Guest guest Posted August 15, 2006 Report Share Posted August 15, 2006 Anyone here who bakes sourdough? I am trying it for the first time this last week - have three 'bricks' (my dh is saving them for landfill) so far, but this next time . .. . LOL I would like to hear from anyone who has special tips. Actually, I'd like to hear from anyone who has tried it at all! Best love, Pat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 15, 2006 Report Share Posted August 15, 2006 Yes, Pat. I tried! The birds loved it. sue ---- Patricia Sant 08/15/06 16:24:56 OT: Baking Sourdough Bread Anyone here who bakes sourdough? I am trying it for the first time this last week - have three 'bricks' (my dh is saving them for landfill) so far, but this next time . . . LOL I would like to hear from anyone who has special tips. Actually, I'd like to hear from anyone who has tried it at all! Best love, Pat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 16, 2006 Report Share Posted August 16, 2006 I use a sourdough starter. I use it alone just for making biscuits or pancakes. If I make bread, I also use yeast. So my sourdough is more for the flavor, not to make the bread rise. I only bake bread which is kneaded in my bread machine--I let the machine do the kneading part. It's much easier on the wrists that way. What I'm saying is that I don't have a lot of experience baking bread with just sourdough. However, I have some books and pamphlets which give some advice (sometimes contradictory advice), so maybe with those in hand we could figure out what went wrong. Maybe you could tell us what you did. Did you leave the part of the starter that you were using at room temp. for 8-12 hours? Did you make all whole wheat bread? Whole wheat is something I find so difficult to work with successfully. So I'd love some help with that myself. I'd be happy to share the bread recipe that I've used before I got the machine. It's for white bread, but you probably could go half and half with white and whole wheat flour. Hilary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 16, 2006 Report Share Posted August 16, 2006 Just a small bit of information on sourdough and sourdough starters. These old fashioned live yeast starters will give you lots of trouble if you do not keep this as an active living yeastbatch that is WELL FED.. Starters will keep refrigerated but they rapidly lose the punch need to make a good dough rise from scratch unaided. I had the pleasure many years ago of knowing a old miner who also worked seasonal jobs as a provision-er to the sheep camps in the mountains of California. He explained that the sourdough starter was kept in a floured cloth bag inside the top of a flour sack when not needed to work as leaven. He said the entire sack of flour soured from the starter, and that the practice was to crumble the ball of sourdough (about a cup) into warm water with sugar and whisked to break it apart and begin fermentation. When the yeast had proofed for about an hour it was added to the warm flour and salt mix and the dough then went through the standard kneading -rise-punchdown and loaf-rise treatment. The interesting part of his tale was that to keep the starter going water was added to the proofing bowl and the proofing batter was mixed with enough flour to make another cup of started and this was bagged in the flours sack again.. The flour sack was used as his pillow in cold weather to keep the starter warm. The flavor was from the soured flour and the starter. The history lesson here is that if you love sourdough and regularly make fresh bread put a lump of the starter in a floured cloth bag and bury this in the top of a can of flour in your pantry 3-4 days before you make your bread. Place it in a warm cabinet. Use this soured flour to make your bread with your starter batch, if it is slow to proof, add an additional teaspoon of dry yeast and a tablespoon of sugar to it and whisk, when it proofs make the dough. Don't make the mistake of thinking that the red wheat flour (whole wheat) is superior in quality to the white (whole wheat) flours , it isn't as rich in gluten and makes a coarser bread, the same applies to rye flour... Hilary H Merola <mokad wrote: I use a sourdough starter. I use it alone just for making biscuits or pancakes. If I make bread, I also use yeast. So my sourdough is more for the flavor, not to make the bread rise. I only bake bread which is kneaded in my bread machine--I let the machine do the kneading part. It's much easier on the wrists that way. What I'm saying is that I don't have a lot of experience baking bread with just sourdough. However, I have some books and pamphlets which give some advice (sometimes contradictory advice), so maybe with those in hand we could figure out what went wrong. Maybe you could tell us what you did. Did you leave the part of the starter that you were using at room temp. for 8-12 hours? Did you make all whole wheat bread? Whole wheat is something I find so difficult to work with successfully. So I'd love some help with that myself. I'd be happy to share the bread recipe that I've used before I got the machine. It's for white bread, but you probably could go half and half with white and whole wheat flour. Hilary How low will we go? Check out Messenger’s low PC-to-Phone call rates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 16, 2006 Report Share Posted August 16, 2006 I used to fool around with bread making some years ago. Looked up some notes for you. Couldn't find Sourdough recipes on this interesting site. But, it does have a breakmaking tips page. http://recipes.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Bread_Hints Here is recipe for Sour Dough Bread Starter http://www.recipecottage.com/breads-yeast/sourdough11.html 1/2 cup instant potato flakes 2 cups warm water 1/2 cup sugar 2 teaspoons salt 1 package yeast Sour Dough Bread: 1/4 cup sugar 1 Tablespoon salt 1/2 cup corn oil 1 cup starter 1 1/2 cups warm water 6 cups bread flour I was looking for the old way of getting yeast started without yeast packages. Haven't found it yet. Patricia Sant <moorcroftblue wrote: Anyone here who bakes sourdough? I am trying it for the first time this last week - have three 'bricks' (my dh is saving them for landfill) so far, but this next time . .. . LOL I would like to hear from anyone who has special tips. Actually, I'd like to hear from anyone who has tried it at all! Best love, Pat DHARMA http://japa-mala.org 504-473-8257 24/7 Cell w/voicemail 775-368-4002 24/7 w/voicemail 24/7 FAX 775-314-3845 Hire CJ FLORES! http://www.geocities.com/suci123/building/4hire/ http://360./devotionalservice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 17, 2006 Report Share Posted August 17, 2006 Thanks everyone for the tips about sourdough (my puppers love it!). The last batch was a little dense, but was great with soup. Not needed to be relegated to the landfill basket (or to sub for dog bones), but still heavier than I like. I think I have given up on trying to make it out of wholewheat (which I use for everything else) at this stage and shall switch to white and wholewheat mix. I came across a good site on the net (I'll see if I can find it again for you guys) - thanks for the links given here too. Today I'm making ordinary common-or-garden bread :-) Wholewheat bread with yeast, plain and simple. Never fails! Sourdough? Sure, I'll keep trying. But we've got to give our teeth a rest from chewing! LOL Best love, Pat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 17, 2006 Report Share Posted August 17, 2006 Tom, your old miner's system with sourdough is just odd enough to be true and reliable LOL I must try it sometime. Although I suspect that it might be the subject of a little skepticism with my bedmates (relax: my dh, my two beagles and the cat is what I mean. think I'd mean anything else?) Best love, Pat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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