Sourdough howto?

[folivier]

While in Alaska this summer we were gifted some sourdough starter while above the Arctic Circle. The old "sourdough" hard rock miner told us it was from the 1890's.
My DW has baked a couple breads that came out ok, but not quite enough sourdough taste, kinda bland, but excellent texture and nice and crusty. Very time consuming though. Did pancakes a couple times that were great especially with Birch syrup. Tried biscuits last night using a 1:1 ratio starter + flour and had too much flavor and didn't rise much.
So she's been keeping the starter going, some in the fridge and some on the counter she's feeding every day.
So those who have an "old" starter how are you maintaining it?
And how about sharing some of your excellent bread recipes and techniques?
Thanks!

 

[braumeister]

The first thing to realize is that you will never make bread like what you tasted in Alaska unless you move there. A sourdough culture contains hundreds of organisms, not just one lactobacillus, and this population has a huge number of components that are location specific.

So every time you use it, with your own flour and water, and in your own kitchen environment, the culture, and its flavor, changes to be more like what your environment favors.

Just enjoy it for what it is, and don't worry about getting that special taste from far away.

 

[justlikebike]

Not sure how long you let each step sit.
If you leave the leaven for 16 hours it will become more "sour" (flavour)
If you let the dough sit in the fridge overnight it will become more "sour" as well.
Generally I have read that there is very little difference between a 2 month old starter and a 100 year old starter.
How often do you refresh your starter? Generally mine stays in the fridge and gets refreshed weekly, with a 2 day refresh before I am making bread. Depends on your starter, some doesn't do as well in the fridge.
Do you use specific bread flour? All purpose isn't the best for baking bread.

 

[cathy63]

I've been baking from Ken Forkish's book "Flour Water Salt Yeast" lately, and really enjoying the results. All his recipes are high hydration, long rise, no knead. They're baked in a dutch oven to trap the steam and get a good crisp crust.

I'd recommend getting his book (before I bought it I borrowed it as an e-book from the public library) and just reading his essay about how the overnight rise develops flavor.

I'll try to remember to post a photo of my next loaf.

 

[braumeister]

Here is a good basic recipe that is pretty foolproof:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup fully fed sourdough starter (a starter that has been fed in the previous 4 to 8 hours and is at its peak of frothiness)
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 to 1¼ cups water

Mix together all ingredients with a fork until well-integrated. The dough should be cohesive and slightly sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 12 to 18 hours, until it has doubled in volume and has some air bubbles on the top surface of the dough. Sprinkle a piece of parchment paper lightly with flour, cornmeal or wheat bran. Lightly dust the dough with flour and gather into a ball, pinching it at the bottom to create a seal. Place ball, seal-side down, on the dusted portion of the parchment paper and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise at room temperature for three to four hours, until it has doubled in size.

Place a large, heavy-bottom pot that has a lid (a Dutch oven is ideal) in an oven and heat it to 500 degrees. Score the dough with a sharp knife according to a pattern of your choice. Lift the edges of the parchment paper and lower the dough into the pot. Cover and place in oven. Lower the temperature to 450 degrees and bake for a half-hour. Remove lid and continue baking for 15 more minutes, until the bread is golden brown. Immediately remove the bread from the pot and discard the parchment paper. Cool on a rack before slicing.

 

[audreyh1]

Back when I was a bread baker, I had great luck with the King Arthur yeast cultures that were designed for very long cool rises. Awesome bread. They also had a decent sourdough starter. We used that more for pancakes and crumpets.

