I am going to try and bake bread - but not just any bread, sourdough. To those of you that have known me for a really long time, I tend to suck at anything that involves baking (collapsed brownies, undercooked bread, hockey puck cookies, granola tasting carrot cake). But, I have lots of free time these days and a kitchen. If you have a recipe or thoughts please share or comment - I'd love to hear.
Since I have no clue what I'm doing - I'm using the instructions from these fellow bloggers to see how they turn out:
This is a sourdough starter from the Wild Yeast Blog
This is a sourdough starter from Sourdough Baking by S. John Ross
I'm taking this blogger's advice on starting multiple starters because, I too, do not want to wait around for a bunch of duds. (She also has some really yummy looking recipes)
Oh! Nilam, I didn't get back to you yet! So sorry... Thank you so much for your compliments on some of the pictures of my breads. Pulling a freshly baked and incredibly smelling loaf out of the oven as it sits on the counter and crackles while cooling down is one of the greatest things in life... and it tastes great too!
ReplyDeleteI have to admit: I did not create my own starter. Instead, I was given some offspring of my friend Brian's starter. Brian gave birth to his starter back in 2007 in Chapel Hill, and I've brought it out all the way to the West Coast, where it is still being fed regularly and is still in great shape. I use it to make anything from regular boules to ciabatta and baguettes... I'm not a big fan of sourdough pizza dough (not enough spring?), but your mileage might vary.
So, sorry, no tips on making the mother starter, but here's a post that I've recently stumbled upon and seems to be a good starter (no pun intended). Clotilde's posts and recipes are usually well-researched and extensively tested before published, so you can assign a high level of confidence to the material:
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2009/07/natural_starter_bread.php
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2010/02/sourdough_starter_baguettes.php
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2010/01/sourdough_crumpets_with_natural_starter.php
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2009/11/sourdough_bagels.php
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2010/03/converting_yeastbased_recipes_to_use_a_sourdough_starter.php
I have plenty more tips when you need them, so feel free to ping me whenever. However, in my experience, the best way to learn is to experiment. Don't give up, and document what you did - then learn from that. That's the best advice I can give you.. It's not always easy, but the rewards are incredible!