Robert Lives!

Many years ago, I started Robert in my kitchen. We used to have a very close relationship, I would use him a few times each week. But life happened, and we drifted apart. I am not sure how long we had avoided each other, but it feels like it was at least two years. The last time I mentioned him on my blog was three years ago.

Every time, I opened the fridge, he would glare at me accusingly. I would avert my eyes, and pretend that I really wanted that piece of cheese, and never had noticed him.

Yesterday, I finally was ready to deal with him again. I took a deep breath, opened the fridge and got Robert out. I wasn't sure whether I dared to open the top, but I was brave and did it anyway.

Looked ok, even if he needed some mixing. He smelled ok too, very sour, but not moldy. My plan was to make sourdough crumpets from the King Arthur site, since it had as second part of the title 'How to resurrect a neglected starter.'



I put one cup of Robert in a measuring device, and added some sugar, salt, and baking soda. He doubled in size in am amazingly short time, which was encouraging.



Time to bake. I poured some of this mixture in a small frying pan and tried to make a crumpet. I had never made crumpets before, so I had no idea what I was doing, but how hard can it be, right? Well... this first one came out way too thin, I totally destroyed it while trying to flip and I ended up with some broken up pieces of something on my plate. I tried one bite and decided that I didn't really like the way it had turned out.



Next one, I put in a lot more batter, and surprisingly, that was all it took. This time I got a perfect crumpet, which actually tasted good too!



I had a few of those for breakfast, and spent the day to see whether any adverse effects would show up from using a starter which had been neglected for so long. They didn't, so I officially declare Robert being back to life, and ready to be fed as to bake sourdough bread soon.