For more years than I care to remember, Ive had an urge to make bread using natural leavening, ever since I picked up a lttle booklet on "Sourdough Bread," which included a packet of "sour dough starter;" at the San Franciso Airport while on a business trip long before my retirement in 1987. Mostly my efforts have been a disaster; because, I now believe, I've concentrated on the "sour dough" concept, trying to capture and propegate "natural yeasts," I must have a brown thumb when it comes to raising wild yeasts!!!!! Recently I abandoned my fixation on "sour dough" for I'm really not that into the unique taste; and now believe that what I really yearn for is the ability to make a good loaf of bread with leavening that I have nurtured from an initial package of store bought yeast, without any further use of such. It just seems so unnatural to have to buy and use a package of store bought yeast every time I make a loaf of bread. If I have to buy the yeast I might just as well buy a loaf of bread!!!! Today I produced my first loaf of edible bread using only 1 cup of flour, and two cups of, what amounts to a third generation, sponge.

I did this using a bread machine, because I'm also not that into hand kneading, and all that sticky dough.  

So here's my recipe

Starter: First Day - Two cups warm water, 1 tbsp suger, two cups all purpose flour. 1 pkg yeast.

           Second Day - Two cups warm water, 1 tbsp sugar, two cups all purpose flour

           Third Day - Remove two cups sponge, place in bread machine bucket. Allow to breed for several hours. Add 1 cup flour, and process on basic bread cycle. Then add two cups of water, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 cups flour to remainder of sponge.

Repeat third day routine for each subsequent loaf.

So all you "Artisen Bread" bakers out there - sent me your comments - favorable, or not!!!!!!

I make a lot of cheese (mostly hard cheeses), and the whey just seems like a terrible thing to waste, even after I've extracted as much fat from it as possible, by making natural (no acid added) ricotta.  I've used it in soups, but don't have soup everyday.  I also make alot of breads - mostly 7 grain, sour dough, other artisan types.

Does anyone have experience and/or advice concerning the efficacy of using whey in place of water, in various breads?  Would there be any effect on the crust or crumb, say, in a ciabatta or a baguette?  The only kind I've tried it in so far is the 7 grain, and I couldn't tell much difference in the taste or the texture.