Need a sourdough recipe ~ was a flop!

[Dace]

I dunno!

I think becaue I assume ( we all know where that gets us!) that that is the way Free does it and I am looking to minimize the gluten....my understanding is that the 24 ferment helps.

Perhaps I am completely off base.

Let me go back and re-read how you do it!

 

[big brown horse]

This is what I do:

I take out my starter from the fridge the night before, bring it to room temp and feed it... sometimes 1/2 cup warm h2o and 1/2 cup of flour or up to 1 cup of the water and 1 cup of flour. I change out wheat and white whenever I feel like it. (I use King Arthur's bread flours.)

I leave it out all night and then feed it again in the morning...same ratios.

After it has proofed well (bubbles/foam) I start making bread by:

Taking 2 cups of that proofed starter (the rest goes in the fridge for next week)
4 tsps of sugar
2 tsps of salt
2 TBS of melted butter or olive oil
mix it all well

Then add part of 3 cups of bread flour (wheat or white) slowly until it is thick enough to knead with your hands.

Knead for about 10 minutes adding more flour as needed...you may need more than 3 cups or less.

Let it rise in a warm (or not, it just takes longer) spot covered with a clean dish towel.

Punch down when it has doubled in size. Knead a tiny bit then form it into a loaf or put in a prepared loaf pan. Slice a # sign on the top with a sharp knife. (Sometimes I dust the top of the loaf with white flour before I do this, for looks.)

Let it rise into a beautiful loaf.

Put it into a cold oven with a pan of water stashed somewhere in the oven. Turn on oven to 350 and time for 35 minutes.

I have made this every week for the past year. I never have a problem. I always end up with a pint sized jar full of starter for the next week.

 

[big brown horse]

Here is some I made a few weeks back. I made a couple of ryes and a wheat.

I'll shoot you the rye recipe if you would like, it is DrakeMaiden's "Mud Pie Rye" recipe that she came up herself.

 

[freemotion]

I dunno!

I think becaue I assume ( we all know where that gets us!) that that is the way Free does it and I am looking to minimize the gluten....my understanding is that the 24 ferment helps.

Perhaps I am completely off base.

Let me go back and re-read how you do it!

Oh, sorry, I missed some of this thread.... I don't care for the way the bread had been coming out, and I can get Alvarado Street Bakery sprouted breads, so I have been lazy about making it. I make pizza dough and the occasional baguette using the MEN recipe, which sits in the fridge for up to two weeks. Or I use an overnight rise. But not the sponge and add flour, rise a brief time and bake.

I like the MEN artisan recipe because it creates the long fermentation. It gets a bit too sour for me by the two week mark, though.

BBH, those loaves look wonderful! I am determined to make bread that I am very happy with this fall, and stop buying it. It is SO much cheaper now that I found a source of cheap whole wheat and have a good grinder. But it is supposed to be close to 100 F again tomorrow, so no bread baking here.

 

[ORChick]

Free, its easy enough to sprout your own grains, and then you can replicate the sprouted grain bread. Although I found just today that some soaked and dried rye kind of gummed up my grinder - I had to take it apart twice to clear the works. I think it was because the grain was softer, even though dried. I made a sourdough pumpernickel type bread; my first attempt. It smells great, but the recipe recommends a 24 hour waiting period before slicing, so I won't know for sure until tomorrow evening.

 

[Dace]

I dunno!

I think becaue I assume ( we all know where that gets us!) that that is the way Free does it and I am looking to minimize the gluten....my understanding is that the 24 ferment helps.

Perhaps I am completely off base.

Let me go back and re-read how you do it!

Oh, sorry, I missed some of this thread.... I don't care for the way the bread had been coming out, and I can get Alvarado Street Bakery sprouted breads, so I have been lazy about making it. I make pizza dough and the occasional baguette using the MEN recipe, which sits in the fridge for up to two weeks. Or I use an overnight rise. But not the sponge and add flour, rise a brief time and bake.

I like the MEN artisan recipe because it creates the long fermentation. It gets a bit too sour for me by the two week mark, though.

BBH, those loaves look wonderful! I am determined to make bread that I am very happy with this fall, and stop buying it. It is SO much cheaper now that I found a source of cheap whole wheat and have a good grinder. But it is supposed to be close to 100 F again tomorrow, so no bread baking here.

Ok, thank you Free....I knew you used the MEN recipe, and I have many times as well.....I am just not that fond of it.
I was thinking that if I am adding flour to the spounge after its 24 hour rest...then I am adding undigested gluten and pretty much defeating my purpose.

So for your overnight rise....can I use some starter and add flour/water/salt.....let rise over night then knead it up and shape, rise breifly & bake? I guess I need to play around with it. I need to figure out how to get a workable dough rather than the sticky one I had last time around. Even the MEN recipe was too sticky for me to make pizza crust with, although a free form loaf is easy enough.

 

[freemotion]

You might give sprouted flour a try, too. You can purchase it online, or make your own...but you don't have a grinder, do you? Know someone with a grinder or a VitaMix?

 

[Dace]

Yeah a grinder is on my Christmas list. I was on my list last year and DH was buying one but the dang sales lady talked him into a 'wet' grinder, for meat :/ not really what I wanted.....poor guy tried!

If I sprout the wheat, dehydrate it, then grind it....that doesn't have an impact on the gluten though....which is what I am trying to minimize.
Am I wrong?

 

[VickiLynn]

I still haven't started my starter. I'm waiting for the fruit flies to clear out of the kitchen.

 

[freemotion]

Hmmm....don't think so, or the impact is minimal. But more people can tolerate it that way, since it eliminates phytates.

I don't think fluffy bread is really possible with these methods, but you might try breads that aren't expected to be fluffy, like flat breads for roll-ups.