|
|
|
|
|
SearchUser loginBread BooksFavorite Recipes
|
Submitted by ArieArie on October 2, 2009 - 3:13pm Newbie saying hello
Hi! My name is Arie and I'm a breadoholoic..
I'm lurking around this board for a short while. Very interesting and tons of experienced people around here (and exceptionally civilized too :)..
I started baking bread over 30 years ago. I have no training and when I started this there was no Internet message boards to learn from.. )
I learned by trial and error (lots of those) and developed a couple of recipes which I liked.
After moving to the San Francisco area I fell in love with sourdough dread and started to play with it, again from scratch, by trial and error.
I ended up with a great recipe which I and all my family and friends really like. more and more people were asking me for the recipe, and I ended up posting it on my website (http://litman.com/food/bread.html )..
After reading this board for a while I realized that I am using the wrong terminology, and the process I follow is very different from traditional sourdough bread. But, I am baking this bread for over 10 years and I like it the way it is. Another Hobie of mine is beer, which I consider Bread in a liquid state.. in the past year I started to combine techniques and ingredients which make both bread and beer more exciting. I used my sourdough starter to brew beer (I call it sourdough beer) and I use wort or DME (malt extract) for add to the dough.. And sometime I use malted barley as a crunchy topping on my bread.
I want to thank you for this great board and I hope to be able to contribute to the discussion.
Arie
Filed under:
|
ALSO ON |
del.icio.us
Twitter
Facebook
Google Buzz
StumbleUpon
Favorite
Good for you!
Welcome to the Fresh Loaf, Arie! I've learned to embrace the "sourdough dread" too and I know it can be intimidating to a beginner (to whom your article is addressed.)
Aside from thinking the yeasts are captured from the air, it's an easy to read website write up that I'm sure will inspire new sourdough bakers.
Mini
Your sourdough recipe
Dear Ari. I am a newbie to this website and also to bread baking. After reading your recipe, I saw there was no added yeast. So, are you saying that the starter is made with simply flour and water and no yeast? Or does the combination, once together and with time, form the gas or yeast? I dont mean to be ignorant but I am new to this and would appreciate your answer. Thank you !
no yeast
the bread I make has no added yeast. the yeast come from the starter. The starter is the yeast, when I made the starter the first time it took 4-5 days for it to start showing signs of life.. It took two tries to get it right, as the first try something went wrong and the starter smelled foul.. But once I have a starter that smelled right (you'll know!) i kept it and continued to use and feed it for 6 years now.
I also make a "backup" of the starter in the form of drying and flaking, then keeping it in the freezer. a couple of months ago I did something stupid and killed my starter, but I found my 2006 dry flakes (backup) and reconstitute it..
Barbiedoll: TFL's sourdough guidance
Hello again Barbiedoll (did the online calculator link help?)
I'd like to suggest that you go to the top of the page here and look at the banner outlined in black, you'll see Home, Forum, Lessons, then Handbook. Click on Handbook, then on Section II Bread Basics, then Ingredients, then Sourdough Starters. There you will find an easy to follow method for establishing a sourdough starter.
As it will take a couple of weeks for your starter to be well ready for use (patience is the name of the game when it comes to sourdough baking, it begins with making the starter!), you will have time to go back to the top of the Handbook and starting from the Introduction to read & learn some basics. Take time to look at the videos too.
Once your sourdough is ready, choose one of the simple sourdough your reading has helped you find and practise making it using the techniques you have learned about while you have been reading.
Have fun!
Natural Yeast
Hello Babiedoll!!
The yeast in Starter is basically yeast that is naturally occuring in our air! That is why starter in San Francisco is so different from what I have in mine here in South Florida!! When you mix up your first starter and leave it open to air, nature takes over. This is the thing our ancestors used back through time! There was no "store bought" yeast!!
Give it a try, you will LOVE the results!!! I myself am very new to Sourdough baking even though I have made bread for more than 35 years!! I made English Muffins for the first time in my life a few days ago using no yeast but my own Sourdough!!
It was AMAZING!!
Good luck and DO post pictures of your results!!!
Jannrn
oh dear, here we go again
No it is yeast occuring naturally in the flour. That is why it is important to get unbleached flour when starting up a starter, once it is established it is not so important.
Air or Flour
I'm not sure about that.. The yeast in home made starter vary from region to region, not from flour to flour. here is the San Francisco Bay Area we have a distinct flavor to our sourdough, and I believe it is attributed to the bugs in the air.
This is getting dangerously close to religious arguments.
Perhaps you'd take the word of a microbiologist? Debra Wink's article here at TFL:
Sourdough Starter - Long Post - scoot down to the section "How it works".
Or a professinal baker? Mike Avery's SourdoughHome.com:
Starting A Starter - go down to the 7th paragraph.
the truth is your both
the truth is your both right
yeast is both in the air and the flour.
but since flour is bland in taste it absorbs the flavors (strong ones mostly but over time it can and will take on any flavors) from the enviorment ( put some starter next to a cut onion in the fridg and see what happens) so the flavor it gets is the flavors around it. which is why all sourdough bread even if made from the same formula but at diferent locations will have a taste not like any other sour dough...
unless flavors like the ka deli rye flavor powder is added to the final dough
un like mike avery (not to take anything away from him in fact he is one of several prople here that i would like to meet in person one day) i do not teach classes nor do i work in a small kitchen. i am a pro baker retired and now do consulting for LARGE bakeries or help with small bakeries ( not in home) start ups and R & D.
made some today - photo
The grains on left loaf are malted barley...
Yeast in the flour??
I thought Like ArieArie, that the yeast is naturally occuring in the air..again, the very reason why sourdough in South Carolina tastes so much different from SF sourdough. If it were in the flour, wouldn't it be the same all over the country?? Educate me....please don't let me live in ignorance forever!!!
Thanks!!
Jannrn
Yes, yeast is in the flour
You might find this article helpful.
Using the TFL search function will also provide enough reading to keep you busy for quite a few hours.
Enjoy!