Greetings from SFO!
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It certainly makes a nice loaf!
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I gradually put a good wheat flour in my starter. Now I just feed it with the wheat flour (the same one I bake with. I think once I took too much starter out - back when I had it in a much smaller jar - so I added back in rye flour to make sure it stayed zippy. Frankly you could probably mix your two starters together.
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Threw out the wheat starter made from the dehydrated mix. It never did anything. Keeping the rye starter.
The rye one didn鈥檛 die but it hasn鈥檛 done much either. No mold, nice smell, fluffy with bubbles but never changes size. Using bottled drinking water, 1:1:1 ratio, 95F. Now I鈥檓 intrigued. People have been doing this for 1000s of years. It鈥檚 not supposed to be this hard.
Next up - proofing box. Playmate cooler, jar of hot tap water. I can refill the jar with water when it cools off. Right now it鈥檚 sitting at 76F. Temp in house is 69F so it should never go below that.
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Thoughts on the Pullman loaf pan.
My sister spent some years as a professional baker. CIA, Etc. she always told me that cookies and such all must be made small and perfect - that only amateurs made big shaggy cookies like I did. Her breads are like your Pullman loaf, her cinnamon rolls are perfect little rounds. Very nice, very professional.
But I鈥檓 not convinced that is what I want. I鈥檓 attracted to the crusty, gnarly loaves I see on the internet. Boudin loaves were somewhere in between, but the Tartine loaf was particularly rustic.
If I ever get to the bread making stage I think I鈥檒l start there.
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I don't think I've ever met a bread I didn't like. I love the crusty sourdough breads I've been making, but I gotta tell you that Pullman sandwich loaf was wonderful in its own way. I mean, how can you have a proper egg and cress sandwich on anything but sandwich bread?
I was on the hairy edge of getting rid of all of my bread cookbooks (Bernard Clayton, Beth Hensperger, and some others) but now I'm thinking I might hang on to them and do some experimenting. So many carbs, not enough time!
One of the Clayton books has a plan for building an outdoor bread baking oven. Mr wtg would kill me.
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Starter is to the point where it will double in 24 hours.
Is it ready to bake something with or give it more time?
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https://littlespoonfarm.com/when-is-sourdough-starter-ready/
You can perform a float test to check if your starter is ready. Drop a small spoonful of the starter into a glass of water. If it floats, it indicates that the starter is sufficiently active and ready for use.
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Thanks!
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Just got back from a sourdough making class. It was fun, and the teacher, who runs the class in a big camping trailer, was excellent! We each came home with a blob of dough which we will be shaping and baking tomorrow.
We also brought home some 1847 Oregon Trail starter. Pretty cool! Let me know if you want some. She showed us how to dehydrate it so it would be easy to put some in the mail.
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Holy cow! This crazy 1847 starter, fed 1:4:4 grew so fast that it overflowed the jar in like 6 hours!
I鈥檓 throwing my starter away. Good bye Bubbles, hello John Dough!
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And if you send them a SASE they鈥檒l send you some!
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He is risen!
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It鈥檚 good! (maybe a bit too chewy)
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It sat for about an hour before I cut it. It was still warm but not all that warm.
Crust is good, interior is chewy. Thinking about it though, no more chewy than Tartine, which is supposed to be the gold standard. Baked a second loaf today as well, we each brought home a lump of dough we made in class. Baked the first loaf to 203 degrees internal temp and the second to 210 as the higher temp is supposed to help. Haven鈥檛 tried the second loaf yet. In fact, we will never eat all of this bread!
Baked in an enamel over cast iron Dutch oven (Crock Pot brand -we鈥檙e bougie like that) with parchment paper underneath to lift it. 450 degrees oven, preheated with Dutch oven in it for 45 minutes, covered for 25 minutes, uncovered after that until I hit the target internal temp - maybe another 30 minutes.
Anyway, now I have two starters - Bubbles, the one I鈥檝e been nursing from scratch, and John Dough, the Oregon Trail one. I think I鈥檒l mess with both of them and see what I get.
