Greetings from SFO!
-
Ove Gloves are the BEST. Cold start is the best! Yes, once you realize it’s pretty hard to screw up, it seems so simple! It took my homemade starter longer than I thought it would to really get going. I tried a loaf of bread before it was really ready. The biggest realization for me was that you could make sandwich bread and pizza dough same day with a spent starter. It will rise, it just takes a little longer, I put mine in the oven on the proof setting, with the light turned on. (Turning the light on heat the oven up really well. HOWEVER - I’m finding that the texture of the bread and the pizza dough are just a tad nicer - bigger more uneven holes - if you start with a starter that is a little more bubbly.
I also don’t weigh anything now - and I half-assed measure - for my sandwich bread dough and pizza dough, 3/4 cup water, as much salt as you like (1-2 t) about 3/4 cup starter, and about 2.5 - 3 cups flour (totally depends on how wet my starter is). Plus 2 T honey (sandwich loaf) or 2T olive oil (pizza dough). I toss all but about 1 cup of the flour into the stand mixer and turn it on, adding the ret of the flour slowly til I have a dough that doesn’t stick to the sides, total stand mixer 5 - 8 minutes. Then into the greased pan or a bowl to proof. Sandwich bread bakes at 350 for 35 minutes. Pizza at 435 on parchment paper on a preheated baking stone for about 15. I do the stretch and fold stuff if I’m going to overnight proof and bake a round loaf in the Dutch oven.
-
Sandwich loaf gets an egg yolk/water wash before going into the oven. I still haven’t found the best proofing cover for it - I use another loaf pan upside down - but if I don’t catch it before it touches the top it sticks, and I loose the round top - and the loaf ends up a little flatter (doesn’t matter other than looks). I need something i can overturn over the entire loaf pan (that I set on a cookie sheet). Like a much bigger loaf pan.
-
-
Sandwich loaf gets an egg yolk/water wash before going into the oven. I still haven’t found the best proofing cover for it - I use another loaf pan upside down - but if I don’t catch it before it touches the top it sticks, and I loose the round top - and the loaf ends up a little flatter (doesn’t matter other than looks). I need something i can overturn over the entire loaf pan (that I set on a cookie sheet). Like a much bigger loaf pan.
@Jodi said in Greetings from SFO!:
I still haven’t found the best proofing cover for it
Hey, look what I stumbled upon! It's for baking but would work as a proofing cover...though it's pretty pricey...
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/introducing-baking-sourdough-bread-with-the-baking-shell/
-
History of bread - starting 12000 BC! It’s an hour long but I learned a lot!
Link to videoI want this guy’s job.
-
Hey @Jodi - would something like this work as a proofing cover? They come in different sizes; not sure if this one is tall enough.
-
I forgot you have a proofing feature on your oven.
Maybe you can find an old Weber Smoky Joe somewhere and use the lid. Not sure how to get the smoky smell out, though.
Or maybe this, if you're up for a long drive....
https://kalispell.craigslist.org/tag/d/kalispell-toy-weber-grill/7826117053.html
j/k...that looks like plastic, too....
-
Yesterday I fed a bit of my starter some rye flour as an experiment. Holy cow! @Jodi was right...
The jar was half full and it spent the night in the frig. It's almost up to the top and I'll have to find a bigger jar!
Will let it develop for a while and try it in my next loaf of bread in a few days.
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
-
The rye bread recipe that I use is 2 parts of regular flour to one part dark rye (I use Bob's Red Mill). Definitely a lot stickier than an all-bread flour loaf, but worth the extra work.
I've looked at Lithuanian rye bread recipes but haven't tackled any yet. Mostly rye and very dense.
https://theryebaker.com/black-rye-breadjuoda-rugine-duona-lithuania/
What I grew up on. Wonder Bread was a shock the first time I had it...
-
Yesterday I fed a bit of my starter some rye flour as an experiment. Holy cow! @Jodi was right...
The jar was half full and it spent the night in the frig. It's almost up to the top and I'll have to find a bigger jar!
Will let it develop for a while and try it in my next loaf of bread in a few days.
@wtg said in Greetings from SFO!:
Yesterday I fed a bit of my starter some rye flour as an experiment. Holy cow! @Jodi was right...
The jar was half full and it spent the night in the frig. It's almost up to the top and I'll have to find a bigger jar!
Will let it develop for a while and try it in my next loaf of bread in a few days.
I put it in a jar that is twice as big and it's up to the top already and way more bubbly than I've ever seen starter. Nice sour smell. Will probably throw together a loaf on Sunday and will bake on Monday. Can't wait.
-
Sandwich loaf. This time I managed to catch it before it stuck to the top bread pan. I make them smaller, so they don’t rise that much over the top. Put 1/3 cup rye flour in with the rest. And proofed it more slowly today on the counter, in our fairly cool kitchen (67 degrees) instead of in the oven - made it at 8:30 am, and baked at 5pm.
-
Looks delish!!
I used my rye-fed starter today. I used my usual recipe (I weigh everything) and the dough is extremely sticky. I finally gave up and kneaded in some additional bread flour and got it to something I could at least handle. It's rising again. I'll see how it looks in a couple of hours. If it's risen reasonably, I'll form the loaf and put the proofing basket in the frig overnight and then bake tomorrow morning.
I tried a little of the dough and it is SOUR. Can't wait to see how it bakes up. I made corned beef today so it could chill overnight for easier slicing and hoping upon hope that I have a successful loaf so we can have corned beef sandwiches tomorrow for lunch.
-
Do you guys put salt in your starter?
I’ve read that it makes the starter more sturdy - they call it “training the starter”.
