Author Topic: Sourdough  (Read 4410 times)

Pescador

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Sourdough
« on: February 03, 2017, 16:43:51 »
 Started a Sourdough starter on Tuesday, as I love the bread. I've never tried it before but it looks to be going well, bubbly away happily after 3 days. Hope to be able to do a bake early next week!
Anyone else tried it?
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tricia

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2017, 18:16:16 »
I'm an addict Pescador :icon_cheers:. My starter will celebrate its first birthday next month by which time I will have baked 50 loaves  :happy7:. It has become a Friday evening ritual to prepare the dough, leaving it to rise overnight ready for baking on Saturday morning.

I followed The Clever Carrot  sourdough blog by Emilie for detailed information on 'how to' for a while, but it soon became an easy habit for me to follow each week.

My loaf gets sliced and frozen - after first enjoying the crusty ends slathered in butter  :tongue3: - living alone it lasts me a week.

Tricia

squeezyjohn

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2017, 18:24:07 »
It's amazing stuff!  And yes the crust is the best bit!

It really does help give an amazing crust if you spray it with water from a spray bottle every few minutes for the first ten minutes or so of the bake (in a really hot oven) ... a pan of water under the loaf also helps develop the crust. 

Sourdough is supposed to be baked hard, and can often end up with a formidable hard crust.  If you wrap it in a clean tea towel as soon as it comes out of the oven for 10 minutes the steam will soften the crust a little ... then continue on a wire rack as usual.

Debs

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #3 on: February 14, 2017, 20:23:45 »
I started my very first 'starter' on Sunday 5 Feb but not baked with it yet.
Not sure if it'll turn out as forgot to feed it one day  :BangHead:

Going to try it and see what happens ...

Debs  :icon_flower:

gazza1960

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2017, 08:33:20 »
blimey makes me hungry just reading this thread,i got told to ease off on the bread consumption so my breadmaker has become a kitchen ornament
but your post has made we want some therapy even if just to make a loaf or two by hand...........

Gazza

tricia

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2017, 12:06:10 »
Gazza, would you like me to send you some of my year old starter? I'm too tight to always discard some when feeding it each week, seems such a shame :tongue3:, so I now have two jars on the go!

Made sourdough waffles yesterday, ate one and froze 7 :happy7: .

Tricia :wave:

okra

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #6 on: February 15, 2017, 12:50:21 »
Ours celebrated its 2nd birthday in December makes delicious bread
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Debs

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2017, 21:45:44 »
My sourdough was like a house brick 😳
Crust was ok but inside doughy and loaf was heavy.
I threw starter out, so need to start again from scratch

Can someone give me some simple instructions ??

Debs

squeezyjohn

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #8 on: February 20, 2017, 22:24:23 »
Yes - 1. mix together 3 tablespoons of water with ½ cup of flour (wholemeal or spelt/rye best) ... knead to a firm dough and leave in a warm place for 2 days (open to the elements, not covered)

2. Pull off the hardened crust and discard it.  Beat the doughey centre with 4 tablespoons of warm water until you get a smooth batter and then mix in ¾ cup of the same flour as before. Knead the dough and leave covered for 1 day.

3. If there is a crust on the dough discard it again.  Mix with ½ cup warm water and beat until you get a batter consistency then mix in 1 cup white bread flour and ¼ cup of wholemeal/spelt/rye ... knead and leave for about 10 hours.

4. Finally beat in ¾ cup of water to make the dough runny again and mix in 3 cups white bread flour and 2 teaspoons of salt.  This is your actual first loaf mixture.  Knead well until smooth and elastic.  Rise the dough in a warm place for several hours, then take off your next starter and set it aside (about a good hanful of dough) DON'T FORGET THAT PART!

5. Prove the rest of the dough in whatever shape you like, it's traditional to use a floured basket to shape the loaf.  Do this for an hour or so.  slash to top of the loaf and bake the at a crazy high temperature (the highest my oven will go to) but do it with a dish of water in the bottom of the oven and spray the loaf every few minutes for the first 10 minutes of baking using a spray bottle.  Bake until a dark golden brown and test for a hollow sound by knocking the base.

6. Cool on a wire rack, but wrap in a tea towel for the first 10 minutes of cooling if you want a softer crust, don't forget to take the tea towel off afterwards though.

You will only know if your starter has worked now if the dough has risen properly and there are no off flavours.  When you make the next loaf you only have to use your starter in place of the dough and go to step 4.  Even if it doesn't work brilliantly the first time it's worth going round a 2nd and 3rd cycle ... the starter will improve and develop before settling down and the first few loaves can be a bit variable.




squeezyjohn

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #9 on: February 20, 2017, 22:26:33 »
Most home-made sourdough is a bit denser than the shop bought stuff by the way.  If it is a bit dense, you can still toast it sliced thinly and use more like a crispbread.  Try making the next batch with slightly more water in the final dough ... a wetter dough will rise better.

