Some of you may remember (especially if your name is Steve) that Steve started a sourdough culture a couple years ago, which I was lucky enough to receive a bit of. Well, that sourdough starter gifted me with many fine sourdough pancakes, some pizza dough, and a rather lackluster loaf of bread before eventually going on to die and become the most horrible smelling thing in my entire house (honestly, I almost vomited when I eventually got rid of it). So the lesson is if you don't feed your sourdough starter, but instead leave it on the kitchen counter when you go away for a week, it will figure out how to get even with you.
Earlier this fall I followed Steve's technique for starting a sourdough culture and used some apple peels, flour, and water to get one going. After about a month of feeding it and making sure it's happy (I sing it to sleep every night before tucking it into the fridge), I thought it was ready to go into a loaf of bread.
I've been intrigued by the no-knead sourdough recipes that are popping up everywhere, and I ended up using this one (mostly because it's simple and he has a very informative video on the process of making this bread).
After one failed attempt (which I did not photograph for obvious reasons), here are a couple photos of my first successful loaf of sourdough bread made from a sourdough starter. It may be a little hard to tell from the pictures, but I'm pleased to report that the crust is nice and tough, and the bread itself is very chewy and airy. It's got a bit of a sourdough tang, though it's not too sour (you can fault me for the misleading post title). All around, a pretty enjoyable loaf of bread.
I've read that refrigerating the bread overnight (after letting it rise for 5 to 8 hours) also results in a pretty good bread. So I'll give that a shot next time.
Earlier this fall I followed Steve's technique for starting a sourdough culture and used some apple peels, flour, and water to get one going. After about a month of feeding it and making sure it's happy (I sing it to sleep every night before tucking it into the fridge), I thought it was ready to go into a loaf of bread.
I've been intrigued by the no-knead sourdough recipes that are popping up everywhere, and I ended up using this one (mostly because it's simple and he has a very informative video on the process of making this bread).
After one failed attempt (which I did not photograph for obvious reasons), here are a couple photos of my first successful loaf of sourdough bread made from a sourdough starter. It may be a little hard to tell from the pictures, but I'm pleased to report that the crust is nice and tough, and the bread itself is very chewy and airy. It's got a bit of a sourdough tang, though it's not too sour (you can fault me for the misleading post title). All around, a pretty enjoyable loaf of bread.
I've read that refrigerating the bread overnight (after letting it rise for 5 to 8 hours) also results in a pretty good bread. So I'll give that a shot next time.
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Sour dough does sour stay,
ReplyDeleteWhen its Creator goes away.
But, stay too long and you will pay,
And of necessity, throw away!
Looks like this turned out very successfully, though, and my mouth is watering for a slice of warm bread, slathered with butter! Cute post!
Nice bread Ben! I never had luck with making bread with my starter either. I think we should petitioned Steve for a refund.
ReplyDeleteSteve doesn't give refunds on free gifts. Our sourdough is still living and active in our refrigerator, and making some pretty fabulous bread (and pancakes, and pretzels). Your bread, in this post, looks fabulous. Excellent work.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the cute poem, Mom, and for the bread praise from everyone. It's almost gone by now, so I'll have to make another one soon.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking at ways to make it rise a little higher, and thinking about trying to incorporate some flours that use higher gluten content in the mix. Do you have any recommendations on flour, Rachel?
Steve recommends bread flour, and you can also obtain some stuff called "vital wheat gluten" that my dad was known to add to his breads (but I've never actually used). I pretty much have 2 flours in my house....Gold Medal unbleached all purpose flour (for my general baking needs) and our home-ground stuff, when I take the time to grind our wheat berries (and that I use mostly for breads, with a little of the other stuff added in).
ReplyDeleteSteve's latest comment is "you don't need more gluten, you need to add more baking powder to neutralize the acids". He's been listening to an on-line culinary school podcast, and storing up information that doesn't get passed on to me until I mention things like this to him. Let me know if it works. I don't currently use a recipe when I'm making my bread, just add some flour, water and salt (salt makes it taste good, or as the Bare Naked Ladies sing: "Salt makes mistakes taste great!"), stir it up a bit, shape it into some sort of bread loaf form, let it rise, then put it into a hot oven for close to an hour. We tend to like our sourdough bread with a moist, somewhat pocketed crumb, and a crunchy crust...so if I can accomplish that, life is good.
I haven't worked on getting it to rise higher...I just let it sit on the counter for a few hours before putting it into the oven (our ambient room temperature is a bit lower than in "normal" people's homes, so it just takes a LONG time during the cold season to get the dough to proof). You may want to just lengthen your rising time. The "overnight in the refrigerator" technique should probably help on that account as well. And make sure to let your bread cool before cutting into it...otherwise it loses all of its moisture and dries out more quickly.
(Steve thinks this should have been a separate post...sorry for the lengthiness)
Maybe it's baking soda, rather than baking powder, that you should try. We can't entirely remember.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rachel. Lots of good recommendations there. I'll let you all know how the next one turns out.
ReplyDeleteI actually picked up some wheat gluten, and used a tablespoon of it in the loaf up above. I'll be curious to see whether a little more or less does the trick, or if it's the baking powder/soda, like Steve says. I feel like it must be powder, because isn't that a leavening agent?
Thanks for the tips. Oh, and for what it's worth, I cooked mine in a Dutch oven inside the oven. Apparently the Dutch oven does a good job of trapping the moisture coming out of the dough, which helps make the crust crunchy. It definitely turned out crunchy on the outside for me. And it kind of shapes the bread into a round loaf.
I had commented to David about the shape of that loaf, and was curious about what kind of bread pan you baked it in!
ReplyDelete