Sourdough Journal

Sourdough is Back!

2009-08-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

So I was starting to run low on the Anadama sandwich loaves and I needed a new loaf for my lunches. Flipping through Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads I was reminded that I wanted to try the method from said book for a sourdough starter. And since the majority of the breads in the book are adaptable to using a sourdough, even if the recipe calls for a biga, I went with the 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf. But the loaf will come a bit later, first the starter...

The recipe for the starter in Whole Grain Breads calls for whole wheat or rye flour and pineapple juice in the first two stages (diastatic malt in the first stage too, if you have it). The pineapple juice (or more generally, acidity) helps to prevent the colonization of the starter by leuconostoc bacteria. And I have to say, I think it worked, as this starter got going more quickly and reliably than any that I've done before.

Here is the Phase One starter, whole wheat flour (I freshly milled it from whole wheat berries), pineapple juice, and a bit of diastatic malt.

Phase One took about 48 hours sitting and waiting for the starter to come to life, the recipe also suggests stirring the starter 2-3 times a day. I only noticed a few bubbles here and there in the Phase One starter, but I couldn't be sure they weren't just leftover from the mixing. The next step is simply to add some more whole wheat flour and pineapple juice to the Phase One starter.

Here is the starter after being mixed into Phase Two with more pineapple juice and flour.

During Phase Two of the starter I was definitely starting to see some activity! Not enough to raise a bread yet, but definitely much more than had happened during Phase One. There was also the slightest hint of a sourdough starter smell, previously the dominant smell had been the pineapple juice.

Here is the starter after it fermented overnight and before it was about to move to Phase Three.

The ingredients ready for Phase Three, whole wheat flour, water, and the Phase Two starter.

Mixed Phase Three Starter.

The starter was even more active during phase three, getting bubbly and doubling quite quickly. It also definitely had more of a sourdough smell now, but with very nice sweet wheat overtones. In about 12 hours it was already ready to move onto Phase Four.

Look at those bubbles!

Ingredients for Phase Four Starter (only a portion of the starter from the previous phases is actually kept this time)

Phase Four Starter after mixing

The starter was even faster in Phase Four, it doubled in about 8 hours. Definitely smells like sourdough now, no pineapple smell anymore. It has been quite a while since I've smelled that familiar scent, it makes me anxious to make some bread with it!

Even more bubbles!

And now finally we get to the mother starter. This is the final Phase, the version of the starter you will refresh every so often and use to make the wild yeast starters for each loaf.

Ingredients for the Mother Starter (again, only a portion of the starter from the previous phase is used, I reserved the other portion to make a sandwich loaf)

Mixed Mother Starter

I didn't get pictures of this, but after you mix the Mother, you let it rise until it is nearly doubled, punch it down, put it back in the container and then put the container in the fridge. The Mother actually about 65% filled the dough container. The instructions were the same for the wild yeast starter for the loaf, which tried to MORE than fill the container it was in.

The Mother and the starter for the loaf went into the fridge overnight after they were punched down, as did the soaker made for the sandwich loaf. Both starters rose slightly in the fridge, and the starter for the loaf a bit more after it was take out of the fridge.

The Soaker and the Wild Yeast Starter for the loaf 2 hours after they were taken out of the fridge, right before I started making the loaf.

I also neglected to take pictures of the loaf as it was rising, and after I shaped it. I did get one just after it went into the oven.

And after it came out of the oven.

The loaf came out a bit more dense than I was hoping, but nowhere near some of the bricks I've made before! The flavor, however, is outstanding it starts out with a strong and somewhat sweet wheat flavor and finishes with a very subtle sour, leaving your palate with a wonderful combination of the flavors.

Anadama

2009-07-27T22:23:00.001-07:00

I needed bread for my lunch sandwiches at work, so I decided to go with Anadama for my next bread. I did deviate from the recipe a little bit with a special ingredient, corn meal from my own home grown 'Bloody Butcher' heirloom dent corn. Of course this meant a bit more work, I needed to mill it into corn meal.

