Hi!  I've recently gotten into higher-hydration breads, and tried to make what I think is a 100% hydration ciabatta.

The crumb turned out nicely shiny and gelatinous, and the crust was very thin, papery even

Pictures and recipe on my bizarre baking blog:  http://www.violencebaguettesviolence.blogspot.com/

The point, though, is:

I'm wondering what the highest hydration is that would let a bread hold up to baking, and what gets lost as you start to get up there.

I'm guessing the crumb goes from shiny to gummy, and the air bubbles start escaping, but are there tricks and payoffs to these wet marvels?

thanks!

Eric

This weekend I baked the second batch of bread from my newly-minted sourdough starter (so new I haven't named it yet).  The first batch was edible, although the crust was not as crisp as I would have liked, and the holes in the crumb were uniform.

My second attempt fared much better.  The crust was crisp and blistered, and the crumb was riddled with variously-sized holes.  And I wish I could describe the taste!  Suffice it to say that when I went to put the rest of the bread away before bed, I found that my five year old had ripped the crumb out of the middle of the bread and polished it off.

Here's a picture:

Sourdough redux

I am just a little bit dense here and confused at the same time. 

What is the weight of a cup of 100% hydration sourdough starter?  240 grams?  300 grams? 

Please help!

Thanks,

Bill

Hi Everyone!!

 I began a starter in April with the help of folks here and have been making consistently good sourdough bread since.  I bake some type of bread about 2x a month and try to use my sourdough in at least on one of these.  My starter seems very hardy and thankfully understands when I don't feed him for awhile - I just refresh before beginning and there has been no trouble with rises.

I would like to use the starter more frequently.  Can everyone list their favorite starter uses?  I have tried the sourdough english muffins from this site, and sourdough pancakes (yum!).  And can you tell me how to use the starter in "regular" yeast bread recipes?  I made regular "packet yeast" ciabatta with herbs the other day and it was fantastic!  Can I use my starter as a substitution for yeast in this and other breads?

Thanks everyone!!

Hilary

I have been baking bread for a few weeks now.  I don't have anything special to make it with, just use a bowl, my hands, and a pan.........lol I make about 4-5 loafs a week about one a day.

Anyway I am making an attempt to start a starter for sourdough.  About 4 days ago I started making this starter http://home.teleport.com/~packham/sourdo.htm itwas okay the first day (it says to feed it only one a day).  The second day it had some nasty fluid on top and smelled REALLY REALLY grose, sort of like nasty spit-up from a baby.........  When i went to feed it again I just stirred it back in and fed it again.  When i stir in the feeding i see a bunch of bubbles, but I don't know if it's doubling in size or not.  It is about the consistancy of thick pancake batter.  So today I took out about 2T of it and tossed it, then added the next feeding.  I also started it with unbleached all purpose flour (organic).  Today i finally got some stone ground whole wheat and fed it with that (hopefully i didn't hurt anything).  My question is do you think it's doing what it should?  It keeps getting that fluid on top.  Should I feed it more than once a day?  I have also been leaving it out on the counter in the kitchen (probably abou 75-80 degrees).  Should I just throw it away?  There are bubbls forming on top a lot of them.  I'm just worried that it's so liquid.

Since I was worried about this starter.............i went ahead and tried starting another one with the wheat flour.  I used this recipe http://www.sourdoughhome.com/startermyway.html  It is entirely different!  it's kind of dry, and not soupy at all.  It says to feed it twice a day.  Should I start removing half of it this early?  Or should I wait until it doubles in size............. IDK this all kind of baffles me.

I found o a pic of someones starter on this forum..............um yes, mine looks absolutely NOTHING like that (well they are both white..lol).

Hi, I am trying a stiff starter for the first time --Maggie Glezer's. I have always made a liquid starter that works fairly well, but I tend to neglect it in the fridge for too long. So, I am trying the one from A Blessing of Bread. I am a bit confused about a few things though I am trying to faithfully follow her stiff starter recipe. Can anyone offer help with:

1. the last feed

2. then after the last feed, it can stay in fridge indefinitely?

3. how to refresh it before using it, how many refreshments does it need, how much should I use in proportion to flour in my recipe (I tend to bake big batches) and how exactly do I liquefy it to use it, and any other tips.

 Does anyone have any advice for me?

Thanks so much!

Chaya Rivka

I finally went and made another starter after my first 2 (!) died on me.  This third one seems to be doing quite well in its old glass Eden salt container.  I did have a surprise this morning, however.