Beersmith

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #10 on: February 20, 2017, 23:49:36 »
I love sourdough and bread generally but Mrs Beersmith is the expert.  About the only thing I've learned is that if the starter gets a bit sluggish, a few feeds with a bit more rye seems to revive it a treat. She sometimes uses a no kneading method that produces a brilliant loaf. If you like (please excuse the word) "artisan" bread it is worth exploring. Needs a long slow rise to develop the gluten but also develops a great flavour. Thank goodness I'm not gluten sensitive.
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strawberry1

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #11 on: February 21, 2017, 14:26:41 »
my present starter is 14 years old. People can be precious about starters and I mean on the bread sites, not here. I can put mine in the fridge, feed it when I remember, let it go to sleep and then I awaken it over a few days. First by rinsing with warm water and then adding flour. 00 flour gives a very fast activation, must faster than strong bread flour. I also have a rye starter. I only bake for myself now, so I have changed my basicrecipe to this one
http://www.countryfile.com/explore-countryside/food-and-farming/how-bake-sourdough-loaf

I get a perfectly sized  loaf this way, so easy as I just stretch and fold the wet dough in the bowl, I use a plastic dough scraper to do it. I flour my banetton with rye flour and I drop the proofed dough on my thoroughly heated cloche. The last stretch is the one that makes the skin and it goes in the banetton smooth face down. I slash as soon as it is on the cloche base and always get a fantastic split with curly browner edges. Lots of crumb holes too.  A dutch oven also gives a great result. I like my crust to be softer so I wrap the hot bread in a clean t towel to cool. I put a few slices in the freezer and the rest keeps about 5 days in a small bread bin

Bakery bits has all the gear

My last starter was over 18, many years ago, I forgot to save some, alas

Enjoy the journey, I crave my sourdough when I haven`t any left
« Last Edit: February 21, 2017, 14:29:29 by strawberry1 »

Debs

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #12 on: March 13, 2017, 22:56:47 »
I have managed to successfully produce a good sourdough loaf - thanks to Tricia, who kindly sent me some of her starter. The resulting loaf was very tasty and I will definitely be making more!! x

Duke Ellington

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #13 on: April 17, 2017, 18:58:50 »
I tried to make sourdough a few years ago and I was really pleased with the result...


But I was never able to make it again. Something always went wrong with the making and using the subsequent starter. Sometimes my starter went mouldy and I had to throw it away🙁
Would love to have another go one day

Duke
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Debs

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #14 on: May 14, 2017, 22:13:34 »
Sourdough update...

I've definitely got the sourdough baking bug!!

Have made about 8 loaves since getting Tricia's starter - can't keep up with family demands !!

Never buying processed packaged bread again 😷

Debs  :icon_flower:

tricia

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #15 on: May 14, 2017, 22:40:53 »
Wonderful Debs :icon_cheers:. I've been wondering if you managed to keep my starter alive!

I don't buy bread either - not since I made my first sourdough loaf well over a year ago. For my
standard recipe I use Lidl bread flour and their cheap still bottled water. Never fails :happy7:.

Tricia :wave:
« Last Edit: May 14, 2017, 22:43:50 by tricia »

Vinlander

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #16 on: June 10, 2017, 11:29:19 »
I left a sourdough batch much too long in warm weather and the resulting loaf was really cheesy.

Rather than chuck it I turned it into breadcrumbs and froze it.

Just tried making a very quick-bake normal flour loaf with about 150g of sour breadcrumbs acting as 80g of flour and 70g of water.

The result was a tasty hybrid. I will have a few more tries before I deliberately create extra-sour again - but I think I like it.

I realise I broke all the "muck and magic" rules here - I even used a breadmaker for the heretical hybrid - but what works, works.

After all the 3 most important things about choosing a pub are 1) the taste of the beer, 2) the taste of the beer, and of course 3) the taste of the beer.

I'm normally sceptical about pure convenience but it has its place.

Cheers.

With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

strawberry1

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #17 on: July 17, 2017, 06:55:48 »
my current starter is 14 years old, my last was 18 but I forgot to leave a portion out and that was that. I sometimes leave it alone in the fridge for weeks, it is very easy to manage. I actually fed it three days ago and will revitalise soon, once I have freezer space as I am on my own and have to slice and freeze. There is so much `preciousness` about sd but its very uncomplicated and easy, just a wet dough containing salt and thats it. I fold and stretch with a bread scraper and bake in either my oven on conventional with steam or best in a la cloche dome. I heat the dome, use a paddle and banneton and get a `whoosh` from the max oven heat to start. Try proofing overnight in the fridge, you get even tastier bread
« Last Edit: July 17, 2017, 06:57:37 by strawberry1 »

Plot 18

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Re: Sourdough
« Reply #18 on: July 17, 2017, 10:36:02 »
I don't make a conventional sourdough anymore. The local wild yeast makes a starter that is very smelly and the bread wasn't much to my taste either :( Nowadays I make a Biga with a little yeast 12-24 hours before I want to bake. Not quite as 'sour' but still very good.

I've been experimenting with Durum Wheat flour to make some Italian style bread. The last effort was a lovely golden colour and very tasty, but wasn't the nice holey texture I was aiming for. Oh well, it still makes lovely toast, so not wasted :D
More experimenting needed methinks!

 

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