.Sourdough.

Sourdough from Make it and Bake it

Sourdough bread is bread made without added yeast. By making a "starter" in which wild yeast can grow, the sourdough baker can raise bread naturally, as mankind did for thousands and thousands of years before a packet of yeast was an available convenience at the local market. Not all sourdough is sour-tasting; Amish Friendship Bread and other types of live-yeast breads are also sourdough.

There are only a few simple steps to becoming a sourdough baker. First, you must create a starter: This is a bubbly batter that you keep in your fridge. The starter is mixed into a dough, and it causes the bread to rise. Bake and serve. Yum!

Creating Your Starter

Sourdough "starter" is a batter of flour and water, filled with living yeast and bacteria. The yeast and bacteria form a stable symbiotic relationship, and (as long as you keep the starter fed) can live for centuries, a thriving colony of micro-organisms. To make sourdough bread, you blend the starter with some flour and make dough. The yeast propagates, and leavens your bread. This is how you make your starter:

Select a container that your "pet" will live in. A wide-mouthed glass jar is best. A small crock with a loose lid is also great; these can be bought in cheap sets for serving soup. You can also use a Tupperware container. I've begun starters using the plastic containers that take-out Chinese soup comes in, and then transferred them to jars later! A wide-mouthed mayonnaise or pickle jar will also do just fine. Metallic containers are a bad idea; some of them are reactive and can ruin your starter!

Blend a cup of warm water and a cup of flour, and pour it into the jar. That's the whole recipe! I find that whole wheat flour makes a vigorous "starting point" for starter, and I suggest you give it a try. Whole wheat flour also makes good "food" for the starter (more on feeding it soon).

Every 24 Hours, Feed the Starter. You should keep the starter in a warm place; 20-25 degrees  is perfect. This allows the yeast already present in the flour (and in the air) to grow rapidly. Temperatures hotter than 32 degrees or so will kill it. You can take comfort from the fact that almost nothing else will do so! The way you feed the starter is to (A) throw away half of it and then (B) add a half-cup of flour and a half-cup of water. Do this every 24 hours. Within three or four days (it can take longer, a week or more, and it can happen more quickly) you should start getting lots of bubbles and a sour smell. The starter may start to puff up, too. This is good. When your starter develops a bubbly froth on top, it is done. You have succeeded

Refrigerate the Starter. Keep the starter in your fridge, with a lid on it. Airtight is fine, but mostly airtight is better. If you're using a mayo or pickle jar, punch a hole in the lit with a nail, that kind of thing. Once the starter is chilled, it needs to be fed only once a week. Realistically, you can get away with less; it's important to remember that your starter is a colony of life-forms that are almost impossible to kill (except with extreme heat). Even starving them is difficult.

Care and Feeding: Hooch

Aside from weekly feeding, the only other thing you need to worry about is hooch. Hooch is a layer of watery liquid (often dark) that contains alcohol. It smells a bit like beer, because it is a bit like beer - but don't drink it! Hooch builds up in your starter, especially in the fridge. Just pour it off or stir it back in. It doesn't hurt anything. If your starter is looking dry, stir it back in. If your starter is plenty wet, pour it off. Just remember that hooch is nothing to worry about!

Sourdough Baking Step One: Proofing the Sponge

Several hours before you plan to make your dough (recipe below), you need to make a sponge. A "sponge" is just another word for a bowl of warm, fermented batter. This is how you make your sponge.

Take your starter out of the fridge. Pour it into a large glass or plastic bowl. Meanwhile, wash the jar and dry it. You may also wish to pour boiling water over it, since you don't want other things growing in there with your pet!

Add a cup of warm water and a cup of flour to the bowl. Stir well, and set it in a warm place for several hours. This is called "proofing," another word for fermenting.

Watch for Froth and and Sniff. When your sponge is bubbly and has a white froth, and it smells a little sour, it is ready. The longer you let the sponge sit, the more sour flavor you will get.

The proofing-time varies. Some starters can proof up to frothiness in an hour or two. Some take 6-8 hours! Just experiment and see how long yours takes. If you're going to bake in the morning, set your sponge out to proof overnight.

Sourdough Baking Step Two: The Actual Recipe

Of course, there are a lot of recipes for sourdough bread. There are also recipes for sourdough rolls, sourdough pancakes, sourdough pretzels, sourdough bagels, and probably sourdough saltines for all I know. This is the basic recipe I use, though, and it's simple and makes a fine bread. You'll need the following:

First, let's talk about leftover sponge. You should have some. The leftover sponge is your starter for next time: Put it into the jar, and give it a fresh feed of a half-cup each of flour and warm water. Keep it in the fridge as above; you'll have starter again next time.

Now, for the recipe: To the sponge, add the sugar, salt, and oil (the oil is optional - you can use softened butter instead, or no oil at all). Mix well, then knead in the flour a half-cup at a time. Knead in enough flour to make a good, flexible bread dough. You can do this with an electric mixer, a bread machine on "dough cycle," or a food processor. You can also do it with a big bowl and your bare hands.

