Artisan Bread Bakers

[Bugbear]

Hmmm, I never had a problem with it. I usually kept the starter in a jar with the lid loosly screwed on, and you can keep in the fridg after it gets yeasty. There's no reason you couldnt start a starter with a yeast culture for bread, or even throw a grape in there with it.

You can grow the loaf over a couple of days to make it extra sour if you keep track of how much flower you are adding. I think I did half fresh flower and half starter a lot of times, maybe more. I always waited to ad the salt and oil until the last kneading though; I oild my hands to work with the dough.

Oh, and sometimes I rubbed the top of the bread with butter a short time before it was done baking so it had a hard crisp top.

It's been about ten or so years since I baked bread, so it's hard to remember all the little details...