NY steak sandwich with green chile, sliced onion, cheese

Denver sourdough starter languishing in the refrigerator for months. The brown liquid that formed is stirred in and the mixture used to flavor the dough. This is not actual sourdough, this is dough made from commercial yeast flavored with this languished exhausted starter. Four tablespoons of this, 1/4 cup, and that turned out to be a little too much. It turned the character of the dough towards that of sourdough a little more than anticipated. The flour in the starter is used up, actually eaten, and cannot contribute gluten elasticity, but it can contribute flavor.

This sourdough starter is 100% whole wheat. The bread dough that I'm making is regular all purpose flour. The exhausted used wheat in this 1/4 cup changes the feel of the dough considerably. It is not active. It would take a few days of regular feeding for the starter to become active. The work of producing gas will depend on the commercial yeast that began with so meager amount and grew overnight much faster than this sourdough can. The starter will not assist much as leaven. Not without first being fully revived. This is like adding the flavor of yeast-death and enervated whole wheat flour to dough. And it works as a sourdough cheat.

The starter is fed whole wheat flour that was milled right here at home.

The water remaining from one full cup. 

1 cup flour not sifted, scooped directly and packed amounts to 5 ounces

1 cup of water is 8 ounces. 

This dough turned out to be too wet. Additional flour is included after the dough is stretched. This is not optimal because the flour is new and lacks the character of all the rest that has aged overnight nearly a full day.

Baked at high temperature inside a clay cloche. It is very good flavorful and heavy bread with distinctly unique character.