Inspired by my lovely friend Celia’s images of beautiful sourdough loaves, Pete and I tried recently to resurrect our last frozen pot of Levi the Levain, the 50+ year old sourdough starter we’d been given by Tom Herbert at a cooking class some years ago. Sadly, although Levi was a spritely old thing when alive and made us many fine loaves of bread, we were forced to accept that he is well and truly dead.
Into the breach stepped Celia, sending us a little bag of flakes that made everything better.
That little bag hailed all the way from Sydney, Australia and was a dehydrated portion of Celia’s own sourdough starter, Priscilla. It came with instructions on how to rehydrate and feed, and soon we had our own jar of bubbling sourdough starter ready to use.
Celia has been creating a family tree for Priscilla, who now has offspring all around the world. As per Celia’s request, I chose a suitably Drag Queen-esque name for Priscilla’s London daughter, creating a shortlist and asking for votes. Though I had a soft spot for several of the names including Kiki La Boule, Pussy Focaccia, and Honey Fougasse, there was a runaway winner – and so our new baby starter is proudly named Pussy Galoaf!
Already, Pussy has produced loaves of beautiful flavour, with a bubbly, aerated texture I love. Of course, Pussy can only take some of the credit, the rest belongs to Baker Pete.
The first dough was a little too wet. Pete let it rise and bake in the Lékué silicon bread maker, allowing me the honour of slashing the top, though it stuck as I sliced and then oozed back in on itself. The second dough was less sloppy and he used a regular shaped loaf mould and the same sharp knife to slash; it worked much better. But I still fancy the much deeper gash that Celia has shown us on some of her loaves.
The speckled crust (which I thought was a bit strange) is apparently not uncommon and Celia tells me that some bakers even covet it – who am I to argue?
The crust on both loaves was fabulously crisp, making a satisfying noise as Pete sawed through with a breadknife. I love sourdough toast, and these loaves make great toast. The sourdough was also perfect for my fried cheese and gherkin sandwich!
Thank you so much to Celia for sending us some of your precious Priscilla! Please accept this post as my entry to this month’s In My Kitchen!
Please leave a comment - I love hearing from you!58 Comments to "In My Kitchen | Daughter of Priscilla | Introducing Pussy Galoaf"
Delicious!!
Very!
What an idea, to dehydrate it and share it with a friend. 🙂 I need to get a starter going some day xx
It’s such a lovely idea. Sharing bread starters is a strong tradition in many parts of the world, I have heard of friendship cake being shared in similar way. So nice to be part of it and perhaps when Pussy Galoaf is older, we can share her onwards and create grandchildren of Priscilla!
I adore sourdough and always grab some on the rare occasions I shake off the family and go to a food market. Loving the name of your new starter… inspired!
Thanks Katie, it just felt like a good name, obviously somewhat Bond Girl inspired, but the drag queen version!
Oh my, that toastie looks PERFECT! *drool*
Thanks Emily, was awfully good!
It looks smashing, I must get Phylis, my starter, on the go again!
Yay, go Phylis!
I had absolutely no idea you could dehydrate a sourdough starter!! Great idea. And I love your speckled crust – who knew you could bake so well accidentally?! 😉
Not so much me as Pete, I must give credit where it’s due, I mostly just demand bread (or cake) and he obliges. In this case ably assisted by Pussy Galoaf!
Yay for Priscillas offspring and resulting loaves. They look divine.
Thanks Jennifer!
G’day Sorry for the loss of Levi, but seems Celia has kept the lineage of bread going for future generations and your bread looks so lovely, I can almost smell it too!
Thank you for this month’s IMK view also!
Cheers! Joanne
Thanks Joanne, yes Pussy Galoaf makes up for Levi’s passing, for sure!
It makes me laugh that Celia’s Priscilla is the matriach of a world wide sourdough starter clan. I’m sure she’s heading for world domination. That’s an impressive crust on your loaf.
Thank you Anne, I reckon in a few years time there may be as many offspring of Priscilla as there are sheep or bananas or rulers!
You so win the award for best named offspring of Priscilla.
Haa, thanks Nancy, I think it suits her… and hopefully an appropriate ode to her mother!
Lovely! Making real bread is the best thing anybody can do. Watch out though – it quite easily turns into an obsession 🙂
Like I haven’t got enough of those! 😉
Ah it’s funny. My sourdough is called Cleo, the ‘friendship’ bread and I have given it to loads of people, not sure how it’s survived but it’s still producing amazing bread over two years on. Happy to share some if you want a friend for Pussy Galoaf!
