Have you ever made your own sourdough /ck/? I really want to try and get away from the store bread and I want a baking challenge.
I make a pseudo-sourdough in my breadmaker. It gets the sour flavor from powdered milk and plain yogurt. It's delicious when warm and slathered with butter.
get the book Flour, water, salt, yeast by Forkish. I pulled it off torrents in e book . Follow the levain method and you will be making amazing sourdough.
I did it, ate it and shitted like a hose for two days.
I just started making it a few weeks ago, I make a loaf every week or so.
But I started the starter with a little bit of packaged yeast: I proofed the yeast for pizza dough but couldn't get all the "foam" or residue out of the proofing container so I just added water and flour to that, and a little bit of whey from yogurt to make the starter.
I also don't measure much when I am baking bread, so the loaves tend to turn out kind of dense. I'm sure if I'll get more exacting later on, but I for now like how easy it is to feed the starter once a week, rise some dough for a few hours or overnight, bake it, voila bread.
I'm not the person to ask if you want to bake like a chef, but I can tell you it's pretty easy to get started.
>>7714151
use a digital scale.
Took me one year to learn how to start and grow the fucking culture. Definitively was a challenge.
>>7713573
I've been baking sourdough bread weekly for years, with small breaks every now and then when I move or lose my starter.
I've found that you need to be on a pretty exact routine with it, otherwise either your levain will fail or your bread will fail.
My routine is this, mostly dictated by me 8-4 job:
I keep my starter in the fridge. Three days before I bake, I pull it out of the fridge and rest it on the counter for about 8 hours. The next morning, I refresh the starter with water and flour. That evening it'll be ready to kneed into my bread, retaining some for refreshing...this goes back into the fridge. I rise the bread 3-4 hours that night. I proof the loaf in the fridge over night. I take it out and rest it to room temp on the counter after work the next days, and bake it around 9pm.
After years of experience, I can do everything from french boules and batards, german and polish ryes, pizza dough, and even sourdough croissants. There is alot of prep work and good timing involved, and I always try to do my routine weekly, even if I don't feel like it....the bread is excellent and I know if I skip a week I'll have to work harder to keep my sourdough going.
>>7714202
Also, I exclusively use the book "Bread Alone: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe's Best Artisan Bakers" by Daniel Leader.
The recipes work great for me and I've never felt the need to use another book.
>>7714202
>pizza dough
love me some 'go style sour dough 'za right now
>>7714202
all I do is make a 100% hydration starter, which I keep in the fridge. whenever I want bread, I putt out the tub, pour in a bunch of flour and water to make a large glob of 100% hydration dough, let it ferment for several hours or until doubled in size.
Then I knead in enough flour to reduce the hydration, put in baking pans, and let rise. sometimes I put the loafs in a warm oven with some boiling water to help them rise. the loaves are ready to bake at night some time. This all takes 1 day. Not 3 days.
>>7713785
you disgust me
