Baking Day!!

When my kids were younger and my husband pastored at Landmark Missionary Baptist Church in Bedford, IN, there was an older lady who was a member of our church named Dorothy. Mrs. Dorothy was known for her loaves of sour dough bread. I remember the story well of how she got started making her bread. She received the starter when her husband was in the hospital and passed away. I am not sure, but it seemed like this starter was like keeping his memory alive. She made bread the days she fed her starter. If someone wanted a starter she shared, if not she baked. She was old school so I promise you she would never throw away or discard any of her starter. After each baking she would bless someone with a loaf or two of bread! Today while baking bread my husband and I talked about Sis. Dorothy and all the bread that she had made through the years. Mrs. Dorothy is no longer with us, but the memories of her baking bread are still very much alive!

This was my first time to make a starter. In the past I was always given a starter and the recipe. When I got this wild hair idea, I did what everyone in todays society does. I went to the internet and started browsing and reading different blogs to see what I needed to do to get a starter going. WOW!! There’s a lot of info out there about sourdough starters! Being new to this bread making business, I remembered that Mrs. Dorothy’s starter used potato flakes to feed it. I decided to narrow my search by looking for a starter that used potato flakes. Once I found a recipe, I had everything I needed so I mixed up my starter! That was easy enough! Water, Yeast, Sugar, and potato flakes! Cover and let it set on your counter for 4 days. All I had to do was stir it once each day. Last night I fed my starter more sugar, water and potato flakes and left it on the counter over night. This morning I took out 1 cup of my starter and put the rest in the fridge.

After mixing up my dough and kneading it for 10 minutes by hand, I had to let it rise for 8 hours. For the 1st time in my life, I decided I needed a Stand mixer with a dough hook. LOL! The house smelled like homemade rolls as I went about my business. I made some of it into rolls and the other I made into a loaf like Mrs. Dorothy always did.

Tonight for supper we enjoyed hot, homemade rolls with butter! It was such a treat! My son wanted to know if this was going to be a regular thing to which I replied, “That is my intentions at this moment!” He shared his approval for this new found hobby of mine! My idea of homemade rolls in the past were the frozen ones out of a bag! Trust me, they are much easier and they do taste good. But there was something very satisfying about baking bread today and seeing my family enjoy it!

This is the blog that I got my recipe from: https://www.farmhouseonboone.com/easy-sourdough-italian-bread/#wprm-recipe-container-45487

I also started another sourdough starter that only used flour and water. I figured we can try them both out to see which we like the best!

Happy Baking!!