Talk to me about sour dough

[CT Mommy]

My kids L-O-V-E bread. No, they will not eat my home-made GF bread (which is DELICIOUS, btw), and, of course, they love white bread. I have been buying and making spelt bread, which they really seem to like., But I was thinking that sourdough bread might be another avenue.

I will probably NOT make my own sourdough. I'm pretty tapped out right now, so I'd be looking to purchase. They have these beautiful loaves at my co-op that I am tempted to buy. They are made w/white flour, though.

I am learning more and more about tf (although we've almost always eaten this way w/out knowing it was tf) and don't know how sourdough or GOOD sourdough fits in. I'm not even sure what the right questions are to ask? What makes it "good" or "bad?" Is good sourdough only made w/whole wheat flour? What about the process making it? Should I buy the co-op bread?

[lorelei]

I think one of the TF aspects of sourdough would be that it generally has a longer rising time than conventional yeast, and so has more time to break down the phytic acids in the grain. I have never tried making sourdough with only ww flour before, I generally use 1/2 to 1/3 ww to the rest unbleached bread flour.

Another challenge can be getting a good rise with all ww flour, or other flours lacking gluten, as I'm sure you've discovered in your gf baking. If you don't mind the density, then I say go for it!

Will you post back and let me know how your experiments work out?

I got my starter prepackaged from the grocery, king arthur flour also sells the starter, and it's pretty easy to keep going, once you get the hang of it. If I was baking every day or every other, I'd leave it out on the counter. If I wasn't baking but a couple times a month, I'd store my sourdough starter in the fridge. I just used a 1/2 gal wide mouth mason jar covered with paper towel held on w a rubber band.

HTH!

[LauraLoo]

You might want to try a fermented bread, which doesn't require a starter or upkeep of a starter:

http://nourishedmagazine.com.au/blog...ourdough-bread

I've had good luck with doing the bread from "Artisan Bread in 5 Min. A Day" and using whole wheat flour and more water instead of white flour; the master recipe calls for white flour. It's similar to the bread process above, except that you keep it in the refrigerator after a first rising, and cut off however much you want to bake.

http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=195

And then once I bake the loaves, I leave a little of the dough in the tub and scrape it down, add the rest of the ingredients. The left over dough acts as a starter for my next batch of bread, so I use less yeast.

Even my white bread loving daughter likes this bread!

ETA: Oops - saw that you don't want to make your bread. Well, if you change your mind, these are pretty easy recipes.

[CT Mommy]

Thank you so much! I actually do love making my own bread, but am intimidated by making the sour dough. I have a couple of recipes, but they all look like it takes a week for the starter to ferment yada yada and I haven't quite worked bread making into my routine well enough for that yet. I love the artisan bread in 5 recipe and idea and cannot wait to try it!!

My kids will definitely eat/love whole wheat. Is there any other grain I can use? Just trying to diversify a bit. THANKS!

[LauraLoo]

Originally Posted by CT Mommy

My kids will definitely eat/love whole wheat. Is there any other grain I can use? Just trying to diversify a bit. THANKS!

I know the Artisian book has recipes for rye, pumpernickel, oat flour, semolina flour. Any flour that is low in gluten needs to be paired with a flour with gluten - so oat & rye for sure.

I've used part spelt flour along with the whole wheat. It makes a denser loaf, but flavor is still good - great for toasting. I've contemplated other flours, but just haven't done it yet.

[kl5]

Originally Posted by LauraLoo

I know the Artisian book has recipes for rye, pumpernickel, oat flour, semolina flour. Any flour that is low in gluten needs to be paired with a flour with gluten - so oat & rye for sure.

And their second book even has gluten free recipes! I am not much of a baker but a close friend always has dough in her fridge from the first book and her loaves are always gorgeous. She has promised to try the gluten free recipe for me but nothing yet...

[ltlmrs]

Except for whole foods and a few specialty bakeries, there is nowhere in our area to purchase authentic sourdough. And even in those places, the breads are just too sour. We prefer the taste of non-sourdough breads so I finally ended up making a non-sour sourdough that I use for everything: bread, biscuits, pancakes and even pasta. I use spelt flour because that's the kind of grain I can most easily get and have freshly ground (I don't have a grain mill yet that grinds fine enough for baking).

I purchased this particular starter on ebay specifically because it has a very mild taste. I've starter my own in the past and have bought one from King Arthur Flour, but this is the best starter I've ever baked with and I don't think I'll ever switch (except maybe to the other Italian starters that this seller carries).

The bread I bake is a no-knead bread so I just mix it up in the evening before starting supper, "stretch and fold" it three times over the next couple of hours (making supper, eating supper, and cleaning up after supper) and let it rise all night. In the morning I preheat the oven, shape the dough and let it rise again and voila it's ready to bake. This is the easiest way to have fresh bread that's affordable. Here's the recipe & instructions I've been using: http://www.breadtopia.com/spelt-bread-recipe/

[daisymommy]

LauraLoo~
Question for you about the "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day" bread. I've been meaning to buy the book because everyone I've talked to loves it. But I never really thought about it making TF style bread, because I didn't think of it being soaked or sprouted. It's not sprouted, so does it count as soaked? How does this method reduce phytic acid? Does that benefit only kick in with loaf #2 and beyond? (with the leftover dough acting as a starter?)

I'm just trying to figure out the science here as to how this type of bread qualifies

Thanks!

[Arduinna]

The thing with sourdough is that you do have to keep up with the starter. I had some going for a long time but then got busy and didn't keep up with the maintenance to keep it going.

You can just allow for a longer but slower rise by rising in the fridge. I've had just regular dough pick up natural yeast and sour some just because I was busy and tossed it in the fridge to save for the next day.

I have the Artisan Bread cookbooks, and I've made bread from them and I have mixed feelings. The breads tasted good, but I don't like the super wet dough concept, I hate working with wet dough and I really don't have a problem with kneading so I just don't see the point at all of their wet dough no knead concept. I'm probably adverse to it because I have made traditional ( not TF) bread for years.

[erratum]

Soughdough does require some upkeep, but you can get a free dried starter originating from 1847 sent to you from http://carlsfriends.net/
I have it and I'm using it as a whole wheat starter and it works great.