kathunter's blog

I made my bread dough for a wheat bread using my bread machine. After the kneed cycle I kneaded the dough just enough to shape it and put into a bread pan. It rose very nicely! I spread a little bit of butter on top then into the oven to bake at 350. The bread then flattened out unevenly, even!  What happened?  Suggestions appreciated.

Thanks,

Breadless in Seattle

Hello,

Thanks everyone who gave me some earlier advice about my seed culture.  But still, nothing much is happening.

I have one that I started with rye flour and pineapple juice.  After a few days it was accidentally warmed up in the oven.  I tried to revive it by adding more flour and water every couple of days.  But it does not do much.  When I take the seran wrap off it bubbles a tiny bit then stops.  I now keep the wrap loosely covering the glass bowl.

I have another one that I have used only white bread flour and water.  The flour part tends to settle at the bottom and the water floast on top.  No bubbles to speak of.

I stir each once in the morning and once in the evening.  I work all day so I can't feed and stir throughout the day.  Is there still hope for either or both seed cultures?  What to do??

Thanks,

Kathleen

I'm very new at this artisan bread making but I'm very determined to do it right.

I've been trying to make a seed culture using the recipe in Peter Reinhart's ARTISAN BREADS EVERY DAY.  For the first batch I used all rye flour and pineapple juice.  It bubbled, barely, at one stage, but never quite bubbled like the recipe said it should and it never double in size.  I did go ahead to the second stage - Mother Starter.  But it was incredibly sticky and smelled nasty.  It was like sticky putty that did not thing with water. I went ahead and put it in the refrigerator as instructed.  It's still there, 4 days later. I'm not sure if it's OK to use.

I started a second seed culter same as above.  It looked like it would progress nicely until I got to phase 3.  Again, it's not increasing in size and the only bubbles are on the bottom that I can see through the glass bowl.  I put it in the oven with no heat but out of cold drafts. Well, my husband accidentally turned the oven on for dinner prep, and well, I think I cooked the starter before turning it into bread.  Should I discard that? 

I just started a third seed culture using white bread flour and water as instructed by Peter Reinhart's above mentioned book.  Any tips to make sure this one progresses as it should?

Should I discard the first two?

Thanks!

Kathleen