Pinch My Salt

Food, Recipes, and Photography

Welcome to Doughvember

by 26 Comments

Remember how I invited you on that sourdough journey in September?  You were so patient with my daily updates as I created a new sourdough starter and demonstrated how to make a loaf of sourdough bread from scratch.  Well, here we go again.

This month I’m teaming up with the lovely Linda of Salty Seattle to celebrate sourdough in all its forms all month long.  While I got distracted and let my various starters languish in the fridge last month, Linda was busy cranking out some pretty spectacular sourdough concoctions like Sourdough Fettuccine, Sourdough Pumpkin Beignets, and Sourdough Pretzel Rolls.  Really.

I’m inspired.  I want to make crazy delicious sourdough things, too.  I have lots of ideas swirling around in my head –  sourdough corn dogs and sourdoughnuts have been at the top of my mental list, but who knows what will show up in my dreams tonight.  The point is, there’s a lot you can do with a sourdough starter and we want to have some fun this month.

We’re really excited for you to join us.

In fact, in all the excitement we got a little carried away and renamed the month.  Forget November, this year it’s called Doughvember.  Does that name work?  Well, I say it does and since it’s my birthday month, I get to do what I want. For the month of Doughvember, we’re going to be encouraging you to play with sourdough and hope that you will encourage others to do the same.  We will be making it as interactive as we can and those who jump in will be eligible for some fun prizes (more on that coming soon).

To kick things off, Linda is giving away some of her own sourdough starter to two lucky people.  Head over to Salty Seattle and leave a comment to enter her giveaway.

If you have an old sourdough starter kicking around in the back of your fridge, now is the time to get it out and start nursing it back to life.  If you have a friend or family member who keeps a sourdough starter, you might ask if they’d be willing to share.  And if you’re ready to create a brand new starter, here are some instructions.

Feel free to ask questions, share stories, and offer encouragement on twitter – the conversation has already started using the hashtag #doughvember.

Let’s start baking!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Stacey says

    I am having the worse time with me starter. I have thrown out the first one and have started again. It has never grown. I thought it was the flour since I was using bleached. I am now using all purpose unbleached and the same thing seems to be happening. Any suggestions?
    Reply

  2. Woody says

    I tried the recipe for Sourdough Pumpkin Beignets and it was a big hit with the wife and kids. I am going to make it for the extended family as an appetizer for Thanksgiving. The smell while cooking was a pleasant torture, but the final product was well worth the wait. Thank you so much for sharing. I used a combination of pumpkin puree and butternut squash puree and it was great. Do you have a preference to cake or dry yeast in your starters?
    Reply

  3. Adrienne says

    Help! I am so excited to be trying this. I am on day four of the sourdough starter and nothing much is happening. What have I done wrong??
    Reply

  4. Stacey says

    Update -- I am beginning to see some activity. My starter is doubling in size every 12 hours. It was a bit sluggish at first but it is finally taking off. I believe I'll be baking bread by Sunday or Monday.
    Reply

  5. Susie @ Return to Sunday Supper says

    Hi Nicole, I think that I need to keep on improving my skills till I get it right, but since this is the last day of Doughvember, here's my final outcome. http://www.returntosundaysupper.com/2011/11/becoming-a-better-baker-part-ii-sourdough-bread-making-for-doughvember.html Thank you again for the starter, recipe and advice!
    Reply

  6. Melissa says

    Hi Nicole, I'm new to sourdough and your site, and I'm a total novice! I'm just wondering if it's acceptable to use different kinds of flour when you are mixing up your bread dough (getting ready to bake it), or if better results are achieved by using the type of flour the starter has been cultured with. In other words, if I have a white flour starter, can I use that to make bread with some white flour and some spelt flour (for example)? Thank you!
    Reply

Leave a Reply