Sourdough shots

Profile picture for user Floydm
Floydm on 23 Oct 2006 at 19:54
This weekend's sourdough. sourdough crust sourdough crumb I was afraid that it wasn't going to rise, but it came out quite well.
Great looking bread, Floyd! It has a nice open crumb, too. Did you make the starter? What recipe did you use for your bread?
Thanks. Yes, I did make the starter. I used raisin water and whole wheat flour on day one, did nothing on day two, then starting on day three replenished it with AP flour and water every 24 hours or so. I started with a quite soupy starter, but each time I thickened it up a little bit. Most importantly, I RELAXED and just let it do its thing. If it didn't look like it was ready yet I left it for another 8 to 12 hours. The recipe is basically the Vermont Sourdough from Hamelman's book, though I'm out of rye flour so this one is straight white. What is unusual about it is that I combine the flour, water, and starter and let it sit for an hour or so, then mix in the salt. Minimal kneading is needed because of the autolyse. I did 2 folds about an hour apart, then after shaping a final rise of about 2 1/2 hours. This technique appears to be working for me.
Profile picture for user JMonkey

JMonkey on 24 Oct 2006 at 19:07

Beautiful bread, Floyd. How'd they taste?

Paddyscake on 24 Oct 2006 at 19:32

I think that's the nicest shot of open crumb and form I've seen in posts..picture perfect ! ..and the taste?

I'm looking forward to a bit of sourdough baking myself this weekend. Not sure how much I'll actually get to do, but I'm hoping to:

  • Try some Sourdough Ciabatta: The half whole wheat I made a couple of weeks ago. Funny thing -- I expect the fermentation period will actually be shorter with sourdough.
  • Sourdough Featherpuff bread: I've been looking for a light and lofty whole wheat recipe for a while and, having finally found one, I want to see how it does with sourdough.
  • Plain sourdough sandwich bread: But this time without the honey. I've always added about 1 Tbs per loaf of whole wheat sandwich bread, even sourdough. But Floyd's earlier comment about sugar being yeast junk food got me to thinking. I'll still add 1 Tbs butter per loaf to help with the rise, but this time I'll leave the honey out, see what happens to the flavor ....
Floyd's earlier comment about sugar being yeast junk food got me to thinking...
Credit for that fully goes to the Bread Science book I just finished. She goes in serious detail about the chemical reactions during fermentation, maltose vs. glucose, etc. Much of it goes over my head, but I do remember enough high school chemistry to recall that bonds that require less energy to break are more likely to be broken than stronger chemical bonds. The same is true here: if yeast can only exert a little energy to be fed, why would it bother doing heavy lifting? It is only once it has run out of easy to digest food that it'll bother doing the harder work. I repeat my recommendation of that book. I found the science fascinating, and it is having an impact on my baking too.