The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Hello From the great white north!

Magrat's picture
Magrat

Hello From the great white north!

I am not so north that the whiteness is caused by snow, but it has been VERY foggy here the last couple weeks, so everything is in shades of white and grey, or at night, grey and darker grey.  heh heh

 I am on the west coast of Canada, and I have been helping my mom bake since I was tall enough to see over the table.  Now that I have a family of my own, I will be teaching my children how to bake.  

First off, my name is Magrat, not my real name of course, but it will do. I have 2 daughters and a wonderful husband for whom I do all this baking.  The price of bread has gotten so high that I have given up on buying bread unless I have to for some unknown reason.  There is no reason I can't make it here at home, and with better results.   

 Currently I am Making a loaf of Semolina sandwich bread.  (yes, I got the recipe here! thanks, so far it looks and smells wonderful!)  It is in the pan, rising at this time. It has a beautiful yellow colour.  I thought of adding flax seed, but chose not to as I don't even know if I will like the recipe. lol  Any thoughts?  I am pretty positive it will taste great, but you never know for sure until you try it. 

 I have always wanted to learn how to make sourdough.  Everytime I look for instructions, there are plenty recipes for the starter.  My biggest question is, once I have the starter, what the heck do I do with it?   My mom never really made the stuff, she mainly made plain white or brown bread, and sometimes cinnamon buns, or regular dinner rolls.  However, each of these things uses the same bread dough recipe.  

I like to ad more flavour to my cooking and baking.   I love making onion vinegar bread.  I will have to post the recipe with pictures.  As soon as I get my camera working. :)  

Pablo's picture
Pablo

Howdy neighbor and welcome.  I'm in the Okanagan myself, so we must be close.  I've started doing sourdough since I've been here at the Fresh Loaf, that's about 3 months now.  It's been very satisfying and the flavour difference between naturally leavened bread and that made with commercial yeast is huge.  

The short answer as to what to do with your starter once you have it going is to bake with it.  :-)  That and keep it refreshed and growing.  If you're like me you'll try a few things before settling down to a routine.  (and then keep planning ways to improve your routine).  Good luck.  It's a very rewarding journey.

My mom got me comfortable in the kitchen from before I can remember.  She's a saint in my memory as a result.

:-Paul

Marni's picture
Marni

Hi Magrat,

This is a great place to learn about sourdough.  Pick a method, and once you've got your starter, as Pablo says - bake with it!  You can find plenty of great recipes (formulas as many call them here) on this site.  I really like one often referred to as "Susan's Loaf" after the poster who created it.  You can find it here  it's the second reply on the page.

I also bake for my family. We agree, it's less expensive and tastes so much better than store bought.

I've been wanting to try the semolina loaf.  Please post about how it turns out.

Again, welcome and have fun!

Marni

 

 

Magrat's picture
Magrat

It turned out pretty awesome.  My was daughter is begging me to make it more often.  heh heh  For lunch I am going to grill the slices of it, melt herbed havarti over it, and add grilled tomatoes.   Served with tomato lentil soup...yum yum!

 

Also, I can drive to the OK in a couple hours, so yeah, we are pretty close.  I have always wanted to live there.  It's so beautiful!!!   Expensive though...  I am in the fraser valley.  and it's not much better here!

Pablo's picture
Pablo

Luckily we found a fixer-upper across the street from the lake 5 years ago before it went up too much. 

I just got some flour shipped from Anita's Organics in Chilliwack.  http://www.anitasorganicmill.com/

:-Paul