I decided to try leaving it for a couple days without feeding.  I stirred twice a day.  When I woke up this morning, which would've been the third day, it had orange flecks.  Liquidy.  Kinda smelled bad, but not horrible.  Kinda sour, but not beery.  I don't really understand how to explain the smell.   Anyway, I fed it 12 hours ago and, when I looked at it again, it had almost tripled but still retained the not so beery smell.  I fed it again just now and plan to feed in 12 hours again to see if I can get things set to right.

Is the orange I was seeing just hooch and should I keep going, or should I pitch it and try again?

I decided to post pix of my motherdough which is where this all started. It has a very short history at this time but hopefully it will last a few years and I can pass it down and around. Flour and water.

E

Hello, I have been making (or trying to) sourdough bread for about a month, but I can’t seem to make a loaf with the sour flavor L My problem; The bread looks and tastes great, but not really sour.My recipe;1 1/3 starter2 ½ bread flour1 1/3 water (bottled)2 tsp sea saltI add the flour and water, mix, let sit for 20 minutes, and then add the starter and salt, mix for a few more minutes and cover with plastic wrap and let sit in a ceramic bowl for 1 hour (78 degrees).Uncover, fold and cover for 1 hour (78 degrees).Uncover, fold and cover for 4-5 hours (78 degrees).I  Shape the bread, and place it in bannetons, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until the following morning.I remove the dough from the fridge, let come to room temp (1-2 hours) and bake.475 (covered with a metal roasting lid) for 10 minutesRemove lid, lower to 420, bake for 20 mins or until done. The bread has a great taste, looks great, smells a little like sourdough, but it’s not sour. My starter is a liquid starter. I feed it twice daily.Its approximately 2 cups of starter, so I pour off 1 cups starter, add ½ bread flour & ½ cup bottled water, mix (with a clean wood spoon) and let site in. it will bubble up in no time flat.I do this in the morning and the evening, around 12 hours apart. About once a week I use a little rye flour and whole wheat flour in the starter also. What am I doing wrong? How can I increase the sour flavor?

Yeah, it's been a fair while. Not that I haven't made bread, I have, numerous batches in fact. But they were really mostly "sandwich" bread and all basic yeast things; specifically "Susan's Farmhouse White Sandwhich Bead" but using part whole wheat. Not as tasteless as store bought "Wonder" type stuff (which they were meant to replace) but not terribly exciting, either. On the up side, these numerous plain breads allowed me to play with the oven's temp a bit and I think I have it tweaked to be pretty accurate now so things don't burn too much. So let's get on with today's bake.

Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough

"Today" is a bit of a misnomer, of course. I started this batch three days prior after feeding Audrey 2 and Carl out of a two week stint in the fridge. By their third feed they were back to bouncy and fluffy within 8 hours (I was off at work, so I don't really know how quickly they doubled). So this has been a few days process. The pre-build took a while - but thats' expected - then the fermentation period took the better part of a day and the final proof took over 16 hours of fridge time. This recipe is the Hamelman Vermont Sourdough which I got off here.

This time around, the dough was decidedly stiffer than the Norwich Sourdough I'd made which is a take off from this one. Not exceedingly stiff but stiff enough that when I slashed, it didn't all just collapse and make flat brad as the others I have previously made. (This is decidedly my fault for not yet knowing what the dough should be like and adjusting.) 

The crust is also more solid although it looks like it may have been a bit overdone here. The recipe says 460ºF for 40 minutes but I pulled it out at 30 as it was already rather dark. Looking at the bottom, it's a tiny bit burned, though just a small black stripe along the center. So the oven is still not 100% accurate. But the loaves' insides had reached 200ºF therefore it was done enough already.

I picked Audrey 2 as the starter for this one simply because as I was feeding the two starters, she seemed to bulk up the most - maybe 3 times vs Carl's 2.5 times. So both would have worked well. In fact, Carl seems to have a slightly stronger smell and taste. So maybe I'll give that one a try next in this recipe.

And here's the crumb. Nice mid-sized holes, not too fine or too big, the loaf shape is decidedly oval as opposed to pancake so we're good here. The flavour is nice although not terribly sourdough-ish. Perhaps it will develop a little over the next day or so. Although I expect the loaf may not survive long enough to see. The other one needs to go in the freezer as there are already a couple of types of bread on the counter.

All in all, this one is a success. We'll be making Hamelman's Vermont again.