July 18, 2005
Sourdough Starter #3
Quoting from the Sourdough FAQ:
To put it all together: Take 1/2 cup flour (preferably whole meal rye), mix to paste with 1/4 cup water in a 1 cup size container. Cover and leave for 24 hours at 70 – 80F. Throw away half of the mixture, and refresh with another 1/2 cup flour and 1/4 cup water, cover and leave for 24 hours as before. Repeat. By now, the starter should show bubbles. If using rye, start using regular white flour after the third or fourth feed. Now you have a starter which you keep alive indefinitely by regular feeding.
Why not? I actually have some rye flour in the fridge that is well past it’s prime for baking. I even have an unopened bottle of distilled water stored in the garage. Why I have the water, I don’t remember. Y2K maybe?
First problem. 1/4 cup of water is not even close to saturating a 1/2 C of rye flour into paste. I used equal amounts and I don’t think that is enough water but I’ll wait for while. I’ll need to buy some more rye flour tomorrow but that’s OK, fresh rye flour would be a fine reason to make pastrami in the smoker.
[Day 1] – Three mega marts and no rye flour to be found. I’m most pleased. I also have some old whole wheat flour which is supposed to be second choice to get a starter going so I replaced/refreshed with a mix of rye and whole whole wheat. I did a lot interent reading and this is the method used by those claiming to build their own starters. I didn’t see any bubbling in the starter but it’s early.
[Day 2] – We got a froth. I replaced half as instructed although I used white flour. The smell is interesting. Not unpleasant but different.
[Day 3] – No froth. This is a disappointment. I removed half, added the suggested amounts of whole wheat on the theory it might like that better.
[Day 4] – No froth. No hootch. There might have been some bubbles. Replaced half with whole wheat bread flour and water. As might be expected a lot of the smell from the rye is gone.
[Day 5] – It frothed overnight. Yay! Replaced half with whole wheat flour and water. Will start feeding (not replace) with white flour tomorrow and transfer to a larger container if it froths tonight.
[Day 6] – Replaced half with white flour. Decent smell.
[Day 7] – Added (not replaced) 1 cup of flour, and eyeballed amounts of water. Moved it all to a larger jar. It bubbled nicely so I used a half cup (half recipe) to make a sponge]
[Day 8] – Made bread
I tried the folding method of rising/kneading and I must have done something wrong. There was plenty of gas in there. After the second fold, the dough actually split open on the rise. I shaped as best I could but after the two hour final rise it has split in lots of places and it was still soft, too soft. So I reshaped it. It split again and it’s about out of poof (see below). I’ll bake to see what happens and to get a hint of the taste. I might let it rise even longer just to see what happens
I’m not sure yet what I did wrong. I only made a half recipe (1 loaf) and I have a suspicion that may be part of the problem. It was a dryer mix, too. Oh well, I can get a test in on the parchment and a higher oven and and and. There are things to like, It’s in the oven and after 6 hours of various rises, there are things to like.
It supports itselt in a boule shape with the caveats above even after (even after until I reshaped it and went for the unplanned triple rise .That suggests strength and forgivness. It’s one of most ugly loaves I’ve ever made.
Contrast that with the loaf I made the next day,
Same recipe. Same starter. The much larger loaf was kneaded by hand in the the traditional manner.
[8/5/05] The starters been in the fridge for half a week. I took it out yesterday and let it warm up. Removed a cup to make a sponge and fed the starter. I left the starter and the sponge on the counter overnight. Neither one appeared to have foamed up. They bubbled but they weren’t vigourous. Tossed the sponge, I may have mixed up my recipe reduction, too much water me thinks. I replaced a half cup of the starter. If it gets active, I’ll make another sponge. It smells very good, but there was no hootch layer after sitting for many days. I don’t know if thats a good thing or a bad thing.
[8/6/05] Made some half decent bread. I baked these on a sheet pan on top of the tile. 450, 30 minutes. Half of the “standard” 8 cup recipe (or 2 cups of flour) for each of the loaves below. Cut each in half, and it’s the right size for a big sandwich.
