Make bread without yeast

Sourdough starter after about one week.

 Did you know you can make bread, even if you don't have any yeast? Yes, it's true! My Daddy taught me how, and I'm convinced it is a good skill to learn. There may come a day...

Anyway, if you've got flour and water, you can make a sourdough starter that will allow you to make bread without yeast. It's not very hard to do. The biggest thing is the time it takes to get going.

To make a starter, mix equal parts flour and water. A good starting point is to use one cup of each. Put it in a glass bowl (no metal) and simply stir it twice a day. DON'T cover it. It's going to gather yeast from the air and it can't do that if it's covered.

When your starter looks nice and bubbly like mine above (in about 5-7 days), you can make bread. To do that here is what you do:

To starter, add 1 cup water, 1 cup flour.

Allow this mixture to sit for 2 hours.

Add 2 cups water and 3 cups flour.

Allow this to sit for 6 hours, or overnight.

Use 4 cups of this for your bread and save 1 cup in the fridge.

(This 1 cup you have left is now your continuous starter anytime you want bread).

To the 4 cups of starter,

add 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup buttermilk,

1 T. sugar, 3 t. salt, 1/4 c. butter.

Mix that all together and then add 5-6 cups of flour to make a sticky dough.

Let the dough rise until double. 

Form into 3 large loaves or 4 medium loaves and rise again.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 15 mins.

Reduce the oven temp to 375 and bake 20-30 minutes longer.

Cool the bread on wire racks.

Slice and enjoy!!

**The next time you want bread, take the 1 cup of saved starter out of the fridge,
let it warm a little, and then start over as above, adding 1 c. water, 1 c. flour, and letting
the starter sit for 2 hours, and so on. Every time you do this you will use 4 cups
for bread and save 1 cup in the fridge.