sourdough recipes & wild starters! - Page 7

[gardenmommy]

I split off another culture. I'm going to try baking with it today, just to see what happens. I may try to get one going with a different kind of flour.

[carnelian]

My rye culture smells like wine. Fascinating how different they all smell based on geographics and what yeasts they are capturing.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Om did you notice they have two cultures, one from Rotorua and one from Wellington f/s on that site?

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Originally Posted by OceanMomma

One thing about the SF culture I have read is that the wild yeast in it has some kind of symbiotic relationship with another bacteria in it that precludes other organisms growing in it so it keeps its flavour.
http://www.sourdo.com/culture.htm

It's a combo of a lactobacteria called Lactobacillus sanfrancisco, and a wild yeast called Candida humilis.

I have another question. Can you freeze sourdough cultures ? I may just have to try a bit to see what happens.

Ed Wood says that some wild yeasts don't cope with freezing.

[babygrant]

Ok so my sourdough starter is done tommorow. I'm going to make some sourdough cinnamon rolls....so with the leftover starter I just put it in the fridge and feed it with 1 cup warm water, 1 cup flour once a week?????

[Ruthla]

I just made a "half sourdough" bread.

I started the starter last night. Today I took out half of it, added more water and flour, covered it with a towel and set it aside to continue "starting." To the other half I added some water, more flour, oil, honey, and a small amount of commercial yeast, and baked it.

I figure this way I'm not wasting the flour while I'm getting the starter going, and I get part of the benefits of sourdough bread immediately.

[OceanMomma]

MT I did see some NZ cultures there. I loved the picture of emperor penguins for NZ I know someone in wellington who is a NT person who networks alot & has her own food web site so I will ask her if she knows anything about the rye culture as it comes from there.

I figured freezing sourdough could stuff it up, but I wasn't sure as I have heard ppl saying " I have my sourdough in the freezer right now as I don't have time to keep it going"

babygrant I don't feed mine when it's in the fridge as I bake with it approx 1-2 times a week. It should last 3 or so weeks in the fridge without being fed. If you don't use it that often, it may be a plan to feed it but I would do it small scale. As in take it out & stir in a few tsp of flour & a bit of water & put it back in again.

[Ex Libris]

OK, I've been studying this thread and trying to get a starter going. I made it last week with some spelt flour and water. It did get a little bubbly, and about half the flour in the jar rose and fell again (which I'm told is an indication that it's "done"). So I made a sponge with half of the starter, some flour, and water, but I never really saw it bubble up much. After about 12 hours of sitting there I tried making a loaf of bread anyway (hoping for the best), with more flour and water and a bit of honey. I left it to rise in a bread pan in the oven with the light on for some warmth, but it didn't budge at all. I ended up having to throw the whole thing out. Darn.

I'm wondering if I should have made the starter with rye or wheat instead of spelt. I've been adding wheat flour to the starter, and it does seem to be bubbling a bit more, but I'm not sure if it's "done" enough to try another loaf. One way to find out, I guess . . . !

[tinuviel_k]

Sucess with sourdough!

This thread has inspired me to start up a sourdough starter. I started catching yeastabout a week and a half ago. it was pretty slow going: it isn't very warm here yet, and those yeasties were not taking to the flour very quickly. I started with a cup of fresh ground wheat flour and water. I stirred it up for three days, but though it smelled a little sour it wasn't bubbling.
I decided to add 1/2 cup of flour every day. I added rye, hard red wheat, and hard white wheat. I fu=igured maybe the different flous might have different yeasts in them naturally. I kept leaving it outdoors by day, and put it in a heated room at night. A couple days later I had a wonderful smelling, bubbly starter!

I started with a loaf of whole wheat bread. i did a 24 hour rise for it. Unfortunatly I didn't oil-and-flour the pan, so the loaf stuck horribly and I had to take it out in chunks. But it did rise, and it tasted wonderful; wonderfully tangy and moist.

