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’t die but it hasn’t 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’m intrigued. People have been doing this for 1000s of years. It’s 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’s 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’m not convinced that is what I want. I’m 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’ll 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!
