Sour Dough-Little House Style

I have the Little House Cookbook, which I bought when we were studying the Little House series for homeschool.  I really like this book as it has all of the recipes that are mentioned in the series of books.

Last summer I made the sourdough starter recipe from the book.  This starter is made without yeast, and may be a bit trickier to make.  It's nice to know that I can still make bread even if I don't have any yeast.

You need:
1 1/4 cups of unbleached,  all-purpose flour
1 cup water between 80 and 95 degrees-preferably not city water
1 quart glass jar, rubber band, cheesecloth

Mix flour and water in jar. Cover with cheescloth and rubber band.  Keep in a warm place between 80 to 95 degrees.  I set mine on top of the fridge.  In the winter, I'd probably have to put it in the oven with the light on.
Sourdough likes moisture, and different humidities produce different types of starter.  I guess it's harder to start sourdough in dry climates.  Here in Minnesota we don't have that problem.  :)
If you see bubbles in  the dough and it's rising, this means it's working.  The aroma should be pleasantly sour.  If it smells bad, throw it out.

The starter needs to ripen and be fed.  Mix up more flour and water batter and stir into the live starter.  Leave in a warm place until it's bubbly.  Put half in a jar and give the rest to a friend.
Store the starter in the fridge to ripen, take it out, double it again and use it for biscuits,  bread, or my favorite, pancakes.  Love those sourdough pancakes.

I have a batch of starter on top of my fridge right now.  Let you know how it turns out.