Any Home Bakers Here?

[SnapdragonQ]

GF people need to avoid many of the common foods/things one may not ever think of as containing gluten. From lunch meats, chips, and sauces, to vitamins, medications and some make ups. For a long time I could not even find safe whole chickens or a thanksgiving turkey that had not been injected with gluten containing salt solutions or broths, thus had to raise them myself for consumption.

If anyone is interested, the Mayo clinic and the Celiac DIsease Foundation have some easy reference lists-

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-...eating/in-depth/gluten-free-diet/art-20048530

https://celiac.org/gluten-free-living/what-is-gluten/sources-of-gluten/

 

[SnapdragonQ]

I mean, we want our starters to utilize the yeasts in the flours we use and what they grab from the air, so it stands to reason that an over abundance of those things all at once could have an impact. I dunno, I’m grabbing at straws here. I don’t think 74 degrees around your router is too high for starter, but what you don’t know is if that temperature has spiked and then gone back down.

My Govee tracks down to the minute (maybe even second) and it's linked to my phone. I checked and the slight cooling overnight (from 78 to 74.8) was very gradual.

The router does not have a fan, just stays a bit warm from being on. The jar was blocked from drafts too, but it's entirely possible the heater vents caused some stirring up of the air over there.
And grasp away, please, I like your line of thinking and troubleshooting!! The more environmental factors I can fix, or rule out, the better.

It’s just like raising chicks - seems the more we fuss and the more convenient aids we use to get the job done, the more issues we have.

Right?? (I'm a MHP convert)

Nuts.com.... I checked their site and flour production lines. Unfortunately there is cross contamination with nuts (and possible glutens).
Guess who's kiddo also has a nut allergy?

 

[Sally PB]

Guess who's kiddo also has a nut allergy?

Oh, wow, you have to watch for everything!

 

[SnapdragonQ]

Oh, wow, you have to watch for everything!

Yeah. It used to be very overwhelming.
There are more food allergies, along with a loooong list of environmental ones too, but over time I learned how to manage and got used to carrying epi-pens 24/7/365.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

So, what are ideal temps for building a SD?

I've read in multiple places that 72 to 76 is the most ideal and the general consensus is that people with cooler homes should use warmer water (like 75 degrees) and people in warmer homes (over 80 ) should use cooler water.

Could humidity be an issue?

In addition to being cooler this time of year, my home is also on the drier side with about 40% humidity. Perfect for incubating eggs before lockdown.
I have no mold issues anywhere in my home and static can be a huge problem in summer when the AC is on. (A/C generally acts as a dehumidifier)

 

[Marie2020]

Yum. I love a nice hearty veggie lentil soup.

I've just managed too eat, finally
It's been a very busy and productive day. There's is so much more to do but know how to get about it.

Chickens run perches and coop cleaned raised bed soil turned along with the compost bin. Now after eating I've been ready too sleep since an hour ago

 

[Marie2020]

So, what are ideal temps for building a SD?

I've read in multiple places that 72 to 76 is the most ideal and the general consensus is that people with cooler homes should use warmer water (like 75 degrees) and people in warmer homes (over 80 ) should use cooler water.

Could humidity be an issue?

In addition to being cooler this time of year, my home is also on the drier side with about 40% humidity. Perfect for incubating eggs before lockdown.
I have no mold issues anywhere in my home and static can be a huge problem in summer when the AC is on. (A/C generally acts as a dehumidifier)

I'm trying to keep my home as low as possible with regards the humidity but constantly have to use the dehumidifier

 

[Marie2020]

My Govee tracks down to the minute (maybe even second) and it's linked to my phone. I checked and the slight cooling overnight (from 78 to 74.8) was very gradual.

The router does not have a fan, just stays a bit warm from being on. The jar was blocked from drafts too, but it's entirely possible the heater vents caused some stirring up of the air over there.
And grasp away, please, I like your line of thinking and troubleshooting!! The more environmental factors I can fix, or rule out, the better.

Right?? (I'm a MHP convert)

My friend has the problem you have mentioned below...

Nuts.com.... I checked their site and flour production lines. Unfortunately there is cross contamination with nuts (and possible glutens).
Guess who's kiddo also has a nut allergy?

