After that post in which I frankly kind of ranted about the ridiculous information online about finicky sourdough baking, A. was all, "Well, why don't you show people how you do it?"
Why don't I?
I don't usually do tutorials or give advice here because, to be honest, I don't take advice well myself. I kind of figure no one wants to be told what to do, just because I don't. But maybe you do! Maybe you have a sourdough starter hanging out in your kitchen and you're staring at these insane sourdough websites thinking, "Why doesn't someone post something actually useful that won't make me tear my hair out?"
If that's you, this is for you. What I'm going to do is take pictures and post as I go through my process, which takes two days. Almost all of that is just waiting around for dough to rise, though, so don't be intimidated.
So if you're so inclined, you could just keep madly refreshing this page and do exactly what I do as I do it. Or not. Whatever.
You ready? Let's go.
First thing in the morning, I take my jar of starter out of the refrigerator:
Sourdough starter on the left, yogurt starter on the right. The most important jars in my kitchen.
When I say "first thing," I mean "whenever I get to it in the morning." I did it this morning around 7 a.m., but I've done it as late as 10 a.m. with no issues.
This is what the starter looks like in the jar:
A bit dry and stiff right now, and not actually bubbly. Doesn't matter. It'll still work.
I make four loaves of bread at a time, so I start with four cups of flour in my big stock pot, which is what I use to mix my dough in. I like the pot because it's capacious, relatively easy to clean, and has its own tight-fitting lid.
Okay, so four cups of flour in my pot, then scrape out whatever is in my starter jar. This time it was about a cup because I used some to make the sourdough pita bread yesterday.
Starter and flour in pot. Plus the very sturdy wooden spoon I mix it with. It must be sturdy. I have broken spoons before mixing sourdough.
Then I add about two cups of water. A ratio of 2 cups flour with 1 cup water is about right. A little more is okay, though, so if it's a little wet, doesn't matter. I also don't worry too much about the temperature. My water is usually pretty cold. Again, doesn't matter. (Are you seeing a theme in my sourdough attitude?)
Mix mix mix until there are no streaks of dry flour anymore.
And there it is.
Now put a top on your container or cover it with a wet towel and forget about it until evening.
To be continued later . . .
See it isn't hard at all......the longer you have worked with it the easier it becomes to just KNOW what you need to do and or add and or wait to raise longer or shorter or add other ingredients or make pitas. How did that work out , by the way?
ReplyDeleteI make half as much as Kristin does, and I put the starter in my big bowl, add one cup of lukewarm water, poke it around a bit, and then I add two cups of flour (lately I've been using King Arthur whole wheat)and stir it around. I find that it stirs up more easily if I add the water to the starter first. Oddly enough, I started bread this morning, too, about 9:00 EDT, so Kristin and I, 2/3 of a continent apart, were doing it at the same time, more or less. Kristin doesn't need my commentary, but what the heck.
ReplyDeleteYES!
ReplyDeletethis is for me!
because last spring when i saw the yeast collect on the birch taps i thought: cool. i should learn how to make sourdough starter when i have time.
and you know what? i have time now.
also a brand new starter, and have spent time staring at sourdough tutorials thinking it CAN'T be that complicated...
Ha! I was talking with a friend today who is starting to bake with sourdough using a book with one of those finicky recipes and asking me about organic water & whatnot. I keep my starter a little more wet, but I make more pancakes and english muffins than loaves of bread so it works for me. I'm going to send her a link once you get a little further along.
ReplyDeleteG:P: They came out well, but oh man, THE SMOKE. Every smoke detector in the house was going off for thirty minutes while they cooked on the cast-iron griddle. I don't know if my nerves could take that again.
ReplyDeleteMiL: Comment away.
Flask: Yay! Making the starter is the hardest part, so you're in the easy zone now. Well, easier, anyway.
Q.C.: Organic water? Ugh. I use tap water. Although to be fair, our tap water is from a well and doesn't have any chlorine in it. If your friend's does, filtered water, like from a Brita or something, would be best.
Could you please explain the easiest way to make the starter? I love the tutorial, thank you so much for sharing it, but you already had the starter at the beginning. I'm not even to that point yet. I only have all purpose flour in the house right now. Should I just mix equal parts of that with water and find a warm place to set it out to "catch" the wild yeast? Thanks.
ReplyDelete