We're Making Sourdough! Day 7/Rye Day 3

Day 7 (10:45): No bubbles, no volume change. Strong smell of alcohol, possible thin layer of hooch. Added 100 g tap water and 50 g rye flour, stirring between each addition and scraping the sides down.

I think the volume went down.

The shiny stuff looks suspiciously hoochy.

Drawing lines... I suspect that nothing will happen yet again.

I give Thor until tomorrow morning. If there's still nothing, I'm going to the french bakery down the street and asking if they have sourdough starter I could have.

Day 7 (23:30): A thin layer of bubbles appeared on top and the jar has a yeasty smell (although that turns back to fruity if you stick your nose in it). The volume had risen slightly. Stirred starter mix vigorously but did not add any flour or water. No hooch on top of the starter.

Volume is up!

Bubbles and no hooch!

The bubbles deflated slightly, but the volume is still higher than it was.

 I now give Thor an extra 24 hours of grace. If he can produce a substantial volume change and bubbling action by tomorrow night (including me removing half the starter and adding more flour and water in the morning), I might forgo the bakery down the street alternative.
I'm in the middle (unfortunately, I don't really see an end in sight) of a long and annoying job search (not having a car is a major downer on employability, it seems, as is dropping to zero availability in three months), and it's been raining so I can't go out (I seem to be allergic to rain), and the rain has kept the sun away, which usually puts me in a vitamin deficiency-induced slump, and this has been a bit of a pick me up. Thank you, Thor. Now, just please keep it up.

We're Making Sourdough! Day 6/ Rye Day 2

Day 6 (11:30): Starter is warm and smells yeasty and fruity. No volume change or bubbles. Added 100 g water and 50 g rye flour.

No volume change...

And no bubbles.

Thor looks much larger now, but he really isn't.

Day 6 (23:15): No change in volume. Some bubbles, possible real bubbles. The starter smells fruity and a little yeasty. No addition of flour or water; just stirring.

No volume change, again.

Bubbles!

I maintain my position from yesterday. Thor has 24 hours to get his act together and double his volume, or we're giving up and just using yeast for forever. I'm afraid that we're dangerously close to getting a thick layer of hooch here.

We're Making Sourdough! Day 5/ Rye Day 1, Or "Starting Over :("

So, there were bubbles this morning. I think that was the rye flour. Then there was a whole bunch of hooch. I take this to mean that Scott is a failure at being alive, so I dumped him down the drain.
Sadface.

Bubbles!

And hooch. The level of the starter itself actually went down.

The new starter's name is Thor. I picked this name with the same logic as I picked my computer's name: if the name belongs to someone awesome, the thing will be as awesome as that person. My computer's name is Bruce Wayne.
So I chucked my old starter and started up my new one, this time following Mihl's instructions.

Clean jar, all ready for fresh starter.

 Day 5 (11:30): Combined 100 g tap water and 50 g rye flour. Placed lid on loosely, drew a line to indicate volume, and placed in lit oven for warmth.

The brown color is so promising.

I think I finally figured out how to take decent pictures of things in this jar.

Day 5 (1:30): No bubbles. No change in volume. There's a yeasty smell underneath a fruity smell. I stirred, scraped the sides, and put back in the oven. Thor's gaining that gloopy texture that Scott had on day 2 in the morning. Hopefully this means that Thor is doing normal starter things.

No volume change.

No bubbles. Still, the yeasty smell was encouraging.

Hopefully, there will be bubbles in the morning. I'll try starting over with whole wheat if there's still nothing two days from now.

Waffles. Just, waffles.

So, waffles.
Waffles are why I have a grudge against George Foreman. You know, of those Foreman grills that allegedly remove a lot of the fat from your meat and also make a decent sandwich? Yeah. Those things are everywhere. Half the appliances in thrift stores are Foreman grills.
Here's a link to a google image search of "foreman grill".
Those damn things look just like waffle makers. You see one in the cupboard of your new house, and you get all excited, and make grand plans for waffles every day because you would live on waffles if you could, and then your heart and dreams are crushed because it's a FREAKING FOREMAN GRILL. And there are five of them in your house and no waffle makers at all.
If I wasn't so busy making waffles and blogging and job hunting and self pitying, I would be consumed with a deep and abiding grudge against George Foreman and a desire to destroy his life. 
As it stands, it's a good thing we ended up getting a waffle maker. That guy could probably crush me.
To give you the lowdown on the situation: I would have eaten waffles exclusively for breakfast all last year had I had a meal plan that allowed me to eat cafeteria food every morning as well as dinner with friends on the same day. I like the light, crispy, eggy, just-salty-enough ones. If they have crispies from overflow, so much the better.
Allie Brosh of Hyperbole and a half sums up how I feels about waffles perfectly:

