Sourdough experiment
I always loved to bake biscuits or cakes, cupcakes, or scones. The smaller and sweeter the better. But last year I changed my baking direction and tried myself on baking bread. As I already worked with yeast, this was my choice of leavening agent. But I wanted to try something new, as I do not like a yeasty taste in my bread.
I tried out Lutz Geißlers Plötz method of wild yeast. Therefore, you start with a minuscule amount of yeast and let the dough work and rise for days. I loved the results. He also advocates to bake the bread in a cast iron pot with a close-fitting lid to reproduce the even heat and humidity of a more professional baking oven. I also followed this lead and now I always bake my bread in a iron pot.
As I was so delighted by his method I may have mentioned every day since November sometimes that I would like to try out his sourdough book. And here I am: I got this book as a present for Christmas.
Today the weather is grey and wet, and I wanted to cheer myself up with a little experiment, I will start my own wild sourdough. As I am an anxious being, I first read half of the book, then I read the explanation how to start the sourdough about three times. Then I googled how to start a sourdough and then I was ready to go (well… I may have researched more than one website, it could have been four five ok six websites)
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I started with preparing my jar and spoon. To kill all bad bacteria, I poured boiling water over them and over my hands (nooooo joking – I simply washed my hands with soap). Then I measured 50 gram of whole grain rye flour and mixed it with 50 gram of warm water. That’s it …. a bit unspectacular. Now the mixture should be at a warm place of 26-30 degree. As my oven does not have such low temperature I insulated my jar and put it on the heating. In 24 hour I will know more…. Hopefully the good microorganism will grow instead of mould, and monsters.
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If you love to bake bread or simply want to drool over ciabatta, rolls or panettone follow @breadbakers who kindly organizes this wonderful baking community.
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What a lovely experiment, I love the jar all swaddled in its cloth. I'm just wondering where I would put such a thing ... there isn't anywhere in the house that has a constant temperature day and night. I'm really looking forward to how the experiment turns out, please keep us posted 😍
The website looks wonderful! I see there is a translater as well.
I've just bought a new brand of yeast and I am not happy with it at all - the bread hasn't risen properly and the crust hasn't coloured well. Perhaps that will nudge me towards some handmade bread, baked in the oven. I do have the cast iron dish. Let's see ...
I had the same problem with the temperature, as we normally do not heat in the night. But these heaters are so old that they hold the warmth very well (but they weigh a ton). So, I thought packing the sourdough up and putting it on the heater will help. And today I can report: it did. No idea if the right bacteria are growing, but something is growing as the dough has started to bubble and it is much more liquid than yesterday. I have feed it today and put it in a bigger bowl... so exciting :-DD
Lutz Geißler recommend putting the starter into the baking oven on the lowest setting or to put it into the oven with only the lamp glowing and accompanied by a hot water bottle... could this work for you?
And I love his website. I heard about him on a podcast and only afterwards discovered how famous he is. @akipponn mentioned more books from him, which are even more advanced. But sadly, none of them are in English.
With the yeast... here you can mostly buy one brand of fresh yeast and diverse dry yeast, the latter I have never tried. I only use the fresh variety but did not know/noticed differences in the dough. For Lutz Geißlers yeast breads you use only a very small amount of yeast (about 4 gram per bread) and rely on the wild yeast which is growing over time. This worked good for me (so far).
I am curious of your next bread and what you will change!!!
(If you find a recipe in German, I can translate it... but I think there are even more good books on baking in English than in German)
Your starter looks good! How many days do you have to nurture it before you make the bread?
I think l. Geißler wrote four days...But for the first bread maybe some additional yeast necessary. I think I have to read the explanation again 😂
Books in German are a bit too much for me, but I'm happy that you found what works for you :)
Long time ago I posted on refreshing sourdough and it got me quite a reward :)
https://steemit.com/food/@breadcentric/reviving-a-sourdough-starter-1-ozywianie-zakwasu-1-en-pl
https://steemit.com/food/@breadcentric/reviving-a-sourdough-starter-2-ozywianie-zakwasu-2-en-pl
Wow i looked your post up and your bread looks increadible. It is a real beauty. Far from everything I have baked so far. I sadly killed my sourdough starter. At day 4 it stopped to bubble after feeding, no idea why. And as my father is very ill (he shows suddenly signs of dementia) I am too sad and distracted to try right now to grow another sourdough.
Do you still have your sourdough around? Just feed it once a day as if it was totally fine. Is it a new one you're starting?
I'm sorry to hear about your dad. It's always difficult, but I'm sure you're doing all you can to give him comfort.
Still, try not to give up on your sourdough, it's 5 minutes activity a day and week give you a little something extra for your mind to rest on.
Oh nooooo... I have thrown the dough into the bin 😱 I thought it smelled strange. But you are right, I will try it again (although I am thinking about cheating and ask for sourdough in an organic bakery 😂)
And with my father... I find it super hard to accept his illness 😞😢
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Happy new year @neumannsalva :) What a nice gift you got! Sure the starter will be bubbling in front of a great flowers painting. Is it your work?
It's bubbling... hopefully with the right bacteria :-DD
and yes it is a painting I made last year. If you are interested here are some of my paintings :-D
http://neumannsalva.de/portfolio/painting.html
You have my dream books! I'm big fan of Plötzblog. I like the craziness of his Brotbackbuch 1 (or 2?) comparing three different methods for each bread. I took a look at them at a local library ... ah I may click them on Amazon no no ... and a cast iron pot ... ;)
At least I'll bake his Schweizer Buerli next week :) One of my favorites.
https://www.ploetzblog.de/2015/09/26/schweizer-buerli/
Wow, the buerli look very tasty but complicated (for me ) I am looking forward to your baking process.
And with the books - I did not know Lutz Geißler wrote so many. I heard of him in a podcast I like very much (alles in Butter WDR 5) and they praised his book "Brot backen in Perfektion mit Hefe"... there I got the idea :-D
I think both "Brot backen in Perfektion" books are for the amateur. The books you mentioned seem to be much more elaborate and for experienced bakers (Brotbackbuch 2 is now on my wish list for the next years :-DDD you inspired me)
If you ever need some recipes from my books, just tell me :-)
And the cast iron pot: loooove In the contrary to yarn (I cannot have enough yarn sigh) I am very modest with my kitchen equipment. My pans and pots are still the first I ever bought, and I am not a fan of having many of them. But I found a bargain for this cast-iron pot with a lid and as I also needed a pan, we bought it. And up today I no longer use other pans (sorry, I did not explain, the lid of the pot could be used as a pan) The pot itself I only use for baking.
By the way, I just fed the sourdough and it starts to bubble - uhhh exciting!!!
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