sourdough bread
I've been talking about making sourdough bread for the entire fall now; just today I mixed up some flour and water and set it on top of the fridge to grow.
reasons sourdough is awesome (from sourdough at the wikipedia):
A sourdough starter is a stable symbiotic culture of yeast and lactobacteria ... growing in a paste of flour and water.
A flour-water mixture will tend to develop this symbiotic culture after repeated feedings. ... The culture is stable due to its ability to prevent colonization by other yeasts and bacteria as a result of its acidity and other anti-bacterial agents. As a result, many sourdough bread varieties tend to be relatively resistant to spoilage and mold.
the wikipedia also mentioned that the acidity of sourdough can cause the starch in flour to "partially gelatinize" which is maybe why the texture inside Borealis Breads' breads is smoother and less crumbly than my non-sourdough yeasted breads, but still tender.
the cookbooks I've looked at all say to mix 1 c flour and 1 c water and just let it sit for 3-5 days, then make bread with it (letting it rise for something like 12 hours!), but this guy sounds more trustworthy; he says to feed it daily for 3 days to more than a week, until it is lively (bubbly and frothy). I will be following his directions instead of the cookbooks'. also, some dude wrote about making sourdough (using that john guy's instructions) at kuro5hin. he said his starter took a very long time to grow strong enough to raise bread. he has some really useful stuff about how active it should be and the starter's growth pattern:
My starter, for example, sits pretty still for an hour after feeding. Then it starts to lift, gaining a little in the second hour, a lot in the third hour, and a lot in the fourth hour. At about hour five, it slows down, and just maintains for a couple more hours. Altogether, it increases in volume about 150% by hour five. At about eight hours, it has exhausted the food supply, and starts to fall. This information lets me get a good idea how long I'll have to let the bread dough rise for it to be fully risen (which is about four or five hours, and no more than eight).
(to figure out the starter's cycle, he put marks on the side of the starter's container.) he also mentions that making sourdough bread "requires a pretty stiff dough to hold its shape for the long rising process" because the yeasts eat gluten to produce CO2 and alcohol, and the alcohol makes the dough wetter.
contributing to the sourness of sourdough: "ash" of flour (mineral content). whole wheat has a higher mineral content. longer rise time (lower ambient temp or use less starter). obviously, reverse these for less sour sourdough. info from All About Sour at Sourdough Home, which also talks about nutrient availability and crazy Americans' need for MORE sour.
plan of action:
- 1 c water + 1 c flour, mix and put in a jar on top of the fridge
- feed every 24 hours by throwing some away and adding even ammounts of flour and water to the rest, stirring with a wooden utensil
- continue until it is bubbly and frothy, and can pretty much double its bulk in 5-10 hours.
- feed it so there's a bunch more starter.
- make bread using this recipe:
- 2 c. proofed starter + 2-3 c. flour + 2 tbsp olive oil + 2 tbsp honey + 2 tsp salt; knead 10 minutes, let rise until doubled (6-12 hours), bake at 375 for 30-45 minutes (making one large loaf).
- of course saving some starter and continuing to feed it, about once a week, as it lives in the back of my fridge.
