Sourdough Bread in the Bread Machine

Here’s the recipe for the starter AND the bread (mixed in the bread machine!)

SOURDOUGH BREAD STARTER adapted from the Tyler Hill Bed & Breakfast Cookbook

STARTER

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups warm water
1 TBL yeast

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a VERY large bowl. Stir in flour. Cover loosely & let stand in a warm spot for 3 to 4 days. On the first day, check every 6 hours or so and stir down. Then check once a day. After 3 or 4 days it should begin to smell tangy.  You can use it right now or refrigerate for later. Stir down & refrigerate in a sealed container.

Make sure this is a LARGE container. The recipe book says 1 quart but I needed a half-gallon container after I spent one early morning cleaning up what my husband thought was “stinky pancake batter” all over the fridge.

Healthy starter, ready to be used in bread and then stored in the refrigerator. Copyright 2018 Barb Szyszkiewicz.

You have to use this starter once every week to 10 days, or at the very least waste some and replace with a like amount, or the starter will die. (Honestly, I’ve gone longer than that — just because life gets in the way. I find that it gets even more tangy when you use it less frequently.)

Every time you use starter you have to feed it.  If you take out a cup of starter, replace with a cup of warm water plus a cup of flour.  Stir it in to the remaining starter, let it sit at room temp for several hours, and then return to the fridge.

SOURDOUGH BREAD

1 cup sourdough starter
1/2 cup water
2 1/2 T olive oil
1 tsp salt
3 cups bread flour
2 T sugar
1 T instant yeast

Note: Amount of water will depend on the thickness of your starter.

Process in your bread machine on DOUGH cycle. Remove and shape into loaf. (The first time I made this, mine got so big I could have split it into 2 loaves! Now that’s what I do.) Allow to rise at least 1 hour — I let it go 1 1/4 hours. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes and cool on a rack.

If you have baguette pans, this makes two very beautiful baguettes. Allow the bread to rise, then preheat the oven to 450°. Immediately before placing the pan into the oven, slash the tops several times with a very sharp knife and spritz the dough with water. Bake about 25 minutes, until they’re a deep golden brown. Transfer to a rack to cool.

The Care and Feeding of Sourdough

Make sure that the starter you use is at room temperature before adding it to your bread machine recipe. You can take the whole container out of the fridge one night ahead, remove about 1 cup, feed it, stir it, and let it sit overnight, use what you need in the recipe, feed the starter, let it sit out a few more hours, then put it back in the fridge.

It’s a bit of a hassle but it does make the most awesome toast ever.

To feed the starter: Add about 1 cup flour and 1 cup water back into your starter container. Stir and wait several hours before either baking or returning to refrigerator.

Nutrition information: As with most basic white bread, we follow the 14 carbs per ounce rule.

This is what the bread looks like when you bake it in a single loaf! Copyright 2018 Barb Szyszkiewicz. All rights reserved.

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Copyright 2018 Barb Szyszkiewicz for Cook and Count
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