crackers
4. Pasta: reduce the amount of flour by 1/3 cup and add 3/4 cup sourdough discard. Adjust water level as necessary so pasta dough isn't too wet or too dry.
5. My friend Ashley who is the sourdough guru. You can also find her here.
Storing starter and discard:
if you find yourself in the situation where you are not using your fed starter, just keep it in the refrigerator until 24 hours before you want to use it. Let it come to room temperature and then feed it 1 cup (113g) of flour and ½ cup (113g) of water. If you are storing your fed starter in the refrigerator for long term use, it would benefit from a feeding on a weekly basis, but it isn’t necessary. Same for your discard. Store it in the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature before using. You do not feed discard before using it in a ‘discard’ recipe.
And now for the other fun part! Using your sourdough starter!!
The Recipe: Sourdough Banana Muffins
Adapted from The Clever Carrot
Ingredients:
Butter, for coating the pan
2 medium, overripe bananas
1 1/4 cups lightly packed light or dark brown sugar
1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup bubbly, active 100% hydration sourdough starter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1½ tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup neutral flavored oil
1/4 cup milk
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Lightly coat one 9×5-inch loaf pan or muffin tin with butter or cooking spray
Add the bananas, sugar, and vanilla to a bowl. Cream with a hand held mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, about 30 seconds to 1 minute (some small lumps of banana are okay).
Add the eggs, one at a time until fully incorporated. Add the sourdough starter.
Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together in a separate bowl. Working in batches, add this to the banana mixture.
Add the milk and oil and mix until just combined. Do not over do it; the banana bread will be tough.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s). Bake for 45 minutes (muffins or mini loaf pans) or 60- 65 minutes (for the standard 9×5-inch pan), until rich golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cover with foil if the loaf browns too quickly.
Cool in the pan for 20 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
That's it friends! So easy! Tell me if you make something. I want to know how it goes. Or have you made things we didn't mention?? I need to know all the things.
'til next time
-k
xoxo