April 15, 2014 - 7:13pm
Cherry Blueberry Sour Cream Starter?
So I was looking for something to bake tonight, found half a cup of ancient sour cream lurking in the fridge, as well as a container of well expired blueberries (which I reduced and strained into syrup), the remains of some cherry almond frosting, and a fairly soft Meyer lemon. This is what happened.
Any of you know whether I can make a quick and dirty levain with this effervescent concoction? Would like to bake kind of a lemon nut cake, wondering if I can get away without adding any additional leavening. Can't find any info about sour cream as a starter/rising agent, have no idea what's going on in that container pictured above.
Thanks in advance!
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The way to find out is to do it! Try mixing a little of that stuff with a little flour, give it several hours and see if it rises. Other than the somewhat odd combination of ingredients and the improbable method of inoculation, in abstract it is basically a yeast water, which you can look up in the search box at the top right of this page for more info. If it works, it might make a very interesting bread. Let us know how it goes!
Huh, I wonder where the yeast would have come from? Both the cherry frosting and blueberries had been boiled to death, maybe it was the old lemon? AFAIK, sour cream is cultured bacteriologically, and isn't yeasty, is it?
Anyway yeah, I did build up a levain which doubled in volume. Added raisins, walnuts, butter and eggs plus a bit more WWPF and pinch of salt to get the doughy batter pictured above. Sorry, didnt get a good picture of the finished cake, somebody here ate most of it. Was very much like an ISB, depite not having any soda in it. Guess it was all the butter and not being kneaded which resulted in the similarity.
So, are you going to keep your strange inoculation, feed it regularly, and try using it again one day? Or was this just a one-off? You could probably feed it with some fresh blueberries and/or lemons and a little bit of sugar, and turn it into a standard yeast water that can be kept for years.
Yeah, it would be interesting to know where the yeast came from. I'm going to agree with your speculation that it may have been the old lemon. Sour cream is cultured bacteriologically, as you said, so that's the only way that makes sense. Then again, nature doesn't always make sense.
No, I didn't save any of the original sour cream mix, David — only had about half a cup to begin with, and no idea how to feed and maintain the remnants. But did come home yesterday with another couple of lemons and pints of sour cream, one of which I'll break open and put back in the fridge to forget about for another month or two. Meantime will reserve another half cup for experimntation again this weekend. Worst thing it doesn't take, can always add some baking soda/powder for one of my regular volcano or quickbread recipes, nothing lost. Or maybe even stir in IY, just to see whether it would ultimately duplicate the flavor and texture of the first experimental loaf. Thanks!