Success at last
After two years of trying (and failing) to make various sourdough starters I have finally succeeded! I used Maggie Glezer's firm sourdough starter (from zolablue's post). I started in September and it was a little slow, then a family member got very sick so I just put it in the refrigerator for probably 5 weeks before getting it going about 10 days ago. I managed to get it to double, then treble in size in 24 hours but remained frustrated that I couldn't do it in 8 hours. So even though my kitchen is reasonably warm, I set up a heating pad inside a large plastic container which maintained a steady 21 degrees Celcius and inside 2 days I had a lovely firm starter that quadrupled in 8-9 hours. Today, a wet and windy day here, I finally made two 400 gram boules using Jeffrey Hamelman's pain au levain (Bread). I am so happy and exited and when I finally cut it tonight the crumb is great! Reading Zolablues posts have been a huge help.
Comments
the SD bread looks grand on the outside. Sorry it took 2 years when it should take 2 weeks. The wait must have been worth it from the looks of these loaves.
Happy baking.
Yep absolutely! I have been making all our bread for 2 years but just could never achieve with liquid starters. I had looked at the fresh loaf often before but this time decided to try a firm starter after talking to a friend of my son who is a chef in a big hotel. they keep a firm starter so that is why I tried it. I am wrapt with the result!
I can empathise.. it took a lot of experimenting for me as well. I dare say i was schooled by the Fresh loag team plus all the wonderful bloggers who willingly shared their experiences and knowledge. Am still an amateur wannabe baker..
Looks great Leslie.
Question for you. What type of heating pad did you use? i.e. what was it intended for?
Hi ElPanader - I live in New Zealand so what I have is a local product. We use 240 volts and the heating pad said 25 watts on the back. I experimented a bit. I use my plastic storage bin for proofing anyway but had stopped using the heat pad as I felt I achieved as good results using just a cup of very hot water (refreshed frequently). So I placed a metal baking dish on the heat pad, put some water in it and then placed a wire rack in the water. I sat my starter container on that. so the humidity was probably quite high as there was a little condensation and my thermometer stayed steady at about 21 degrees celcius. At first I thought it wouldn't be warm enough as this is about 70 degrees F? but the results speak for themselves so I will do this again with my sour dough. I proofed the loaves in here too. I can't wait to try again in a few days. There are so many sour dough recipes out there to try!!
sorry, forgot to say the heat pad was for raising seedling and was not expensive.
Have succeeded again! Pain au levain and Hamelmann's Vermont SD with wholewheat. Crumb from Vermont Sd with wholewheat as above is good and tastes great. Converted my refrigerated firm starter to a liquid one for the Vermont SD so I am feeling good about baking sourdough bread!