After the longest final day of the longest 4 day week in all history, I arrived home today to a lovely surprise! My Yeast Starter Flakes had finally arrived! I have read about starters and researched yeast ever since I came across this book at the store: The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast by Caleb Warnock & Melissa Richardson. I came across this book by surprise when browsing the bread related cookbook section at Barnes & Noble. I had been wondering how on Earth people used to make bread rise without a packet of Fleischmanns. While reading the book in the store, I fell in love. The best part: an offer of free starter flakes for anyone who purchased the book! So I sent in my self-addressed, postage-paid envelope and have been waiting patiently. It's no surprise that I sent this the same day as my tax returns and the flakes arrived faster than my money. Although, I think I'm more excited about these anyways!
I opened my envelope to find a tiny zip locked baggy with what appeared to be breadcrumbs. Hardly any at all, really. It is so amazing that I will be able to do so much by starting with so little.
I quickly ran to scrub my hands clean, find a wide-mouth jar, and pull the whole wheat pastry flour from the cabinet. I cracked my book to page 29 and started to read: Step 1, dissolve the flakes in 1/4 cup of water. (This took a while, but it is a very cold day and the flakes travelled a very long way) Step 2, add 1/4 cup flour and "stir vigorously to incorporate plenty of air into the mixture." Now I just have to be patient and not touch it for four days...yeah...Not the best quality in this household. Although I am content to just stare at it continuously for multiple days, my husband tends to want to poke and irritate things. We'll see how this goes. After that, it should be bubbly, I simply feed it and then put it in the fridge to keep, indefinitely I hope. The maintenance is pretty simple. Once it is in the fridge I just have to reduce it and feed it every 3 days or so.
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