Sourdough Starter and Pancakes

First, some Sourdough Lessons I have learned!

Everything we know about Sourdough must be credited to Scott Borgia! We love you Scott!!!

Never use metal...anywhere near it! NO metal bowls, spoons, whisks etc!

DO use Unbleached flour ( I don't know why...)

DO use your starter to make something at least once a month.

First you need a starter. Here is the recipe I used:

In a large plastic bowl with a wooden spoon stir together:

2 C. Unbleached flour

1 t. salt

3 T. sugar

1 T. dry yeast

Then add 2 C. Lukewarm water.

Stir till the mixture resembles a smooth paste.

Cover bowl with a towel and set in a warm place (85 deg ish) to sour.

Stir mixture several times a day.

In 2 to 3 days your starter will be ready to move to the refrigerator....Storage is tricky!

I keep mine (I keep a scant 2 cups) in a tupperware shaker thing with the lid off.

You can keep it in anything non-metal but you MUST have a hole in the lid or something so that it can breath!

OK, Now on to using the stuff....

I take out my HUGE tupperware bowl and pour all but about 2 or 3 Tablespoons of the starter into the bowl. (I should probably stir it first, but mostly I don't!)

Then I feed my starter by adding one cup of Unbleached flour to the remaining bit in the shaker and 1 C. or so of lukewarm water and stir with a wooden spoon. I don't bother to get all the lumps out just most of them. The consistency should be close to what you started with.

Set the new starter aside to sour overnight.

Back to the bowl.....I add 4-5 C. of Unbleached Flour

Enough lukewarm water to make it look like a nice waffle batter.

Cover with a cloth and set in a warm place. (Usually I put it and the starter in the oven with just the light on)

Let them sit overnight.

In the morning put the starter in the fridge

To the bowl add:

3 eggs

1/2 C. Milk (more if it's too thick)

3 T. sugar

2 t. Salt

2 t. baking soda

Mix well it should now be the consistency of pancake batter. (add a little milk to get it there if necessary)

Let this sit back in the oven with the towel on it for a good 15-20 min.

Take it out and smell the deliciousness! It should be bubbly!

If you were watching the timer you would have been so anxious to eat that you would have been warming up your griddle pan the last 5 min and now be ready to cook!

You want to cook this on a Med. to Med. High heat. They cook pretty fast. You should plan to be standing and cooking for a while! I use Pam spray for every group, but if you have a good seasoned griddle you may not need to. When the pancakes bubble all over on the first side flip them to the next and watch carefully.

You will really need to adjust temp and cooking time based on your location and altitude and your family's tastes.

We serve these with butter, and powdered sugar shakers and we could probably use more of those!

Then we roll them up and Eat them! The only utensils on the table are Knives to spread the butter, no forks needed here!

I love to make a few at the end that are larger and thin like a crepe and butter/sugar and then add bananas and strawberries! Or you can add small blueberries right in the batter, or mini chocolate chips! The varieties are endless!!!

I will try to post pictures when we make these next! (DONE!)