Perhaps you remember shortly before Christmas I told you that I had been give a sour dough cake starter, I have to tell you that I became a slave to the blessed thing and finally yesterday, unable to cope with the ever increasing mountain of mixture I bake two more trays of cake and the consigned “Herman”for that was its name to an ignominious end by sluicing him down the sink.
Believe me when I tell you they I felt like a murderer and I have not dare to tell my son the truth about Hermann’s demise saying instead that I gave the whole batch away to an unsuspecting friend. Worse was to come when this morning my son who had taken a huge box of the cake in to work last night told me that every one loved it and asked if there was any more as he did not manage to get a piece.
Desperately I scoured the internet for the recipe for a starter and this afternoon. God help me I began the process of resurrecting Herman. The Information came from the University of Alaska, I chose this site as it is well known that the old settlers relied upon a good sour dough starter for a good deal of their baking,both for bread and cakes. The site was a mine of wonderful information and history with a six page download covering all I needed to know.
Unlike “Herman”, Pete as I have called my starter, after the famous “Sour dough Pete” can be stored in a refrigerator, dried for later use, does not require constant feeding with masses of sugar and can be used for bread, waffles, pancakes,and puddings as well as cake which makes it more versatile.
Another bonus is that it is ready to use in just two days from the start initially and only one day after that so that is will be much easier to fit baking with the started in with my routine.
Naturally it remains to be seem it this new brew will taste as good as the deceased Herman, only time will tell,but at least I am a free woman again, a great relief all round.
Tonight is my sons last shift and tomorrow begins our week off, of course we have lots of plans but for my part I shall be cooking up a storm of treats for my boys to make the week special.
After all the trials of 2011 and its hectic end full of meetings and letters we seem to be in calmer waters for the time being but being a realist I am aware that as in medieval time winter was traditionally taken as a break from seigeing which always began again in the spring! Hopefully things will remain quiet but whatever happens next I am grateful for the rest and the quiet life we have had of late.
Good luck for next week, keep warm and stay well.x
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