Saturday Activities

So, the previous sourdough loaf was kind of a bust.  I neglected the second rise, and except for the edges, the rest of it was a brick.  Being sorely disappointed, I started another loaf.  Christina observed that my starter was only partly awake, and that the bottom didn’t have enough to eat.  So instead of adding a 1:1 ratio of flour to water, I added 2:1 (1/2 cup flour to 1/4 water).  After waiting about 20 minutes we could see that bubbles were forming all the way to the bottom of the jar.  Good to go.  I wanted to try another recipe (I’d been using the City Bread recipe from the Cheeseboard Collected Works), so I looked around and found a San Francisco Sourdough recipe on sourdoughhome.com.  It uses more whole wheat flour than I’ve used to this point, but it turned out quite nicely:

Christina very dutifully shot the whole thing on video:

and Emmett was cautious when testing the loaf for doneness:

After a while, we were all getting a little stir crazy in the house this afternoon, so when the sun finally broke through the clouds for a moment, we geared up and went on a ride to Michigan Park.

**SIDEBAR**

here’s what we did at the park:

Here’s the route we took:

Round trip, 5.2 miles.  I’m building up endurance for pulling Emmett around long distances.  Our goal: bike to church.

That graph on the bottom is elevation. Not looking forward to the near vertical parts.

Round trip 14 miles.  We’ll get there.

On the rise: Starting my own Sourdough Starter

I’ve been baking a lot of bread lately, and I decided that it was high time that I had my own starter.  Having a wild yeast strain grown from the air would allow me to save money on buying dried yeast and will ultimately make for tastier bread.  I’m following the instructions for a Sourdough Starter in The Cheeseboard: Collective Works.

You start with 3/4 cup rye flour and 1/2 cup cool water

Day 1

After 48 hours, the yeast has begun to form:

Day 3

Add 2/3 cup of bread flour (I used King Arthur All Purpose White), and let it sit for another 48 hours

Day 5

On Day 5, remove 1/4 cup of the starter and discard the rest (we tried to make bread from the remainder, with mixed results).  Add 1/2 cup of water and another 2/3 cup of bread flour.  Cover and let sit for another 48 hours.

Here’s the bread we tried to make from our “discarded” starter:

It looks good on the outside, but the inside had not risen and the bread was too dense to bake properly.

Day 7

On day 7, repeat steps from day 5. From here on out, reserve 1/4 of the starter for future use, and use the rest for your recipe.  Feed the reserved portion as per day 5 instructions.

Day 9

Day 11: You can really see the yeast working!

We tried again to make some bread from the Day 11 starter, but it still ended up a little flat:

We split the dough and made two loaves

The crust was good, but there wasn't enough air inside to make a good crumb. I guess the yeast didn't have enough rising power yet. It's also been cold here, so the yeast might have never "woken" up.

A couple days later, we tried again, using King Arthur’s recipe for Pain Au Levain, and we let it rise overnight.  Whoah, nellie.

It's ALIVE! It's ALIIIIIVE!

The finished product!

It's HUUUGE.

First Slice!

First Bite!

The crumb is much lighter and airy on this loaf than the rest. The yeast is finally doing its job.

Success!

From here, we are going to try Sourdough Pancakes, maybe some Sourdough Baguettes.  The sky’s the limit!