Lisa, this is my favourite starter. It is a pure starter, made from just rye flour and water. Nothing else. Once you get it going and it is easy to keep. YOu just have to feed it occasionally. Once you get your starter active, you use it to make a biga or a levain and that is what you add to the French baguette recipe rather than yeast. For the Biga, I just add 2 ounces of starter to 1 1/2 cups of flour and a cup of water and let it develop overnight. Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table Sourdough starter - Amy's bread =============================== copied from: http://countrylife.net/pages/recipes/672.html Amy Scherber's Sourdough Starter RYE STARTER From AMY'S BREAD, copyrighted. Amy's bread This starter is begun with rye flour because rye just LOVES to ferment and is an easier starter to get going than a wheat starter. When I first made it, it had a bubble or two within a couple hours. The procedure is to start it with rye flour, then transform it by changing what you feed it. The original rye will dilute to nothing over time and you'll end up with a white flour (or whatever other grain you choose, it could be whole wheat or pumpermickel, or you could leave it as a rye starter) and water based starter, but it had the advantage of beginning it's life from highly fermentable rye flour. Start it with organic rye flour and spring water. Once you have it going well you can switch to all-purpose white (or other) flour as you choose. The use of spring water is recommended for maintenance, however, as tap water may contain elements (such as chlorine) which may be detrimental to the health of your starter. I also recommend that you use a container that you can mark the volume levels of starter each time, so that you will know when it has doubled. Use a marking pen or tape or any other means to indicate on the container the starter levels each time you feed. Phase 1 - Combine 2 oz organic rye flour (room temp) with 4 oz spring water in a clear container. The batter should be about the consistency of very thick pancake batter, add more water or flour if necessary. Cover & let it sit for 36 - 48 hours at 75 - 77 degrees (a little cooler is okay but over 80 you will incubate the wrong kind of bacteria and your culture will have an unpleasant bitter taste). You should start to see tiny bubbles forming after about 24 hours. By the time it has doubled, there will be a noticeable network of small bubbles throughout the batter & it will be foaming & bubbling on top. (If the batter has not doubled within 48 hours, feed with 2 oz water & 2 oz flour (add more of either if necessary for the consistency) and let it sit another 24 hours or until you see some definite activity.) Phase 2 - Stir the culture down, notice how soupy it's become. The batter should have a noticeable sour smell & a mildly tangy taste at this point. Add 2 oz water & 2 oz flour and stir vigorously until well-combined. Let it sit for 12 hours. It should be showing a fair amount of activity at this point. You should see lots of foaming & bubbling through the sides as well as on the top. Don't be concerned if the culture deflates & loses volume. This means the yeast has exhausted its food supply, but it will continue to increase in acidity. Don't worry if your culture isn't dramatically active yet. As long as there is some noticeable activity going on and the mixture smells & tastes sour, you're on the right track. Phase 3 - The culture should now have a pronounced, sour, fruity taste and smell, it should not taste musty or bitter (if it does, discard and start again, paying close attention to the temp of the culture at all times). Now you can start "transforming" it into a white (or other) flour based starter. Use 6 oz of the starter, add 3 oz water & 3 oz flour, stir vigorously. Let it sit for 12 hrs at 75 - 77 degrees F. Refresh it again, setting up a maintenance level of 12 oz of starter. This will be your "mother" starter that you use to build the sourdough starters/sponges needed in individual recipes. Each time you take part of the mother out to build a starter, you must refresh it with equal weights of flour and water to bring it back up to its maintenance level. To maintain - Use 6 oz of the mother culture (discard the rest), add 3 oz water & 3 oz flour, stir vigorously, let it sit at room temp until doubled in volume. A strong mother will double in 8-12 hours. If yours doesn't do that, let it continue to sit out until it has a nice tangy taste and smell; discard all but 6 oz and repeat this procedure. Repeat this procedure as many times as necessary until the mother doubles within 8-12 hrs. It may take several days. Don't get discouraged, it's worth the effort. To use for recipes - Combine 1/2 c (5 oz) Mother from the refrigerator, add 3 oz flour and 2.5 oz warm water (85 - 90 degrees). The mixture will be stiffer than the mother. Let it sit, covered, until doubled in volume (if it doesn't do so go back to maintenance procedure). When the starter has doubled, it is ready to use in a recipe. Measure the amount needed and discard any that remains.

