stitchitup

[stitchitup]

Yesterday I made chocolate sourdough discard bread. While I probably will never make it again, (because I would want to improve it,) I figured I should document the experience here, before I forget what I did.

I collected all the discard from all three of my starters. Added a cup and a little more of all-purpose flour. Added a couple of heaping spoonfuls of cocoa powder. Added some water. I didn't measure anything, just mixed it till it looked right. Oh yeah, and when I got it a little too wet, I added a heaping spoonful of whole wheat. Mixed all that up and let it ferment for about 8 hours.

When I came back to it, I added 1/8 c of olive oil and two handfuls of chocolate chips. I poured it into one of my tin loaf pans, pressed a few more chocolate chips into the top, and let it rise again, on top of the coffee maker, which was warm, as it had just made coffee, for 2, 2 1/2 hours, something like that.

I put foil over the top and baked it in a preheated (400°F) oven for 20 minutes. I checked it. It wasn't done. I put the cover back on it but left it vented and baked it for 12 more minutes. I checked it, took the foil off, and put it back for 12 more minutes. I took it out, let it begin to cool, and it was still warm when I cut into it.

It was tastier than I thought it would be. The sour and bitter of the starter was still prominent, but the sugar in the chocolate chips was enough to balance it out. It was much better than the sourdough discard banana bread, which I didn't even document, and even that was not terrible.

I think an ordinary sourdough loaf with chocolate would be much better. Next discard loaf, I think I will go with a more savory, herb-y profile. That might fit the sourness better. But this chocolate bread was fine as an experiment. I'll go back for more of it. I don't know that I'll finish it, but I'll have some more of it.

I have half of a regular sourdough loaf left, and I look forward to baking my next batch of those to see what I can learn and improve.

#x #sourdough journal #starter journal #discard loaves #bread journal

[stitchitup]

On the evening of January 2, I baked a discard loaf. I mixed dry active yeast water and about a cup of flour, let it proof a little, then added it to about a cup of starter, however much I needed to get rid of at the time. Of course with the added yeast it didn't take as long for it to proof. I didn't bother to shape it, I just poured it into the pan and baked it, and it was decent.

The interesting part, though, was that I found some very old Fleischmann's yeast that expired in 2014. I tested some to see if it was alive and it did not appear to be. So I dumped out what was in the bowl. But then I went to proof my Bellarise for my discard, and it wasn't bubbling so fast either. So I figured, maybe it's the weather, or something else. I made a new bowl of Fleischmann's and after some time one little cloudy streak of activity appeared. So, they were not ALL dead.

I just dumped a bunch of the Fleischmann's into the water and it started bubbling like crazy. So I cultured it in a jar. I gave it a spoonful of King Arthur whole wheat. It doubled in like ten minutes! So I was about to have to cook it. I scooped most out, added about a cup of flour, and baked that, too. When that loaf was done, it tasted like Marmite!

Anyway, what an experiment. My Fleischmann's Friendship starter is off to a good start. It's still bubbly and active, but it has become sourdough. It's developed the sour scent from the Lacto activity.

From what I understand, a friendship starter refers to one that was started by culturing commercial yeast. Technically my first starter is, since I gave her yeast to try to help correct her parmesan feet smell. What actually did away with that, though, was letting her ferment over a long, slow time in the cold. She has a very lovely, sweet smell now.

#x #starter journal #yeast

[stitchitup]

I baked my first proper sourdoughs and they were great! My method approximately:

250 g starter 550-600 g all-purpose flour (not sure) 400 g water 10 g salt

I stirred the ingredients and let it rest for long enough to unload and load the dishwasher.

I turned the dough onto the counter and manipulated it with wet fingers and the dough scraper for about 10 minutes.

I set it to let it bulk ferment for 12 hours. I came back just short of 12 hours and saw it was already doubled, so I proceeded to divide it in two and put them into loaf pans that I sprayed with Pam.

I let them rise in the pans for 2 hours, which became more like 2 1/2 hours, then I scored them with the Xacto. Didn't look so much like it did anything, as the dough seemed to close right back.

I put foil over them. I tented the foil so it wouldn't touch them (I thought) as they rose. Then put them into the oven, preheated to 400°F. I baked them covered for about 35 minutes. It could have been more like 40 minutes. I baked them uncovered for another 14 minutes at 375°F.

I was surprised when I removed the foil to see that they had "sprung", broke open at those cuts I made, and looked like real live sourdough breads. Because they were! And their tops were brushing the foil tents a tiny bit.

I'd still like larger loaves. So I may just use more stuff next time but similar method. I'm not ready to do the free-standing loaves yet. I need more practice to get shape to the loaves after preferment.

