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- Jan 26, 2002
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Walosi once said something like no matter how crappy everthing else is, putting a good finish and polish on a nice piece of wood was therapeutic.
Well so is baking a loaf of real bread--especially sourdough bread.
You don't have to go through any wierd formulas or buy some magic starter or steal somebodies' secret hierloom culture, though I'm sure some of those methods work too.
There is wild yeast on minimally unprocessed flour, and it's easy to get a starter going from rye flour. Here's a link.
Now that mine's going I keep it in the fridge and it slows down enough that I only have to feed it every couple of days--I just make sure I use it within 12 hrs after the last feeding and it has risen up.
The thing about the wild yeast is it works slow. That means better taste, and if you do things right, essentially no kneading. I just take about 8 oz of culture, mix it with about 10 of water and a pinch of salt, slowly mix in about 12-14 oz flour to get a dough that is just barely firm enough to very gently handle. Do it in a bowl. you can mix every thing with a fork until the very last bit of flour is added, then you'll need to use your hands. Be gentle and use the minimum flour to allow handling. Add mostly white flour to the starter, at least at first--it is easier to use. Afer a few tries you can work up to adding other flours-they don't form a structure that rises and well and you don't want to start out making bricks.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 12-14 hours to slowly rise to almost double.
Take it out and let warm for an hour or two (too long and it will get too sticky to handle), punch down briefly knead to shape and let rise either in a bread pan or a one of those special bread rising baskets. Or line regular basket with a floured dish towel. Or make a hammock with a couple of dowels and a floured dish towel. If it's not in a bread pan you need a piece of thin plywood for a peel to get it in the oven. And baking stones--the thin unglazed clay (not cement) pavers from the homestore that cost about a buck for 12"x12". They cut easily with a one of those hacksaw blades that is a wire with carbide chips.
Let rise at room temp for a few hours until almost double, trasfer to floured peel if needed, dock (see below) and bake in preheated oven 425-450 for 7-10 min, then reduce heat to 375-400 for additional 40-45 min. Let cool for 2-3 hrs at least before eating as the bread is still cooking when you take it out. This part is hard, but make toast later if you want to melt butter on it.
The trick is the "docking" of the loaf right before going into the oven, some cuts are made at an angle into and under the skin so the loaf will expand properly in the oven. Not enough and the loaf will blow-out somewhere. Too much and it will be flat with a saggy looking top. Still edible.
Spraying walls of oven with a water mister a few times in first few minutes helps.
It's actually pretty easy, and this way the yeast does all the work. About the only way to screw-up is letting the yeast work so long that it goes dormant and doesn't have any oomph left for that last expansion when it goes in the oven.
It took a few tries to work this out but I haven't bought any bread in a while. And I'd have to buy the super-expensive "artisian" bread to get something simlar.
You need a wet dough and a long fermentation to get that chewy center with the larger bubbles. But this way minimizes having to handle the difficult to control wet sticky dough.
I run my starter on about 50% unbleached white flour, 30% whole wheat and 20% rye. Once in a while I may add the yeast from the bottom of a beer bottle just to add some new "blood".
Well, thats it, one bowl, no kneading, and a time frame that is probably compatable with people's schedules. The 'fridge really slows everything down to it is managable. Some places the garage or cellar might be the right temperature.
If you have a bit of "extra" starter in the middle of the week, just think of it as a mixture of flour and water and toss it in the biscuit recipe, pie crust recipe, or whatever.
It makes great pizza dough, if you're in hurry just use regular yeast too, like a normal pizza dough recipe (get your money's worth out of that couple of bux worth of "baking stones")--some of the sourdough character will still be there, just not as much.
It is relatively cheap entertainment, and beats the heck out of anything I've had out of a bread machine.
The site linked has some recipes, and there is lot's of other stuff on the web. This is just how I'm doing it right now, and once worked out, it is pretty easy.
Well so is baking a loaf of real bread--especially sourdough bread.
You don't have to go through any wierd formulas or buy some magic starter or steal somebodies' secret hierloom culture, though I'm sure some of those methods work too.
There is wild yeast on minimally unprocessed flour, and it's easy to get a starter going from rye flour. Here's a link.
Now that mine's going I keep it in the fridge and it slows down enough that I only have to feed it every couple of days--I just make sure I use it within 12 hrs after the last feeding and it has risen up.
The thing about the wild yeast is it works slow. That means better taste, and if you do things right, essentially no kneading. I just take about 8 oz of culture, mix it with about 10 of water and a pinch of salt, slowly mix in about 12-14 oz flour to get a dough that is just barely firm enough to very gently handle. Do it in a bowl. you can mix every thing with a fork until the very last bit of flour is added, then you'll need to use your hands. Be gentle and use the minimum flour to allow handling. Add mostly white flour to the starter, at least at first--it is easier to use. Afer a few tries you can work up to adding other flours-they don't form a structure that rises and well and you don't want to start out making bricks.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 12-14 hours to slowly rise to almost double.
Take it out and let warm for an hour or two (too long and it will get too sticky to handle), punch down briefly knead to shape and let rise either in a bread pan or a one of those special bread rising baskets. Or line regular basket with a floured dish towel. Or make a hammock with a couple of dowels and a floured dish towel. If it's not in a bread pan you need a piece of thin plywood for a peel to get it in the oven. And baking stones--the thin unglazed clay (not cement) pavers from the homestore that cost about a buck for 12"x12". They cut easily with a one of those hacksaw blades that is a wire with carbide chips.
Let rise at room temp for a few hours until almost double, trasfer to floured peel if needed, dock (see below) and bake in preheated oven 425-450 for 7-10 min, then reduce heat to 375-400 for additional 40-45 min. Let cool for 2-3 hrs at least before eating as the bread is still cooking when you take it out. This part is hard, but make toast later if you want to melt butter on it.
The trick is the "docking" of the loaf right before going into the oven, some cuts are made at an angle into and under the skin so the loaf will expand properly in the oven. Not enough and the loaf will blow-out somewhere. Too much and it will be flat with a saggy looking top. Still edible.
Spraying walls of oven with a water mister a few times in first few minutes helps.
It's actually pretty easy, and this way the yeast does all the work. About the only way to screw-up is letting the yeast work so long that it goes dormant and doesn't have any oomph left for that last expansion when it goes in the oven.
It took a few tries to work this out but I haven't bought any bread in a while. And I'd have to buy the super-expensive "artisian" bread to get something simlar.
You need a wet dough and a long fermentation to get that chewy center with the larger bubbles. But this way minimizes having to handle the difficult to control wet sticky dough.
I run my starter on about 50% unbleached white flour, 30% whole wheat and 20% rye. Once in a while I may add the yeast from the bottom of a beer bottle just to add some new "blood".
Well, thats it, one bowl, no kneading, and a time frame that is probably compatable with people's schedules. The 'fridge really slows everything down to it is managable. Some places the garage or cellar might be the right temperature.
If you have a bit of "extra" starter in the middle of the week, just think of it as a mixture of flour and water and toss it in the biscuit recipe, pie crust recipe, or whatever.
It makes great pizza dough, if you're in hurry just use regular yeast too, like a normal pizza dough recipe (get your money's worth out of that couple of bux worth of "baking stones")--some of the sourdough character will still be there, just not as much.
It is relatively cheap entertainment, and beats the heck out of anything I've had out of a bread machine.
The site linked has some recipes, and there is lot's of other stuff on the web. This is just how I'm doing it right now, and once worked out, it is pretty easy.
