Non-sour/sweet sourdough

[ltlmrs]

I've been hearing rumors of this sweet sourdough starter called Herman. My google searches have revealed recipes that use commercial yeast and sugar. I don't want to use either.

Does anybody know if I can convert my current starter to a herman and with honey or molasses or maple syrup or even sorghum (my preference since that's a local sweetner) instead of white sugar?

TIA!

[ginnybee]

Don't think so. Herman is one-third each white flour, white sugar, and milk. I've had a few multi-month Herman keeping experiences. Both times it was a relief to use it all up b/c of the expense maintaining, hassle, and health concerns (pre TF days). I made a Herman cookbook and can report that nearly every recipe was for a sweet bread. I don't think Herman can stand alone as leavening agent as all bread/roll recipes called for yeast. Nothing is soaked/long-rise. Herman (aka friendship bread starter) does add a nice
flavor.

If sourness is your concern with using traditional soudough you can try more-frequent feeding, pouring off the hooch (alcohol that develops on top), and, especially, adding baking soda to whatever you're baking beforehand.

[vbactivist]

Originally Posted by ginnybee

Don't think so. Herman is one-third each white flour, white sugar, and milk. I've had a few multi-month Herman keeping experiences. Both times it was a relief to use it all up b/c of the expense maintaining, hassle, and health concerns (pre TF days). I made a Herman cookbook and can report that nearly every recipe was for a sweet bread. I don't think Herman can stand alone as leavening agent as all bread/roll recipes called for yeast. Nothing is soaked/long-rise. Herman (aka friendship bread starter) does add a nice
flavor.

If sourness is your concern with using traditional soudough you can try more-frequent feeding, pouring off the hooch (alcohol that develops on top), and, especially, adding baking soda to whatever you're baking beforehand.

Herman sounds like Amish Friendship bread starter.

[ltlmrs]

I'm sorry I wasn't very clear. I don't want to make and maintain a Herman/Amish friendship bread starter. However, I found this thread on the Fresh Loaf. He uses sugar for his conversion (and potato? I can't quite understand if that's potato water or grated potato...), but I was hoping I could use honey or maple syrup instead.

I already make my sourdough much less sour by using a fresh starter and keeping it at full hydration. I also don't let it rest as long, but rather let it rest the minimum amount of time in a warm place (usually 7-8 hours). I've never thought of using baking soda, but it makes sense.

I was really hoping there was a way to make the bread slightly sweet or for example, this past Easter, I wanted to make an Easter sweet bread and didn't know how with sourdough...

[havsulen]

Originally Posted by ltlmrs

I was really hoping there was a way to make the bread slightly sweet or for example, this past Easter, I wanted to make an Easter sweet bread and didn't know how with sourdough...

Did you find a way? I am also looking for a way to make sweet buns with sourdough, and I haven't found any recipies yet.

[ginnybee]

There are a ton of recipes on this forum: www.breadthemaryjaneway.org
I haven't tried any sweet roll recipes, but I'm sure they're there. I can vouch for the cinnamon raisin bread in the original MJF article (link on first forum post). I make it as rolls. It uses honey and is fantastic!

[ltlmrs]

Originally Posted by havsulen

Did you find a way? I am also looking for a way to make sweet buns with sourdough, and I haven't found any recipies yet.

The answer was right here all along!

I need to read the archives more often.

[ltlmrs]

Just bumping this thread because I've figured out some ways to make sweet sourdough baked goods. I've found a very mild sourdough starter from Italy. When I want to bake something sweet, I take out 1/2 cup of my starter and feed that with 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup milk. I feed the original starter as usual. Then I proceed with the recipe for whatever it is I want to make and use honey as my sweetner. This way the sourdough starter still has enough rising power, without adding yeast, but the taste is very mild. I usually add up to a teaspoon of baking soda as well and this way I never have a sour taste. I use this most often for making sweet blini to use as snacks. I think I will be doing a blog post on this and how to convert sweet recipes to sourdough, but I wanted to let any MDC mamas who were wanting the info to know.