Help!  I just want a healthy sourdough bread that actually rises without using yeast! 

A couple weeks ago I decided to learn how to make my own sourdough because the "Sourdough Bread man" at the Farmers Market had to double his prices due to the Wheat/grain price doubling!

Unfortunately he is unwilling to share his starter or  knowledge of breadmaking!  :(

Anyway, here I am having started the starter suggested by the Sourdo Lady (2T Rye/2T OJ, while waiting for Carl Griffith's starter to come in the mail.

Well, I thought I was doing well with the Rye starter...until I lost the directions and kept adding 2T Rye/2T OJ for 7 days and then adding 1 cup Rye (grinded in my coffee grinder this whole time)and 1 cup water.  I missed the whole taking 1/4 cup out and dispenseing of the remaining starter, while adding unbleached white flour/water.

Well, the loaf barely rose (after 24 hours) and I don't think I know how to knead...  None the less, I baked it...and well needless to say it tasted like ground up orange peels!!!

Putting this aside, the starter from Carl Griffith came and I followed the directions...although I haven't seen any bubbles.  It looks like thick Milk, but smelled sour.  I thought if I left it kept it out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter it would start bubbling, but now it just smells like apple cider??

 Also, I notice that ALL of his recipes call for YEAST!!  What's with that?? 

 PLEASE!  Someone help me at this point!!  I don't want to lose his starter too!  Especially since my Retsel Mil-rite grinder is in the mail to me (from Ebay $172) at this very moment!!

 BTW, I also did go back to the Rye starter, and kept 1/4 cup and started adding 1/4 cup white flour/water.  It looks and smells much better, although I have no idea what will actually happen if I use it.

 I humbly beg for crumbs at this point!

Candice the want to be baker! 

I made the following for Bread Baking Day (BBD) #08: Celebrate!

Because there was enough dough for two loaves, I decided to make one as a roll and braid the other one without filling it.

We really love this bread. And we really loved how much oven spring there was. Imagine how tall it would have been if I'd put the bread in tins to bake!

Next time I will use prunes for the filling, as Manuela suggests, rather than apricots. Apricots are nice but I think the flavour of the prunes will be better with the bread, not to mention, prettier in the roll. And I'll add less filling, and serve the extra in a little bowl on the side. I like the idea of the roll having just a hint of the fruit flavour.

We haven't tasted the braid yet but we know that it will be delicious as well. I may have to make some apricot or prune jam to go with it though.

• recipe for apricot roll

Please note that I have not forgotten that today is 1 April. But I decided to refrain from playing tricks on the blog this year. I thought my time would be better spent posting for BBD#08 (let alone that I couldn't think of anything...).

The following are the ingredients that are used in my recipe for 1 batch (3 loaves) of homemade sourdough bread:

6 cups bread flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 ½ cups warm starter
1 cup warm water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon salt
1 envelope regular yeast

Today, I purchased a 1lb. block of Fleishman's Instant Dry Yeast. I need to know how much of the IDY to use that would be the equivalent of the single envelope of regular yeast. Also, is IDY the same thing as the rapid rise? If so, after the bread dough is blended, do I go ahead and divide it into 3 loaf pans for only one rising? Please respond to . THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!

I mixed up the artisan bread master recipe as found online at several news sites. I knew the dough was supposed to be really wet, so I didn't pay much attention. I let it rest 4 hours, then stuck it in the refrigerator. Brought it out to make the next day (that's when this pic is).

I shaped it into a boule (ball) on a very floured cutting board, let it sit out an hour, preheated the oven, poured in the water and slid my bread onto the back of a pizza-type pan (actually came with my microwave oven.

I'd forgotten to cut the X in it, but it formed a perfect one, anyway, as it rose and tore. The only part of the form I thought was strange was that it mostly rose straight up in the middle - it rose well but was more like a volcano than a half ball, for example. Had to leave it in the oven over an hour to get any brown.

After 30 minutes, the X it split itself was obvious.

Eating-wise, it came out mostly amazing - very crisp crust - but a gooey middle even though the bottom was blackened.

I later found out I should have been using the top and bottom heating elements. The dough didn't rise much pre-oven, but had incredible oven spring (isn't that what it's called?) - I was afraid it would hit the top of the oven! The crumb looked good, but like I said was too gooey.

My second attempt at using yeast!

I discovered one packet of my yeast, labeled as 18g, results in more than 35 ml (about 7 tsp or 2 1/3 Tbsp) of dry yeast. Is it okay that I store what I don't use in an airtight tupperware-type container, in a dark cabinet?

I started preparing for the pretzels at 8:10 pm using floyd's recipe here.

I wasn't sure how to activate my yeast, not sure whether to mix in or let it sit on top of the water, but I think it worked correctly; at first, nothing seemed to happen but after a few minutes a thickish layer of tan foamish stuff was on the top.

My brown sugar comes in hard blocks I have to chop up to make like a powder. It wasn't as fine as it could of been if I kept chopping, but after quite awhile, I put it in there. Is it okay that my brown sugar wasn't super-fine?

