Buttermilk Sourdough Starter by PaddyL

[BakerAunt]

Buttermilk Sourdough Starter
Submitted by PaddyL on March 16, 2009 at 11:24 am

This is an edited version of Wharrison's Buttermilk Sourdough Bread. The full recipe, with his notes, can be found under Members' Recipes, Wharrison. This is my version, with my little changes, but the original idea is the same.

3 cups buttermilk
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. active dry yeast (If you're using instant yeast, just 2 tsps. should do.)
1/4 cup honey

In the morning, mix all the ingredients in a large bowl and cover. (I had one of those big glass jars you see in cafes with biscotti in them, so I used that and didn't have any spill-over problems, but you could use a large bowl.) This is really active so will have to be stirred down several times during the day. It gets quite exciting, watching it rise then stirring it down only to have it rise again. In the evening, put the whole mess into a least a 2-1/2 quart container with a slightly loose-fitting top and put it into the fridge. If you're worried about spill-overs, put a plate underneath it. For the first few days, you may or may not have to stir it down. By the 4th or 5th day it should have levelled off. A couple of days later, say the 7th, you can use it to make the bread. I keep it in an empty plastic 2 litre ice cream container, with the lid on, and I've written "Brigid" on the lid, because that's what I called her and I'll always know that's my buttermilk starter.

I named her "Brigid" because I first mixed her up on St. Patrick's Day, 2008.

To make the bread, you must mix a primary batter the night before you plan to bake. Put the entire starter into a large bowl, and add 2 cups of buttermilk and 2 cups of flour, mix it well, cover with plastic wrap, and put it in a warm place (I use the top of the fridge for this.), on a counter out of drafts is fine, overnight.

In the morning, or whenever you can get to it the next day, take 2 generous cups of the primary batter and put them into a large bowl, returning the rest to a container to put back into the fridge.

2 cups sourdough starter (from the primary batter as above)
3 cups milk (I use reconstituted dry skim milk powder.)
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter (I use vegetable oil.)
1/2 cup honey (or 1/3 or even less. I have used maple syrup when I found myself out of honey, and you can't taste the difference.)
4 tsps. salt
2 tsps. instant yeast
10 to 12 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I have used bleached flour with no apparent difference in either mixing or texture.)

Put the 2 cups of starter in a large bowl, and put the rest back into the fridge. Add the milk, lukewarm, the butter or oil, the honey, and the salt. Mix instant yeast with a cup of the flour and add that, followed by the rest of the flour, or as much as you can work in, beating well until you have a shaggy mess. Tip it out onto your work surface and knead it till smooth and elastic.

Once I've got it all together in a less shaggy mass, I put the bowl over it and give it, and myself, up to 30 minutes rest. Go back to the dough, pick it up and slam it down on the work surface a couple of times, and you'll find the rest of the kneading much easier. Since it's such a massive amount of dough, you should give it, all told, about 12 minutes of kneading, but you can let it rest from time to time. Then plunk it in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise till double, up to a couple of hours.

Punch it down, knead it a bit, cut and shape it into however many loaves you would like, or rolls , or cinnamon buns. Put it in the greased pans, cover, and let rise till double, about an hour, depending on how warm your kitchen is.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg.F. and bake your fully risen dough for about 40 minutes for loaves, half that for rolls.

Variation:
After adding the above ingredients to the starter, and while it's still batter-y rather than dough-y, I take out a good four cups and place them in another large bowl, then stir about 1-1/2 cups, plumped, dark and light raisins, sometimes some pumpkin seeds, into one of the bowls of batter. Cover the bowl and work on the other half till it's ready to be put to rise, then go back to the raisiny bowl and work on that one. You have two bowls of dough rising. When it has risen.....

I shape the plain dough into rolls, or loaves. For the raisin bread, I divide that dough in two, roll each out, brush lightly with water, sprinkle on a cinnamon/sugar mix, then roll it up and put it into greased pans.

comments
Submitted by jozy on Sat, 2010-09-11 18:35.
Found this PaddyL and now I will print it. Cinnamon sure sound good !!

Submitted by ria on Mon, 2011-02-28 16:12.
Thanks to Ria I found this!!!
from the "other" Ria

Submitted by Mrs Cindy on Wed, 2011-11-30 16:42.
Thanks, Paddy, just found this and added it to my recipe box. Does this starter have a 'sour' taste like the SF sourdough? I'm looking for something a little less sour.
~Cindy

Submitted by PaddyL on Thu, 2011-12-01 15:38.
No sour flavour at all.

Submitted by catalinatabas on Sat, 2011-12-03 03:47.
Hi PaddyL,
Thanks for sharing your Sour Dough recipe, I'll try it next week on my day off. Take care!

Submitted by mumpy on Mon, 2012-02-06 10:29.
wonderful stuff...made half the starter, used only 1 cup of buttermilk and flour for the primary batter and made half the bread recipe...waited a week after making the starter....have 2 wonderful loaves - one plain, one cinnamon...both have a lovely texture and great taste....I'll be using this starter frequently...thanks paddy!

Submitted by b.lm on Thu, 2012-11-22 22:32.
Paddy, I'm just a newbie of 6 months to the sourdough - bought the KAF starter and having great success. If you were to compare the buttermilk started with the regular starter what would you say are the differences? Going into the holidays am planning to double my starter and wondering about trying this one. Thanks, Brenda

Submitted by PaddyL on Sun, 2012-11-25 01:16.
This starter never seems to give up. You don't have to feed it or throw part of it out constantly, and the throwing out of some starter always got me down. It sits happily in the fridge for weeks at a time and when you're going to make bread, you simply dump the whole thing in a bowl the night before, add two cups of buttermilk and two cups of flour and let it sit until you're ready to bake the next day. After taking out two cups of it for your bread, you just put the rest back into the fridge until you need it again. And it makes terrific bread.

Submitted by b.lm on Sun, 2012-11-25 11:00.
Now that sounds like my kind of starter! Today is busy but I'm going to give this a try. Thanks so very much. This forum has been so helpful and I do enjoy following along on some of your posts. Sending prayers for you & your sister that you have a great holiday season. Stay well my friend!

Submitted by Cindy Leigh on Mon, 2013-01-21 12:16.
I think I'm going to get some buttermilk today and try this. I'm going to try half the amount, since its just the two of us, and I see someone above did that without difficulty.

Paddy, do you think I could sub in some buckwheat flour in to the bread? I really like the way buckwheat and buttermilk taste in combo. I also like buckwheat honey so maybe I'll use that too.
It's a good time to bake, cold(ER) weather and snow are coming. DH is bringing more wood to the porch, and I'm making pizza crust and just finished a batch of multigrain waffles to put in the freezer. Those store bought waffles taste worse than cardboard. I love to toast a homemade multigrain waffle and top with a dab of Speculoos spread. Or peanut butter.

Submitted by PaddyL on Thu, 2013-01-24 17:04.
I've often made part of the dough into oatmeal bread, or whole wheat when I could eat whole wheat, so I imagine any addition of any sort of flour should work. This is a very forgiving sourdough.

Submitted by pizzaguy on Sat, 2013-10-26 23:06.
Hey PaddyL,
Thanx a bunch for your recipe. I can't wait to make time, hope to fit it in between appointments before next weekend. Sounds so much easier than all the starters I have made over the past few years. Yeah I hate discarding those large amounts of Precious Starter. I'll post after baking.
Pizzaguy

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