Messin' With Sourdough

[ness]

I had to Google Scentsy and plentyoffish. I feel so fortunate.

[ness]

On 10/6/2014 at 1:46 PM, ness said:

I bought a dried sourdough culture a few weeks back. It's supposed to be from Camadoli, Italy and passed down for generations. 

Got to wondering when I started this current sourdough culture. Figured I might have yakked about it on here and turns out I did 😄

Been feeding it regularly since then. Ideally it’s weekly but that doesn’t always happen. Dump out about half, add about 3-4 tablespoons unbleached flour and about the same amount of distilled or bottled water. Leave it on the counter for a couple hours covered then into the fridge where it slows down and goes almost dormant. Repeat in a week (or two or three). 

If it goes too long between feedings the yeast will use up the nutrients in the flour and create alcohol. No worries though. It’s a grayish liquid on top. I just pour it off but some sources say stir it back in. 

When you’re going to use it take it out and do the feeding process twice daily for a few days to wake it up and get it going good. Then, keep feeding it without discarding to build up to the volume required by the recipe plus enough left over to continue the culture. That’s what I’ve been doing the last few days. It’s going  pretty good now. 

 

Gonna ship some off to you @BilletHeadand then make something. Not sure what yet. 

[BilletHead]

30 minutes ago, ness said:

Got to wondering when I started this current sourdough culture. Figured I might have yakked about it on here and turns out I did 😄

Been feeding it regularly since then. Ideally it’s weekly but that doesn’t always happen. Dump out about half, add about 3-4 tablespoons unbleached flour and about the same amount of distilled or bottled water. Leave it on the counter for a couple hours covered then into the fridge where it slows down and goes almost dormant. Repeat in a week (or two or three). 

If it goes too long between feedings the yeast will use up the nutrients in the flour and create alcohol. No worries though. It’s a grayish liquid on top. I just pour it off but some sources say stir it back in. 

When you’re going to use it take it out and do the feeding process twice daily for a few days to wake it up and get it going good. Then, keep feeding it without discarding to build up to the volume required by the recipe plus enough left over to continue the culture. That’s what I’ve been doing the last few days. It’s going  pretty good now. 

 

Gonna ship some off to you @BilletHeadand then make something. Not sure what yet. 

                Thanks my friend!

[bfishn]

Last time I'm going to suggest it. Pancakes! If they aren't the best cakes you ever ate, I'll meet my cat. Hot, runny, brown sugar syrup.

[fishinwrench]

3 hours ago, ness said:

Got to wondering when I started this current sourdough culture. Figured I might have yakked about it on here and turns out I did 😄

Been feeding it regularly since then. Ideally it’s weekly but that doesn’t always happen. Dump out about half, add about 3-4 tablespoons unbleached flour and about the same amount of distilled or bottled water. Leave it on the counter for a couple hours covered then into the fridge where it slows down and goes almost dormant. Repeat in a week (or two or three). 

If it goes too long between feedings the yeast will use up the nutrients in the flour and create alcohol. No worries though. It’s a grayish liquid on top. I just pour it off but some sources say stir it back in. 

When you’re going to use it take it out and do the feeding process twice daily for a few days to wake it up and get it going good. Then, keep feeding it without discarding to build up to the volume required by the recipe plus enough left over to continue the culture. That’s what I’ve been doing the last few days. It’s going  pretty good now. 

 

Gonna ship some off to you @BilletHeadand then make something. Not sure what yet. 

I'd be afraid to sleep in the same house as that.   

Remember The Blob ? 😳

[ness]

On 3/29/2020 at 6:47 PM, bfishn said:

Last time I'm going to suggest it. Pancakes! If they aren't the best cakes you ever ate, I'll meet my cat. Hot, runny, brown sugar syrup.

Hah, missed this latest post but jut reread this whole thread and see the original post and now this. Never did try it. Not that I don’t believe you but I always use my Grandma Vi’s pancake recipe and can't bring myself to change. 😄 With all this time at home I may be more adventurous. 

[ness]

Alright, got things fired up and did a couple sourdough French loaves. Got the culture active the last couple days and then last night I got the dough going for an overnight rise. 

This morning, transferred it to the oven set on 'bread proof' (around 85 degrees), covered it with plastic wrap and let it proof for 2 hours. This warmer second rise helps develop the sourness as well as creating lift. 

After that I carefully formed two French loaves and placed them onto parchment paper on a French loaf pan and covered them with plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray.  Then back into the oven to proof further.

In my experience, sourdough isn't really good at following the clock. This third rise is supposed to be 2-3 hours, but by about an hour and 45 minutes I could see it  had risen quite a bit, had some good bubbles and was petering out. I know from experience that if you let it keep going it can deflate and get dense, so I moved forward. 

I removed the plastic wrap, carefully slashed the tops of the loaves (don't want to do anything to deflate it -- it's pretty fragile). Placed a loaf pan with about ½ cup water in the bottom of the oven, returned the loaves to the oven in the pan and turned the oven up to 450. 

At 45 minutes I checked the internal temp and it was around 200 (want about 210). I cranked the oven up to 500 (wanted more browning) and put the loaves back in for 5 minutes. 

Very happy with these results. Nice chewy crust, good texture with some decent air holes, good flavor. Just the right amount of sour, which is kinda why I go to the extra effort. 

So, sourdough isn't that much harder than regular bread. Maintaining the culture isn't anything more than stirring in some flour and  bottled or distilled water (no chlorine) once a week and storing it in the fridge. The bread-making process isn't much different -- just takes longer because sourdough yeast isn't as strong as commercial yeast. No more steps, just longer waits in between. 

 

[tjm]

I kept a sourdough going for 8-10 years once, never made loaves, but flapjacks almost every day and biscuits every so often.  I never found it any harder to get good results than with any other baking. I did insist on hard wheat flour rather than the common all purpose stuff. Kept two cultures going always, one of starter and one working for next use. I've started several since then but haven't kept any going more than a couple months, I always used wild yeast as a start and they vary some as to outcome.

ness, try a second batch of starter (so you don't kill the existing one) using your tap water after boiling it 10 minutes and cooling, we had terribly strong chlorine in the water where we were back then and I don't recall ever even seeing bottled water at that time. I kept my sourdough going with the city water boiled and cooled.

[ness]

21 hours ago, tjm said:

ness, try a second batch of starter (so you don't kill the existing one) using your tap water after boiling it 10 minutes and cooling, we had terribly strong chlorine in the water where we were back then and I don't recall ever even seeing bottled water at that time. I kept my sourdough going with the city water boiled and cooled.

 

I've seen the topic discussed before in sourdough circles, and I remember there being some talk about certain municipalities using a different form of chlorine that doesn't evaporate as easily. Anyhoo -- Thanks for the idea. I think this falls into the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' category. I'm really happy with the results. 

[tjm]

Yes chloramines are harder to get rid of, why I said "try". I only mentioned it because the bottled water is scarce in this area, and it has worked for me.

I've never really been aware that there were sourdough circles and such discussions.