We’ve finally broken down & gotten a sourdough starter going. I couldn’t resist it when a former coworker forwarded the following directions to me:
- Mix 3 1/2 Tbsp whole wheat flour with 1/4 cup unsweetened pineapple juice. Cover and set aside for 48 hours at room temperature. Stir vigorously 2-3x/day. (“Unsweetened” in this case simply means no extra sugar added).
- Add to the above 2 Tbsp whole wheat flour and 2 Tbsp pineapple juice. Cover and set aside for a day or two. Stir vigorously 2-3x/day. You should see some activity of fermentation within 48 hours. If you don’t, you may want to toss this and start over.
- Add to the above 5 1/4 Tbsp whole wheat flour and 3 Tbsp purified water. Cover and set aside for 24 hours.
- Add 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/4 or less purified water. You should have a very healthy sourdough starter by now.
We actually got a full-blown, crazily active starter within about three days!
We’ve named her ‘Sadie,’ and this pizza is her first try at giving us some true bread. We could’ve done something more … well, bread-like. But we were in the mood for a savory, whole-wheat pizza dough, so this pizza, with its fresh mushrooms, sweet red bell peppers, onions, Quorn sausage and cheese it is (or was, rather, there’s only the tiniest bit left to go with our salads for dinner). The crust is lightly sour and chewy and very tasty. As soon as Sadie grows up a little more, we’ll try out a crisp-and-chewy sourdough boule. Stay tuned!
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I have been wanting to get a starter going for months, but I never seem to pull the trigger. The sounds of sourdough pizza pushes though. Mmm, sounds great.
Wow, that pizza looks great. I’ve been thinking I need another starter in my fridge…
Oh – directions for a sourdough starter! Hooray! I suppose I could have looked one up and just gotten on with it but…well, I never have. You’ve given me the push, though, and so I thank you. 🙂
Sour dough pizza! Oh my! I think that I just swooned! Did you have any residual pineapple taste?
oh i am so making pizza with my sourdough starter now! thanks!
Yep – we’d been waiting and waiting … but then, this was so easy! I’ve just pulled ‘Sadie’ out of the fridge, to let her warm up in the sun, so that I can get another sourdough something going for this evening.
And, no, there’s no residual pineapple taste – if anything, at the very beginning, there was a slight smell of something tropical … but that faded with the first major feeding.