I've used this mill a number of times before, but always making a fine flour, so I had to adjust the mill and my strategy a bit to get a coarse meal. A coarse milling also meant I had to do some sifting and winnowing. When I mill the corn to a fine flour, the bran and any chaff left get milled fine as well and are not really noticeable. However, a coarse milling left large pieces of bran and chaff. The bran I reserved and passed through the mill a second time on a finer setting.

It took a while to mill and sift enough corn for the recipe, I was measuring by weight, which was a good thing, as I needed far more than a cup for the appropriate weight of corn meal.

From there, it was a simple matter of mixing in a bit of water to make a soaker, covering the bowl, and leaving it til the next day.

The next morning the soaker had definitely absorbed more of the water and had a wonderfully strong corn scent, similar to tortillas.

I measured out the ingredients for the sponge preferment, mixed in the soaker, and left it to rise.

I forgot to take a picture of the rest of the ingredients added to the sponge, but you can probably imagine. The dough ended up nice and supple, although I had to be somewhat careful in the kneading because of the coarse corn meal, which could easily tear the dough.

I also forgot to get a picture of the risen final dough, but it did rise quite nicely although it took a bit longer than expected. I took the dough out, degassed it, and shaped it into two sandwich loaves, and put them in waiting greased loaf pans.

I was slightly disappointed with the final rise of the dough, I was worried that they would end up as dense small loaves. The loaves weren't overly dense when I got them out of the oven though, so, I really think I should've used smaller loaf pans than what the recipe asked for. The bread is really tasty, the corn and molasses give it a wonderful flavor combination. The coarse corn meal also gives it a great, but subtle, crunch. And the flecks of red corn bran complete it giving a really interesting look to the crumb. Definitely a recipe I'd like to repeat!

Artos and Christopsomos

2009-07-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

The next bread on my list from Bread Baker's Apprentice was the Greek Celebration bread, or Artos. I actually made it twice, the first loaf as Christopsomos and the second as just a plain boule. The first loaf I cheated and made the poolish the same day, but it still had quite a few hours to generate some flavor.

It started off well and I measured out the dry ingredients, I didn't have either of the two special spices mentioned in the recipe so I just went with the standard, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg.

And the poolish was ready and waiting (although I didn't use all of it, the rest of the poolish was for a batch of ciabatta).

Then I measured out the dry ingredients, and although it isn't obvious here I made a critical error... I completely forgot the eggs! Thankfully I remembered while the dough was mixing, and with some patience, was able to get them incorporated.

Then came the next mistake I forgot to add the walnuts and dried fruit in until I already had the dough shaped and had it in the bowl. Obviously not a good day! I added them in at that point although I had trouble getting them well distributed without threatening to tear the dough.

After a rise the dough was ready for shaping, I cut off about a third of the dough ball and put it in the fridge, shaped the larger piece as a boule and placed it on a prepared baking sheet.

I had a lot of trouble shaping the two strands for the cross on top of the loaf, I got a little too much oil in the bag with the dough so it wouldn't stick to itself very well, and too many nuts and dried fruits in the strand pieces. The nuts and dried fruit made it really difficult to roll them pieces out to the appropriate length and get them nicely and evenly shaped. The extra oil on the dough also prevented the little curls at the ends of the strands of dough from holding. In hindsight I probably should've just added some flour to them.

The second loaf made as just an artos was much less eventful, I managed to remember to put the eggs in, and there were no fruits or nuts to deal with, and it just needed to be shaped as a boule. I did however add another decorative touch to it to keep with the theme.

Unfortunately I only remembered to take a picture of the second loaf, both loaves were really yummy though.

The glaze and dried fruits seemed to keep the Christopsomos somewhat more moist, and the moistness also seemed to bring out the flavor of the spices a bit more, although it vanished after about three days.

