many questions about broth, and about soaked flour, and about my sourdough issues

[Llyra]

Hey all. I've just about given up on the sourdough starter, and I'm going to start looking around for somebody locally who has an active starter. DH and I have come to the conclusion that there must be something nasty in the air in our house or something, because it doesn't sour- it just rots.

But I'm exploring the issue of soaked grains. Background: I'm reintroducing wheat after a few years of being off grains entirely. I'm trying to learn to prepare it so I can digest it. (I have ulcerative colitis and have been on the SCD awhile, and am slowly moving from that to a more varied diet.)

So take this muffin recipe I've used (for the kids and DH) for years. It uses whole wheat flour, honey, leavening and salt, and eggs, cultured buttermilk, vanilla, and butter.

So the soaking thing: that means I combine the flour and the buttermilk, and I let it sit overnight before I bake, right? Does it sit covered or uncovered? Warm in the kitchen, or cool in the cellar?

Or maybe I'm crazy and that's not it. I'm not grinding my own flour-- I can't afford that right now. But the flour is good flour. I'm not ready to let go of the baking powder yet. That'll come. It doesn't bother my gut and that's my main priority. But wheat flour does, and the theory I'm going on here is that soaking it might make it digestible for me.

If that's not it, then what DO I do? Please help a clueless newbie out!

Now the broth: are your chicken broths gelatinous? My meat broths are, and they're marvelous, but my chicken broths just AREN'T, and I don't know why. Should they be?

[JMJ]

I do know of somebody who has a mold problem in his house and says all of his sourdough starter recipes have failed. If the problem is mold, it shouldn't hurt a healthy starter. I've heard that some types of chlorinated water can kill any starter, so make sure you're filtering out the chlorine even if you get your starter from somebody else.

Yep. That's how you soak it. If you need more liquid, add in the honey and the butter. Soak it all on the counter overnight. On that note, DH is concerned about food safety with some of the longer soaks when they involve milk products? Does anybody know how long you'd have to soak things in the fridge to get the same effect?

About the baking powder, does anybody have a good substitute? I would think that the soaked grains would be acidic enough to use baking soda for an acid/base leavening. I just need to know how much to substitute for how much baking powder.

I haven't been at the broth making for very long, so I'm not much help. I've made 4 broths... 5 if you count the one that's cooling in the fridge. Only the 4th gelled (don't know about the 5th yet). The only thing I think I did differently was to throw the chicken fat in the broth too, but with such a small sample size, I really can't say it was a controlled experiment.