My mom used to make sour dough bread, and she used a little bit of beer in her starter for yeast, and I was wondering what kind/ brand of beer should I use if I wanted to make my own starter.
You don't really need beer, however you can add it for it's own unique live cultures present even after pasteurization........sour dough starter is just using the bacteria that are naturally airborne and letting them multiply........
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Day 2 of making sour dough starter
Make your own sourdough starter from the natural, wild yeast in the environment around you. I've used Nancy Silverton's technique of ...
Is anyone else just dying from pollen exposure? It’s the worst I’ve ever seen in these parts. The air is yellow, the cars are yellow, our front porch is yellow…all I want is a good heavy rain to wash it all away. Without thunderstorms, thankyouverymuch. Of course, if it rains this time of year, thunderstorms are pretty much a given. Oh well. Pollen, pollen, go away! I know we need you (I do love my honey), but do we need this much of you?
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve been trying to make yogurt for, like, forever . I started because I read other bloggers raving about their homemade yogurt, how awesome it was, and then I started seeing yogurt making machines in catalogs, so I went on and bought one. Never mind that I really dislike an appliance that only does one thing. I figured if there are yogurt machines on the market, you must need one to make yogurt (mistake #1). The one I got was like this:
I tried, tried, and tried again with that thing. It made something resembling yogurt, but the texture was thin and gritty and the taste was extremely sour. Everything I read said that the longer you incubate the yogurt, the more sour it would be, so I tried shorter periods in the machine. That helped the taste, but then it was even thinner.  I googled. I tried adding more yogurt starter to thicken the yogurt…I tried different brands of plain yogurt as my starter…I tried making it in a large pyrex bowl instead of the little jars…I tried everything short of adding gelatin or powdered milk to my mix, because I wanted it to be simple: milk and yogurt. And also because gelatin is nasty. But nothing I tried ever seemed to make the yogurt I wanted.
Then Sarah posted about making yogurt in the crockpot. I printed off her directions and was going to try that, but then I read a commenter on her post saying it was even simpler to make it overnight in the oven in jars . That sounded great to me, so I decided to give it a go. Well…it turned out great! I started small with one quart of milk and 1/4 cup plain yogurt. I used Chobani plain Greek yogurt. It has several different strains of yogurt cultures in it and I like the way it tastes, plus it has nothing in it but milk and cultures. (In addition to “if it wasn’t food 100 years ago, it isn’t food today”, my food philosophy also includes “the fewer ingredients, the better”!) I heated the milk in the microwave, cooled it down and whisked in the yogurt, poured it into a quart mason jar, and stuck it in the oven with the light on. (I also wrapped it with a hand towel to make it nice and cozy.) 11 hours later, when I got up the next morning, it was thick, firm, and creamy! It was still 110 degrees, having sat in a warm oven all night, so I did need to refrigerate it before I wanted to eat it. But it was EXACTLY the right texture and not too tart. With a drizzle of raw honey, this yogurt has become my new favorite snack! If you’d like to try it yourself, full instructions follow. Let me know if you do!
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Sourdough bread is made by using a small amount (20-25 percent) of starter dough (sometimes known as "the ... dough; as a general rule, more sour breads are made with a liquid ...
Stoneware Bread Pan. The Fabulous Bread Knife. Dough Divider, Scraper ... for Covering Your Rising Dough. A personal note to you about shipping: ...
Not all sourdough is sour-tasting; Amish Friendship Bread and other types of live-yeast breads are also ... The starter is mixed into a dough, and it causes the bread to rise. ...
To make sourdough, bakers use a "starter," a piece of dough in which yeast is continually reproducing with ... bakery where the bread is made, but some starter recipes also use ...
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Feeding my sour dough starter. Trying to decide if I want to make bread or just put it back in the fridge......
My very first sour dough starter should be ready tomorrow, contemplating making the sourdough sunflower seed honey bread... hmmm!
I just made Sour Dough bread for the first time in about 10 yrs. I gave the starter to my mom & she has been making it. Now I'm trying again
my first loaf - nice crust, good texture, light & airy
My starter just had its 3 month birthday. It's certainly maturing little by little.
7th creation - cashew/apricot fluffyer than ever + better crust.
my second loaf from my sour dough starter. I added bit more starter and reduced water, and it resulted too dense. Just good amount of water is important. i learned.
this kind of bread is really my favorite. dense, naturally leaven, and wild ones! but i can't really find it in NY. now i can make by myself with the natural resources (local bacteria!) is such a liberation! thank you Andrew for the inspiration!