But I am so happy and thankful. I love baking so much.

#x #starter journal #baking #bread journal

[stitchitup]

So, I had made some dough for "discard bread" and let it ferment for 12 hours while I slept. I didn't write down what amounts I used. I was going to, but then I did the dishes and forgot. My brain is struggling while getting over this respiratory infection. Anyway, it was about 2 parts starter to one part flour by weight. 200-something grams of starter discard and 100-something grams of all-purpose flour. And water, until I thought it looked about right. The other day before feeding my starters, I had poured a little plastic full out of the first starter. I put that in the dough. I also took a large portion of the stuff that was in the first starter's jar and put it in there so I could feed again.

I considered putting active dry yeast in the new flour, because other people have done that, but I thought to myself, I don't want too much leavening. My starter should have enough in it, especially if I'm going to let it rise for a long period. I didn't want the dry active yeast making it take off and ferment too fast and then not be any good by the time I was ready to bake. I wasn't sure my starter culture wouldn't speed through the new flour and do the same anyway. So I left out the dry active. I did as that guy The Bread Code said on YouTube and put a small portion of dough in a small jar with the rubber band to mark the level and then I could easily see when the dough was double.

I slept, I had that dream - that started off so bad, but ended good. Then when I got up and looked, my dough was doubled. I said out loud, "Wow!" The belated Christmas morning had come, and I had gotten what I wanted. It felt so good to see that, after having that dream. It made me feel like everything will be all right. (Also my first starter was doubled in its original, main jar, which means it is fully mature and active now. So I'll be baking again soon. But I'm getting ahead of myself.)

I tried to shape it into a loaf, but it was still quite sticky, so I just folded it a few times and dumped it in the loaf pan and covered it. It rose, but even though it did, it still looked small because it was actually too small for the pan. Next time, I will make a larger loaf. I didn't want to waste a lot of flour on something I wasn't sure would work. But, after letting it rest again for two hours I baked it. I think I baked it 20-30 minutes with foil over the top, then about 10 with the foil off. (I set the timer on my phone several times but got distracted in-between, so I'm not sure.) I took it out; I let it cool. I cut into it. It was beautiful.

I struggle not to let myself be pulled into the nihilistic materialism of this world, but sometimes I get a reminder that my life is one of symbolism and meaning. I am not here because of cosmic happenstance.

And that was just discard bread to get rid of extra starter without wasting it. It wasn't a proper recipe for sourdough bread. I feel much more confident about experimenting now.

#x #bread journaling #starter journal

[stitchitup]

Since Christmas Eve, both my starters have been rising. They haven't made it to the "double 12 hrs after feeding" level of activity yet, but they are active. I've been putting more flour and less water and they seem to like that. They are extremely sour. I made discard pancakes again on Christmas morning. Whew. Sour like a lemon!

#x #starter journal

[stitchitup]

Sourdough starter discard pancakes cannot be enjoyed straight off the griddle. Way too dense and sticky. But after sitting for 5 to 10 minutes, they magically become soft. Mine were very sour.

#x #starter journal

[stitchitup]

How I made a "country white" loaf:

I used slightly less than a cup of water and very little sugar to get my yeast going. I put about 1/8 c of bacon fat and a pinch of salt into 1 c flour and mixed it up. I added the bubbly yeast mixture, then gradually added 3/4 c or so more flour. (It couldn't take another whole cup.) The dough was of course stiffer than I'm used to with my no-knead dinner rolls, so I kneaded it for 3-4 minutes. A guy on YT said you could knead a small dough for a shorter time because there is less of it getting worked each time. So, I kneaded it. Let it proof about 1 1/2 hr. It proofed beautifully. I rolled it and shaped it and put it in the loaf pan and let it proof there for another hour? Hour and 1/2? Wish I paid better attention but it proofed even more beautifully this time. I also took note of the exponential nature of its growth. It rose slowly, slowly, slowly, then in the last moments it went very fast. I had it on top of the still-warm coffee maker throughout this time. I slit the top, as though it were a sourdough, just to see if it would raise more in the oven, but I regret this, because it actually just made it collapse a little. Anyway, I baked it at 375°F for 12 min with a tin foil hat on the pan, then I removed the foil and baked it for another 4 minutes. I buttered the top. It was lovely.

