Sourdough Bread

The story of baking my first sourdough bread. My friend, Sovina Gerber, spent her summer in MN. When she went home to begin her school  year she gave me a sourdough starter. While she was here I definitely should  have asked her to teach me her methods of making bread. 

Mom and I have been alternating between freezing apples and canning tomato juice, salsa, soup, pizza sauce, etc. 

No time for experimenting with sourdough starter - until one day when canning/freezing produce had dwindled to almost nothing. I thought,  now would  be a good time to use that sourdough starter. 

I felt like a pioneer woman as I got the jar of starter out of the fridge. (A pioneer woman didn't have a fridge) Sovina had told me there were no worries about  keeping it in the fridge for a couple months. She gave me a beautiful book with all kinds of recipes and instructions for this adventure. I skimmed and read only enough to be even more ignorant. 

My mistakes would fill a small book. I didn't  let it warm up. I didn't feed it and divide it. I measured out 3/4 cup and put the jar back in the fridge. I followed a recipe that was supposed to make one loaf of bread. 

In the morning I rushed downstairs expecting to see a bowl full of lovely bread dough. 

Nothing had happened. The book said I could  add some yeast. Then I started a baking spree to warm up the kitchen. 

Apple pie and apple cake. The dough had risen a little bit. I ended up with two small loaves.

While it was baking it smelled Scrumptious!

It is delicious toasted with butter and honey.