Food For Thought SOURDOUGH BREAD

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30768, 4 June 1965, Page 2

Food For Thought SOURDOUGH BREAD

IB V

ALAN TREMAIN]

1 have received several letters, mostly from farmers’ wives, who have enjoyed trying the sourdough recipes I gave recently. Now they would like recipes for bread using a sourdough starter. So here is one for today. You will need: 2 cups sourdough starter 2 tablespoons melted butter 1 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon salt 21-3 cups flour. Method.—Early in the day put the two cups of the starter into a large bowl. Add the melted butter, sugar, salt and enough flour to make a soft dough. Turn the dough on to a floured board and knead it thoroughly for several minutes—kneading and turning it about 100 times. If necessary add more flour to make a ’ight. soft, but not sticky lough. Wash the mixing bowl tnd lightly oil. Return the lough to the bowl and turn over and over to coat the lough completely with oil. Cover the bowl loosely with a tea towel and set in a warm place to double in bulk. In

a temperature of 80 degrees, this will take about an hour. Pinch the dough down, turn it over again two or three times and set again to double in bulk. Then turn out on to a floured board. Do not knead again, but shape into a loaf and put it into a buttered loaf tin. Brush the top with melted butter. Cover again and allow to double in bulk Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees then reduce heat to 375. Bake until golden brown, and then tap the loaf on the bottom. If done, this will give a hollow sound. Cool on a wire rack. Explosive Note: Some years ago a “sourdough convert” was responsible for a bomb scare in the United States. She filled a small jar with a sourdough starter and packed it into the suitcase she was taking on a flight. When an explosion was heard in the aircraft’s luggage compartment, just before take-off, officials spent more than an hour looking for a bomb. All they found was a suitcase of clothes covered in broken glass and sourdough, so lusty had been the explosion.