Yukon Herb Bread

This is another recipe from the sourdough bread machine book.  The gold prospectors were sometimes known as sourdoughs because of their propensity to make sourdough bread.  There are stories of the prospectors sleeping with their starter to make sure that it didn't die from the cold.

I kind of doubt that the Alaskan gold prospectors had access to these herbs, but I'm looking forward to the aroma when this bread starts to bake.

Yukon Herb Bread
Remove 4 oz. of starter from the fridge.  Add 4 oz. of white flour and 4 oz. of water.  Set in a warm place for about 6 hours until it doubles in size.  Then, add
White bread flour	2 ½ Cup
Butter	1 Tbl
Milk	½ Cup
Salt	½ tsp
Sugar	2 tsp
Thyme	½ tsp
Oregano	½ tsp
Basil	½ tsp
Water as needed	(I didn't need any)

This created a nice sticky dough ball without adding any additional water.  It still has a little bit of the pompadour crest, but overall looks like a normal loaf of bread.

The aroma wasn't as prominent as I expected, but I have a bad cold, so it might just be me.  The taste is pretty good--much like I expect from a white sourdough recipe.  I think next time I will leave out the herbs.  I'm not that fond of the thyme flavor.  I could be that I put too much in.  I spilled a bit when I was pouring it into the measuring spoon.  I tried to compensate by removing some of what was in the spoon, but still the thyme kind of overshadows the other herbs.

Update: This bread made a terrific grilled cheese sandwich.

Next: Tweaking the whole wheat recipe