Is it Sourdough?
Hello Everyone!
This is my first ever post and I don't know if I am doing this correctly!
I have delved into the life of sourdough for the past 3 years and I find it to be not only enjoyable and satisfying but also very relaxing and calming.
At this time I have one question which has puzzled me. One of the things that I do not understand is that many sourdough recipes such as in baking, add in the flour with the other ingredients including the sourdough starter and then it is baked without any fermenting, such as in biscuits, scones, cake, etc. Is the final product truly sourdough? I always thought to be sourdough any wheat added to the starter needs to ferment in order to truly have a sourdough product with all the healthy benefits of fermentation.
So, what is the definition of a true sourdough final product?
Maria R
I believe sourdough is just a generic name for culturing natural yeast and bacteria, it has nothing to do with the amount of fermentation in the dough. The amount of fermentation will depend on what you are after, every dough must have some fermentation as that is the nature of making bread.
Is widely understood as the name given to naturally leavened bread fermented using wild yeast and bacteria. When starter is added to biscuits, scones and cakes it is done to use up excess starter and/or for flavour. The leavening comes from the baking soda and/or baking powder. What you will end up with is biscuits, scones or cakes not sourdough aka naturally leavened bread. If baked straight away then the only thing fermented in the recipe is the starter itself and no leavening comes from it. If the final product hasn't been fermented then can we even call it a starter? After all a starter's job is to start the process of fermenting. The final product is still not a sourdough 'bread' even though it will have elements of a sourdough in the ingredients. It's like having beaten eggs in a cake doesn't make it scrambled eggs.
Every word gets misused... largely I think from the pervasive desire of humans to have something without having the patience or $ to get the "real thing."
Espresso is another one of those words... it's defined as putting hot water through a tight puck of finely ground coffee at 6-9 bars of atmospheric pressure to produce a thick, creamy emulsion in about 30mls in 30 seconds. Nothing to do with specific beans or roasts or equipment.
I don't think it makes sense to define anything as sourdough based on ingredients alone. The process of fermentation for leavening is the key defining characteristic.
However, I think it's best just to define your terms whenever you are speaking or writing, and never assume. The internet is chock-full of misinformation because it doesn't gave any real costs for publishing or being wrong, and it has no gatekeepers to edit, challenge, etc. the way traditional publishing did. Add to that that the vast majority of bloggy people seem to recyle information they found on some other blog and they all seem to present themselves as experts despite lacking conceptual knowledge.
Blah. Rant over :p