kolling@decwrl.UUCP (Karen Kolling) (11/03/85)
Someone asked for this recipe a month or two ago; it appeared in the San Jose Mercury News this week. It's for a sourdough starter that swallows a cup of flour, et al, every few days, and you can give hunks of it to your friends from time to time. Why they call it Herman, ..... Herman Starter 1 package dry yeast 1/2 cup warm (105 degres) water 2 teaspoons sugar or honey 2 1/2 cups flour 2 cups warm water Mix yeast, 1/2 cup water, and sugar/honey. When yeast is foamy, stir in flour and additional water. Place in large crock or glass jar (do not use metal container). Cover with damp cloth and rubber band. Keep at room temp for 5 days, stirring daily with a wooden spoon. After 5 days, add 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk, 3/4 cup sugar. Keep covered under damp towel at room temp. Stir daily. On the 10th day, do the 5 day number again. After the 10th day, Herman is ready to divide up. You can use 2 cups for baking or to give away; keep 1 cup and continue feeding in the 5 and 10 day pattern. Below is a recipe to use Herman in. Herman Friendship cake 2 cups Herman 2 cups flour 3 eggs 2/3 cup light salad oil 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon nutmeg 1 teaspoon ground ginger 2 cups chosen from: raisins, sliced apples, diced dried apricots, chopped carrot. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease a 12-cup Bundt or tube pan. [Ed: this reminds me -- does anyone know why standard pans are such weird, non-quantized sizes? 8x8 is 64 square inches, wouldn't it be nice if instead of 9x13=107, we had something that came out to 128, so it would be easy to double recipes and so forth. How did this chaos happen?] Mix all ingredients except the last together until smooth, adding two cups of last ingredients to batter. Bake one hour. Remove from pan and cool on rack. Serve at room temp.