One of the fun things about sourdough bread is its semi-randomness — you can never be sure which particular strain of wild yeast you’ve captured, how long it will take to rise, etc., although the results are pretty much guaranteed to be delicious.

In retrospect, I realize now that the strain of wild yeast from my first culture, over a year ago, was pretty weak. It made lots of tiny bubbles and took forever (an entire day or overnight) to rise. After it crashed, I started over, and this time have a strain that is much more aggressive. It produces fewer but much bigger bubbles, and only takes a few hours to rise — although the end product is pretty much the same.

Ingredients:

• 1 C. sourdough starter
• 4 C. flour
• 1 tsp. salt

Method:

Remove 1 C. of the sourdough starter.

Stir in 1 C. flour, plus enough water (~3/4 C.) to make a soft dough.

Allow it to rise, maybe a few hours, maybe overnight, until it looks like this:

Stir in 3 C. flour, and enough water (maybe 2 to 2-1/2 C.) to make a stiff dough. Knead for 7 minutes, pat it into a loaf shape, place it in the pan, and cover it with plastic wrap:

Leave it to rise, again, maybe a few hours, maybe overnight.

Here you can see how this strain of wild yeast makes really big holes:

Oops! Don’t forget to oil the plastic wrap before you put it on top of the pan!

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30-45 minutes, depending on the size of the loaf pan. If you have a cooking thermometer, take it out when the inside reaches 190 degrees.

I can get a 4 lb. sack of flour at Aldi for $1.15, so each loaf comes it at less than 50 cents.

Yum!

-R