Sue Ellen, is this the one you are looking for? Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table Italian Bread ============= This recipe is also perfect for both Focaccia and Pizza. Sometimes I make a Biga the night before using 1 1/2 cups of the flour used in this recipe with one cup of water and 1/2 teaspoon yeast. If you don't have time to make the biga then this the recipe works just fine as follows. This is a very wet dough and needs to be mixed in a machine for a long time before you can finish kneading by hand. I use a Magic Mill Machine. If you are using something like a kitchenaide you have to watch it carefully as it climbs up the beater or hook. 8 Cups Bread flour 1 Tablespoon Yeast 1 1/2 Tablespoons Salt about 4 cups of water 2 Tablespoons olive oil. (optional) . Mix flour yeast water and oil( Optional) (not salt) together for a minute and leave for 20 minutes for the water to be partially absorbed. Add salt and mix for about 30 minutes until the dough comes together enough to be worked by hand. Continue kneading until smooth. Place in an large oiled bowl and rub olive oil on top, cover and let rise until more than doubled. Pour out on to surface and divide into the number of loafs you require. Do not punch out the air. Shape into loafs, sprinkle tops with flour and leave to rise on a flour/cornmeal dusted surface. Heat tile/stones in oven to 500 degrees while bread is rising. Slide loafs on to hot stone and spray with cold water, three times, three minutes apart. Lower heat to 450° and bake for about 30 minutes. (I can do two loafs at a time in the oven on a large stone). Focaccia: To make Focaccia use some of the dough and place in a oil rubbed pan (I use a rectangle shaped cake pan) Cover with plastic wrap and let rise. Using you fingers indend the focaccia and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with whatever toppings you prefer. Salt, Rosemary, Sauted or thinly sliced onions, black olives, etc.... Focaccia can be baked directly on heated pizza stone as well. I also use this recipe to make a number of large pizzas. .

Sherry, you know I never mind reposting recipes. Funny you should mention this one. I just bought cream cheese with the intention of making the danish this week. Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table Cream Cheese Danish Coffee Cake =============================== Source: Home Cooking Magazine 1 c sour cream 1/2 c sugar 1/2 c butter 1 t. salt 2 packages dry yeast (4 1/2 t.) 1/2 c warm water 2 eggs beaten 4 c all purpose flour Over low heat in a small saucepan, heat butter, sour cream , sugar and salt until warm and sugar is dissolved. Cool to room temperature. In large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Mix sour cream mixture with yeast and add beaten eggs and flour. Will be a very soft dough. Put in fridge overnite to rise. (May be done same day. Put in fridge for about 2 to 4 hours, and then proceed. Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead 6 or 7 times. Divide dough into 4 equal pieces and roll each piece out to 12 X 8 inches. Spread 1/4 of filling on to each piece and roll jellyroll style from long side. Pinch seams and ends to seal. Place seam side down on buttered baking sheet and cut X's in top. (About 6 X's) (Danish should be slightly flatten, and about 3 1/2 to 4 inches wide and about 12 inches long. Cover and let rise until about double in size -approximately 1 hour Bake at 375 for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden. Let cool on wire racks, Filling 2 packages 8 oz. cream cheese 3/4 c sugar 1 egg beaten 1 t. vanilla extract 1/8 t. salt Filling: To make filling beat together cream cheese with sugar, add egg and vanilla extract and salt Glaze 2 1/2 c confectioners sugar 1/4 c milk 1 t. vanilla extract toasted sliced almonds. Combine the first 3 ingredients for glaze and drizzle over loaves with toasted almonds

Thanks for the super-fast response! Those Danish are such a staple at Christmas on this board that I've just been watching for someone to post about them :) Freezing ahead would be perfect! I can re-heat them a little and then glaze--practically effortless. Thanks again--I can hardly wait to try these!