sourdough recipes & wild starters! - Page 2

[mamadege5]

not sure if I know how to post the link I used.....http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm
I did 1 C bread flour to 1 C warm water, on the counter, then every day it said to throw out half the amount and add another 1 C and 1C...when it bubbles its ready and can put in fridge, then it only needs "feeding" once/week


okay so its bubbling, this is day three, but it doesn't smell very good
any ideas sourdough mamas?

eta: there's the link, it worked!

[sunnysideup]

I have a great starter in my fridge that I have been using for a couple of months now. I use it once a week or sometimes two weeks. I don't bother to feed it, except in the process of making the bread, and it's always worked great. I start a sponge at night with about a cup and a half of starter, 5 cups ww flour and 4 cups water. In the morning I replenish the starter and add more flour (and oil or butter, a bit of salt, whatever else I feel like adding) to the dough. I devide into two loaves and let rise for about 4 hours usually. I get a really nice texture, great tasting whole wheat bread.

Originally Posted by OceanMomma

Apparently the less you knead it the better the flavour.

I am really surprised you have found this to be true. How is the texture of the bread? It's my experience that without enough kneading you get dry, crumbly bread. Kneading gives it a nice, chewy texture. The process of kneading is necessary for the formation of gluten. A lot of people have a tendency to add too much flour during the kneading process, and that can negatively effect a bread's taste. This is especially important with sour dough because it should be wetter than normal bread dough. I like using the sponge method of making sour dough bread because I stir the batter until it gets a nice elastic texture. This saves me some kneading latter.

[Vaquitita]

i'm on day 3 of making my starter. when i go to stir it once a day, it has formed a 'skin' on the top. is that ok? i just have it sitting on my counter with a dishtowel over it. its very runny, like pancake batter, is that right? it doesn't seem like something called a sponge should be so runny. it also smells quite strong.

[sunnysideup]

Originally Posted by Vaquitita

i'm on day 3 of making my starter. when i go to stir it once a day, it has formed a 'skin' on the top. is that ok? i just have it sitting on my counter with a dishtowel over it. its very runny, like pancake batter, is that right? it doesn't seem like something called a sponge should be so runny. it also smells quite strong.

That sounds about right.

[OceanMomma]

I don't not knead my bread, what I do is knead it until it gets springy. The book I saw said to knead it for 15 mins by the clock & said this was crucial to success. In all, I probably knead mine for 3 mins & that's it. The texture is fine. Sourdough is generally denser than bakers yeast breads. I'd say mine is as light as the lightest locally organically baked sourdoughs we can get.

& you don't need to feed the starter when it is in the fridge.

[OceanMomma]

Just found this link saved in my favourites while I was looking for something else

http://www.recipegoldmine.com/sourdough/sourdough.html

[OceanMomma]

edited coz it duplicate posted

[carnelian]

Oceanmomma my book also suggests a 15 min. kneading time and I think my kneading time has averaged about half that. I've only made a few batches of bread so far but they've all turned out very nicely with that amount of kneading. Certainly no denser than what I used to buy at the store and perhaps even a bit lighter.

The book also suggests a rising time of between 4 and 12 hrs. but I let it go about 24 hrs. so the phytates in the spelt are fully denatured.

It seems I'm also using a lot of starter, compared to what other folks are saying they use. 8 cups of starter gives me 3 large loaves of bread.

That link has some great recipes, thanks for posting. The biscuits in particular look

[carnelian]

bumpety bump

[OceanMomma]

My bush sourdough is coming on great. Dh is even eating it now & he is a hardcore sliced bread junkie.

I've got a jar of rye & water with holes drilled in the lid under a yellow lupin in the dunes on the ocean beach right now. I'm gonna go get it at the weekend.

Have you made the biscuits yet carnelian ? I was thinking of doing some sourdough croissants for breakfast one morning on the weekend.

[MyLittleWonders]

Okay, I've tried to make a starter on my counter-top 2x now and only keep "catching" mold. : Should I give up and try a starter with commercial yeast? (I really wanted to do this the natural and wild way, but maybe I don't have wild yeast floating around my house. ) Maybe I wasn't doing something right? I took 1 cup flour (whole wheat) and 1 cup water, mixed them and covered them with a towel. Within 2 days I had mold. Do I need to do something to it more frequently? Am I supposed to keep adding flour and water every day? I really wanted to make my own sourdough (we do love sourdough around here), but am tired of dumping moldy flour and water down the drain.

[OceanMomma]

I was put off trying to catch a sourdough starter in the house by a woman I know who has a house with rising mould. I used to live up North too & it got really muggy there so everything used to go mouldy if you didn't keep it well aired. That's why I caught mine outside.

Can you go out in the boonies anywhere & stash a jar of flour & water there ?

You don't add flour & water every day either. All you do is put some flour & water in a jar & leave it until it ferments.

[Lou]

The second link that Oceanmomma posted, up on the top of this page- has a lot of awesome recipes!! I made hot dog buns the other day and they were yummmmy.

[OceanMomma]

Look what I found !
http://www.grindstonebakery.com/allproducts.htm
about half way down the page Espresso al Cioccolato yummy!!!
I'm a bit too far away to mail order any but I hopefully have the beach rye sourdough culture coming home soon so I can create some. I'm trying not to rush off down the beach right now to get it. Hopefully the penguins haven't eaten it.

Next step. Anyone here made their own earth oven for baking bread ?

[OceanMomma]

Just an update on the rye starter. I couldn't wait till the weekend so I went to get it today. We had a heap of rain on tuesday & some areas flooded so I was a bit worried about the jar when I drove down the inlet to get to the beach & there was bull kelp all over the road. Then when I got to the beach all the lupins in the dunes looked like they'd been snowed on with all the sand all over them. Thankfully the lupin bush the rye jar was under was one of the few that was OK. It had some sand around the lid but it's started fermenting. I'm straining the insects out now & am going to feed it some more rye flour & water to see what happens.

[oldermamato5]

:

[carnelian]

Mylittlewonders try the recipe using rye flour instead of whole wheat and add a cup of flour and 1 of water each day for about a week. Also change the bowl each day so that you're putting the mixture into a clean bowl before feeding it.

Oceanmomma I've not tried the biscuits yet as I've been out of flour for awhile now. Your starter sounds like it'll be loaded with chi. Even more so if you bake it in an earth oven. I think toraji has made one of these.

[OceanMomma]

Carnelian I've made an earth oven but I felt it was too small. Dh put the roof on part of the house just after I'd finshed it & wouldn't let me light it as he said it was too close to the roof. I'm going to make another one once I've got all the things out of the way which may get in the way

I made some rye bread today from the new starter. It's rising overnight right now. I'm a bit nervous about it so hopefully it will come out OK.

[OceanMomma]

ANyone here make their sourdough with just rye flour ? Mine hasn't risen much. It's got a sort of glutinous texture but is bready. So I am deciding whether to leave it longer or try baking it now. I looked on the net for ideas as to how much it should rise & everything seems to have wheat flour in as well

I found these recipes while I was looking http://allrecipes.com/directory/332.asp

[carnelian]

Do you mean for the starter? I've only ever used rye for my starter and then spelt for the actual bread. How long was the rising time? I find 24 hrs is a good amount.

Is wheat an issue for you? Have you tried kamut? This along with spelt is ancient form of wheat but a lot of people with wheat allergies are able to tolerate them.