From "The Best Low Fat No Sugar Bread Machine Cookbook Ever" by Madge Rosenberg:

Sourdough Starter: Your sourdough starter becomes like a pet-you watch over it and feed it. It takes at least a week to develop flour and water into a starter. But once made, and continually fed, it will keep for years. To make a sourdough starter: In a large glass or plastic container, mix 1 cup of flour with 1 cup of water and a pinch of dry yeast. Stir until creamy, loosely cover, and leave at room temperature (not above 80 degrees) for a week. After the first week, refrigerate the sourdough starter. The solids will separate from the liquid, so stir before using and bring the starter up to the right temperature for the bread machine by making the water in the bread recipe just warmer than body temperature and mixing the two together before using. At least once a week, use your starter or discard 1/2 cup of it and replenish with equal amounts of flour and water stirred together until they are smooth and creamy. This keeps the starter fresh and active. Sourdough starter is a living culture that bubbles and smells strange. Different strains of yeast in the air work on the sour. Sours made from the same ingredients vary from place to place because of the ambient conditions. No one has made San Francisco sourdough in the Midwest yet, although commercial bakers have tried.

(Mine definitely smelled sour after a week, don't get your nose too close to the jar when you smell it!)

This is the recipe I tried and it came out great. The dough looks very wet when the bread machine was processing, however, I resisted the impulse to add more flour and it came out fine.

This bread is as crusty outside as it is soft and light inside. The herbs give it enough flavor to serve on its own with bouillon of a glass of wine. Or make it into a tomato sandwich.

Add all ingredients in the order suggested by your bread machine manual and process on the basic bread cycle according to the manufacturer's directions.

be sure to replenish your sourdough starter with equal amounts of flour and water.

Fatfree Digest V96 #72

From the Fatfree Vegetarian recipe list. Downloaded from Glen's Mm Recipe Archive, http://www. Erols. Com/hosey.