I had to add a ton of flour, probably 550 ml (2.5 cups) above the original 240 ml (1 cup).

I also didn't know how to knead until satiny. After just a minute or two, it seemed smoother than before, but as I continued kneading it quickly became rougher, and after 8 minutes of kneading and not being sure what I was looking for, I moved on. Also, despite the added flour, it still stuck to the cutting board a lot.

This may be because of the consistency being off, but I couldn't figure out how to "roll" my dough into logs. I kind of squeezed them into the logs, rolling as much as I could (not much) to make them round, and I came out with very inconsistent sizes with loops that didn't want to stick at all.

I used the eggwash.

I didn't know whether to grease the baking sheet, and whether the salt was needed (I always scrape the salt off my pretzels cuz I don't like the taste). I salted one, put garlic powder on one, and left the others plain.

At this point (I know better now) I thought I should only turn on the bottom, not the top, heating element for baking. After 6 minutes, my pretzels were so HUGE, they didn't really have holes anymore. Oh well.

The tops weren't browning at all (obviously since I didn't have any heat up there) but the bottoms were turning yucky black, so I took them out.

You know what? They tasted really good. They taste to me like breadsticks, not pretzels, but still yummy. My husband melted some butter with garlic powder mixed in, and it made a great dip. I liked the garlic powder pretzel best, and wonder whether I could brush them with the butter/garlic powder mix rather than the egg, or in addition?

Looking forward to trying this again:
-with both heating elements on
-rolling the dough out thinner so the pretzels will look more like pretzels
-potentially brushing with butter/onion powder, based on people here's suggestions
-anything else people suggest for me 

i have a general question to all those experienced bakers.

let's say a recipe says to let the dough rise until doubled, or about 2 hours. then punch it down/fold andd let rise again.

what if my schedule is such that i have to do the folding before the dough has doubled in size? can i compensate with a longer 2nd rise?

i'm making a ciabatta and i see that the ponsford recipe calls for folding at 20 minute intervals for an hour. how would this differ from doing all 4 folds at the same time and letting it rise for an hour thereafter? 

OK, so I just posted a recipe for Mochi, which is a non-yeasted dough.  This is "The Fresh Loaf," so I should also give a recipe that is at least yeasted.  Here is my Mom's version of bok hong tay, a sweet steamed rice cake.  Its name is literally "white sweet pastry" in Chinese.  You sometimes see it in Chinese restaurants for dimsum.  My Mom always made it on the thin side, but the restaurants tend to make a thicker version. 

• 4 c long grain rice
• water
• 1 pkg dry yeast (I've made this with regular and rapid-rise and they both work for this)
• 4 c and 1 tablespoon sugar

Wash the rice well and then drain all water. Add to it 4 c of water and let the rice soak overnight in the water (room temperature).

The next day, put the rice-water mix in a blender and whip it smooth (hint: do this in small batches, with a rice-water slurry that is about 80-90% rice. This allows it to blend very smooth. Add the remaining water after it is all blended).

In a separate bowl, combine 1/2 c of lukewarm water, the dry yeast and 1 tbsp sugar. Wrap bowl with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm spot for approx 1 hr. Then add the proofed yeast mixture to the rest of the blended rice/water mixture and let stand at room temperature for 4-5 hrs.

In a separate bowl, mix 2 c water and 4 c sugar. If necessary, add heat to make all of the sugar dissolve. Be sure that the sugar syrup has cooled to room temperature before adding to the rice/water mixture. After adding the sugar syrup, let the mixture stand for another 1/2 hr before cooking the pastry.

To cook: Pour some of the mixture into a well-oiled cake pan (approx. 1/4 inch deep.  Again, my Mom prefered to make this on the thin side, but if you like, you can make it thicker, just adjust the cooking time). Steam the mixture for 15 min (be sure that the water is vigorously boiling). After the pastry is done, brush some oil on the top (note: if the oil had be previously heated to near smoking temp, and then cooled to room temperature, the resultant oil would taste better for brushing on the pastry.  I don't know why this is true, but according to my Mom that the way she always did it.).  When the bok hong tay has cooled down, cut out wedges of the pastry and serve. 

Enjoy, now I have to get back to work on my grant. 

Mr. Peabody

I'm frugal. I've watched the cost of flour go up 50% in less than a year. I'm now paying 30¢ a pound (50 lb bag of enriched bleached bread flour from Costco $14.99)

I am brand new to this site. Growing up, my mother used to bake bread once a week and it was wonderful! I want to start baking my own bread from scratch. I currently have and use a bread machine with prepackaged yeast and flour to put into the machine. But where do I go to purchase good wheat in quantity? What kind of a grinder is best? Do you use elecrtric mixers? I'm interested in trying to bake from scratch, and supplementing my baking with my bread machine. Any tips would be appreciated. I live in Montana. Thank You.

Can anyone help - my bread will not rise enough?
I regularly bake bread to a recipe originating from the island of Malta. It is a type of sourdough bread.