Sourdough Starter/Sourdough Bread

I don't know how many times over the years I've planned to make sourdough bread, but I've always bogged down at the first step: making the sourdough starter.

Yesterday I decided to give it another try,...and I had success! 

I love the taste and texture of sourdough bread.  

The starter:

Place 1 cup milk (may be skim, may even be made from powdered skim) in a glass jar or crock (not metal). Allow to sit at room temperature for 24 hours. Stir in 1 cup room temperature all-purpose flour. Leave uncovered in a warm place (80 degrees) for 2-5 days, depending on how long it takes to bubble and sour. If it gets too warm, the fermentation will stop, so be careful of this. If it starts to dry out, stir in enough tepid water to bring it back to its original consistency. Once it has a good sour aroma and is full of bubbles, it's ready to use.

The starter is best if you use it at least once a week. If you don't use it for 2-3 weeks, spoon out and discard about half of the starter and replace it as described above. Given good care, a starter becomes more flavorful with age. If you don't plan to use the starter for several weeks, freeze it. Before using it again, leave it at room temperature for 24 hours.

Four days ago I'd prepared the starter; now to find a good sourdough bread recipe.

Not only did I find one, it is a bread machine recipe! I found this at Allrecipes.com.

Sourdough Bread

1 T. active dry yeast

3 T. wheat germ

3 T. sugar

1 T. salt

4 c. bread flour

1 1/2 c. sourdough starter

3 T. margarine, softened (I used canola oil; olive oil would be fine, too.)

1 c. milk

1 T. cornmeal

Mix all ingredients in bread machine, using the dough cycle. With my bread machine, this process takes 90 minutes.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface (I found it needed a rather heavily floured surface; the dough was very soft) Form dough into a single round loaf. Place loaf on a baking stone or baking sheet which has been lightly oiled and sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover loaf and let rise in warm place until nearly doubled in size, about 40 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425°.

Bake in preheated oven for 20-30 minutes, until golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Let cool on wire rack.

I used almost all of the starter for this recipe. I was afraid I might not have enough starter left in the glass bowl to replenish and get the bubbling going again. Not to worry! Apparently it takes very little of the original starter to repeat the souring process, because about an hour after I'd added the 1 c. water and 1 c. flour, the mixture was bubbling and rising in the bowl like crazy.