I am a broke college student that loves to cook. I have been experimenting with bread making for a few years, and it has become a great hobby! I own a bread machine, but lately I have been venturing forth into the realm of non-bread machine artisan bread. So far, I am having pretty good luck at everything I have attempted (I just made my first loaf of artisan bread in the oven the other day and it turned out great!) I also started my own sourdough starter (I may have cheated a little bit since I started with this recipe http://www.food.com/recipe/sourdough-starter-67075 before I actually stopped feeding it milk and sugar and started feeding it flour and water after day ten).
It has been at least a month and the starter is still going strong and has a pleasant fermented smell to it, so I'm assuming the wild yeast has taken over by now and the commercial yeast is no more. I tried to start other sourdough starters using only flour and water, but unfortunately my roommate forgot my starters were living in the oven and turned it on to bake something- thus killing my poor starters. :( I have not attempted another starter after that, but have just been feeding my starter that was initially cultured with commercial yeast.
So, yea! Any general advice or tips about your bread adventures would be greatly appreciated. Here are a few pictures of things I have made. Enjoy!
