Sour dough

[Deleted]

Who here makes sour dough bread complete with your own starter? I need a mentor. I try, I really do but I am simply not happy with my results. Don’t know if my starter isn’t old enough, strong enough or if it’s something else I’m doing. It smells nice and sour but never raises like it should. Doesn't seem to matter if the starter is a week old or 3 weeks old, always the same.
Help!
Can’t call myself a homesteader preppier if I can’t make a decent sour dough.

[Ozarks Tom]

We love sourdough bread, but like @wvfarmgirl, have been unhappy with our every attempt. We followed all the suggestions on several recipe sites, to no avail.

A huge reward (well, maybe not huge) to anyone that can set us straight.

[woolybear]

I know you guys aren't fond of facebook, but that is where I found my sourdough help. Especially this one - sourdough with foodbod, she's from England but the members are from everywhere www.facebook.com/groups/503584793435810/ If you have any type of problem these wonderful people with help you.
This second one is another that I follow - sourdough bread baking www.facebook.com/groups/SourdoughBreadBaking/

I developed my starter from rye flour. Rye seems to give an extra "oomph" to the starter. It took almost a month (maybe longer) for the starter to be consistent. It doesn't make massive bubbles during feeding, but will make a really nice loaf that isn't real sour (something I don't care for). From the sourdough with foodbod, I've learned how to use up discard so I don't have to throw it away (cracker, pancakes, waffles, plus other things) Don't like a real hard crust on your bread use milk in place of water, add in an egg or use some oil. Want a different flavor use beer instead of water, add in other ingredients - herbs, cheese, onions, jalapenos the list is endless.
One big tip is you don't need to keep a large amount of starter in the frig, only about 50 grams. You pull it out of the frig, feed it, let it wake up good and pull what you need to make a loaf and you should end with 50 grams. So you start with 50 grams starter, feed 50 grams water and 50 grams flour = 150 grams. You then use 100 grams starter for your baking and are left with the 50 grams to go into the frig.

If this works it's a photo of a pumpkin boule

[Jolly]

Has anybody ever tried to capture and use wild yeast?

[DEKE]

Dec 29, 2019 16:52:58 GMT Jolly said:

Has anybody ever tried to capture and use wild yeast?

Yes, but after several weeks of staring at that tiny, tiny, snare trap, I decided my local yeasts must be too smart to go near it. 

[Jolly]

Camouflage, my friend. Gotta have the right camouflage...

[Deleted]

Dec 29, 2019 16:52:58 GMT Jolly said:

Has anybody ever tried to capture and use wild yeast?

I tried to get a batch started by parking the bowl of dough under apple trees.

Meh. Got a bit of a rise, but it took forever.

[BrewDaddy]

Dec 29, 2019 19:51:45 GMT @pony said:

Dec 29, 2019 16:52:58 GMT Jolly said:

Has anybody ever tried to capture and use wild yeast?

I tried to get a batch started by parking the bowl of dough under apple trees.

Meh. Got a bit of a rise, but it took forever.

So close....

Try gathering some wild fruit such as apples or plums... the white powdery stuff on them is wild yeast...

Use the peels (or the whole fruit - it doesn't really matter), soak in room temp water with a wee bit of sugar, then start adding flour of some sort preferably unbleached type. 

Feed it, take away half, double it etc over time and you've just captured a wild yeast starter.

brew

[ceresone]

I ordered the starter from king Arthur, and also started my own.. My problem is, I don't know enough people to give half to every few days, I can't bear to throw it away, and my ref. Refused to hold anymore.

[farmgirl]

Homestead and old-fashioned pioneer living Facebook group has a really good tutorial on sour dough starter and bread. I haven't mastered it yet, but it's on my list of things for this next year.

[Deleted]

farmgirl thanks! I’ll check out those pages.

[DEKE]

Dec 29, 2019 21:17:09 GMT ceresone said:

I ordered the starter from king Arthur, and also started my own.. My problem is, I don't know enough people to give half to every few days, I can't bear to throw it away, and my ref. Refused to hold anymore.

DW was given a Friendship starter long ago.  She quickly ran out of friends.  It is sort of like what happens when the summer squash hit full stride.  People begin to run and hide when ever you come near. 

Fortunately I was working in an office with a bunch of other folks who would happily eat loaves of lemon poppy seed, apple scrapple, craisen, date nut, and banana chocolate chip breads, even if they were not willing to feed their own starter.   So every few days at starter feeding time, DW made bread and the office staff was happy. 

We kept the starter going for years but when I quit going to the office on any sort of regular basis, we said a fond farewell to our tasty companion.  I have a recipe for a friendship type batter that eliminates the need to keep a starter fed.  It makes a decent coffee cake, but lacks the sourdough goodness. 

[DEKE]

Here's a site I use. Lots of good recipes here and ways to use your starter in unexpected ways.

link friendship bread recipes

[BrewDaddy]

On something of a side note, here's a way to save off your starter and preserve it for later use. I've done this myself and it works. I had a batch that I'd used a couple times and was well close to a year and a half of preserving it, but when it came time to downsize into the 5th wheel I tossed it.... oh well...

"Leaven: 18th Century Breads, Part 4. Cooking with Jas. Townsend and Son S2E15"


and putting it to use:

"Sourdough from Leaven: 18th Century Breads, Part 5. Cooking with Jas. Townsend and Son S2E16"



bd

[Deleted]

BrewDaddy thanks! I never imagined the starter was preserved in salt. The videos were very entertaining