Sourdough: Honey Starter

Having a hard time with your sourdough starter?

• Give honey a try!
• Granite countertops are not your friend.

There was a reason Charles Goodnight included a wooden keg or wide-mouthed crockery pot on the side of his chuckwagon design for sourdough starter. Cookie did not need eggs or milk to serve a Dutch oven full of hot bread. He only needed flour and water, and he could make several variations with what he had available in his mule-powered kitchen. In addition to biscuits, he made sourdough cornbread, flapjacks, fry bread, splatterdabs, and huckdummy, which is sourdough biscuits with raisins.

Starter can be made with other grain flours such as rye, buckwheat, barley, millet, corn, oat, bran, or rice. Use milk or only natural spring or filtered water, never tap water if you live in town.

From book research I tried several starter recipes. I had the best luck with a local honey to create a foamy, pungent sponge, the base for any sourdough recipe.

Honey Starter

(yields about 2 cups of starter)

2 cups warm water

1 package dry yeast

2 tablespoons honey

2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions: Add yeast and honey to warm water (not more than 110 degrees). When dissolved, stir in flour. Place in warm spot for 24 hours to 48 hours. It should start fermenting almost immediately. You can tell it is working as it bubbles and expands. Let it rise and fall a few times to permit a souring process to develop. Stir down at least every 12 hours. The first batch of biscuits were exceptionally good topped with wild plum jam.

This starter recipe worked great for me. I used honey from a local farm and kept the mixture in the pantry covered with a dish towel until it fermented, stirring it every morning and every evening. That process took about 3 days. This stored well in the refrigerator in a large glass jug with a loose-fitting lid. Set it out the night before you plan to cook with it. The next day remove the amount you need and replace what you use with equal parts flour and milk (or spring water).

The sourdough used in earlier days grew from natural spring water paired with wild yeast and bacteria of the grain used to form active cultures that will rise. It is the oldest form of leavened bread, traced back to ancient Egypt. The simplest starter is flour, water, and sugar, and the older it gets, the richer and tangier the taste. Yeast “slop” can also be made with potato water. Dried commercial yeast was introduced in 1868 by Charles Fleischman and produces only one batch of bread. The sourdough starter can produce a variety of baked goods and can be kept “alive” for the lifetime of bakers.

Granite Countertops are NOT Your Friend

Recipe after recipe failed to create a soft, fluffy biscuit. I punched the dough down, kneaded and shaped into biscuits for a second rise. But they never doubled in size the second time. And then I figured out that I was rolling my dough out on a granite countertop. It was too cold! I switched the kneading to my great grandmother’s oak table. Maybe it was her watching over me, or maybe it was because wood does not absorb central air conditioning like granite. Either way, you can see the results below.

SPLATTERDABS

1 cup flour
1 cup sourdough starter
1 tablespoon lard (or butter)
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, if you got one
water

Mix all ingredients. Add small amounts of water until batter is desired 
consistency. Pour small dabs onto a hot, greased griddle or cast iron
 skillet. Cook until edges begin to look dry, flip and continue cooking
 until dark golden brown. Serve hot with butter, syrup and jam.

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Natalie Cline Bright is the author of over 20 books for kids and adults.