#x #bread journal

[stitchitup]

My starters did not rise at all overnight or today. I fed them some more all-purpose. I don't think they are actually hungry as they are very mild smelling at the moment; I think it's just very cold in my kitchen. When I got up, the thermostat in the hallway said 60°F. It could be colder than that in the kitchen, as it's on the North side of the house. Basically they are living in a warm refrigerator. And that's all right, I read that cool encourages yeast and Lactobacillus, so they might be doing it slowly, but maybe they are doing it correctly.

I ordered five starters from other people on eBay. Three of them arrived today; others are coming from two different sellers. I am not going to use the whole packets when I rehydrate them, I'm just going to use maybe 1/4 or less of the flakes and keep the rest inactive. Maybe in the freezer. The Internet says you can freeze wet starter as well for a year or less. Realistically I'm not going to need two homegrown starters plus five bought plus whatever subsequent ones I start or buy, all going at once. So it's good that you can put them on "pause."

I'm making an ordinary yeasted bread from dry active yeast this evening. I put only very little sugar initially with the yeast. Like a pinch, a generous pinch. And a little less than a cup of water, and about 1 3/4 c flour. This produced much dryer dough, so I kneaded it instead of just folding it. It's proofing now. We'll see how it goes. I'm going to bake it in a loaf pan.

#x #starter #starter journal

[stitchitup]

Day 11 of first starter, Day 6 of second starter. They have been getting whole wheat flour since I mentioned introducing it. But today they got plain old all-purpose, just now. They are not really growing at present, either of them. The first starter has developed cinnamon notes. I saw people saying cinnamon on the Internet and that sounded crazy. But it can happen. Or maybe I think I smell it due to the suggestion. In any case, what was that sharp smell has settled into something spicy and pleasant. The second starter went through a period of smelling bad yesterday, but it's not so bad today, and it smells cheerful, tropical. Still a hint of unpleasantness. The second starter's unpleasantness was nothing like the first's, though. The first was that aged cheese smell, the second was more vomit, rotten food.

#x #starter #starter journal

[stitchitup]

Today is Day 9 of my first starter and Day 4 of my second starter. After being moved to the garage and fed whole wheat flour, my first starter has lost all traces of the unwanted bacterial odor. It smells clean and good now. My second starter is still on the kitchen counter and it has a very subtle smell. It smells like some kind of vegan food but I can't remember what. Probably seitan, since seitan is just gluten.

My first starter is probably still not ready to make bread, but I am trying again already anyway, because, I felt like it. So it is overnight proofing in the garage beside its starter.

#sourdough #starter #baking #bread #bread journal

[stitchitup]

Well, so my loaves did not raise properly, but they had some sourdough looking bubbles in the crumb. Very dense. But tasty. Cute. I think the starter simply was not old enough.

I gave both starters whole wheat flour today to see how they like that. My second one was started with all-purpose, then I remembered that the Internet said it's hard to start them with bleached flour because the bleaching kills microbes that unbleached and whole wheat flours have. And the microbes on the flour is the start of their culture.

I put the first starter in the garage to stay cool, and left the first one on the kitchen counter.

Today is Day 7 of my first starter, Day 2 of my second starter.

#first sourdough attempt #sourdough #starter #baking #bread

[stitchitup]

I got impatient. I tried to make dough today because my starter looked ready, including the look of it, the fact it doubled while I was sleeping, and it passed the float test. But I do not think it's ready. What was left in the jar, I discarded most of it and fed it. Hours later, I just decided to culture the starter with dry active yeast. I also put yeast in the sad lil dough. Sad lil dough is in the garage where it's cool to proof while I'm sleeping. I will bake it in the morning and see what happens. I also made another starter. 45 g all purpose flour and 45 g water in a pint jar. Thick and pasty but I will add more water tomorrow if it needs it. So, Day 1 of my second starter.

#baking #sourdough #starter #first sourdough attempt #bread

[stitchitup]

Today the starter still had some of its aged cheese smell, but joined by a very strong solvent smell. I purged some of it and stirred in more flour.

#baking #sourdough #starter

[stitchitup]

It's Day 3 of my sourdough starter. (I started it the same day I baked that regular loaf.) I put 1/4 cup of unbleached all-purpose flour in a pint jar and 1/4 cup (or so; I eyed it) of water in a pint jar. The next day, I poured the liquid component off the top of it and fed it a spoonful of flour. But unthinkingly, I gave it self-raising (or self-rising) flour instead of all-purpose. I also moved it to a quart jar, and it was a good thing I did. After about twelve hours, I checked on it, and it had tripled or quadrupled in size. It looked beautiful. It smelled like aged cheese and chemicals with undertones of buttermilk.

The Internet said that this indicated that the starter was hungry, so I gave it another spoonful of flour, this time, all-purpose. Twelve hours later, same thing, Huge rise. Very sharp aged cheese smell.