Picture by Allie Brosh

Sadly, the only waffle maker available to me for free over the past few years has a bad cord that smokes when it's plugged in. I think my parents should throw it away. However, S, A, and I decided that we could split the cost of a waffle maker, since the high-end ones that one finds in grocery stores like walmart and target don't go much over $30. $10 each isn't bad for something that we really, really want.
So, I present to you the as-yet-unnamed waffle maker that we got at walmart because the one at target was sold out:

Unnamed Waffle Maker!

It's so much bigger than those round ones...

 The stainless steel stuff on the top isn't the only thing that gives the waffle maker heft. Man, we need a name if I'm going to keep posting about it. Anyway, it has nice solid metal plates that apparently have nonstick, since we're not supposed to put oil on them. I had some sticking this morning, but it might have been the result of impatience.

Pancake mix, olive oil (although I assume any oil would do), and pumpkin puree.

Since a different box of pancake mix that isn't mine gave the same proportions for waffles as for pancakes, plus oil, I figured I could add in some pumpkin.

The mixing went well. Left some lumps in so that it wouldn't be all tough.

It's like the promise of waffle. The anticipation is awesome.

My housemate's fake butter (too cheap to use my own fake butter. This is the stuff that I made the lazy cinnamon rolls with.) and fake maple syrup. Thanks, Asia!

Waffles!

I was going to show you a picture of them all buttered and syruped, but then my camera died (see the beginning of this post for details and a dramatic reenactment of what went down).
After the fact, I'm not too sure that the addition of pumpkin added anything. Perhaps if I had made them from scratch, it would have been better. It mostly made the waffle take forever to cook. The inside was also a little gooey, which may have been impatience.
All in all, it was a breakfast success. We have some blueberry mix; maybe I'll have that this weekend.
My next breakfast post, however, will be on mushrooms on toast. Inspired by Emily, backed up by The Vegetarian Student Cookbook, which is a british publication that uses some hilarious british slang in a painfully obvious (and failed) effort to be "hip". Never in my four and a half months with british students did I hear anyone say "moreish".

We're Making Sourdough! Day 4, Or "Why You Should Always Keep Whole Grain Flours Around"

Day 4 (10:45): A decent amount of hooch was on the starter, but the starter had bubbled through the hooch and could be seen looking down through the mouth of the jar. The smell was basically the same, kind of fruity and off. I decided to remove about 100 g (it ended up being about 125) and took much of the hooch with the discarded starter. Then I added 50 g each of water and flour, with the flour being probably about 7% whole grain stuff in probably bleached white flour. I stirred in between the water and flour additions, and scraped the sides down with the trusty spatula to prevent mold.

I took this last night a few hours after putting it back in the warm oven. Bubbles! They exist!

The first thing I really thought about this morning.

Hooch... The bane of my sourdoughs.

See how in the middle, it's lighter? That's the starter shining through the clouds of hooch.

I put a line on the jar to show where the starter started, and to see if it got above the line.

That whole wheat stuff is good for starters, it seems. It's the only change I make, and it makes a drastic difference.
Also, my camera eats batteries. I thought it was just the ones I got in England being terrible, because it lasted months on batteries before that, but oh, no. It went through duracells from 'MERICA in less than a day.
My camera is all "OMNOMNOM BATTERIES" and the batteries are all "HELP ME! HELP ME! EEEEEE!" and I'm all "GODDAMMIT I WAS TAKING A PICTURE OF A WAFFLE THIS IS IMPORTANT!"
Oh, yes. Waffles. I will tell you about them, I promise.

So, I watched the starter like a hawk, except for when I was grocery shopping. While grocery shopping, I bought rye flour, whole wheat flour, yeast, other real food that I can eat for a few weeks, and the ingredients to make pad thai (according to Emily from Well Fed, Flat Broke's recipe). I also got batteries, as you can see from there being pictures below, although my camera actually accepted the old batteries again. In any case, I have two new kinds of batteries, some "heavy duty" ones and some "high energy" ones. Even if my camera does start the battery-per-day thing, I'll be good for almost five days.
Back to the starter, whose name is Scott. There were no changes in volume all day, which saddened me.

