Students baking sourdough - please help a teacher out!
Hello! I am starting a project with my IB biology class (advanced biology, 11th grade) where I will have them create their own sourdough starters and then bake sourdough bread with it. I am new to sourdough baking but I have been doing some experimenting over the last few months to prep for this project. I received a donation from King Arthur Flour for so I have been using their recipes and resources.
I would love to have the students bake naturally leavened sourdough bread (no commercial yeast), but I'm not sure how this can be done on a school schedule. I would also like to have the students do as many of the steps (building levain, mixing dough, folding, shaping, baking, etc.) as possible. But if its not possible, I can do some of the steps for them. Here is the schedule that we're working with.
The students are with me everyday at 12pm. We are on an alternating schedule were I have them for 40 min one day and 80 min the next day. I am at school from 7:30 - 4pm, but can stay later if necessary.
In my limited sourdough experience, it seems like even with the most relaxed sourdough schedule, you still have to do something to it at least every 12 hours. However, these students will only be with me every 24 hours. My contact at KA Flour says that using a recipe that calls from some commercial yeast may be the way to go in this situation (sad face).
So my questions:
Can anyone suggest a schedule for naturally leavened bread that would work?
What type of recipe do you suggest (e.g., white, whole wheat, etc.)?
Should I give up on trying to do a naturally leavened bread and use commercial yeast? If so, what schedule is suggested for this?
Finally, my other obstacle is that we have two ovens for 5 groups of students. That will be 10 loaves of bread. I'm thinking putting them in loaf pans and baking in 2 batches will be the best way to get them all to fit? Any suggestions here?
Thank you for any and all help!
Cristina