Sour Dough Bread... an adventure.

[Scoop]

Quote:
The recipe I used calls for letting it rise for about 8 - 12 hours on the first rise, then 8-10 (basically overnight, which is what I did). It's true that the longer you let it rise the more intense the flavor. I never use rapid rise yeast in any bread. But anyway, it was pretty cool waking up and putting my bread in the oven right away. Made the house smell incredible! I don't think I'd ever have to use air freshener!

Maybe I shouldn't say I'd never ever use rapid rise yeast because I did see that a couple of places were sold out of regular yeast yesterday so must be lots of people baking their own bread! I love the fact that I no longer need to worry about having yeast on hand to make bread as long as I have starter in the refrigerator.

al6517 - I like the idea of adding a small chunk of bread to the starter. Gotta try it!

 

[vfem]

I prefer fresh baked bread or cookies over some pine ANYDAY! LOL

 

[alabama49]

Scoop-would you mind sharing the your recipe for the bread that you let rise overnight? I use to make a bread years & years ago that you let rise during the day while you are at work, then you did something else to it (can't remember that part either) when you got home from work and then let it rise in the frig overnight, then you baked it the next morning so you had fresh bread for taking to work. It was like a 2 or 3 day process and was called something like the "Working Womans Homemade Bread". I can't find my recipe--was hoping yours might be it or close to it!!

 

[bigmike&nan]

I got my 100 year old Alaska Sourdough Bread starter in the mail Saturday - and now that things are quiet here Monday I opened the package - it's surprising that what you get is only a tablespoon of dried up stuff that looks sorta of like yeast. But in reading the literature the seller states you can take a well developed starter and spread it out thin on a sheet of parchment paper and let dry - then break into bits and puree in a blender and store in the freezer for long term use. This is a good thing for me right now because every day for 2 weeks I've been baking bread or rolls. I have taken care of a lot of birthday presents and given rolls to a special needs person my wife and I know. He follows my daily cooking adventures on Facebook (join by sending a Friends request to: [email protected]). We still have a freezer filled with different types of rolls. LOL.

So I mixed the 100 year old starter powder with 1 tablespoon of water and once it had rested about 10 minutes I added 1 tablespoon bread flour. You repeat this process for about a week and then up the daily additions to 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup water - after a couple days you will have enough bulk to start using some of the starter for baking. Once I get that starter up to that point I will dry out my own homemade starter on parchment and freeze it. My starter has a real nice smell to it - reminds me of a winemaking friend of mine in Woodside, Cronin Vineyards. He'd enlist his friends to help with the harvest, crushing, racking and bottling - the smell of the grape/juice fermenting is very like this sourdough starter.

This is a video I have shared before - for making a ciabatta bread - you simply use your starter in place of his sponge and over the course of a day or so letter fold and flip, letter fold the other way, then letter fold and flip like he does. Now he's making baguettes in this video but you could easily do the fold and flip for any style loaf. Fold and filp - let it rest a few hours until it's grown and repeat. I still need to get the nice storage box he stores and folds his dough in - you'll see it at about 1 minute 20 seconds into the clip

 

[vfem]

Thank you Mike! I enjoyed all those man's videos actually. I ended up watching quite a few last time.

I did read on another website about drying on the parchment and storing the starter in the freezer! I will for sure being doing this as soon as I get time

Now my last batch of sour dough came out AMAZING! The crust was perfect this time, and I did rolls... so I have turkey burgers on them. My husband was over the moon, and totally changed his attitude towards sour dough. I think we're getting along better even. We may not agree on everything, but I sure do try to make it where we agree on food!

 

[bigmike&nan]

Quote:
Great progress for you, cudos.
It's never easy to agree on everything with the spouse - I know. I love my wife and we drive each other crazy at times because we do everyday stuff differently in the house. BUT I couldn't live a day without her.

 

[Scoop]

Quote:
Hmmm... I'd love to see that recipe! Let me know if you find it!
Here's the recipe I used:

Sourdough Bread Starter:
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbl. instant potato flakes

Mix. Let stand 3 tp 5 days in refrigerator. Let stand out the day of breadmaking.

Feeding sourdough starter:
Put one cup of staarter in refrigerator, always uncovered, for 3 days. Then take it out and feed it with the following:
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbl. instant potato flakes
1 cup warm water
Mix well. Let stand on counter for 8 - 12 hours, uncovered. Pour off 1 cup and return the rest to refrigerator. Keep in refrigerator for 3 - 5 days and feed again. Use 1 cup of starter to make more bread or give to a friend.

Sourdough Bread:
6 cups bread flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbl. salt
1 cup sourdough strter
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cup warm water ( I used milk)

Sift together dry ingredients. Mix all in large bowl. Grease another bowl. Put dough in greased bowl, turning once to grease all sides. Cover lightly with waxed paper and let stand 8 - 12 hours. Punch down and knead 8 - 10 times. Place in greased loaf pans. Brush with oil if desired. Cover again with paper, let rise 8 - 10 hours. Bake at 350* for 30 to 40 minuts or until brown. Remove and brush with melted butter. May be frozen.

I didn't brush mine with oil or butter but I wish I would have. Here's what I got:

And today my starter is looking good! Will be baking bread towards end of the week!

By the way, I didn't like the hoagie rolls I made, they were too big and I didn't like the texture for a hoagie roll, but the bread was great!

 

[vfem]

I am feeding my starter today, for a batch to do tomorrow!

 

[vfem]

Quote:
Kim, I found some rye flour at Harris Teeter on sunday. It was $5 for #5!

But it was the ONLY place that had any.

I got it anyways.

 

[Kim_NC]

Ouch! I didn't get to an HT as planned over the weekend. Maybe this weekend.