As most of you know I am an avid baker. I have thoroughly enjoyed baking traditional sandwich,
Italian, and of course, our signature multi grain breads. We have even gotten into making some sweet
yeast breads that have been a real hit with our clients.
Last week I attempted to set up 2 variations of a sourdough
starter for my bread for my future recipe needs and to deepen my own knowledge
of maintaining a culture in a home kitchen environment. To help me get going I purchased the book "Secrets Of A Jewish Baker." -
By George Greenstein some time ago and have finally decided to get to work on
some of his recipes. As for the book, it
is well written and quite easy to follow if you are interested in getting
it. I HIGHLY recommend it.
Needless to say I went with the simplest Rye starter that I
could find and began working on my own variations straightway.
Chef Greenstein uses
this as his basic Rye Starter.
I'll refer to this
as my control;
1 1/4 c room temp filtered water.
1.25c 100% WW Flour
1/2 tsp of Yeast
1tsp pulverized onions.
Directions: Combine
to make a soupy mixture and let rest covered at room temp until it is frothy and
at least doubled in size.
50 /50 Variation
#1:
As most of yuo know I do perfer to mill the bulk of my own flour so I figured that
I'd try to see what I could capture directly off of the winter wheat berries.
1c WW Flour 1cRye Flour
2c water (Filtered)
1tsp yeast
1 tsp pulverized onions
Directions: Combine
to make a soupy mixture and let rest covered at room temp until it is frothy
and at least doubled in size
Note: Variation 1 is going to be
about twice as large in volume as the other two so plan accordingly with your vessels and rising / fermenting locations.
Whole Wheat Variation
2:
This variation simply
replaces all of the Rye flour with home milled WW Flour.
1 1/4 c room temp
filtered water.
1.25c 100% WW Flour
1/2 tsp of Yeast
1tsp pulverized onions.
Directions: Combine
to make a soupy mixture and let rest covered at room temp until it is frothy
and at least doubled in size
Tomorrow will be the real test to see how they do. I have
high expectations so maybe this time next week, I may have some nice SD bread! The hope is to see a frothy bubbling action
at the top of the dough mixture right before feeding.
So the whole point here is to "catch" the
"right" bacteria and allow it to grow for the purpose of fermenting
your own bread recipe, to help with the rising process, gluten development or
all three. Honestly, for me, will I tell you
though, the flavor of these breads are almost impossible to be beat. The depth in flavor and the brightness of the
fermented yeasts leave an aftertaste that is truly incomparable to anything
that a big box store has to offer. Especially when you combine it with the
flavors of the various wheat berries and fresh butter or olive oil.
I have attempted this a few times before and it honestly
never ended too well. Sure I was able to get
a loaf or two but at the end of the day I was left wanting. So what am I doing different now? Great question! I am only a few days out of the hospital, I
need to have a reason to get off my keister and I have very little other
distraction. My hope is that by me being
confined to the house for the next week or two, I'll be able to focus, stay disciplined
and take really good notes. So I expect
that I'll be referring back to this blog entry more than you will as my regular
readers.
So, if you're up for it, join on and we can learn and bake
together!
It's only fair to warn you that I do have a few other things
in my arsenal. Another book, this one by.
Susan Jain Cheney called: "Bread
Time" and I also have a few of
my favorite Peter Rienheart books and lastly the "Tassajara Bread Book" - by Edward Brown. All great authors, all great chefs, all great
bakers.
In regards to equipment I do have a nice bread mixer, I have
the right pans, a clean work surface and I'm starting with a clean
kitchen. Our oven is clean and
functional and I have cooling racks to get my loaves cooled down quickly. Lastly I do have a decent baking stone, but don't
get hung up on that. Any brick wrapped
in foil will do. A decent internal thermometer
is also nice to have.
You may remember, the last time I tried this, I ended up in the
hospital for a week. Join me in hoping
for a better outcome would ya?! One
poster said that I may be allergic to wheat.
That is something my wife would love to convince me of. No such luck on a wheat allergy, just a bad
season for headaches. :-)
Meanwhile I'm onto my second feeding and lets see how we
look.
Day Two Feeding
All three batches look quite frothy and active. They are not too aromatic but I'm not sticking my
nose right into the bowl either. My
feeding went exactly as follows.
Control: Add 1c Rye Flour plus 1/2c room temp filtered
water
Variation #1: Add 1c
Rye Flour plus 1c of WW Flour, plus 1c room temp filtered water
Variation #2: Add 1c WW Flour plus 1/2c room temp filtered water
Now that the new feedings have been mixed in I'll let this
sit for 12 to 24 hours depending on how long it takes for the dough to become
highly active again. Based on what I've seen so
far, I think we will be closer to the 12 - 14 hour mark. I'll let you know as soon as I get there!!
Ok, so it's been about 4 or 5 hours since I fed the starter
and it has already literally doubled in size and is nice and bubbly.
There is lots of great action throughout the dough that
shows that the fermentation process is moving along quite nicely. I decided not to feed the dough this
time. There seems to be plenty for it to
feed on and as such overfeeding will actually decrease the fermentation process
that we are working towards.
After stirring the starters I have noticed that they each
have a very gelatinous consistency, not very pleasant if you ask me but it's
all part of the process...
I'll see if I have any additional containers because I'll
obviously need a bigger bowl before it's all said and done.