Pane Siciliano

2009-07-22T22:51:00.000-07:00

Kind of jumping around the book, partially due to requests for certain items, the next bread in my lineup is Pane Siciliano. This bread starts out with a pate fermente, a preferment that is pretty much regular bread dough (even including salt)

Here is the pate fermente after mixing and kneading.

The preferment was left to rise for an hour, punched down, and retarded in the fridge. Then when I got home from work I took it out of the fridge so it could start warming up. As it warmed up a bit before I cut it into pieces for the final dough it developed a huge bubble.

Then I cut the pate fermente up into about 10 small pieces, and measured out the wet and dry ingredients.

You can see the much more yellow color of the semolina flour here.

Once the pate had warmed up, everything was mixed together yielding a large ball of dough, still somewhat splotchy in color here.

I let the dough rest for a few minutes to continue hydrating and loosen up some, then I began kneading it for around 10 minutes. You can see the color is much more even now, with the kneading mixing the semolina and bread flour.

Finally, after putting the dough in a ball rise and then turning it out, it was time for shaping! You can see I had a little trouble getting the dough divided evenly into 3 pieces.

I don't have a picture of it, but they ended up melding together while being retarded in the fridge, apparently one sheet wasn't enough space. I manged to seperate them in the oven once they had baked for a little bit.

And the crumb:

The spiral shape of the bread vanished a little bit during the retarding as well, I might try dusting it with a little bit more flour before shaping next time.

The loaves were yummy, the semolina really adding a little something extra to them. We made sandwiches and then toasted some and had it with olive oil, cracked pepper, and balsamic vinegar.

Been a while...

2009-07-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

Haven't made any sourdough in quite sometime, nor baking as much as I'd like but I've decided to join in on the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. So far I've made Panmarino (Potato Rosemary bread) and cinnamon rolls (as well as cinnamon rolls from Peter Reinhart's other book, Whole Grain Breads).

The panmarino was meant to have a bit of an experiment in it, I wanted to mix one batch by hand and one with a mixer. That got sidetracked when I didn't have measuring spoons or a scale at my girlfriend's house and the salt/yeast quantities ended up different. I also baked some of them a bit too long, but now I know for next time.

I used a brotform for one of the loaves, it actually ended up being the tastiest/best texture!

The rest of the loaves were just shaped as boules.

The cinnamon rolls turned out well, although I did have some issues with the amount of cinnamon sugar to put on the dough before rolling it up, I think I have it down for next time though.

The white flour cinnamon rolls definitely had more rise to them, and were softer.

The whole wheat (made with white whole wheat, less scary to anti whole wheat people) turned out pretty well. I think they need more cinnamon sugar next time though, as the wheat flavor was kind of dominating the cinnamon sugar, rather than complementing each other.

The next project is pane siciliano, I should have a post coming soon about it.

Starter Food

2007-04-01T01:11:00.000-07:00

So I've been thinking recently that I'm going to mix up a big thing of multiple flour types, premixed, for starter feeding. Currently, my starter seems to like a mix of whole wheat and white. Since I'm lazy and don't want to measure them individually anymore, I figure a premixed container would be good.

I think I'm going to experiment though. Keep the same basic ratio I have right now, 2:1 whole wheat to white, but add in small amounts of some other stuff. I'm thinking a little bit each of spelt, millet, teff, and kamut (what I have handy). I figure if people need balanced diets, maybe the starter does too. My hope is also that this will allow the starter to adapt more easily if I want to use alternate flours. We'll see if it works. I need to get something to put it in first, then figure out a ratio.

Close up...

2007-03-30T22:01:00.001-07:00

Sourdough
Originally uploaded by Sumisu Yoshi.

One of the boules close up. This is from the starter I will likely be keeping, as it rose better with both loaves. Both of the boules were baked using my pizza stone as a base, with the cloche bell lid over top.

