Dissolve yeast in warm water in a VERY large bowl. Stir in flour. Cover loosely & let stand in a warm spot for 3 - 4 days. Stir down & refrigerate in a sealed container. (My note: Make sure this is a LARGE container. The recipe book says 1 quart but I needed a half-gallon container after I spent one early morning cleaning up what my DH thought was "stinky pancake batter" all over the fridge )
You have to use this starter once every week to 10 days, or at the very least waste some and replace with a like amount, or the starter will die.
BREAD:
makes 3 large or 4 small loaves
1 cup warm water
1 tbl yeast
1 cup starter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
2 tbl honey
2 tbl butter
2 tsp salt
2 ice cubes
bread flour
4 tbl melted butter
THE NIGHT BEFORE you want to bake, make the sponge: dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl. Mix in starter & AP flour. Cover & set in warm place. In the morning, stir down the sponge.
In saucepan, heat milk until it bubbles. Remove from heat and add honey, butter & salt. Once butter has melted, add ice cubes to cool down the mix. Add to the sponge & stir until almost all lumps are dissolved. Add enough bread flour to make a soft dough. Turn out onto the counter and knead 10 minutes. Butter the bottom of a LARGE bowl & press dough into it to coat with butter. Then invert bowl, remove dough & put it into the bowl butter side UP. Cover & set to rise in a warm place until double in bulk.
Punch down dough, divide into 3 or 4 equal pieces & shape into loaves. Butter loaf pans & press one loaf into each pan so it touches all the sides. Cover & let rise until double.
Preheat oven to 400. Brush tops with melted butter & bake 25 minutes If it begins to get too brown, cover with foil. Remove to wire racks & let cool before eating/freezing.
