Our daily bread: easier than you think!

Sunset, March, 1998 by Andrew Baker, Barbara Goldman

Per ounce: 79 cal., 27% (21 cal.) from fat; 1.2 g protein; 2.3 g fat (1.3 g sat.); 14 g carbo (0.5 g fiber); 97 mg sodium; 12 mg chol.

Sourdough Starter

Notes: For best results, use freshly purchased, just-opened milk and yogurt. Makes: About 1 1/3 cups

1 cup nonfat or low-fat milk 3 tablespoons plain yogurt 1 cup all-purpose flour

1. Warm milk to 90 [degrees] to 100 [degrees]. Stir in yogurt.

2. Pour into a warm 3- to 6-cup container (glass, ceramic, plastic, or stainless steel) with an airtight lid.

3. Cover and let mixture stand in a warm (80 [degrees] to 90 [degrees]) place until it has the consistency of yogurt, 18 to 24 hours; the mixture should be so thick it doesn't flow readily when container is tilted. A single clot may form or smaller curds may be suspended in clear liquid. Stir to mix in any clear liquid. If liquid turns bright pink, discard the batch and start again.

4. Once clot forms, add flour and stir until smooth. Cover airtight and let starter stand in a warm (80 [degrees] to 90 [degrees]) place until it is full of bubbles and has a pleasing sour smell, 2 to 5 days. Again, if clear liquid forms, stir to blend mixture. If liquid is pink, discard and start over. To store, cover airtight and refrigerate.

Using and maintaining the starter

Notes: For most active starter, feed at least once a month. To increase starter supply, in a large container, add as much as 10 cups each of milk and flour to 1 cup of starter. The mixture may need to stand up to 2 days before the clear liquid forms on top.

1. Use starter at room temperature. To hasten, set container in warm water.

2. Use and/or feed starter.

To feed, replenish each 1 cup starter used with 1 cup warm (90 [degrees] to 100 [degrees]) nonfat or low-fat milk and 1 cup all-purpose flour. Stir to mix well.

3. Cover starter airtight and let stand in a warm (80 [degrees] to 90 [degrees]) place until bubbly and sour-smelling, and clear liquid has formed on top, 12 to 24 hours.

4. Stir before using. Store airtight in the refrigerator.

RELATED ARTICLE: THE BREAD MACHINE MEETS SOURDOUGH

In 1993, we made our first sourdough in a bread machine, producing a good loaf baked in the machine's pan. Today's machines with dough cycles give even better results. The machines can mix and knead sourdough's hard-to-handle wet dough to perfection - the secret of resilient, springy bread. Then you can hand-shape the dough for baking (photos far left).

Sunset has been covering the tangy topic of sourdough since July 1933, starting with recipes for bread, biscuits, pancakes, and muffins. During the next few years, articles included recipes passed down from Gold Rush miners and accounts that blended fact and fantasy. Every reporter held an opinion.

"Sour dough flapjacks," wrote a poetic 1943 commentator, "work better in the open, particularly in the high mountains. When you bring them down into civilization they pine away like a sheep dog."

Early recipes were charmingly vague, and authors brazen: "Notice the indifference I have for exact measurements!" and "Sour dough is an art, not a science." Such cavalier approaches often resulted in a highly hostile sourdough starter, then the bread's sole leavener. "Listen to the hissing noise, and when you know the mixture is working 'good,' keep it from acting like an atomic bomb as you stir appeasingly every day," cautioned a writer in 1947.