Sourdough breadmaking

[number2]

_Rodders_ said:

Binned my starter the other week.

It was slowly turning black in the back of the fridge making me feel guilty.

It's like a weight has been lifted

My original starter - from 2020 covid days - got forgotten about in the fridge towards the end of last year and went a bit mouldy so I binned it too .

As luck would have it, my missus went on some kind of corporate retreat. One part of which was fermentation/bread making, and she brought me home some of their starter which I'm now looking after .

[M5-911]

[url]

Baguettes making as my son doesn't really like the bread over here.
|https://thumbsnap.com/tijTHMAS[/url]

[number2]

Baguettes look good. I keep meaning to make some - I bought some of the 'moulds' over a year ago with the best intentions .

[M5-911]

number2 said:

Baguettes look good. I keep meaning to make some - I bought some of the 'moulds' over a year ago with the best intentions .

Honestly, don't bother with the moulds. Roll them on a kitchen towel with plenty flour. That the closest you will get to how we make them in bakeries. Put the seams side up (tourne à gris) when proofing then turn then over for the cooking. Baguettes at home are challenging but you can get decent results.

[number2]

Cheers M5. I'll give it a go. I've reached Sourdough perfection now, so time for a new challenge .

[M5-911]

number2 said:

Cheers M5. I'll give it a go. I've reached Sourdough perfection now, so time for a new challenge .

I am not sure if you can get translations on that video but he is a great teacher. This is a home made version:

https://youtu.be/60K3Fe5j_J8?si=-UxzlsO3PnaYTGBd

This is a more professional approach:

https://youtu.be/O5B_nYulA7E?si=Ip5G9gp39ffjf870

[illmonkey]

Back to the fold. 1st one I must have used the starter too early, starter, errr, started last Sunday, first one mixed Friday.

Second one mixed sat evening. Mandatory cheese and ham sarnie. Will make a little bruschetta with it later too.

[oddman]

illmonkey said:

Back to the fold. 1st one I must have used the starter too early, starter, errr, started last Sunday, first one mixed Friday.

To me that looks like your starter isn't lively enough.

I refresh my starter on the day before making dough and make sure the leaven is very active (float test) before putting dough and leaven together

[illmonkey]

oddman said:

illmonkey said:

Back to the fold. 1st one I must have used the starter too early, starter, errr, started last Sunday, first one mixed Friday.

To me that looks like your starter isn't lively enough.

I refresh my starter on the day before making dough and make sure the leaven is very active (float test) before putting dough and leaven together

So, like I said?

[oddman]

illmonkey said:

oddman said:

illmonkey said:

Back to the fold. 1st one I must have used the starter too early, starter, errr, started last Sunday, first one mixed Friday.

To me that looks like your starter isn't lively enough.

I refresh my starter on the day before making dough and make sure the leaven is very active (float test) before putting dough and leaven together

So, like I said?

I think I had a bit of a comprehension failure on your first line

A reasonable test of a starter is whether it will double in size before 24h has elapsed. I use a Weck jar with steep sides with an elastic band around it at the level of the freshly mixed starter.

A good test for the leaven is if it has a convex surface it shows it's really active or float test. If mine fails the float test I stick it a warm place for an hour which usually gets it going.

I use a mixture of Doves Farm organic rye and spelt flours as the substrate for the starter. I think they have a pretty high concentration of natural yeasts and bugs.

ETA - todays effort cooling

Edited by oddman on Monday 29th January 09:15

[Bowside]

Just to add to this and share some experience of lazy starters. Mine has been living in the fridge for about a year and only fed monthly after draining off the grey water and scraping the top layer away.
This has been fine, but when I got round to using it, I just couldn't get it to be seriously active again. It would 'fizz' a bit, but not double in volume.

The solution was to very accurately use equal portions (which you might all already know), so 50g lazy starter, 50g WARM water, 50g Canadian Flour - left it for about 6 hours and perfect starter has returned.

My main lesson learnt, is to not just dump a bit of flour and cold water in periodically and expect anything special to happen. It stays alive, but only just!