 

[SnapdragonQ]

They also aren’t fond of one side of the jar getting really warm and the other side not.

It always pays to re-read and I just caught that. Very good point!!

It could easily have been warmer on one side. The well defined mold spot was about the size around of a pencil eraser and almost dead center. Another spot was forming around the edge though.

Kept a regular thermometer nearby to the area since yesterday, about 8 inches away, and it hovers around 70. Perhaps that's a better spot.

I'm trying to keep my home as low as possible with regards the humidity but constantly have to use the dehumidifier

I used to have to keep one going at my last house in the basement. It was pretty damp and that would creep up through my old maple plank floors.
No basement here and the crawl space stays pretty dry, thankfully.

 

[ronott1]

Got home from Cody hours ago, but um, well, I kinda sorta forgot. I remember now, though!

Sylvia‘s No Knead Sourdough Bread

At night -
385 g water
90 g starter, stirred down
*note : for less sour taste, use 375 g water and 100 g starter just past peaking
Mix together well, set aside.

520 g bread flour (use 60 g rye flour as part of the 520 g if desired. I‘ve never desired)
2 tsp fine sea salt
Mix well to blend salt in

Add water/ starter mixture to flour and salt. Begin stirring with a fork until you can’t mix with with the fork anymore. Then switch to heavy wooden spoon and stir until all the flour is incorporated. (I use my Danish dough wisk and just skip the fork and wooden spoon. Love that thing!) THE DOUGH WILL BE VERY SHAGGY.

Cover with damp kitchen towel and let rest for 15 minutes. Wet hand, do several stretch and folds. Pull way up on an outside bit of dough, pull toward center of dough and push gently into dough center. Turn bowl slightly, repeat. You can feel the dough getting stiffer as you go. When the dough feels as stiff as you’re going to get it, re-cover and rest it for 15 minutes. Wet hand, repeat stretch and folds. You can do this once more if you want - I usually just do the two sets. Turn dough over, cover with damp kitchen towel, and set aside to rise for 10 hours, more or less, depending on room temperature. Go to bed.

Next morning check the dough. It should be smooth and have just a slight dome to the center. Do the poke test. Coat finger with flour, poke dough. If it indents and slowly rises back, it’s perfect. If it’s flat, runny, has lots of bubbles at the top, doesn’t spring back, or breaks, it’s overproofed. You can still continue but the dough will be hard to work with during the next stretch and folds. Bake anyway and turn into sourdough croutons. if it’s underproofed, it won’t stretch well during the next step. Let it proof longer.

Wet hands. Gently ease dough away from sides of the bowl. Run fingers of both hands under the dough and lift it up from the center about 1-2 feet above the bowl. Jiggle it a little bit as you return it to the bowl, folding it over on itself. Turn the bowl 1/4 turn, wait 30-60 seconds and repeat. Dough should feel stiffer. Cover with damp kitchen towel and rest it for 15 minutes, then repeat that set of stretch and folds. Cover and rest for 15 minutes. Wet hands again and do another set, but after the very last stretch, fold the dough into a well-oiled loaf pan instead of back into the bowl. You can gently stretch the dough to reach the short ends of the pan but I didn’t worry too much about that. Put the pan of dough in the fridge for an hour. You can actually leave it in up to 3 hours if that fits your schedule better, but I’ve found that an hour is perfect.

Preheat oven to 450 while you wait. Get it good and hot…if you want good oven spring you don’t want to just put the dough in the second the oven is preheated. Score the top. A wet scissors works well for that. Pop the bread in and bake for 15 minutes. (I confess that at this stage, I sat in front of the oven with the oven light on and watched oven spring happen right before my eyes. Now I have a better understanding of what was happening under that Dutch Oven lid all the times before when I baked it that way.

Reduce heat to 425 and bake for another 20ish minutes, or until internal temp of the bread is 204-208 degrees. Just like a pie crust, if you need to extend the time to reach that temp and the top seems to over-browning, cover with a loose tent of foil.

If it took as long to make this bread as it took me to type it out, I’d never make it again! I quite literally would have had the dough mixed, all the first set of stretch and folds done, and the bread covered for the night in the time it took me! I know you are an experienced sourdough baker, but I typed this out as if somebody had never made it before.

Thanks for the recipe!