Further research indicated that very young starters go through a phase like this when they are still getting their bearings. The bacteria flourishes first, all kinds of bacteria, then the Lactobacillus makes enough lactic acid to kill off other bacteria. Then the yeast swoop in and start to colonize the starter. Acidic environment encourages yeast, basic environment encourages bacteria.

I also looked up: I accidentally put self-raising flour in my sourdough starter. Someone on Reddit said it would lower the pH.

I remembered a couple of years ago watching some YouTube videos and reading the Wikipedia article about salt-rising bread, where Appalachian people and pioneers would make a starter with bacteria instead of yeast. So I looked it up again. The main difference is that they would keep the starter somewhere warm, like in a box on the wood stove. As opposed to keeping sourdough starter somewhere cool.

A characteristic of the salt-rising starter is that it balloons quickly, within hours rather than days.

The YouTube cooks, as well as the websites that I read, (which the YouTubers obviously also read, because it was all the same story,) said that commercial yeast wasn't available, so old country people had to invent this new starter to leaven their bread. Well, I don't buy this because they had exactly the same access to wild yeast that people always had. So there was some other reason to invent this bacterial starter.

And I figure that reason was that they needed to bake but didn't have a week to wait on sourdough starter to mature, so they thought, "If I put the dough in a warm place it rises faster, so maybe if I put the starter in a warm place it will rise faster." And it did. It wasn't the same, but it worked.

I found an article where a contemporary baker of salt-rising bread described the smell of the starter as sharp aged cheese, and said that it can be very off-putting to some people.

One YouTube cook mentioned her family member putting baking soda in the salt-rising starter.

So I figure I accidentally started out with salt-rising starter. The self-raising flour did chemically what the elevated temperature does. When it was quadrupled and beautiful, I could have used it as leavening.

Maybe later, though. Since I've been feeding it all-purpose flour, it has not risen so quickly. It is starting to now, and it's aged cheese smell is mellowing out, and it's starting to have a more yeasty smell. So, I think I augmented (or sped up?) its awkward bacterial phase. Hopefully it's back on course now.

#baking #bread #sourdough #sourdough starter #starter troubleshooting #salt rising bread #starter

[stitchitup]

I made a loaf of bread and it was excellent. I used the same dough as with the dinner rolls, except that I only used about a tablespoon of sugar to get the yeast going, I used bacon fat instead of olive oil because I had it there, and when I folded the dough during the proofing, I folded it more times. The pan I used was about 9x3 inches. I baked it for 12 minutes. I put a second pan in the oven that had a little water in it because I saw some people on YouTube doing that to keep the loaf from drying out. I'm not sure how much it contributed to the outcome. I might do one later without it to see if the crust is appreciably softer with it.

#bread #baking #loaf #yeasted bread

[stitchitup]

I made a second batch of dinner rolls and these came out identical to the others, so I know for sure my success was not from luck, but from getting the process right. This is amazing. I have always wanted to make bread and have it turn out delicious, but most of my efforts have been very poor quality. This is a gift from Heaven.

I got some old loaf pans out of my storage building and cleaned them up with baking soda. I am going to make whole loaves next. I want these breads to be less sweet than the dinner rolls, so I will only use enough sugar to get the yeast started. I still want to have very wet dough and fold it instead of knead it so it will also be fluffy and soft.

#baking #bread #dinner rolls #yeasted bread

[stitchitup]

Dinner Rolls

1 tablespoon / active dry yeast 1 cup / warm water 1/4 cup / sugar (divided) 1/8 cup / olive oil 1 teaspoon / salt 2+ cups / all purpose flour (divided) melted butter

Stir yeast and half of the sugar (1/8 cup) into the warm water and let it rest 5-10 minutes until bubbly.

Add yeast mixture, olive oil, salt, and the remaining sugar to about half of the flour (1 cup) and mix until evenly wet. Add 1/2 cup of flour at a time and mix until 2 cups of flour total are incorporated in the dough. Add a little more flour if it's too wet. Continue to mix until the dough stops sticking to the bowl.

Turn the dough into a greased bowl. Spin it over so the top and bottom are both coated. Cover with a cloth and let it rest for 1 to 2 hours, interrupting it twice to fold it several times.

Without punching it down, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and divide it into 16 sections. Form each section into a ball, pinching the dough together on the bottom, and arrange on a greased cookie sheet.

Allow to rest for 1 hr, then bake in a preheated oven at 375°F for 8-10 min. Spoon melted butter over the tops.

#bread #dinner rolls #recipe #baking #yeasted bread