Sourdough

[Alastair70]

Things to do with kids during lockdown #17
Get your 12 yr old to make sourdough from scratch

I‘ve explained the process and why we won’t get to bake bread for at least a week. The first aliquot of flour and water are sitting in a sterilised Kilner jar and the the feeding timetable has been established.

Just a thought, has anyone been tempted to tip some trub from a bottle into their starter. I’ve got a few options open to me at the minute. I’ve got Wy3068, and fermentis wb-06, saflager 34/70 and us-05 currently in the fridge I in various brews and getting drunk over the next few days.

 

[PhilBrew]

Hi Alastair

Apologies if this is "teaching grandmother to suck eggs" ... but so many sets of instructions/recipes for sourdough starter will include the phrase "discard X of starter", but discarding stuff isn't appropriate in a lockdown situation ... collect any/all "discard" in a jar and shove it with the lid a bit loose in the fridge. A quick internet search will provide you with loads of alternative uses for sourdough starter, but basically consider any baked goods that might otherwise call for buttermilk (e.g. pancakes, scones, soda-bread) and that would be a good place to start

Cheers, PhilB

 

[chrisbjones202]

Came across this earlier, less waste can only be good with no flour in the shops. Made a couple before but forgot due to work, family.... Opportunity to look after one now.

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2018/10/30/maintaining-a-smaller-sourdough-starter

 

[Alastair70]

Thanks all. I’ve raised a couple of sourdough starters in the past, but work and/or holidays eventually led to their retirements. Now I’ve got both the time and an enthusiastic deputy to put the work in on my behalf.
Ive also got a load of bread flour but no access to baking yeast. Hence the question about bottle trub.
Good point about the discards, no reason why they can’t live in the fridge and go back into a loaf at a later date. Thank you :hat:

PS The kingarthurflour link is corker, thanks.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Alastair
I don't have a 12 year old can I get a 67 year old to do it.

 

[Alastair70]

Alastair
I don't have a 12 year old can I get a 67 year old to do it.

Reminds me of my Dad telling me he’d got a magazine from Saga telling him he could have fantastic sex at 70. Which was great because he lived at No.55.

(apologies to his memory, it loses a lot in the re-telling)

 

[Alastair70]

Took two weeks to get fully functional, total flour wastage to compost heap - 200g. Keeping the volumes small led to a longer lead time, but minimised discards
.

First bake tonight, pizza bases. first loaf due Monday

 

[Alastair70]

First proper loaf baked, must have availed of some beginners luck. Starter's taking a well earned break at the back of the beer fridge.

 

[goodolpete]

First proper loaf baked, must have availed of some beginners luck. Starter's taking a well earned break at the back of the beer fridge.
View attachment 24495
View attachment 24494

Hi.
Any chance of the recipe please?
GOP

 

[Alastair70]

Absolutely.
Starter
Day 1: 10g wholemeal rye flour/10mls water. Day 2:10g white bread flour/10mls water. Starter now weighs 40g, additions always double up. Day 3: 20g flour/20mls water, Day 4 40g and 40mls. Most additions are white flour with the occasional rye dose thrown in for yeasty goodness.
Day 5, I now had 160g starter, 150g went into a pancake mix and the process was repeated. By day 10 I had a bubbly behemoth on my hands that was doubling in size overnight. Day 11 feed was 80g and 80mls to take me up to 320g of fully functioning starter. The warm weather certainly made this part easier.

Bake day
I did a 500g loaf which wasn't big enough. It'll be 750g next time.

135g starter (the remained got a feed and was put in the fridge)
165g white bread flour
135ml warm water
3 min kneed in KitchenAid to make a good dough ball then rest for 20 mins.

Sprinkle dough with 8g salt
6 min kneed in KitchenAid, (I was able to stretch a small ball of dough out to transparency at this point but next time will kneed for a bit longer)

First prove - 1 hour, knock back. Second prove - 1 hour, knock back.

At this point you should retard the dough for 8-12 hours in the fridge. I omitted that step due to impatience and not reading the instructions ahead of baking, so went straight to shaping the loaf for final prove.

Final prove - 4 hours. I put it in a switched off oven, the kitchen is cooler than the rest of the house and once an hour replaced a coffee mug full of boiling water to keep the humidity high. By 4 hours it had doubled in size but was still a bit sticky, hence my thought that more needing is needing next time round.

Bake
20 minutes in oven at full tilt, tray of water in the bottom of oven to get some steam up. The turned down to 160 for 20minutes by which time it was done.

On reflection, taste was good and bake went well as you can see from the photo. I expect adding in the retard step should enhance the sour flavour and improve dough structure. Planning wake up the starter on Friday for another bake on Sunday or Monday.