Two Sandwich Loaves

2007-03-30T22:00:00.001-07:00

Two Sandwich Loaves
Originally uploaded by Sumisu Yoshi.

These rose better than they look like they did. They were a little small for the size loaf pan they were in. They both split really badly, but it is kind of hard to slash the top when it isn't even close to the top of the loaf pan!

Two Loaves

2007-03-30T21:57:00.001-07:00

Two Loaves
Originally uploaded by Sumisu Yoshi.

Both sourdough, both the same recipe, turned out a little bit different. Mainly, the one on the left had more flour stick to it.
A while a go I split my starter into two, because it didn't seem to be doing well with whole wheat flour, I split some off and tried to get to whole wheat more slowly.
Then both starters were loving whole wheat. So today I did a bakeoff. Two boules and two sandwich loaves. The one on the right here is the original starter, definitely rose more. Seemed to do the same with the sandwich loaves as well.

Sourdough

2007-02-20T01:21:00.001-08:00

Sourdough
Originally uploaded by Sumisu Yoshi.

Sourdough

2007-02-20T01:20:00.001-08:00

Sourdough
Originally uploaded by Sumisu Yoshi.

Two new loaves of Sourdough!

2007-02-20T01:04:00.001-08:00

Two new loaves of Sourdough!
Originally uploaded by Sumisu Yoshi.

As promised, here are the pictures. Both of them were made in loaf pans.

The flavor on the one I cut open is definitely more sour, but also somehow more subtle. And the texture isn't quite as heavy as the last few times I made sourdough.

I used a recipe from the King Arthur Whole Wheat cookbook for these, and was quite happy with it.

Back!

2007-02-19T00:17:00.000-08:00

After sort of.... erm... uh... let me say 'neglecting' my starter for a few months (I'm a bad parent, I know). I spent the last few weeks getting it back up to snuff, and it is better than it ever was before!

It can raise itself, and bread, much more quickly. Has a nicer flavor.... Anyway, I made two small (sandwich) loaves of sourdough tonight. I should have pictures tomorrow. I got a a very nice rise, and a beautiful flavor.

I guess my starter likes the abuse? Not sure really. It definitely isn't sluggish now though, the starter gets about a 3-4x rise in 5 or so hours.

Third Loaf

2006-07-11T00:44:00.000-07:00

Third Loaf

This one was 'white whole wheat' flour. It didn't rise much at all.
This is interesting and surprising because the sponge for this one rose fairly fast, and quite well. The sponges for the all purpose and bread flour loaves barely rose.

Finished this one in the oven as the grill ran out of steam and it was too late to start coals again.

I'm not quite sure I understand the starter though, the whole loving the wheat in the sponge hating it in the dough is confusing to me. Live and learn I guess.

Second Loaf

2006-07-11T00:27:00.000-07:00

Second Loaf

This one is bread flour, the first was all purpose. It seems to have turned out nicely as well.
Don't know about the crumb or the taste yet as I haven't cut this one open.
I'll update when I do.

Sourdough from 'Cloche'

2006-07-10T21:29:00.000-07:00

Sourdough from 'Cloche'

This is the first loaf of sourdough from the cloche, sadly I must have had too high of a hydration as it just kind of blobbed out on me and spread, but the cloche did allow the top to get at least a little bit golden. And it had a fair amount of 'grill spring' so to speak.

As you can see, the crust is a much better color than the other loaves have been, and a little chewier.

It is also quite yummy!

Poor Man's Cloche

2006-07-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

Poor Man's Cloche

This is my poor man's cloche, a clay bulb pan and saucer and a handle from bolts, nuts, and washers. Testing it for the first time today on the grill.

I think I'll need to get a shorter bolt as this one ended up being a little too tall, either it pokes up too high, or pokes down too far into the bread... oh well! It worked well for the first loaf...

Tragedy Strikes!

