Tool kits
I finally got around to sewing tool kits from felt. The large one on the left is for my paintbrushes and watercolour pencils. The one on the right is for my drawing pencils, extra leads, and art gum eraser. I got the basic pattern from Dory Kanter’s book, Art Escapes. The felt backing is about 14″ high and as wide as you need to hold your tools. The pocket front is the same width and 5″ high. A doubled ribbon is sewn to the right side so that you can fold down the top flap, roll the whole thing into a bundle, and tie it neatly. It would have been fun to make them different colours but it’s not easy to find usable sizes of felt at reasonable prices at my local craft store in Jerusalem, so I ended up buying a single piece of purple felt and cutting it up. When I have more time, I may replace the ribbons with grosgrain ribbon (more durable than regular satin ribbon) in different colours.
Sourdough bread recipe
The comments on my posting yesterday requested the sourdough bread recipe. It’s rather sketchy, so you may want to go to www.sourdoughhome.com if you’re really new to sourdough. First you need a starter.
Starter
Combine 1 cup water and 1 cup flour in a glass jar or plastic bowl, cover with a clean tea towel or handkerchief, and let sit until bubbly. This is the trickiest part, catching a starter. I had no luck in Boston or Toronto, but in the Negev desert I have managed to catch wonderful starters. Probably a dry climate helps. When foamy like a milkshake, add another cup of water and flour, stir, and cover loosely. Refrigerate.
Your starter will need to mature and you have to feed it with equal parts flour and water every week or two to keep it alive. It should be fairly thick, like gravy or porridge.
Bread
The night before you want to make bread, take a cup of starter and add a cup of water and enough flour to make a soft dough. Cover with a clean towel and let it sit overnight. In the morning, add a couple tsp of salt and enough flour to make kneadable dough. (Note: this quantity produces one large loaf, 2 small loaves, or 3 mini-loaves. I usually make 3 mini-loaves because I have a small family and we need the 3 loaves for the Shabbat meals, supplementing the third meal with a frozen pita.)
Knead for about 15 minutes. If your dough is really cold because your flat is as cold as mine, zap it in the microwave oven for 20 seconds. Let rise for at least 2 hours. Punch down and knead. Shape into loaves. I prefer to rise mine on ‘couches’ made of flour-impregnated tea towels. Preheat oven to 450 F. This sounds really high but you need it for the oven spring to get nicely risen loaves (don’t try it if you have a sweet glaze or fruit or something that burns easily on your loaves). Flip onto a preheated oven tray using a peel or cookie sheet. Bake until done–about 35 to 45 minutes. Cool on a rack.
It will take some trial and error because your starter and oven are not the same as mine. Good luck!
P.S. Sourdough also makes fabulous pizza dough. Just mix a cup of starter with enough flour to form a dough, let it rise all day on the counter, roll out, put on sauce and toppings, and bake at 400 F for 25 min.
