#baking blunders

The clear liquid on top means it’s hungry.

I’ve held up several baking blog images for the sake of comparison to the contents of my glass bowl of sourdough starter. I’ve looked for orange streaks and pink spots (sure signs your starter has gone to the bad) and swirled it a little to see if its consistency is off. It’s just famishing. Visual confirmation is aided by the olfactory evidence. The liquid emitted by a hungry starter is alcohol. My starter stinks like the morning after an especially rough night – when your very pores ooze ethanol. But a starter is no weekend lush; it gets delirium tremors without a drink. The problem? I’m out of flour.

Everyone’s out of flour.

Dammit. Something always happens to my sourdough starters, killing them in their infancy. The last time I tried was while staying in a double-wide trailer in the California desert while picking dates. It was January, but with a blistering sun. The hot days and the freezing nights inside a super-conductive metal home must have been too much variation for the fermenting little germs. An inert grey sludge was all that resulted. This time, I’ve set the bowl near the household Gulf Stream that is the hot water tank. It was doing so well. And now this!

Do you have any rye? I message the most generous friend I know. My starter is starving☹ She does – oh, generous benefactor!

Mom’s Popovers

6 servings; 3 WW points

Special equipment: Popover Pan

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp melted butter, plus more for greasing

2 eggs

1 cup milk

Heat oven to 450°F.

Grease popover pan.

In a small bowl, mix the flour and salt.

In a larger bowl, add butter, eggs, milk. Beat until just combined.

Add dry mixture to wet all at once, beat until just combined.

Fill popover pan, so that each section is…