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Post by Baz Faz on Dec 30, 2019 0:57:49 GMT 2
For Christmas a niece gave us (in other words me) a starter kit for making sourdough bread.
Now when I lived in England decades ago I used to make my own bread. When I moved to France a quarter of a century ago I stopped making bread when I found bakers who made good bread (no longer easy in France). Back in England I discovered Vogel brand bread which suited us, so I haven't been making bread.
Until now.
Sourdough is new to me so I have been looking at recipes. Instructions vary wildly. And it is not helped by the fact that the writers of the recipes don't know the English language and how to write instructions. Er, for instance, the previous sentence will have two objects in it and the writer will say to add something to "it". Which "it"? There are two "its".
Anybody have experience they would share?
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Post by wikki on Dec 30, 2019 2:04:36 GMT 2
I can help a little bit. I will write more when I am done with work tday.
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Post by shrjeff on Dec 30, 2019 3:23:20 GMT 2
i said my piece in slow's bread baking thread...
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Post by wikki on Dec 30, 2019 7:20:20 GMT 2
ther is a pretty good book, called The sourdough school, written by an english lady. She has also a very informative blog. I tried this recipe from her and it works: www.sourdough.co.uk/a-basic-sourdough-recipe/right now I am using another recipe from her that has an higher amount of water. don't forget, if you don't wanna spend time with your starter, put it in the fridge. If you leave your starter in room temperature you have to feed it ( flour and water) I like also this blog: www.mydailysourdoughbread.com/tips-recipes/ (tried on of the sweet bread recipes and worked also very well) If you have more specific questions... ask Btw,I don't have all this equipment. I use a oven proof pot on top of the bread, and I put water into the oven.
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Post by slowcoach on Dec 30, 2019 7:51:07 GMT 2
wikki ,
thanks for the link.
Quoting from the Storage section:
As I have written elsewhere: I don't think the bread is finished until it has had this additional time. Patience is a virtue!
I don't like a hard crust so the last sentence applies except I bag it which is a bit more brutal.
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Post by Baz Faz on Dec 30, 2019 12:51:45 GMT 2
I made the starter, using the starter from Hobbes House Bakery (by chance HH is actually in Chipping Sodbury though the niece bought it online) which began life in, I think, 1965. I let this bubble up over night. This morning while stragglers were having breakfast I got on with the dough. What I used to do a quarter of a century ago when I used yeast for bread making came back to me so I have really followed that. At the moment it is proving. At lunchtime I'll knock it back and let it have its final proving. Then bake it. Hope it is not a disaster. I fear Slow will take me to task over my failure to do sourdough properly.
Assuming I continue making the bread, what do I do with the starter while we are away for 6 weeks on our travels? If I leave it in the fridge will it pine for me and die?
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Post by wikki on Dec 30, 2019 20:00:42 GMT 2
you can leave it in the fridge for 3 month without feeding. I was told....
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Post by shrjeff on Dec 31, 2019 3:46:54 GMT 2
We had kept ours in the fridge for quite a long time... over time the starch is converted to alcohol which rises to the top and is known as hooch... you just pour off the hooch and refresh the starter with water and flour... our only went bad when it dried out and turned dark... having read wikipedia's article on sourdough it says: freezing does not kill a sourdough starter, so perhaps that's the solution for an extended trip...
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Post by Baz Faz on Dec 31, 2019 12:00:46 GMT 2
My first sourdough loaf met with general approval. I'll continue baking it.
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Post by lumi on Dec 31, 2019 14:22:14 GMT 2
I quite like sourdough and we do make our own bread but hubby told me sourdough was more difficult and labour intensive than the usual breads we make. I want to make sourdough but at the same time, I don't have enough time for every day necessary tasks so haven't given it a try yet. Admittedly we make our bread using a bread maker so we can just add all of the ingredients at once and not worry about anything until it is ready so anything that doesn't work in a bread maker so easily seems like a lot more work.
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Post by mockchoc on Feb 23, 2020 9:47:29 GMT 2
It's easy Baz. The lovely lady that sent me my starter for free from Sydney which is one part San Fransiscan starter and I forget where the rest is from sent it to me dried in the post. You just get out a silpat mat or baking paper and spread a very thin layer on it and let it dry for a few days. Crumble it a bit then you can seal it in a jar/freeze it or cryovac in plastic so it's air tight and it'll last forever. I had my fresh one going for many years even with travelling too. It's not as fussy as we think it might be. Mine is tripple safe right now. I dried it, cryovac'd it and it's in my freezer too. I haven't got back into bringing it to life since the house got flooded yet I will one day.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 1, 2020 18:52:57 GMT 2
Frankly, I have never been a fan of sourdough bread, which was a slight problem in my teenage years in California when my parents fell in love with it after a trip to San Francisco. I can eat it if I have to.
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Post by wikki on Mar 9, 2020 13:40:59 GMT 2
I made sourdough at home (so far I made sourdough bread only in California for the last 4 months) I changed all parameters that are possible... It didn't work out. Guess I go back to my basic recipe and start from there (oven, dutch oven, and flour are different anyway)
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Post by auntieannie on Mar 14, 2020 22:39:06 GMT 2
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Post by shrjeff on Mar 15, 2020 7:02:26 GMT 2
and the bread stings rather than sours?
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Post by auntieannie on Mar 15, 2020 15:09:48 GMT 2
tsk tsk
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Post by Baz Faz on Mar 20, 2020 11:36:01 GMT 2
Slow, avert your eyes.
I was given a sourdough starter. I have made the bread only a couple of times but I am not doing it again. I cannot get into the rhythm of starting the process so much earlier than I need the finished product. Also I am not good at it and the bread is a disappointment. The neighbour's chickens will benefit from my latest failure.
I'll get dried yeast from the health food shop across the road. Waitrose has run out and also has no bread flour.
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Post by Baz Faz on Apr 7, 2020 12:17:45 GMT 2
We got fresh yeast from the Hobbes House bakery in town. I am making my second loaf with it. Mrs Faz is very pleased with the results. Waitrose has at last got dried active yeast in stock so my next bread will be made using that.
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