I recently went down to the shore with my sister,son and niece.
It was a very happy time- I got to cook in the kitchen down there-
with a 6 gas burner stove top and 2 ovens- one a convection oven.
I like when my appliances all work ( sadly shaking head at the state
of my own stovetop which was in very sad shape over the summer.)
I took my sourdough down with me- and all my extra dried bits of
sourdough because I intended to share it with a friend who was coming
down at the end of our time there- and she is a baker!
Thing two (my favorite everyday sourdough from Celia in Australia) was
in very good shape- working hard and making lots of bubbles!
And bread!
But when I got home- and it is rather frantic clean up at the end of two weeks-
Thing two was missing. I hadn’t saved a wet version at home because it would
have gone bad. Frank is happy to watch people’s dogs when they are gone- but he
has no intentions of ever feeding my starters!
So- I was very sad. No more Thing two. I was going to ask Celia for some more- but
felt rather stupid for not taking better precautions at keeping some starter behind.
So I started making just yeast breads.
Which is fine, because we all like yeast bread. But I missed that little tang of sourdough-
and that texture and moisture in the bread that sourdough brings. I missed Thing two.
Then I started a kitchenwide search. Seriously, I had always kept little bags of starter in
the fridge- I could have missed one when I was packing the cooler for Virginia!
And …TA DA!!!!!
I found a bag in the freezer! Not much to go with- but worth a try!
And here he is – a resurrected Thing Two!!!
I put him in a large container- added water and bread flour- stirred, fed again and again- And
he is happy and bubbly and ready to go!
I put him into a large Halloween jar- just to be festive and make sure he had a lot of room to
grow.
And now I’m going to dry a lot of this starter and then freeze the bags-
so I don’t have to go through sourdough withdrawal again!
What can I say? Bread makes me happy!
And sourdough bread makes me very happy!
Hurray. good things come to those who plan ahead, even if they don’t remember doing it.
I remember doing it, Sue, just not where I had packed them away! Lately I think my house has been invaded by “borrowers” little people who live in between the walls that find uses for all sort of my things! I lost a bottle of “vanilla” that I was infusing with fresh beans- the” ” is because it is actually a bottle of vodka. My next post will be about making your own vanilla. 🙂 Since I finally found the bottle – and it is well on its way to becoming a flavoring!
Darling, you KNOW I got halfway through this post and was already getting on my feet to go into the kitchen to put more into an envelope for you…but I’m SO happy you found some of the original and it came back! Hooray for Thing Two and especially Hooray for YOU, because you’re a marvel! You know, I adore you and Joanna, both of you have made me so happy this morning, and it’s not even 7am! xxx
I DO know this, Celia! I wasn’t going to post this until I knew I had enough to go on- and it was so exciting to see the busy bubbles and to know that it still had juice- even though it was just a tiny bit of starter at first!
I fed it and fed it and fed it- it kept eating and eating and then just lay back and waited for more! So I gave it a huge feeding and left it overnight- and it was bubbling away by morning!
I was so happy I did shout out!
So glad to have made you happy- I love you, too!
And Joanna- she put up some listening maps of England that are really entrancing on facebook.
Isn’t that amazing that such a tiny piece of dried starter can be resurrected, to be turned into all those amazing loaves of bread. Sourdough…it really is the bees knees isn’t it 🙂
It truly is, Brydie!
I used to use it for flavoring for many years- but not exclusively for a leavening agent. You and Celia and Joanna convinced me to really give it a try and I love it!
Happy to hear it is still working. The bread you sent home is delicious.Thank you!
Always happy to share in the bread joy, Cynthia!
I am very happy to have a working sourdough again- my sourdough is just to sour to use in the same way as this one- so I use it in rye bread for more of a flavoring than anything else- but this one is everything I’ve always wanted in sourdough- so yes, very happy!
Great news Heidi. I dread killing my baby.
It was most definitely a close call, Glenda!
I was just about ready to call Celia to ask for another try when I found my baggie of sourdough chips!
I think you have almost 100% convinced me to start working with sourdough. I have not really done it before, but when I see your pictures and hear you describe it, I think I’m getting sucked in.
There is nothing quite as exciting in the baking world as making bread with sourdough. Really it is something wonderful and random and delicious.
Omigosh, your post has pushed me to finally save some back up starter packages, a couple in the freezer and a few dried samples in bags. Fingers crossed that I never need them, but you know how that goes. “Life is what happens while you plan something different”… or something like that.
So smart! I am always going to have back up packages of starter from now on. I have 3 bags of dried samples and 2 frozen in the downstairs freezer. I just don’t feel like making bread without my starter.