Sourdough Substitutions
Hi everyone! I am new here and I have to say I love your website. I just started getting into cooking and baking. Because I am addicted to carbs, I naturally was drawn to baking and this website interested me in the yeast part of it. As you can see, I am Very new to making bread so I have alot of questions. I am so exited that I just made my second sourdough starter, my first one I used up a couple weeks ago. The book I got it from did not explain how to feed it. I kept it for over three months in the fridge and without feeding it I made perfect bread(the last ones did not have the most spectacular rise). My new starter is from BBA and I am a little confused on how to feed it. In the King Arthur Flour cookbook it says you can feed the starter once a week in the fridge but BBA says once every three days. Any sugestions?
My main question is in the Bread Baker's Apprentice if the doughts like the Kaiser Rolls and the Semolina bread can be made with the sourdough starter instead of the pre-ferments. Thank you!
How often you feed your starter depends on how much flavor you want from it, time timing of your feeding relative to the time you use it, the temperature you maintain it at, etc. My starter lives in the regrigerator and gets fed 1:2:2 once a week. If I'm going to us it in bread I feed it the day (sometimes two days) before I use it in the formula.
Yes, you can use starter in place of the preferments in the BBA formulas (I do it regularly) but you've got to factor in the baker's percentages of your starter formula as compared to the preferment suggested in the BBA formulations to produces a comparable end product.
Thank you so much for your help! I am planning on making the kaiser rolls for tomarrow's cookout with my family, your answer was extremely helpful. I am still trying to get a hold on the baker's percentage system but it should not be too diffucult(I still have alot to learn and high school Food Prep class is no help). Hopefully I will be able to get pictures up of the finished result. :)
Hi, bakerbrooks.
Welcome to TFL!
If you want an example of a BBA formula converted from commercial yeast to sourdough leavening, I've done this with Reinhart's "Italian Bread." The example might help you do it for yourself with this or other formulas. Take a look at Sourdough Italian Bread
Happy baking!
David
Thank you for your comment. Your bread looks amazing! I was starting to think that the sourdough starter would be a little limiting but thanks to the comments I can see all of the possibilities! We usually have Italian food on Sunday so a sourdough Italian bread will be perfect. I need to start a list of what breads I need to make. There are so many!