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Make your own sourdough

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Re: Make your own sourdough

#151

Post by cat199 »

nimbius wrote: post #117

while this is an excellent introduction to creating a sourdough starter this doesnt cover oven temperatures, bulk ferment, shaping, or the obvious use of a banneton for final rise. There is every possibility you'll be able to create this starter and still end up with a pancake. The final picture in the link is absurd. The crumb is too wet to do much more than gum up a bread knife and the crust is undefined. in the fi…

> If you've never baked before, sourdough is enough to turn you off to the idea of anything but store bought. it is not as easy as this post makes it seem.

totally disagree..

I've made bread exactly 1x, which was a week long white flour sourdough using similar techniques as described here, and it was pretty good. Not as good as a bakery, but still pretty good.

Re: Make your own sourdough

#152

Post by kazinator »

moosehawk wrote: post #150
hendricius wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suggest to score the bread in the middle before baking. That way you will have a higher rise in the oven. I did an experiment here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BhERhlnDgdQ Basically it's like cracks in the surface. At an angle the rise can be much higher.

Forkish suggests not scoring your bread. From what I understand it can be somewhat of a contentious issue in the bread-baking community. I've experimented with scoring with mixed results, although I'll admit I don't have the right tool for it and my technique may not have been correct.

A community is basically defined as a group of people squabbling about something that outsiders find laughable.

Re: Make your own sourdough

#153

Post by moosehawk »

verelo wrote: post #144
moosehawk wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Second "Flour Water Salt Yeast". I've been baking bread for a few years now following his techniques with great success. He also has a 2nd book called "The Elements of Pizza" that I highly recommend. I had a similar experience when starting. The process seemed time consuming and complicated, but now I can bake a couple loaves any day of the week with a small amount of planning and little effort/thought. In both books…

These look great! The thing that blew my mind is that I've tried making various bread products before, with terrible outcomes...my first attempt to make something from the book was with a Poolish and it turned out astonishing; "That is the kind of thing hipsters would pay big bucks for!" - Amanda (my partner)

Thanks! I was intimidated by the poolish before I tried it, I commend you for going for it first! Now it's one of my go-tos because its timings are really convenient for my schedule (plus it tastes great). I personally like to make the poolish with 20% wheat.

Re: Make your own sourdough

#154

Post by sutterbomb »

Anyone that’s interested in this and looking for a good short fiction read, pick up Sourdough by Robin Sloan. It’s a fun little tale set in the Bay Area about someone who picks up bread making as a hobby and things get weird.

Re: Make your own sourdough

#155

Post by striking »

cup-of-tea wrote: post #102
atomical wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My bread has much better flavor if I let the dough sit in the fridge for four days.

I've tried chilling dough but I've found the yeast never fully recovers and just won't give the rise I want in the oven. It's been a source of frustration because everyone else says it works!

Maybe your refrigerator is colder than most.

Re: Make your own sourdough

#156

Post by bane »

verelo wrote: post #129

On the topic of bread for a moment: I recently started making my own bread. I bought a book on the topic by Ken Forkish "Flour water salt yeast", and I've fallen in love with the process. The recipes are great, but the first few chapters that cover his journey to making bread, a bit of the science behind it and talking about the less scientific components of what almost sounds like "luck" (Really, just super detailed…

On this topic. I'm a terrible cook (and non-existent baker), but love fresh bread. I came across this 5 minute video [1] for a no knead Ciabatta and use it from time to time to make a loaf of fresh bread. Total time for my involvement runs under 10 minutes and I get fresh bread the next day. The only modification I make to it is to add a bit more salt for flavor and I skip the corn meal and shaping step. I pretty much just dump the ingredients in, stir, wait and then dump the dough out of the bowl onto the baking pan and shove it in the oven.

It makes a beautiful simple loaf with a hard crust and a very simple body, which I usually cut up to go with meals or to use as the base for some simple bruschetta snacks or garlic bread. It makes lousy sandwich bread.

One day, I may throw some olives in and make an olive loaf, but meh.

1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX_6l2bmvQI

Re: Make your own sourdough

#157

Post by FredrikMeyer »

poooogles wrote: post #95
mtrovo wrote: post #87

I love this geek / hobbist way to approach cooking. Do you know any other books / websites / youtube channels with the same format? I enjoy watching French Guy Cooking [1] (he even has a video series about making your own bread which is quite good) but never found other sources with the same format. [1] https://www.youtube.com/user/FrenchGuyCooking/featured

The modernist cuisine books might be up your street then. https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=modernist+cuisi...

He has now also written books about bread! https://www.amazon.co.uk/Modernist-Bread-Art-Science-Cuisine...

Re: Make your own sourdough

#158

Post by omilu »

DrScump wrote: post #12
chrissnell wrote: post #4

I had a starter for several years that was descended from the one kept by Dick Proenekke [1]. He lived alone in a cabin that he built himself--by hand--deep in the Alaskan bush. He made sourdough pancakes daily and his original starter came from a friend of his back in town. Someone related to this person sells the starter (on a wooden spoon) that you can buy [2] and use to create your own descendant. There's a fasci…

He does his own narration in the film ("Alone in the Wilderness") as well.

That's not him, the narrator is Bob Swerer Jr who reads from Dicks autobiography. There are recordings of Dick you can watch and he sounds nothing like the narrators voice in Alone in the wilderness.

Re: Make your own sourdough

#159

Post by mertd »

verelo wrote: post #129

On the topic of bread for a moment: I recently started making my own bread. I bought a book on the topic by Ken Forkish "Flour water salt yeast", and I've fallen in love with the process. The recipes are great, but the first few chapters that cover his journey to making bread, a bit of the science behind it and talking about the less scientific components of what almost sounds like "luck" (Really, just super detailed…

He followed that up with a book on pizza. I was happy to find out that you can make pretty close variations of NY or Neapolitan pizzas at home. Now our Sunday evenings are pizza experiments.

Re: Make your own sourdough

#160

Post by kylemurph »

moosehawk wrote: post #150
hendricius wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suggest to score the bread in the middle before baking. That way you will have a higher rise in the oven. I did an experiment here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BhERhlnDgdQ Basically it's like cracks in the surface. At an angle the rise can be much higher.

Forkish suggests not scoring your bread. From what I understand it can be somewhat of a contentious issue in the bread-baking community. I've experimented with scoring with mixed results, although I'll admit I don't have the right tool for it and my technique may not have been correct.

He doesn’t suggest scoring because the creases in his recipe end up on the top of the dough, which does the same thing as scoring which controls the rise so it doesn’t blow out the side. Tartine and other recipes suggest scoring because the creases from the dough formation are on the bottom.
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