Smells like there is some fermentation going on.

I'm in a bread kick. I blame my brother for talking me into this. He's going to culinary school right now and he just finished his bread class. Between the two of us, I'm the pastry maker and he's the bread maker. He's been encouraging me though to make a starter and make brioche. He insists it will change my life, probably because I insist to him that crumb coating his cakes will change his life. It's true though, a loaf of brioche costs $4-5 and that's half the size of a regular loaf. I'm not big on making bread because I think it's cheaper to buy a loaf at the store, but there are some that are worth making. I was able to make 2 loaves of brioche today and I calculated that I only spent a little over $2 and that's using organic milk, eggs and natural unbleached flour. That's a savings of $6-10 plus gas money savings.

This was a success. Even my son who would not eat a slice of bread or sandwich begged and tried to steal a few slices of this. The recipe I used was Anne Willan's recipe in her book "The Country Cooking of France." Husband got me the book for my birthday and I haven't really done any recipes on it. I love that book and you should check it out. She has beautiful description of how the countryside of France is and she just takes you over there. She helped me out with a Coq au Riesling recipe. I didn't follow hers completely mostly because I made mine too difficult, but I do recommend her method too. 

I was a little too ambitious today and made sourdough starter. Here's the recipe I used:

2 1/2 C all-purpose flour

2 1/2 C warm water

2 1/4 tsp or 1 packet yeast

2 tsp sugar or honey (I used organic wildflower honey)

(Recipe from the BH&G Baking book)

Mix the yeast with half a cup of water, then when dissolved, mix in the rest of the ingredients. Now it's my first time making a sourdough starter. I think I've made myself nervous about this because I'm obsessing about the best way to make starter. I read that I'm not supposed to stir it with anything metal, well ha, I stirred mine with a spoon. Also I don't know how much it will be affected by the fact that I put it in a container that was too small so when it made the "sponge" it got stuck to my kitchen towels. All I know that if this becomes any kind of pinkish or orange color, it's time to dump it. I might obsess over this more than I did with macarons.

It looks like it's fermenting well and it has created huge bubbles and "hooch" is in and around the starter. I'm going to give it 5-10 days to ferment, stirring it every 2-3 days. I'm using a wooden spoon when I stir it again. I hope to God this makes good sourdough. I guess the worst that can happen is I make a new batch.  This is nerve wracking and I'm testing out my first bread either Thursday this week or Wednesday after. Part of me regrets ever making a starter, another part of me is very excited to make garlic sour dough bread. I can't believe a bowl of flour and yeast is giving me this much anxiety.