Day 4 (22:10): No change in volume. No bubbles of starter visible through thin layer of hooch. The smell has returned to sickly sweet and unpleasant. I added 25 g tap water and 50 g rye flour, stirring between additions and scraping the sides well. The resulting starter mass has brown flecks and bubbles.

This was sad, especially after the grand success of the morning. By which I mean the small victory.

There were some bubbles, but all on the hooch and none from Scott.

After the addition of about 75 g worth of water and rye flour, I drew a new line.

Scott is so bubbly right after I add flour... I have high hopes for the rye flour.

If this has produced lots of hooch and next to no bubbles, I'm starting over with rye flour. I'll follow Mihl's instructions over Mike's, too.
If that doesn't work, I'll shelve the idea until I wind up at home and then persuade my mom to help me out.

Lazy Cinnamon Rolls

I mentioned how I've been reading Well Fed, Flat Broke pretty much nonstop. I also mentioned how I was planning on cooking something other than stir fry and crepes.
Well, I did.
One of my housemates shares my passion for trying new recipes and for cooking weird things as a form of procrastination. Interestingly enough, we appear to have about the same BMI of "not as good as it should be".
I wonder why.
Anyway, we've been plotting to make cinnamon rolls, but we don't have yeast. Well, we do, but it's in my other refrigerator and it's been too rainy to walk to it without catching my death of cold, and so no pizza or cinnamon rolls.
And then I found the recipe for Horses' Arses. I named the post "Lazy Cinnamon Rolls" instead because I can't quite make myself like the name. It's hilarious, true, but they're too delicious to think of as horse butts. So, after making sure that I have enough flour to complete the operation and keep feeding my sourdough (possible name: Turner or Scott, after Turner and Hooch, since my starter seems to be perpetually accompanied by the hoochy stuff on top) for at least a week, I decided to make me some fluffy baking powder dough and cover it with some sugary goodness. I was also going to photograph the whole process, but that fell apart. I'm a free spirit when I cook. I can't be bothered to pause every step to take pictures.
Still, I did try.
Step one: Take the sourdough starter out of your oven and turn off the oven light. No need to waste electricity.
Step two: preheat.
Then I give up on steps. I hate steps, unless it's for something like a chocolate torte where you really want things in the right order, and getting those eggs whipped before you start the chocolate melting is a really, really good idea.

I write all my recipes down on notecards. Being a student means I can't afford cookbooks for the most part and that I don't have time to memorize recipes (or look them up online, which is untrue).

 So, I mixed flour, salt, baking powder, white sugar, and butter together, without really getting all the butter smooshed into everything. I actually used a margarine spread that one of my housemates' former housemate had abandoned. It's a huge tub, and she put it on the communal shelf. Also, do I look like I'm made of butter? I've been hoarding mine for the past month, it feels like.
And then I get a chance to use it and chicken out.
After getting the buttery stuff mixed into the dry ingredients, I added the milk. It went better than expected.

Look! A rare in-progress photo! Don't startle it, you may never see one again in your life! Also, if anyone wants to donate mixing bowls to poor, lazy students, we're in your area even if you're at the south pole. That's a casserole dish of some sort that probably isn't oven safe. We have nothing smaller except for a silicone "cupcake" cake pan.

I ended up with a sweet, light dough that was impressively sticky. Happily, things don't stick very well to silicone spatulas, so invest. Trusty spatulas will get you through anything. I made snickerdoodles with this puppy, and I don't have a mixer. Anyway, the lazy cinnamon roll dough was amiable enough to kneading with a minimal layer of dough adhering to my hands, and rolled out into a neat rectangle pretty handily as well.I melted some of my own butter (margarine, Blue Bonnet, to be exact) and poured it over the dough. This was not a problem until I let a little bit of it get too close to the edge and it spilled over the side and stuck the dough in that area firmly to the cutting board.
I moved on and covered the butter-covered dough in brown sugar. I used a little too much. Just a light coating will do, not a quarter-inch-thick layer. Then I sprinkled liberally with cinnamon, and lightly with ground cloves and nutmeg. I would have used allspice if I could have found it. It's been so rainy here that I seem to think that it's november.
Then, with minimal swearing, I rolled up the rectangle. It ended up being a log about a foot and a half long. I technically got 14, possibly 15 1-inch thick slices out of it, but one (technically two) was (were; it's the tall pale thing in the picture of the pan) mangled and gooey with butter and the other was delicious. It wouldn't have fit anyway.
This is a good time to tell you to grease your pan always when the recipe calls for it. I did, and it was good because there was so much sugar in these babies that it formed a very nearly solid layer on the bottom of the pan. And all over the sides. This is why I suggest less brown sugar. I bet molasses, golden syrup, honey, or agave would work as well, but I don't have any of those, much less any of them in a great enough quantity to smear on lazy dough.

