Author Topic: Anyone to Share their Sourdough Starter with me please? (Read 31371 times)

goodlife · « **Reply #60 on:** March 30, 2012, 12:41:45 »

I was really inspired by the Hairy Bikers in Norway program and the 'jelly dough' bread that was featured in it.
I've got now VERY active white flour starter and just bought nice chunk of blue cheese and bottle of olive oil..and I'm going to make blue cheese flavoured 'jelly' bread... ;D ;D Can't wait..but that's weekend job.

irridium · « **Reply #61 on:** April 01, 2012, 14:49:54 »

just going thru' my first proof after 8hrs, do i need another one? when i uncovered it, it had started to dry/crackle on top forming a bit of a crust. is that to be expected? i've worked it back in, and now it's covered again (damp tea towel)

what do i do next? do i bake it? what temp. and for how long?

artichoke · « **Reply #62 on:** April 02, 2012, 18:13:08 »

I also finally have a couple of loaves rising slowly in two circular cake tins, and am not very clear how to cook them or when they are ready - this is all so different from my usual bread making.

Hoping Goodlife comes to our rescue, but if she is too busy, I plan to put a tray of water on the floor of my oven and heat it to maximum (gas, 8). I'll spray the loaves and oven with water as directed in http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/sourdough-loaf-recipe as recommended by BarriedaleNick.

and then I'll hope for the best and play it by ear.

I have started off another jug with the scrapings left over from using the starter, and it is already frothing away like mad! These things really are alive and demanding....I have14 family members staying over the next 10 days, so they can eat all the bread I can make, provided it is edible.

artichoke · « **Reply #63 on:** April 02, 2012, 18:14:22 »

I don't know what those sunglasses are doing there, I was trying to explain that my highest oven setting is gas mark 8......

goodlife · « **Reply #64 on:** April 02, 2012, 18:41:17 »

I'm here..
..and well done! Other than the starter bit..bake them as you would with 'normal' yeast. It is the rising bit that takes muuuch longer and feel different so shove it into oven once they size is as you like them..they won't rise much in oven anymore so take your time to get it right before oven.
I don't use any steam when I bake mine..but if thats what you have used to do it will be fine.

BarriedaleNick · « **Reply #65 on:** April 02, 2012, 20:13:38 »

I always oil my dough before rising - sourdough takes a while and it can dry out - just paint it on with a pastry brush..
I also invested in two things that have made my bread making so much better.

1 - A proving basket - http://bakerybits.co.uk/1kg-22lb-Round-Cane-Banneton-P388376.aspx

Helps with getting a great shape before a bake

2 - A baking cloche - http://bakerybits.co.uk/La-Cloche-Baking-Dome-P2026497.aspx

Traps the steam and creates nice even temp - get an excellent oven rise.

Not cheap but they will last for years (hopefully)

artichoke · « **Reply #66 on:** April 02, 2012, 22:16:08 »

I love the idea of the cloche and the proving basket but will wait and see how these loaves go down. Have taken a note for future birthday presents......

My two loaves have roughly doubled in size during the day, but having been out all evening I am hoping to cook them first thing in the morning.

I love the slashed look......do you slash them while they are on their final rise, or just before you put them in the oven, anyone?

I must say, it seems like magic to catch yeast out of thin air and make it do useful things.

goodlife · « **Reply #67 on:** April 02, 2012, 22:23:45 »

I cover my rising breads with sprinkle of flour or bran to stop tea tower from sticking to the dough...as for the slashing..I do mine just before shoving the loaves into oven.
If you loaves should rise too early for you time table or you want to slow them down..put them into cool place and they will happily sit and wait until you and your oven are ready.. ;)

There you see..there is as many ways of making sourdough bread as there is bakers.. ;D You just have to trial to find what is best for you...mmm..all that yummy bread while you are finding the secrets of the 'perfect bread'.

jesssands · « **Reply #68 on:** April 03, 2012, 00:26:44 »

My starter is 2 weeks old now and i am going away for a couple if days. do you think it would be ok to keep it in the fridge and resume the feeding when i get back?

goodlife · « **Reply #69 on:** April 03, 2012, 07:20:56 »

Yes..give it a generous amount of 'food' and put it in coldest part of the fridge..that way it is sluggish and slow to 'digest' the available 'fresh' flour...two weeks should not be a problem.

artichoke · « **Reply #70 on:** April 03, 2012, 09:32:34 »

I am absolutely thrilled with my two fat round loaves! They don't look as beautiful as BarriedaleNick's, and the slashes did not dramatically widen to show contrasts in colour, as I had hoped.....but they are spongy, springy, chewy, delicious and extremely satisfying, and OH agrees, with some surprise.

He has noticed me peering anxiously into jugs and bowls and generally making a song and dance about the whole thing over the last - can it really be three weeks??!? - but in future I hope I can just calmly make the weekly bread just as before, but with the wild yeasts and a longer final rise. And a bit of guesswork about the amount of salt to put in.

There will be 4 ravenous teenagers, three younger children and assorted parents and friends staying here over the next ten days, and I am hoping to stop them in their tracks with slabs of bread and cheese if they are still hungry before or after meals. My normal bread is not normally very popular with the younger ones, but I think this will go down well.

