Sourdough day

We are all yeast wranglers, anybody else do sourdough?

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No, but that looks really good.

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I’ve thought about it but never got up the energy to get a starter going. Maybe I should do some reading and give it a try. Have a good reference for how to start out?

I follow mostly what’s in the Tartine Bread book. For a starter, 1/2 cup white flour, 1/2 cup wheat flour, 4 Oz warm water. Every couple of days, toss out 3/4 of it and add again, same amounts of flour and water. Takes maybe 2 weeks until you have a reliable starter.

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Never done a sourdough starter, but have done starters for my ciabatta and other breads. These are generally only overnight starters.

Your loaf looks fantastic…

Thanks… the two weeks is just to get a reliable starter going. At that point, I refresh it at night to use part of it the next morning. So it really is kind of an overnight starter.

I use to have one ready, lately no…:disappointed: I enjoyed the pancakes, riddled with baking soda, so bubbly, light… I used a recipe from Ruth Allman, and that was made from boiled potatoes, jackets and all! Since it was a living mixture I named mine Herby! I’ll be willing to bet a dozen sourdough donuts, Pork Chop will chime in, and verify he’s culturing one! So, is it a lacto family? Sneezles61

There should be lacto in there… wheat is filthy with the critters. It’s fun to smell as a starter goes from floury to yeasty to sour to acetone, then back again.

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Hence the name SOUR dough! Wife says she’s too busy to tend to one now… Netflix and Facebook… :confounded: Sneezles61

I did years ago, before I started brewing. But it got to be a bit of a pain in the butt maintaining the starter. And I didn’t always want sourdough bread. Sometimes one wants a nice rye or anadama or focaccia or just a plain baguette.

Just started making bread recently. Mostly make a simple no knead rustic crusty loaf but I started buiding up a sourdough starter a couple weeks ago. Did an easy sourdough loaf from it after a week. It was pretty good but not enough sourdough flavor. Decided to try a more complicated adaptatoin of a Tartine bread recipe. Just pulled the loaves out to cool. They look awesome but man what a process…

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The one trick I’ve found is to time your starter around when you start the loaf. As a starter develops, it goes from yeasty to sour. So options can be:

Refresh starter, wait for five hours, then start the loaf with it- results in a milder flavored loaf

Refresh starter, wait 12 hours- Sourer. This is how I like mine.

Refresh starter, wait 24 hours- Very sour.

You’re right, though, that Tartine process is a commitment. I’ve streamlined some of it (a much shorter bench rest, and doing a shorter final rise), but it’s still an all day process.

Baking soda, ever try add that? We did would mix up like a teaspoon to a small amount of water, for pancakes anyway, it was like a natural sweetener, no sugar needed, and the the reaction… very foamy, light ,bubbly stuff. Sneezles61