May 4, 2020 - 5:16pm
Hello from NZ
Hello all. I’ve been playing around with sourdoughs for a number of years, but lockdown and purchasing flour in 20kg bags has seen my knowledge going through the roof as I’ve got a better handle on hydration levels with daily baking for those in my bubble. I’ve since started playing around with brioche buns and pastries also and have found this forum/site a wonderful tool, so have taken the step of joining up
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Welcome Eza1 from across the ditch and across the long paddock, Perth to be exact. We had the great pleasure of visiting your beautiful country aboard the Ruby Princess ( prior to its Corona Virus infamy) i have started dabbling with Brioche and have yet to combine it with Sour dough. A very recent post by Tortie-tabby http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/63285/sweet-potato-brioche . And an older one by Antilope http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/39723/my-tangzhong-roux-faq might be of interest to you. Your loaf looks pretty good keep up the good work and keep posting! Kind regards Derek
Thanks for the greeting Derek, and the links. One thing that may not have been clear from my first post is that the brioche is being made with normal yeast rather than the sourdough
Yes its not all sourdough here at TFL in fact i use all the different yeast forms including home brew trub all have there place and give different end results. I have just taken from the oven a Potato and Rosemary Brioche that i'm pleased with and will write up for TFL but here is a preview for you!
What do you reckon the chances the Ruby Princess gets renamed
Kind regards Derek
Hello Derek:
I am a newbie who's never used anything but Red Star Dry Active Yeast. You mentioned that you have "used all the yeast forms." Would you please direct me to where I can learn more about these yeasts, especially those that I can grow myself?
Thank you!
Bill
Hi Bill and welcome, not sure where you live in this big wide world as you haven't filled in your Avatar, Its no good me giving you tips for resources that are near me (Australia) if you live somewhere that is completely different. The interesting thing with this Covid shut down and after the initial shortages due to panic buying is that there are now new lines on the shelf that i haven't seen before. For instance Italian Caputo flours, previously i had only seen 1 or 2 of their products where as now there seems to be their full range, i'm not sure whether its because shop keepers are telling their suppliers give me whatever you have got ! I am currently using a bakers flour that i havent seen for sale here in the West its called Sunfield and seems to be quite good its from George Weston / Mauri foods.
Fresh yeast is a good example the most recent one that i was able to avail myself to is a Mauri product. A couple of our local supermarkets break down the 1 kg blocks to much more convenient sizes, of about 100g 1c =1g There is a big difference in price between two of the stores, i tend to buy the smallest amount that has been packaged up and its sold by its weight whereas the other store has just one price which i noticed increased with the higher demand. i usually get 4 or 5 bakes from the 100g or so that i purchase. it will last about 1 month kept wrapped up and in the fridge Quite a bit of the dried yeast is manufactured in China these days too, where as when i was young it was often from Holland and we did at one time have a plant here in Perth that produced fresh compressed yeast for the baking trade under the Pinnacle label they also produced vinegars at the same place, we went there as apprentices to see how yeast was made.
Getting back to your question , I do a little bit of home brewing and at the end of batch there are a couple of litres of sludge in the bottom of the fermenter , i bottle that up and keep it in the fridge if i want to use some of that i usually fees it with flour a couple of times and it gets very active and use that just like a sour dough culture. I have even grown a batch of yeast from a bottle fermented beer or stout as there are live cells in that too, just a matter of growing it on from a small amount to enough to use. I started home brewing when i was making a lot of wholemeal bread and using stout both for colour and flavour. I have used dried yeast which is very convenient and lasts for ages especially if kept in the fridge. And of course the Sour Dough culture, i used to maintain a good sized tub of it where i worked feeding it twice a day, the discard was actually added to the conventional dough that was made twice a day for the colleges training Restaurant, this after all is fermented flour and added a bit of flavour especially when they were making short timed doughs or instant doughs. There is a brew shop nearby that has a whole range of slightly different yeasts for the different beer styles. there are also a whole range of wine yeasts that can be used too, most of those have numbers and some have greater tolerances to higher alcohol levels.
Kind regards Derek
Hello Derek:
Thank you for mentioning the avatar. Will fill that in promptly, but I'm in the States, in Michigan.
You mentioned you are a brewer. Have you heard of something called a "flaking mill," that prepares the grains for brewing? Is it required equipment? Brewing is something else I want to get into, and am researching as well.
We've had the same panic-buying shortages over here as well. It's what led me to finally buying a grain mill -- something I've wanting to buy for some time -- so I can mill my own flour. That decision opened a whole new world of blending varieties of wheat to achieve whatever results I want. And which finally led me here to TFL.
TFL is nothing short of an astonishing resource, with many experts who are willing to answer questions and offer helpful advice. I will gratefully be in bliss for years to come as I learn all sorts of new techniques, beyond my meager and beggerly sandwich loaf.
Sour dough is something I will attempt once I get my mill. The more I researched store-bought versus freshly-milled, the more I dismissed store-bought flour as little more than chalk dust. And to which I have the panic buyers to thank for putting me on my first steps to this epiphany. Our local Amish (a sect that prizes humility and humble living) store sells wheat berries (hard red, hard white, and soft white)in 50-lb (22.6kg) bags for an inexpensive price. So, I'm looking forward to my new adventure in learning and mastering artisan baking!
One of the other things I want to learn is how to grow my own yeast. You've given me some intriguing ideas to explore. Thanks!
Bill
G'day Bill well done on the Avatar it does help if we know a little about the location of the people that are requesting help. You are correct TFL is a great resource and its membership helpful and generous. I have had to good fortune to meet a few members over the years both locally and overseas as well Ross (rosnroller Perth) Andy (ananda UK) Kalid (Mebake Dubai and Lebanon) Zia (bakingbadly Cambodia) All outstanding bakers if you care to check their posts in the search box. The search box is a wonderful treasure trove of past articles. There has been some great write ups outstanding photographs from the TFL members, some that come and go a bit but leaving great memories with their contributions.
I have only ever once or twice seen any discourtesy among posters where Floyd has asked for respect of others which is as it should be.
I haven't got into the milling, either for brewing or for baking, using standard brewing kits that are readily available here and seem to be very good value but i would definitely like to team up with a brewer and explore spent grains etc. We did have a monk from Hawaii Yogi / Natyam ( the foolish baker ) who was their brewer and became their baker his bread journey is well recorded in TFL's pages unfortunately i seem to have lost contact with Natyam and have had no response from the Monastery as to his whereabouts, Natyam baked with wholewheat and toward the end combined his skills as brewer and baker with outstanding breads, again worth using the search for that story too.
When i was in The UK recently and went to a community Bakery in the North of England they made some very nice breads and when i went to a fairly new brewing outlet in Huddersfield that had a courtyard and an enthusiastic following i noticed that they had the community bakeries product there for sale and being used too, what i wanted to do was speak to the brewery people about collaborating and commissioning the bakery to make a bread for them either exclusively or for general sale utilising brewery products or even their by products. Never did get that opportunity as they were busy and i was there for a short time! The Amish shop sounds like it will be very handy and i'm sure there will be folk there that are very good bread makers and may be able to show you a trick or two.
Yeast is a very interesting subject and fermentation in general, i was amazed when i went to the yeast factory that the huge vessel that was used was seeded with such a small inoculation of cells chosen by the lab technician with the use of a microscope. A lot of people find it difficult to grasp that a sour dough culture can be grown very quickly from just 20 grams to14580 grams in 48 hours with 6 x 8 hour feeds. Anyway we have had a very windy and stormy night so i had better go outside now its light and assess the damage, but it was wonderful to get some rain at long last!
kind regards Derek