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Posts in Category: Sourdough

Sourdough Potato Bread – Adding sourdough to an existing recipe

On April 22, 2017 4 Comments - Bread Recipes, Contains Potato, Sourdough, Yeast

This is a recipe I developed yesterday with Pam Beach. This was an interesting example of taking my potato bread recipe and integrating sourdough starter. This is not as complicated as it sounds. If you look at my sourdough starter directions, I use a 100% hydration formula meaning the starter is equal weight of flour of water. WEIGHT – not volume. You really need a scale to do this. (As I said to Pam – get over it 🙂 )

There are two kinds of sourdough recipes: ones without any commercial yeast and those that use commercial yeast also. This is the later. The purpose of the starter is to act as the sponge for additional flavour. This makes the recipe quick as dough rises slowly when it relies on the starter yeast only.

First Leaven Sourdough Recipe

On January 11, 2017 2 Comments - Bread Recipes, Sourdough

Leaven Timeline 7:10

The First Sourdough Recipe used a combination of the wild yeast in the sourdough starter and some commercial yeast. This recipe is good for when your starter is not mature yet. The sourdough is acting mainly as a poolish or pre-ferment to give more taste and flavour to the loaf. Now my starter, Fido, is getting very feisty and bold. Twelve hours after a feeding, it has doubled in size and is very frothy. Another difference is time. This recipe takes 7+ hours while adding some commercial yeast lowers the time to 3 1/2 hours.

First Sourdough Recipe

On January 11, 2017 2 Comments - Bread Recipes, Sourdough, Yeast

First Sourdough Timeline 3:30

So far on my adventures into making sourdough bread:

Fido

My starter, Fido pronounced Fi-Dough, has been growing for a week now so it was time to make my first loaf. Sourdough bread comes in two varieties depending on the source of the leavening agent, ie source of the yeast. Regular bread uses commercial yeast while Leaven Sourdough uses only the wild yeast in the starter. Many sourdough breads use a combination of the wild yeast from the starter as well a boost with commercial yeast. In that case the starter is there more for flavour rather than to raise the dough. This recipe is from King Arthur Flour and is their recommended first sourdough. I tweaked the metric recipe some as well as optionally adding raisins.

How to Make Sourdough Starter

On January 7, 2017 0 Comments - Sourdough

1 or 2 quart (litre) jar
Digital scale
1 cup (125g) flour
- Whole grain for initial load
- All purpose for all feedings
1/2 cup (125g) non-chlorinated water

Now there are no hard rules on what flours to use or how much. I chose 125g flour (about 1 cup) and 125g water (about 1/2 cup) as many recipes call for 1 cup of starter and 125/125 gives about 1 cup of starter. I used a heritage whole grain flour to start as it would be the most wild complete with yeast and bacteria. All purpose is then used as it is cheap and results in a less sour starter.

If you don't have a scale, it is time to get one. Working on a sourdough starter with a scale is so much easier. Also professional bakers work from weight not volume.

Fido – Our Sourdough Starter

On January 4, 2017 3 Comments - Sourdough

Our latest addition to the family is Fido, pronounced Fi-Dough. Hint, hint. Fido is not a dog. Fido is my new sourdough starter. One of my favourite websites, King Arthur Flour, had an excellent article on setting a new years resolution of starting your own sourdough starter. This is a resolution I could get into.