Sourdough Starter, Day 7

Faster than oozing molasses.

More powerful than a glass of water.

Able to raise whole loaves of bread in the oven.

Look! All over the bottom of the oven!

It's spilled milk! It's cake batter! It's my sourdough starter!

I woke up this morning, ready to make my latte and inspect my starter. Not wanting to disturb the activity of the starter, I decided I wouldn't take it out of the oven until after my latte was made and I was ready for the photo shoot. (I usually, take it out, look at it, then replace it in the oven while I'm preparing said latte.) Ha ha. Silly me. I should have known that any plans I had would not have been fulfilled. One glance at the oven and I saw a mass of starter all over the bottom. :( Who would have thought that it would increase in volume so much over night? It might have been that I put it back in the oven too soon after using it for roast chicken last night. The hotter than normal environment could have been too much for my poor yeasty buddies and they went into hyperactive mode... expanding like mad.

Luckily, it was fairly easily cleaned and minimal damage occurred. :)

Yes... those caked on lines of starter goo are the remnants of what had oozed over the top of my jar. That top is a screw on lid, I might add. This baby really wanted to escape! :P

Look at that bubbling activity, though. I am so excited because I did not think that the starter would be this advanced by today, day 7, the final day of feeding. :) Maybe that little extra heat did it a bit of good.

Sir Arthur tells the starter should smell and taste sharply sour. Boy does it ever! What a drastic change in both from yesterday. For that matter... there've been drastic changes all around... in appearance, smell, and taste. The amount of fizzy bubbles have increased ten fold to cover the entire surface of the starter and even permeate throughout its contents.

Since my little pet is ready to begin the actual process of making bread, Sir Arthur, King of Flour tells me to discard all but 4 ounces (or 1/2 cup) of the starter and add to it 1 cup (8 oz.) warm water and a scant 2 cups (8 oz.) all-purpose flour. Then I wait... again... for another 6 to 8 hours. At this point, says the King, "the starter should be active, with bubbles breaking on the surface." Touching it will provide evidence that the gluten has formed as it should feel "somewhat elastic". When it has reached this stage, I will either use it, or place it on one of the two maintenance schedules he recommends. I'll probably opt to make my first loaf at this time.... wish me luck.

Now it's off to ponder my pizza stone dilemma... and buy more all-purpose flour. :)