newbie from Missouri
New member here. Been baking occasionally for about 35 years now if you don't count 4-H cooking class. I like to mess with breads and sweet rolls and cookies.
Kind of on a quest to make a bread that rivals my grandmother's. Unfortunately, she has been dead since the '70's so I can't learn directly. The bread I remember would rise twice the height of the loaf pan seemingly straight up and would s-t-r-e-t-c-h-h-h-h . . . My father tells a story about a neighbor who complained, after having Lena's bread, that his own wife's bread "was as short as cottage cheese." That sounds a lot better in the original German. I'm told it was a sourdough, but I don't know that for fact. The flavor was very yeasty and the bread had great, large air pockets. A curious side-note: Grandma learned to bake from her German immigrant mother who had, for a time, baked at a hotel in Dodge City, KS during the trailhead days. She actually saw a couple baddies get gunned down on Front St.
Another thing I'm looking for is some kind of starter, not necessarily a sourdough, that I can keep in the fridge, use every couple days or so, and just save some of the dough as the next starter. Is there such a thing?
Haven't looked around here much but I'm sure I'll find many things of interest as I look further.
Best,
Tom