I had a great sourdough starter going and something went wrong. I treated it lovingly- never allowing anything but a wooden spoon to touch it, used the same kind of flour to feed it, only used bottled water, and still it went all wonky. I had the mother in the frig and one starter that I kept going on the counter since I bake almost daily. Last week I noticed gnats buzzing around the starter and when I took off the lid it had a nasty smell- my daughter said it smelled like dirty sour feet- ewwwww. So I discarded it, scrubbed the container squeaky clean, and took the other starter out of the frig to get it going. Last night I checked it and it too had that same weird smell. I fed it anyway and this morning it appears to have died- no activity whatsoever and a gluey consistency. What is going on? I assume I have a rogue bacteria that is invading it but how can I preent it from happening again? I had a packet of Goldrush dried starter that I started this morning. I used a different bowl and utensils but will this be enough to keep the bad stuff from getting into it? I have had a heck of a time getting a good starter going. Errrrrr. I am bowed but not broken! Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Amaz

I like to cover the fruit with dough as I find that burns hard before the loaf is baked through..

 this is lemon dough with dried fruit,, qahtan

First belated Birthday greetings to you....

 Talking about the Guinness chocolate cake and the cocoa/ chocolate I use in it.

Maybe I should start off saying that I am a bit of a pakrat. ;-))))

 I have this sort of built in fear that I might run out of some thing.

Many, many years ago I bought three 1 pound sealed cans of Van Houton cocoa. it's dark cocoa. Price on bottom of can is $ 1 .65c

I just Googled it and it was $ 25. 95c

  Seeing as I don't use much of it  I still have a couple cans left sealed. the one I am useing the contents are fine.

     The actual chocolate I use is German dark chocolate that I bought in a German deli, again I bought several they were 14 ounces bars. I keep them in the freezer untill I want to grate some for 'the' cake.

 I suppose a lot of tjhis hoading comes from growing up in London, UK in WW11.

                       qahtan

I've just been to get my annual 25 kilo sack of organic wheat - cost - £8 sterling! I mill it when needed and it lasts pretty well a year before I have to go back to buying wholemeal flour.

I get really excited when I get the new sack - freshly milled flour makes an incomparable bread! Quite a long drive, but today was gorgeous, and passing Stonehenge in the autumn sunshine is lovely!

Andrew

my bread's crumb is too dense for me. how do i lighten the texture?

Okay, all you chemistry people: I bought some 'kansui lye water' at my friendly Oriental market and I am wondering if it can be used when boiling bagels? The label reads " potassium carbonate & sodium bicarbonate solution"  "use 1 part solution to 50 parts water to refresh dried squid"- so, whaddya think? I bought it to use when making Chinese noodles.  

I read some where that if you add milk to your bread recipe, it should be brought to the boil and then cooled.  Weel I have just made 5 loave bread white bread,  Half a litre milk brought to the boil and cooled with half litre cold water. put in fridge a few minutes as t was still too warm.  added  1 1/2 table spoons sugar   2 1/2 teaspoons direct yeast the stuff that goes straight into the mixture  and 4 dip and scoop cups flour.  mixed well I then started to add more flour while mixing, counting to cups of flour but then my husband distracted me and I lost count. so I added about 2 ounces butter, then 1 1/2 teaspoons salt adding enough flour  ??? to give me a nice knead by hand dough. I always finish my dough by hand. I left the dough in an  large oiled bowl to double in size, then knocked it back, weighed out 1 pound 2 ounce peices of dough, 5 of them, shaped them and into 5 oiled bread pans. left to double again.  hade a small peice dough that I have rolled out flat an covered with grated cheese.   baked at 400 cheese one 25 mins. then the loaves 50 mins.   qahtan

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y58/qahtan/100_0139.jpg?t=1255806694

 I want to start using wholemeal flour, in fact I've started and like the taste so much I want to continue.

 But reading about milling your own wheat and making really GOOD flour I find that wholemeal flour goes rancid in about a week.

 So just how good could the wholemeal flour I'm buying in a packet from the supermarket be?

 It must have something removed in which case it wouldn't be wholemeal, or something added in which case there's a danger of eating the things I'm trying to get away from.

 I searched the forums before posting this but didn't find this specific question and answers.

 regards,

 ab :)

It's happened again.. Can anyone enlighten me as to why when baking two Sourdough loaves at a time one of them comes out beautifully and the other like a brick?

It's happened to me twice now, I follow the Bertinet Sourdough method pretty much and it's been fine in my gas oven at home. But since a friend let me use his electric oommercial oven in his restaurant the results have not been eratic. I'm using the same method temp' and everything.

help please!

James

Hello Fresh Loafers!  Long time lurker, first time posting.

In my quest for sourcing good whole wheat flour, I called Nicky Giusto at Central Milling (www.centralmilling.com) asking about prices and shipping.  I knew that Central Milling produces Whole Foods 365 Organic Unbleached All Purpose flour, and that Frank Sally at SFBI highly recommended flour from Central Milling so I figured I'd give it a try.  To my surprise he said I could swing buy their warehouse in Petaluma and buy flour directly (gotta love that!)

I'm planning a run to their warehouse tomorrow to buy whole wheat flour, specifically Organic Whole Wheat Hi Pro Flour Fine, and anything else that catches my eye.  This is the whole wheat flour they developed for Acme bakery's whole wheat products.

Someone at the warehouse might be able to break down a 50 lb bag into something more manageable.  But if not, is anyone out there interested in splitting a 50 lb bag?  I'm sure it's great flour, but I still prefer to try out a smaller quantity.  If you're in the SF Bay Area (I'm in San Jose) and are interested, let me know.

-Alison