Thanks Fede, I’ll let you know, we don’t make bread more than once a week usually so might be hard to keep two starters running, though I know a lot of people have two or three they use in rotation!
The name of your starter is a hoot! Love it. It will be interesting to see the family tree…the yeast that has gone around the world.
Is the blue baker clay? Your bread looks delicious.
Hi Liz, the loaf tin shaped one? That’s a black (sorry weird lighting) silicone loaf “tin”, really easy to get cakes and bread out of but gives them shape, like metal loaf tin. 🙂
Celia is such an amazing person. it is quite incredible to read more and more sourdough posts started from Priscilla’s offspring. Yours look great.
She is and yes, there are so many! Such fun!
Fabulous to see another of Priscillas babies thriving 🙂
Thanks Elaine, siblings all over the globe!
ah what fabulous loaves! i too have a starter from Celia but have not yet activated it. i keep telling myself i will- just not yet. it is the responsibility that gets me:)) I don’t want to kill it. Happy loaving!
Don’t worry, give it a shot! Celia has kindly sent second baggies out where it’s not worked. x
So nice to see another descendant of Priscilla! Your loaves look lovely. We enjoyed our first loaf and I’m making another two bright and early tomorrow morning.
Hope they’re as lovely as Pussy Galoaf’s loaves! 🙂
Your bread looks great. Congratulations.
Thanks Glenda!
What a fabulous name for a starter!!! Her offspring look fantastic 🙂 Jan x
Thanks Jan!
Kavey, 007 fans everywhere can appreciate the humor in your Priscilla offspring’s name! (Looks like she’s living up to it, being totally tempting, captivating, and delicious.) 😉 My packet of starter just arrived today… duly named for a character from another movie — Gone With The Wind — “Prissy” — cuz… “I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ starters, Miz Celia!” Your post has inspired me to bake and SMILE. Thank you!
P.S. Thanks for the fab idea to make a fried cheese and gherkin sandwich… oh my!
Prissy, love it, and of course the Gone With The Wind reference! Fried cheese and gherkin toasted sandwich in sourdough is the bomb!
Pussy Galoaf – love it! I haven’t been game to make my own sourdough yet but your loaves are amazing.
Thank you Vicki!
I LOVE your starter’s name. It’s much better than Esmerelda Pissemeyer but there you go. Your bread is beautiful and now I want to go to the kitchen and fire old Essie up and have another go.
Aaw, thank you Maureen. Though I think Esmerelda Pissemeyer is fabulous! Go Essie!!
What perfect loaves and I know you will love your sourdough as mine is from the same mother 🙂
Thanks Tandy!
It’s quite amazing how Celia, via Priscilla is taking over the sourdough world! I took some packets of dried starter with me to Cape Town and spread the love there too! Your loaves have turned out brilliantly – I can almost hear the crackling of the crust – go Pussy G!! A fitting first time IMK post too!!
Thank you Selma, he’s she is definitely taking over the world!!!
Wonderful! I too have a daughter of Priscilla but although I’ve baked yeast bread I haven’t yet tried sour dough. Your loaf looks lovely, and the fried sandwiches… oh yum 🙂
Definitely get Priscilla’s daughter going, it’s so good! Thanks for visiting!
I love it! I too have some of Celia’s starter, but haven’t yet, er, started it. Soon! Welcome also to the IMK family
Together our sourdough family will take over the world! Get going with yours and thank you so much for the welcome!
Hmm, Priscilla is roaming around the globe. 😀 That bread is so beautiful. 🙂
Priscilla Roams — sequel to Queen of the Desert? 😉
pussy galoaf looks like she is doing you (and priscilla) proud – I must try the big long slash like celia – I always do a few smaller ones but my slashing is nothing like celia’s. I don’t have her starter but I have been using her overnight recipe a lot and it is brilliant
I think we might try the four slashes, like a square where each line extends past the corner… I’ve seen that on Celia’s and I think it might be a good bet for Pussy Galoaf too.
Sourdough, fried cheese and gherkin … that sounds so tasty!
We also recently killed a sourdough starter through neglect, our son, who still has the parent – fondly known as Gloopgloop – has promised us more.
Gloopgloop, love it!!!