bread for the table

[Pauls]

Anyone who eats bread knows that the only way to make sure you will have it is to bake your own.
Most recipes have eggs, yeast and milk as ingredients but there is one bread that doesn't use any of those.
SOURDOUGH!

here is how to get started:

You will need:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup warm water (80 - 100 F)

In a clean (sterile) glass jar mix flour and water.
Cover it loosely with plastic wrap or cheese cloth.
Let it sit in a warm place (80 to 90 F) for 24 hours - stirring it occasionally.

The next day add another 1/2 cup of flour and another 1/2 cup warm water.
cover loosely and stir it occasionally. Put it back in the warm place and let it sit for 24 hours.

Take half the mixture and place it in another clean glass jar.
Add 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup warm water to each.
Cover them both and let them sit in a warm place for 24 hours.

on the 4th day you might see bubbles - that means your starter is alive and doing well. Keep it warm and stir it. Keep it covered lightly - it has to breathe so don't smother it.
If no bubbles are seen it just means that the starter is just slower. Let it sit in a warm place lightly covered until it starts to bubble.

By day 6 it should be bubbling and it is time to feed it. You can take 1/2 cup from each jar (a total of 1 cup) and make some hotcakes or rolls with it and add 1/2 cup flour and warm water to each jar.
Stir it well to mix some air in with the flour and water. Keep it warm until it starts to bubble. Cover both jars and place one in the fridge. Let the other sit on the counter overnight.

(placing one in the fridge will slow the growth of the yeast and encourage the growth of another bacteria that makes it sour. The one on the counter you will use to make your first bread)

Let the counter jar work until there are few bubbles forming - this means it is hungry and you need to feed it.

Take a deep breath and relax. Making sourdough is an exercise in patience.
Your first loaf will be in the next installment of this series.

[Pauls]

The starter you made using the previous post will last a lifetime and provide you with many different types of bread.

I will begin with a loaf bread that requires just flour, water and salt. It is the "basic" sourdough recipe from which you can make french bread, olive loaf, cheese, and garlic bread.
It does not take a lot of work to make bread by hand (and less work using a bread machine) but it does take some planning and patience. Sourdough is faster when the temps are warm, 80 to 100 F is best for fast rise times but you can do this at any temperature with which you are comfortable.

Sourdough basics
NEVER use metal or reactive utensils when working with sourdough starter.
Once you start making bread or anything from your starter you can use metal utensils.

Basic Sourdough Bread:
The night before add 1 cup of flour and warm water to your starter.
The next morning remove ½ cup starter and return it to your jar. Add ½ cup of flour and water to feed it and then store it covered but not tightly – it is alive and must breathe.

1 1/2 cup “proofed” starter
1 cup warm water
1 ½ teaspoons salt
3 ¼ cups flour

Mix the flour and salt together and wisk to make it uniform.

Add the starter and warm water (you want a “tacky” dough so add flour or water to get the desired results.

Let the dough rise in a greased bowl (use a large bowl) at room temperature. (this can take overnight but usually only takes a couple of hours in a warm kitchen)

Dust the dough in the bowl with flour and punch it down.
Turn the dough onto a floured work area and knead well. (dust with flour as necessary
Place in a greased loaf pan, cover and let it double in size.
You can slice the top with a very sharp knife to allow the top to expand once it has risen.
Preheat the oven to 375F. Bake for 1 hour. (less time for softer crust)
Brush on melted butter or extra light olive oil after it has baked for 45 minutes.
For a softer crust you can baste it with water after the first half hour and every ten minutes after that. (you can use a spray bottle which makes the basting go quicker)

Remove from the oven, baste the crust with butter and cover the loaf while it cools. This will help soften the crust. Once it is cool enough you can place it in a ziplock bag to keep it soft.

[dutch16]

I was just reading about sourdough bread in book by Edwin Tunis (?) Thanks for the info!

[Baglady]

Paul? What kind of flour are you using?

[Montana Rancher]

Great post

[Coppertop]

Thanks for the info, I do mine a little different but I like learning new and different things.

[Pauls]

Paul? What kind of flour are you using?

Baglady,
I use hard red wheat and grind the flour myself but in the past I have use regular all purpose flour and it has been fine.
The only time you need to be careful is when you want to switch flour types. The new flour should be introduced incrementally over time so as not to shock the yeast that is specific to the flour you are using.

[Baglady]

Thanks. When you say yeast, since these are "yeast-less" recipes, am I to understand there is enough natural occuring yeast in the flour?

[RWalls]

Good post! Thanks!

[Pauls]

Thanks. When you say yeast, since these are "yeast-less" recipes, am I to understand there is enough natural occuring yeast in the flour?

Baglady,
There are two schools of thought on where the yeast originates. One says that the yeast is in the flour, but then processed flour that has been bleached would not work, and the other school contests that the yeast is in the air, which would explain why the bleached flour works as well as my own ground wheat flour. The process of making the starter simply allows the yeast to grow and multiply so that it saturates the flour - water mixture. Once established the yeast is sustained by feeding with more flour and water.

In my mind it doesn't matter where the yeast comes from as much as getting it concentrated enough to cause the bread (or whatever you care to make) to rise.

Yes, the yeast is in the culture, that we call the starter and it grows in the rising process of making the dough for whatever you are making. I have seen many recipes for sourdough that use packaged yeast. I have always totally ignored those recipes because, while they do make a lighter bread, they are not true sourdough breads.

I am not real good at making bread - mine are not consistent - but I love to experiment and let the dough dictate the time table in the baking process. As I said earlier, sourdough is an exercise in patience. You have to allow the bread to dictate the time table or it will not work. It always takes longer in the winter months than it does in the summer months because my kitchen is cooler in the winter. The results are usually "tangier" in the winter because the the longer it takes to rise the more the secondary bugs do their work. I think it is another kind of yeast or bacteria that turns the alcohol into vinegar or something that makes the bread tangy.

[Baglady]

Our kitchen is cooler in the winter too, since the wood heater is in the LR. That was one of the things I was thinking about when I read your recipes. And unless we have our grandson here, we don't care if the wood burns out in the night, so we don't have a constant warm place for 24 or 48 hours.
I do love sourdough tho! Thanks.