 

[splitwdw]

OP, What braumeister said in post #2 is true. Only thing I would add is make sure you are not using any metal to store or stir your sourdough starter. Most of the characteristics are coming from your environment. I was amazed that I could make a sourdough starter from scratch so fast. I either read in a book or another baker said it may have been because I already made yeast bread and that there was "yeast" in the air from previous baking. I do buy local ground flour but I've also used all-purpose flour from food store. You'll see a different in the texture and the rise time depending on what flour you use. I make free form loaves on a stone and on half sheet cake pans so my doughs are not sticky. The dough would spread too much. For sticky doughs you really need a pan. I don't really have recipes for breads. If I want cinnamon bread, I add cinnamon. You do have to plan ahead to make sourdough but you can always throw together a regular yeast pack bread if you feel like baking. There's nothing like fresh baked bread and people don't realize how easy it is. I do use a stand mixer for most of the mixing and kneading but do the finish kneading by hand. I usually make 3 loaves at a time and give 2 away.

 

[KB]

I used Farmhouseonboone.com to learn how to make my own starter. She has quite a few recipes also, a little more rustic but good to get the amounts of starter to use.

I keep my starter in the fridge and feed it a day or two before I use it. Usually recipes call for 1/2 to 1 cup of starter and then let sit for 8 to 24 hours to develop flavor. If you have a colder house, let sit for the longer time. My breads seems to taste better when they sit longer.

I found a Youtube site called Artisanbreadwithstev where he has a number of breads he bakes in a dutch oven. I've tried a few and they were great.

 

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

I had relatives who were Klondike 'sourdough' gold-miners [1890-1910], I was taught as a teenager to gather wild yeast spore and to make bread from it.

If you focus on depending on store-bought cultured yeast then you can only make bread until your yeast runs out.

The Bible forbids culturing yeasts, commanding that all yeasts be thrown out once a year and our houses cleaned of their spores.
Exodus 12:14-20,
Exodus 13:1-13,
Leviticus 23:5-6 we are to start with fresh caught wild yeast every year.

Knowing that God forbids it, we figured that there must be some health reason behind prohibiting it.

My wife began looking at this closely to figure out why the Bible forbids culturing yeasts. It turns out the reason is that it reduces diabetes in the community.

modern cultured 'fast-yeasts' [which make our soft 'wonder bread'] causes your glycemic index/blood sugars to spike driving your insulin to perform a roaster-coaster effect. 'Slow-yeasts' produce a glycemic neutral bread, that do not spike your blood sugar, so your insulin does not do it's roaster-coaster ride. The idea being that with the advent of wonder bread diabetes has risen in our culture. Slow yeasts on the other hand, do not mess with your insulin. So maybe they would help people to avoid becoming diabetic.

In a sourdough batch, the wild yeasts will populate the lump in a much higher population density [meaning there is much more yeast present].
It is also 'slow bread' the wild yeasts take their time to munch the flour to get more of the sugars out from within the flour cell structure.

A healthy young person can withstand daily glycemic roller coasters, but over time it leads to diabetes.

Most people do not care about their blood sugar levels, until after they become diabetic.

In full disclosure, neither my wife nor myself are diabetic.

I gather fresh sourdough yeast in the Spring.

 

[folivier]

Had to google capturing wild yeast because in my mind I kept envisioning someone sneaking through the woods with a tiny butterfly net trying to catch little yeasties as they run through the underbrush. LOL
Interesting thoughts on the diabetes issue and slow rise natural yeast breads being better for you.

 

[Spock]

Some corner cases that fanatics take into consideration:
1. don't use city tap water (chlorinated)
2. avoid bleached floor (some say traces of bleaching agents (including chlorine) remain in the flour).
3. GMO: meh. decide for yourself if a plant that produces its own herbicide/insecticide/etc is going to be good for yeast cultures.
4. Organic. Again a personal choice. For something "exotic" like a decades old sourdough culture... why not? Go all out and buy it directly from some NE/OK/KS organic wheat farmer.

 

[cathy63]

Some corner cases that fanatics take into consideration:
1. don't use city tap water (chlorinated) ...

I actually do find this to be a problem in my area. If I feed a levain with water straight from the tap it takes about twice as long to rise. Eventually the yeast will overcome it, but it's really slow. Using water that's been boiled and cooled or put through a Brita filter gives much better results in my kitchen.