Friday, January 11, 2013

Fiddling with sourdough...

I have always loved baking bread and I've been doing it since I got married some 31 years ago.  Bread is always a challenge because it changes with its environment.  A hot, sunny day always seems to bring good results to my baking, but a humid, cool day can slow the rising process.  Ingredients can make or break a batch of bread -- inactive yeast, poor quality flour and the water temperature can all gravely affect bread results.  The best advice for successful bread baking is practice, practice, practice.

My newest bread baking challenge is to try my hands at making sourdough wheat bread.  We've been shying away from breads lately in our diet, but I've been reading that whole grain breads that are fermented, so to speak, in sourdough yeast mixtures are far healthier and more digestible than other whole grain breads because the sourdough yeasts break down the grain better for our body's use.  You might like this simple article and recipe  that explains it.

For the past couple weeks, I've been growing a sourdough starter on my kitchen counter.  Every 24 hours or so, I feed it with a little more water and a little more flour so that it doesn't quit bubbling and fermenting.  Last night I poured out a cup of the starter and stirred in a little flour and water to make a sponge.  It sat covered on the counter over night and today I made a dough and by late afternoon a nice, round loaf of "mostly" whole wheat bread popped out of the oven!  I say "mostly" because my actual starter is made with unbleached flour, not whole wheat.  I am not worried about being a whole wheat purist at the moment, but instead, I want to get a good quality, delicious tasting loaf that is "mostly" healthy.  I didn't really use a recipe today, but I went by feel.  The basic ingredients were:  the sourdough starter, flour, water, sea salt, a dab of honey, and a little dob of butter.  The "feel" comes from working the ingredients together and allowing it to sit, ferment, rise several times, and then I knead it for the right consistency and texture.  I also learned a little trick for the home baker from this video, Tartine Bread.  A restaurant baker teaches us to bake our bread, after the last rise, in a Dutch oven.  I used my cast iron Dutch oven and heated it in the oven for about 30 minutes at 450* F.  Then I gently dropped my bread dough in, slit the top of the raised dough, added the lid, and slid it back into the oven for a half hour.  After the 30 minutes went by, I removed the lid of the Dutch oven and allowed it to bake another 15 minutes or so until the crust was dark brown.  It worked like a charm!  The only thing I probably should have done was to lightly sprinkle the bottom of the pan with corn meal.  The bottom of the crust got a little too dark, but honestly, it still tasted great! 


There are all kinds of sourdough recipes out there, and I plan to fiddle around making lots of variations.  One thing I can't wait to make is a Swedish crispbread called Knäckebröd.  In the USA we can buy it as Wasa crispbread.  I had my first Wasa this week when we went traveling across South Dakota delivering bulls.   We took our cooler with food and drink, but I wanted an easy-to-take bread that would be substantial to eat, healthy, and low calorie.  Wasa crispbread was just the ticket!  It is so delicious, especially when stacked with good cheese and a thin slice of meat.  When we got home, I was anxious to find a way to make my own crispbread (because I'm weird that way) and sure enough, I found some recipes online.  Basically, it's rye sourdough bread that is rolled flat with a knobbed rolling pin like this one and then baked and allowed to cool and dry out completely before storing.  I ordered one of those fancy Swedish rolling pins, and now I'm just waiting for it to arrive so I can experiment.  I think the rolling pin will work well for making thin-and-crispy pizza crusts too.  Below is a video of Jamie Oliver learning to make crispbread from a Swedish bakery owner.  It appears quite simple to make, and the video is fun to watch.  Do you like to experiment with bread?  Do tell!


15 comments:

  1. My grandfather was a master baker so my childhood memories are of old-fashioned bread-making. I would like to experiment with making different types of bread as I use a bread-maker which is not the same. The rolling pin for making crisp bread looks like a good kitchen tool. My husband and I owned a pizzeria when we lived in Italy so know more about Italian ways of working with dough.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think bread machines are wonderful tools. My daughter, who is a mom of young children, uses hers a lot and is able to give her family wholesome breads without the additives.

      Did you ever use a tool like the knobby rolling pin for a thin-crispy crust in your pizzeria?

      Delete
  2. I love Tartine Bakery in San Francisco. He truly is a master bread baker. I too love to bake bread but haven't been eating much lately. I love the feel of the dough in my hands. Your bread is wonderful. You are on the way to being a master bread baker yourself!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bonnie,
      How cool that you've been to the Tartine Bakery! The breads look amazing to me. I really want to experiment with bread, but I don't want to EAT all of it. I'll have to keep to small batches and give away a lot. Master bakers have much better ovens than I have and they spend more time at it, but I'm going to keep fiddling away.

