A sour kind of day
There was a time when I thought sourdough was this intimidating, terrifying, impossible thing that required constant work and dedication.
Today I use almost zero commercial yeast. I've found that I can ignore my starter for a lot longer than I had thought. The night before I want to use it I give it a good feeding and in the morning it's ready to be fed again or used right away. I'll usually feed it again to get a nice sour tang.
Here's what I was greeted by this morning. Don't they look happy? All three were built from a single white-flour starter that I keep fed by keeping 1 oz of starter and adding 2oz of water and 2oz of flour. The day before yesterday I broke it in three and fed each one a little extra. Last night I made the final starters that would go in the bread - they were built up to about 18oz each by keeping about 6oz of each starter and adding rye and white flours and water to make 18oz...ish :)
The one in the center is destined to be BBA pumpernickel - the formula calls for a very wet starter. The other two firm starters will be Bread Alone's "Rye with Caraway" and "Coarse-grained rye with cracked wheat berries". I'm preparing for my annual Oktoberfest celebration - Oktoberfish 2007 :)
I'll post pictures as I go.
-Joe
Yes yes yes, give us more! Beastie Bubbles and more pictures! Go Yeasty Beasties! Go Go Go
Mini O
Hahaha I just realized I forgot to save some starter to continue feeding!
Whoops :)
Well, now I get to document starting over again.
-Joe
You need to up your level of fear to keep your development process from allowing you to for get to keep your mother starter separate. But we all have done it, and those who haven't either will, or they are lying. Most of us will do it again. Such is life as a sourdough.
Lee
This is what I get for working until 11:30pm and making bread afterwards :)
-Joe
Man that's a lot of dough.
The two pumpernickels (not pictured) are about to be popped in the oven.
-Joe
My whole house smells like sourdough. I can't wait to tear into them!
These look great. It should be nice to be able to try the varieties at once - instead of remembering from one bake to the next.
All the bread looks great, Joe. Have you tasted your ryes yet? They look sooo good. What kind of Octoberfest do you have? For about 7 or 8 years we had a Fall gathering at our place. It was at night on the last weekend of October. Huge fire, Celtic music, lots of food, stories and fun. We ended up with way too many people finally and the work got to be too much. I do miss it and I'm almost tempted to do it again. Have fun at yours. If the bread is for the fest your friends will be eating well. weavershouse
the containers out, you can still retrieve your starter, just swish a few tablespoons of water around and add some flour, after 12 hours feed again to increase the amount. Great bake!
Mini O