By Audrey Anderson
Hometown Weekly Reporter
The Islington branch of the Westwood Public Library held a “Sourdough Starter Workshop” given by Sourdough Brandon. According to his web site, sourdoughbrandon.com, Brandon is a “home baker and sourdough recipe developer and educator” who gives workshops throughout Massachusetts and offers recipes and tips on his web site.
About 50 participants eagerly entered the Community Room at the library to learn from Brandon. They signed in at his display table and received a small cup of sourdough starter and instructions for feeding and maintaining it.
After a brief introduction, Brandon explained that a sourdough starter can be created from scratch in about one to two weeks, using rye flour, wheat flour, and water. Remove 2/3 of the starter before feeding it more flour and water each day. Complete instructions for creating a sourdough starter can be found on Brandon’s web site.
However, using the starter provided in the workshop, participants would be able to maintain it by regularly discarding half of the sourdough (or saving it for baking unleavened goods) and feeding it with flour and water. You can maintain your sourdough starter and even hand it down through generations.
Sourdough gets it “sour” flavor from the natural yeasts present in the air. The flavor varies depending on the types of yeast present in the local area. This method of baking bread is the one that was used for centuries until active dry and rapid rise yeast was developed.
Sourdough can be used to bake leavened artisan breads, sandwich loaves, and brioche breads with amazing flavor. You can vary them by adding flavorings such as lavender, olives, or others.
The sourdough discard, or the part that you must remove before regular feedings, can be used to bake unleavened quick breads, muffins, cakes, cookies and other treats.
Brandon includes seasonal and basic recipes on his web site. If you’d like to try to bake with sourdough, Brandon’s guidance and recipes are clear, tested and reliable. Enjoy making something new and delicious!
