Sourdough Bread - a fabulous recipe

The day after Christmas, my grandmother sent home a jar of sourdough starter with me. I attempted to make my own starter a few months ago, using a non-yeast version, but it didn't work at all. This starter works and it's FABULOUS. I've made bread twice with this recipe and my family would probably eat it all at one sitting if I let them.

The recipe for the starter from scratch is as follows:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3  Tbs. instant potato flakes
• 1 cup warm water
• 3 pkgs. of dry yeast, dissolved in 1/2 cup of warm water

Mix together, and put in a jar with a loose covering of plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge.  In 3 - 5 days, you will need to feed it. The recipe says no longer than 5 days, but I've gone 8 days and 7 days and it still works wonderfully. Here is the feed recipe, just add this to the jar:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 Tbs. instant potato flakes 
• 1 cup warm water

After adding the feed ingredients, leave the jar sitting out, loosely covered, for 8 - 12 hours. After the sitting time is up, if you are going to make bread, stir the mixture and pour one cup of the starter mixture into a large bowl. Put the rest of the starter back in the fridge. If you're not going to make bread at this time, either give away the one cup of starter, or just toss it.

Now you're ready to make bread. Here's the bread recipe:

• 1 cup starter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 Tbs. salt
• 6 cups bread flour

I was told that all-purpose flour works, too, but so far I've been lucky enough to actually have bread flour on hand and have not tried it with all-purpose yet. Mix all the ingredients well, then oil a large bowl from top to bottom for rising purposes.  Transfer the dough to the oiled bowl. It will be a very soft, sticky glob at this point, not a firm dough ball like you might be used to. Pat the top of the dough with oil, then cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise for 8 - 12 hours.

After the first rising, gently punch down and knead the dough a little in the bowl. Divide the dough into 3 or 4 parts, then knead each part on a floured surface 12 - 15 times. Put into greased loaf pans, or on a greased baking sheet. (If you put them on a sheet, leave as much room between loaves as possible.) Pat the tops with oil again, cover with plastic wrap and a dish cloth or two. Allow to rise again for 8 - 12 hours.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 - 35 minutes until the tops are well browned but not burned. Brush the tops with butter while still hot.

Recipe notes - do not use metal containers or utensils at any stage of this recipe. Glass, plastic or wooden bowls and spoons ONLY. The recipe I was given also has this note: if the starter gets sluggish, add 1/2 of a pkg of yeast, 1 tsp of sugar and 1/4 cup of warm water in addition to the regular feed ingredients when you go to feed it.