Many thanks to Martha’s Mom for this recipe and her 40 year old starter that has since been passed on to San Francisco and Geneva. Here it is word for word:
The night before making bread, take the sourdough starter from the refrigerator. Put it in a large mixing bowl and mix it with 3 cups of flour (I always use King Arthur white flour…) and 2 cups of lukewarm water. Cover the mixture tightly and set it in a draft-free place for the night. Room temperature is fine.
Next morning, before doing anything else, remove one cup of the mixture in the bowl and return it to your sourdough storage container. Close the container tightly and put it back in the refrigerator. This is your starter for your next batch of bread.
To the starter remaining in the bowl—and there will be quite a bit of it—add:
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- scant teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup of sugar*
mix as well as you can and then add gradually:
flour—enough to make a bread dough, about 3-5 cups. Knead thoroughly, until all the flour is absorbed into the dough, and the ball of dough feels resilient and elastic. This takes 3-5 minutes.
Return the dough to the mixing bown and cover tightly. Let rise until doubled in bulk, about 2-3 hours. Then knead again, shape into loaves, cover, and let rise again, another 2 hours or so.
Back at 350º F for 45 minutes.
*Sometimes you can use honey or molasses to vary the flavor.
On the days you make the bread, for the sake of variety, you can use white flour, wheat flour, oatmeal, in various combinations. But it is important always to use plain white flour for the starter.
I usually make this in 2 5×8 greased loaf pans, but it works fine as a round loaf or loaves. It would be fun to try the traditional long sourdough shape, and/or baguettes etc.
I also use this dough for making sticky buns.
I find that making the bread once a week keeps the starter pretty spunky. I have gone as long as six weeks between uses, however. If you haven’t used it for awhile and it seems a little logy, you’ll probably find as I do that using it with renewed frequency revitalizes it. Enjoy.
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Just a quick note with my suggestion for the sourdough bread. My best results
came when I took the starter out the night before and added 1/2 cup flour
and 1/4 warm water. I left it on the sink over night and then started the
recipe from Martha’s mother the next morning as per her instructions, but
with a different time frame. Because the starter was so active from the
small amount I added the night before, when I added the larger amount of
flour and water in the morning it acted very rapidly.
I also found that after separating the dough into two parts for the final
rise, I put one in the refrigerator under plastic, overnight. The refrigerated
one really rose a lot so I gave it a new shaping, kneading it just a little,
and left it to rise on the sink. The second actually tasted better than
the first, although both rose well and were great.
This week I will vary the flour and look at what additions I can add to the
batter. To be continued…..
I would just like to note that mother looks nothing like this picture.
And that she makes the best bread in the world.