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Making a Sourdough Starter (with Yeast)

Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water. Add sugar vinegar, salt, all purpose flour. Add remaining water until a creamy batter is formed. Place in a glass bowl, cover and let sit until it starts to ferment. About 3 days. It will take on a powerful boozy smell. Stir again until creamy and measure out what is called for in the recipe.
Replenish starter with equal amounts of flour and water.
Store in the fridge and bring to room temp before using.
It says to allow to ferment for one week between uses but I don't. I do let it sit out overnight after I feed it. This starter took about 1 1/2 months to become really sour.

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RECIPES

Best Bread Machine Sourdough

1/2 Cup Water -- warm

1 Cup Sourdough Starter

2 1/4 Cups Bread Flour

1 Tablespoon Sugar

1 Tablespoon Oil

1 Teaspoon Salt

3/4 Tablespoon Yeast

Place ingredients in order in bread machine. Makes large loaf in most machines. Use quick setting, if it rises too long, it gets flats This is the best sourdough for bread machine that I have ever tried.

Carl's Sourdough Bread

• 1 cup Sourdough starter

• 1 cup Oatmeal -- dry

• 2 cups Warm water

• 1/4 cup Wheat germ

• 1/4 cup Dried milk or buttermilk

• 1/4 cup Oat bran -- dry

• 1 tablespoon Canola oil

• 1/4 cup Wheat bran

• 1 teaspoon Yeast

• 1/4 cup Soy flour

• 1/4 cup Honey (optional)

• 2 tablespoons Sugar

• 6 cups Bread flour

• 1 teaspoon Salt

• 1 cup Whole wheat flour

• 2 teaspoons Baking soda

• 1/4 cup Gluten flour

The night before, mix starter and warm milk and 2 C bread flour, and place in warm draft free place over night. (I use the oven with the light turned on - stays about 85 degrees).  Next morning, mix very slowly yeast and 1 T sugar with 3 T warm water and set aside till foamy.
Grand oatmeal into flour in blender. Add oil, yeast, honey, whole wheat flour. Sprinkle salt and baking soda over batter and stir lightly. Let sit for 30 - 50 min till bubbly and has risen to near double. Add wheat germ, wheat bran, oat bran, oatmeal, soy, gluten flour, and bread flour till won't take any more. Place on floured board and knead 5 min till silky smooth and elastic. Place in bowl in draft free place till double in size. Knead again and shape.
FOR LOAVES: Shape into 2 or 3 loaves, and set aside till rise to full size. Place skillet or large pan in bottom of oven, place 3 C water in pan for steam. Bake bread 225 for 20 min, reduce heat to 190 for 20 min, then place on rack to cool.
 

Molasses Sourdough Pumpernickel Bread

• 2 tablespoons Butter

• 2 cups Milk

• 1 1/2 teaspoons Salt

• 1/2 cup Dark molasses

• 2 cups Sourdough starter*

• 1/3 cup Brown sugar -- firmly packed

• 1 1/2 cups Whole-bran cereal

• 4 cups Rye flour

• 5 1/2 cups All-purpose flour

• 1 Egg yolk mixed w/1 tb water

In a pan melt the butter, stir in the milk, salt and molasses. Add the 2 cups of sourdough starter sponge, bran cereal, rye flour and 2 cups of the all-purpose flour. Beat until very well blended. Now work in the rest of the flour as needed to knead the dough until smooth and elastic. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead for about 10 minutes. Put into a well-greased bowl, cover and let rise until double in size. Punch down dough. Grease a couple of cookie sheets.
Make dough into 3 round loaves. Flatten them slightly. Let rise again until double in size. With a sharp knife cut 1/2-inch slashes on top of each loaf. Brush with the egg yolk mixture.
Bake in a 180 degrees Celsius oven for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

* Take starter out of refrigerator the night before. Put 2 cups water in a large bowl, add the original starter and 2 cups of flour and 1 tablespoon sugar. Mix well. Cover and let set overnight. Next morning take out the original starter and return it to the refrigerator for future use. Use what is left in the bowl for your bread.

Sourdough Pumpernickel

• 1 1/2 cups Active Sourdough Starter

• 2 tablespoons Caraway Seeds -- Chopped

• 2 cups Unsifted Rye Flour

• 1/2 cup Boiling Black Coffee

• 1/2 cup Molasses

• 1/4 cup Dry Skim Milk

• 2 teaspoons Salt

• 3 tablespoons Melted Shortening

• 1/2 cup Whole Milk

• 2 3/4 cups Unbleached Flour

• 1 package Active Dry Yeast

Pour boiling coffee over chopped caraway seeds. Let the mixture cool and then add it to the rye flour and starter which have previously been mixed well. Let stand for 4 to 8 hours in a warm place, preferably overnight.
Then add the molasses, dry milk, salt, shortening, liquid milk, unbleached flour and yeast. Mix well. Cover the bowl and let rise to double. Then knead on floured board and shape into two round loaves on baking sheet. Let rise until double again and bake at 180 degrees for 30 minutes or until done.

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