Thank you very much indeed, Goodlife, for explaining everything so patiently - and to others for their contributions on this interesting journey.

antipodes · « **Reply #71 on:** April 03, 2012, 11:14:49 »

Wonderful looking bread Nick!
I cheat - do the dough in the bread machine (just not a vigourous kneader I am afraid) then I prove it outside and bake in the oven. My bread making has come on leaps and bounds since I started using my own yeast starter and just a little commercial yeast in the mix and since I started "bonding with the dough" - looking at it carefully, as it was being kneaded and poking it and adding a little flour or water until the dough has the perfect look and feel.
Also I have found that to shape the bread, best way is not to flour your hands but to wet them or oil them. Dough doesn't stick to your hands and result seems better.
I made olive and parmesan bread on the weekend that went down a treat.

goodlife · « **Reply #72 on:** April 03, 2012, 11:21:54 »

I made some blue cheese, olive oil and black peppercorn loaves last weekend...ohhh..they were so moreish. But they almost a memory now..didn't last long..just a slice now and then..and they've soon dissapeared.
I'm terrible with exact recipes..having difficulty following them when it is to do with bread. My bread making is 'bit of this and that' and by the 'feel' too.

Next lot I'm going to treat myself for olive and rosemary loaf and hubby can have some sun dried tomatoes in his.
Roll on next weekend when I have for baking again..

jesssands · « **Reply #73 on:** April 04, 2012, 01:06:16 »

Thanks goodlife for advice. will do what you say and see if its still alive when i get back!!!

artichoke · « **Reply #74 on:** April 05, 2012, 09:35:29 »

Goodlife, my visiting German family are scoffing my sourdough as I write - it's like the sort of bread they are used to. On the same table are three loaves of white sourdough bread proving, and a rampant teenage jug of bubbling yeast.

However one of them, my daughter, needs gluten free bread, and I have bought her a small loaf for £3! She loves it, and is going to take a loaf home with her. She is starved of bread and misses it very much. She has tried making her own gluten free bread and it was a hard and tasteless disaster.

With all your experience in bread making, have you made gluten free bread? Have you any advice about how to go about it? I would love to try it while she is here over the next 9 days, so that we can experiment together and she can go on making it when she goes back to Germany (she has always made most of her family's bread with normal yeast).

goodlife · « **Reply #75 on:** April 05, 2012, 09:50:26 »

I'm afraid I can't help you with glutein free bread...BUT...If I were to make some..I would buy some glutein free flour..take the recipe from that and combine it with mash potato.
See Hairy Bikers Potato bread recipe in BBC...potato makes bread nice and moist and it does bind incredients together nicely. I suspect glutein free bread can be bit crumbly.
I've made soft flat bread before that are glutein free...but they are not 'bready' as such.

I'm having to go to work now..but if you get the glutein free flour..I'm back in few hours..I've got the potato bread recipe and if you feel like. We could plan recipe together for you.. ;)

artichoke · « **Reply #76 on:** April 05, 2012, 12:22:17 »

Thank you! The bakers next door sell buckwheat flour and something that keeps turning up in recipes called xanthum gum, so I shall be experimenting quite soon. I hadn't thought of potato, sounds good.

By the way, to anyone looking to use their sour dough in different ways: I often make pitta bread by rolling out ordinary dough in flour, and dry frying it until it puffs up and becomes hollow inside.

I wondered this morning if white sour dough would work like this, and found it does..... It takes just a few minutes per large pitta, and can then be cut open and filled with salads, meats, cheese, hummus, whatever.

antipodes · « **Reply #77 on:** April 05, 2012, 13:17:51 »

You started me looking at gluten free ideas, have you come across this site? The original is http://www.thebakingbeauties.blogspot.fr (there are many archoived recipes including for bread) but they have now moved to www.thebakingbeauties.com

This page seemd interesting for you:
http://www.thebakingbeauties.blogspot.fr/p/flour-flour-blend-information.html
And the recipes do look appetising, like http://thebakingbeauties.blogspot.fr/2009/02/another-wonderful-gluten-free-sandwich.html
They are recommended by Dan Lepard from teh Guardian and his cooking is out of this world, I love his recipes, so it would seem to be a pretty good recommendation to me! can't see why you couldn't use sourdough yeast but it would need to have been started with a gluten free substance, I guess????

goodlife · « **Reply #78 on:** April 05, 2012, 14:20:14 »

Hmm..as far as I know..buckwheat is not glutein free so if your daugter is very sensitive to glutein..even reduced amounts of glutein will make her 'ill'. I came across this recipe..
http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/2787/gluten-free-loaf.aspx

There is already potato flour in the recipe..but potato flour itself don't give any flavour to the bread it just binds the other incredient together.
You could go to any supermarket and buy 'glutein free bread flour mix'.
The hairy bikers recipe for potato bread is not G free but could be easily 'tampered' to suit your purpose.
Basically..peel and boil few potatoes until soft..drain and mash with small thingy of butter and let it cool down. I would prepare 1 large (fist size) potato for amount of dry incredients stated for 2 loaves. It is only to add 'flavour and moisture' not as 'main incredient'. In 'normal' bread there is used more.
If you use 'ready mix' flour..make the recipe as the packet says and add some of the potato to the dough..you might have to adjust for the moisture from the potatoes by adding extra 'flour'.
If you look at the recipe above..it uses yeast as well to give some 'flavour'. If there is non in the 'ready mix'..you could add touch to make it taste more bread like and you propably need to add touch of b.c.soda as well because of the mash.
I think it might be easiest to practise with 'ready mix' first..and if you are successful with the results..then you can carry on by adding some other incredients for flavour...onion seeds..touch of parmesan..etc... ;)
I think making glutein free bread is almost more like cake making as you don't really knead it to the 'death' as you do 'normal' bread.
I hope this is help for you..It is how I would aproach making glutein free bread..more of achemy and quess work than following a recipe..

artichoke · « **Reply #79 on:** April 05, 2012, 16:47:47 »

Thanks to both of you. Much food for thought there. I'll let you know what we try in the end and how it turned out.....

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Author Topic: Anyone to Share their Sourdough Starter with me please? (Read 31371 times)