It seems like it should be delicious, but it's really not. The nutmeg and cloves really add a kick the the flavor, though. I always recommend them.

 Next, I popped my pan of lazy cinnamon rolls into the oven in a self-congratulatory manner. I never bake things that require this much prep. The most prep I go for is snickerdoodles, and that's a rare thing.
Then, I remembered that I wanted to photograph this thing. So I opened the oven about five minutes in and just look at that melting sugar.

Beautiful.

This is even more beautiful. Did you know that letting the rolls sit and cool actually makes them better? I have a hunch that they'll also be better if reheated, since that might melt down the sugar crystals.

Just as a reminder, the recipe is Horses' Arses from Well Fed, Flat Broke.
 Incidentally, it's time to plug my favorite book ever. Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, is visible in the picture of my beautiful cinnamon roll picture. You should read it. It's full of british humor. That copy, bought used but in great condition from amazon two years ago, is considerably more battered now than it was then. It goes well with everything, and, like fancy wine that I can't afford and probably wouldn't appreciate anyway, gets better with age.

We're Making Sourdough! Day 3, evening

OMIGAWD PICTURES!
I finally got batteries, settled a fight between my SD card adapter and my camera, and then took pictures.

 This is the jar two hours after I fed it this morning. It's not looking too good, so I stirred it. The hooch layer on top had some bubbles in it, but the starter gloop itself was just kind of looking gross and non-bubbly.

Jar in oven after stirring. It's about three times the size it was when I mixed it up initially.

Trusty red spatula! I use it and whisks almost exclusively in my cooking, and I thought you should be introduced.

Just so my housemates know.

Breakfast, sort of. I have one of those cool nesting teapots now and a leftover crepe from Crepe Tuesday.

I took a much clearer picture, but it loses the warmth and bleariness that my breakfasts rely on.

I went a little crazy on the pictures. However, it maddens me that I can't find many helpful sourdough sites that also have pictures. So, I have annotated one of mine so you know what slightly off-smelling sourdough starter might look like on its third day, which is probably how it shouldn't look.

For your viewing pleasure. Taking partial-screen screenshots on a lenovo is a bitch, by the way, so be happy.

I'm not going to post this until evening, at which point I will put up a picture or two of the starter. Promise.

Well after typing up the first part of this post, I rediscovered a page on sourdough by Mihl of Seitan Is My Motor which indicates that feeding once a day for the first four days is fairly normal. It was discouraging to see her pictures of friendly, bubbly, non-hooch-covered starter when mine looks like it does, but encouraging to see pictures at all. Of course, she used a whole grain sort of flour that has more of the nice cultures that make sourdough work than my white stuff, even if it is unbleached.

Okay, I restrained myself. It is now almost 23:00, and time to inspect and fiddle with the starter in the evening.
Something is rotten in denmark.
Remember all that hooch I photographed and is now up above and in the same post as I'm writing right now? (Don't judge me. I had part of a martini, a real one with just gin and vermouth and two olives, on a fairly empty stomach, and now I can't spell or write without thinking really hard)
It doubled. Sad faces. So I poured it off, since stirring it back in hasn't helped at all, and stirred in some slightly whole wheat flour.
Day 3 (22:30): Poured off hooch. Stirred, added about a tablespoon of whole wheat-ish flour, stirred. Scraped sides with trusty spatula. Put back in oven. The starter smells a little musty and has that sickly sweet smell again. There are no bubbles in the gloopy mass at all. There are a few bubbles in the hooch, but I think those are different.
MOAR PICTURES

All that hooch... and no signs of growing starter.

Bleh. It looks nasty and smells funky. See the bubbly bits?

So much hooch.

After the addition of the tablespoon of flour

 The moral of the story so far is that you should use fancy flour. I am really very seriously considering starting over.