Sourdough Bread Attempt #1

Okay, so this recipe gave me some trouble.  I believe it was due to my sourdough starter....failed starter.  But after some finagling I was able to make a decent bread rather than throw out the dough.

I'll post the original recipe that I started with and if you have a working starter, you'll have more success than I.  I'll also put the changes that I made.

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup honey
2 cups active starter
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt

Measure the milk, water, melted butter, and honey together in a glass measuring cup.

Measure out the sourdough starter and put in the bowl of a stand mixer.

Add the wet ingredients to the starter, whisk together.  Then add the whole wheat flour and the all-purpose flour. 

Mix thoroughly.  Cover and allow to rest for 20 minutes.

After the 20 minutes add the salt and knead with the dough hook for about 5 minutes.

Transfer to an oiled bowl and allow to rise 3-4 hours.

{Now, here's where I had problems.  My dough wouldn't rise.  Even if I put it in a warm spot...no rise.  So, I had to improvise, cause I didn't want to through this dough in the trash.

I put a cup of warm water (110-115 degrees F) in the clean bowl of a stand mixer along with 1 teaspoon of sugar.  Over the top I sprinkled 1 tablespoon of yeast and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.  When it was all foamy I added 2 cups of all-purpose flour.  When it was all incorporated I started adding my other dough a little at a time, along with a bit more flour as needed. 

There was so much dough after this that I had to remove it from the mixer to hand knead it, adding more flour (the cup of water may have been too much) until it reached a good soft, springy dough.  I put the dough in an oiled bowl, covered, and let it rise for 45-60 minutes.  This time it doubled in size!!  Hooray!}

Divide the dough into 2 loaves {my amended dough made 4 loaves}, shape into an oblong loaf, put on a parchment lined and floured  baking sheet.  Put a little more flour on top of the loaves.  Use a serrated knife and cut marks on the top. Allow to rise another 45 minutes, covered with a clean, dry towel.

Bake in a preheated 400 degree F oven for 30 to 40 minutes.  {If making more than 2 loaves you'll need to bake them at the same time, so switch sheets top to bottom, etc., halfway through the bake time.  Also halfway through rotate the sheets front to back.}  Another thing I did was to spray water into the oven every 5-8 minutes to create steam to help the loaves get a nice chewy crust.

Despite all my problems it came out really nice, with a great texture and crumb.  And my family loved the flavor!

Not quite the sourdough I envisioned.  Guess I'll have to give it another whirl!

Let's eat!

Recipe adapted from Home Joys Soft Sourdough Bread.