      Delete
  3. Adam has started making a coffee bread which I adore - yummmy! It's a basic white loaf, round, and into one of those he puts about 3 tablespoons of ground coffee. The taste is great.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really need to make some sourdough. I love working with it. My engaged daughter had her Christmas with her new family to be and they have starter that has been in their family since the 40s I always think that is so cool.
    The grandma doesn't live here but she brings it with her when she visits. Then she takes it with her back home. She said the yeast in this area will kill her yeast in her starter. Her starter originated in San Francisco and the yeast here is so much stronger. Isn't that funny? I had heard that before but my daughter thought it was so odd. Your bread is so pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, I love to bake bread! But like you, I try not to eat too much of it. I love to find people and share. My current favorite recipe book is "The Great Scandinavian Baking Book" by Beatrice Ojakangas - so fun :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. The article link didn't work for me, which is too bad, because I'd like to know more about the goodness of sourdough, especially if I can eat it without worrying so much about gaining weight (I'm trying to keep my carbs down, but I LOVE bread). My FIL used to make an Amish bread that used a starter--he was so proud of it!

    xofrances

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hmm...so does that mean I should be buying sourdough bread if I have a choice? I used to eat Wasa long time ago, but haven't lately. I have been tyring not to eat as much bread, but it is hard not to do crackers because they make such a great snack with cheese and fruit. Your bread looks delish (as it usually does...you are The Bread Baker in my book).

    ReplyDelete
  8. Once again, you're a girl after my own heart. There's nothing like real sourdough bread (especially whole grain). Now that we're gluten-free I recently started a sourdough starter out of teff, sorghum and rice flours. The flavor is great but texture is an issue, as it always is when gluten is out of the picture. But I'm working on it-just like you're working on your wheat starter!

    And how funny you're into the WASA bread. I love that stuff. In fact, during the holidays the only time I cheated and ate gluten was on Christmas day when someone set out WASA bread with Norwegian Gjetost cheese and pickled herring. The Christmas breads, the cookies, etc. didn't tempt me as much as that silly rye cracker!
    Wish you were closer-I'd fire up the brick oven for you so you could bake your loaves with the heat sourdough loves!
    Let me know if you need any sourdough advice- I've studied and baked with sourdough so much I could probably teach a class on it.
    Happy Baking!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I LOVE bread!! 2 of my boys are into baking it now too. It saves a lot of money besides is very fun to do. I would love to experiment but my dh loves our traditional farmhouse bread - so I'll need to keep it going even if I do branch out. Good thing bread freezes well! My mom used to make sourdough biscuits all the time. I remember the starter in the fridge. I clicked on all your links so I'm off to have fun reading about breads. Thanks Jody!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I've been putting Shirley-Girl the bread maker to work. She can only make one loaf at a time, but the bread is so good! I do like sourdough. I wish I could taste yours! My last loaf (yesterday) is a honey wheat recipe. It's hearty.
    Do you have the Mary Jane's Farm book? If you don't, I'd like to send it to you.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ooooh, yum -- your bread looks delicious! I love baking bread, but I don't do it as often as I'd like to -- it's so easy, you'd think I'd do it more often. The dutch oven method is my favorite, unless I'm making traditional type bread loaves. I find I HAVE to use a cornmeal mix on the bottom or the bread sticks to the bottom of the pan -- so NOT fun to pick it out of there!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm completely fascinated! I would like to make more of my own bread as unless you count the breadmaker, the only bread I make are cinnamon buns. I keep working on perfecting them. After reading your post I think I should get started on making some other breads too.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I made all our bread for decades, but now I rarely make it at home. Every time I am on the team to make communion bread in the church kitchen, I am so in love with the smell of it baking that I resolve to go home and bake some right then. I never do!
    My daughters and I used to make sourdough bread all the time. The children liked it VERY sour, and I always had a hard time making it sour enough, and still getting a good rise. So it was always like pumpernickel. I would like to get started with that again...some day...
    Just today I have been doing a lot of cooking and it occurred to me to make bread while I am in the kitchen. It's not too late... Maybe you have inspired me that much!

    ReplyDelete

I love reading your comments. Thanks for stopping in. Sorry, but due to spam, only registered users can comment.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...