Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–I’m so glad you’re here!
Well, it’s been quite a while since I wrote anything about sourdough. I’m sure you can guess the reason. My last sourdough diary entry was at the beginning of September of last year. At that time, I had just lost my dad and was in flux on virtually everything in my life, still traveling back and forth to Texas and just trying to keep my head above water. I didn’t even think about my sourdough starter for several weeks after that last entry, and when I finally pulled it out of the far nether regions of the refrigerator, I did try to revive it, but to no avail. It had given up on me and I had failed it. I threw it out.
It wasn’t until the middle of December that I decided I should start again. Since we weren’t going anywhere, I decided I would have time to babysit it and try to get it to flourish. Fortunately, starter is pretty forgiving, because even with this new batch, since I haven’t been in the rhythm of tending to sourdough starter in quite a while, it had to fend for itself on more than one occasion. I’m happy to report that it’s done beautifully.
I started by getting a nice, strong starter from my favorite local bakery and then I split it into two portions and fed one portion whole wheat flour and the other bread flour. I started by feeding it once a day for about a week, and then I forgot to feed it for a couple of days, but it came right back and I started feeding it about every other day except until we went to Colorado to pick up our new puppy, and I forgot about my starter for about five days. Ok, ok. I know. This is just malpractice. A truly devoted sourdough guardian would have left it with a trusted friend to babysit it. I fed it and it had a lackluster response. I thought I would have to start anew. I fed it again and lo and behold, it came back:
And it’s been flourishing ever since, even with only every other day feedings.
This morning, I made whole wheat sourdough pancakes using both the whole wheat and bread flour starters and they were DELICIOUS!
I am now spoiled for any other kinds of pancakes. The whole wheat gives a wonderful nutty flavor with a bit of dense, rustic chewiness, but the chewiness is nicely offset by the more refined texture of the bread flour starter. The edges cook up crisp and the cakes are fluffy, but substantial.
The recipe is VERY forgiving and since I wince when I toss the starter at feeding time, my inner squirrel always rejoices when I can use it up so fruitfully. I say this recipe is forgiving because I have used as much as 3-4 cups of discard and as little as 2-3 cups and the cakes always come out just fine.
That’s it from here, but tune in again next week when I will have more adventures from California kitchen to share with you-
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