I then tried making sourdough cornbread muffins, without baking soda or powder. These turned out horribly. They were quite dense, and so sour that I couldn't bear to eat them, even with honey. I'm going to try these agin, but I will add baking soda at the end, which should help the rise a bit and will neutralize a bit of the sourness.

And this morning I made sourdough pancakes. these turned out superb! I let the batter set out all night, and added 1/2 tsp baking soda right before cooking in the morning. they were awesome: tangy but not too sour, chewy and light at the same time. Denali loved them with jam on top.

I can't wait to try more bread and other goodies!

[babygrant]

ok so is the baking soda the trick?????? i made muffins and they had no soda...and were really sense...almost raw tasting.

[carnelian]

Baking soda sweetens.

[gardenmommy]

baking soda sweetens?!! I've never heard this before. Should I be adding this to my sourdough bread?

I'm baking another loaf as I type this. It didn't rise as much as I would have liked, but I got impatient and wanted it to be done. I'm going right now to take it out of the oven.

[auntieM]

Originally Posted by carnelian

Baking soda sweetens.

Neutralizes the acids, right?

[carnelian]

Right, should have been more precise

[auntieM]

Originally Posted by carnelian

Right, should have been more precise

I'm not concerned about precision! Just trying to remember my chemistry.

Will bake today. It's been a long time coming--building the seed culture, the biga, the starter, the dough, retarding the loaves in the fridge overnight. I hope that the bread is edible.

Oh, BTW, no matter how fast you think you are, the electric mixer is likely to be faster. Do NOT stick your hand in there! Foolish, foolish, foolish. What was i thinking?

[Ex Libris]

Success! I've managed to make a perfectly edible loaf! My starter wasn't very active until I fed it with wheat flour instead of spelt. I'm not sure if my spelt berries were too old or whether spelt in general doesn't make a good starter, but wheat sure did the trick.

Here's what I did: I took 1 1/2 cup of starter and added 1 1/4 cup warm water and 1/2 cup wheat flour. I let it sit in the oven with the light on all day until good and bubbly. In the evening, I took out 1/2 cup for a new starter and then added 1 tsp salt and 2 more cups of flour. I kneaded it for a few minutes, then stuck the ball of dough in my small cast iron fry pan (buttered). I let it sit for a few hours in the oven, then put it in the fridge overnight to slow it down. I put it back in the oven in the morning for a few hours to warm up. Then I baked for 1 hour at 325 degrees. The bread tastes great, though the crust is VERY hard. Any way to keep the crust from getting so, uh, crusty?

[Persephone]

Just finished reading this whole thing! I'm all about catching my wild yeasts now! I'm going to follow OM's method. A question, though: how important is it for the weather to be warm? It's just cooling down here, after a hot and humid spell. The weather will get hot and humid again, should I just wait? (I'll prolly wait anyways, as I'm planning on making yogurt before starting any sourdough.)

[gardenmommy]

Depends on how cool it gets. As long as it stays up near 60-70F where you have your culture, it should be fine. Warmer is good, too.

I'm going to try another loaf of bread tonight. One of these times, I'm going to get a good one. Not just edible. Really good. It will happen. It might take me all summer, but I'll make one!

[OceanMomma]

Persephone I would just give it a go anyways. It never really gets that warm here. Some days I can only tell the diff between the seasons by the amout of daylight we get. It can get quite cold at night anytime. I have had to have a fire on the summer solstice on a couple of occasions & once it even snowed briefly! I'm not sure if it is a co-incidence or not but my culture is pretty active & will rise in the fridge so it is definitely a low temperature culture.

One other thing while I remember about it. Someone once told me that they don't make yoghurt & sourdough on the same day as the sourdough gets into the yoghurt & ruins the flavour. I've never tried this to verify it but the woman who told me is usually pretty onto it.

[Persephone]

That's interesting. Thanks for the advice. I hadn't planned on it, but it could happen in the future, so I"ll try to remember that.

Alrighty, I'll make some yogurt today (I'm sending the dh out to get canning jars cause I'm making mulberry jam too), and in a few days (I'll wait a few to see if it warms up at all, but if it doesn't, I won't worry) I'll try to start a starter. I can't wait!!