2006-07-07T23:59:00.000-07:00

So, after making the bread yesterday I forgot to shut the vents so the coals would stop burning. Whether it was just that, or wear and tear, my pizza stone broke right in half!

And I bought stuff for my cloche today, but somehow managed to only get one nut that was the right size, the other two were wrong. Well, I'll get two more tomorrow. And I have a new pizza stone on order already. So I shouldn't be without bread baking ability too long...

Slash Progress

2006-07-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

Slash Progress

I made this composite image to show how the slash in the loaf progresses from right as it is put on, to a few minutes later, and then even later. You can see how it opens, and the inside rises up inside the slash.

Three Grilled Baguettes

2006-07-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

All Three Finished!

I made three baguettes on the grill today.

This is all three loaves after I finished baking them. The center one could have done with a little more stretching, but I'm glad I didn't because it wouldn't have fit on the pizza stone then.

And there seems to be no way to get a nice crust on the top of the loaf, or browned at all etc. on the grill. I do think a cloche or homemade version will help that though.

I am getting a better hang of the slashing now, it keeps improving although the bottom one isn't quite right, the other two turned out well.

Practice makes perfect!

Pain Polka

2006-07-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

Pain Polka

Again, this isn't a sourdough bread, but I haven't had the chance to make sourdough lately so it can go up here too.

Anyway, it's a loaf of Pain Polka I made on the grill on the other day. The loaf used some dough I froze the last time I made baguettes as a starter and for flavor. My cuts apparently were not quite even, but it still looks nice.

This was taken in the car on the way to the Hollywood Bowl for the 4th of July show, so it is a rather odd photo.

I made a second loaf as well, but I had no chance to take a picture of it.

Both loaves had a very nice crumb, and tasted great. Hopefully if and when I get a cloche, or make my own, I can get it to actually cook all the way through without the bottom getting rather burned. I just picked up a bulb pan and saucer so I'll be making m own within the next couple days. And maybe get a nice crunchy crust on the top too. Although the crusts I get on the grill are the most pillowy soft and beautifully squishy of anything I've made.

I also discovered that for some reason they turn incredibly hard on the outside about 1 day after baking. Don't think it would in a bag, but we'll see in the future.

Injera

2006-07-03T01:17:00.000-07:00

Other Injera

Well, here are some of the injera. Not sure if they turned out how they're supposed to or not. I think I may have made them a little too thick, but I don't know for sure. They don't look like pictures I've seen online. But I think those aren't from teff flour for one thing. So I'll have to try them again sometime. They are quite sour though.

Injera Starter II

2006-07-03T01:13:00.000-07:00

Injera Starter Just Before Making Them

Well, this is the starter right before I made the injera. Quite bubbly, and smells pretty strong and sour.

Injera Starter

2006-06-30T23:17:00.000-07:00

Injera Starter

This is a starter for the traditional Ethiopian/Somalian/Eritrean flatbread, Injera.

It is traditionally made from Teff flour. Teff is the smallest grained of the wheat family, the whole grains are about the size of a poppy seed. Hopefully it will be ready soon!

I just started it this morning, and it is supposed to take about 3 days to ferment. It doesn't seem to mix all that well, a lot of the flour is sitting on the bottom. But we'll see how it goes!

A name...

2006-06-29T03:24:00.000-07:00

Well, since it is still alive I've decided to finally name the current starter.

*drumroll*

And I am proud to introduce... Aimilíona. May she fare better than the rest now that she is named.

Focaccia

2006-06-25T21:22:00.000-07:00

Focaccia

This was cooked on a pizza stone on a charcoal grill. It took a bit longer than it would have in the oven as the coals were already winding down from what was cooked beforehand.

It was delicious, and heavenly soft. The bottom got a bit burned though.

The crumb was more open than I've had on previous breads, so that was a plus. I did the dimpling you're supposed to do, but the dang thing sprang it all right back out.

Marbled Pesto Bread

2006-06-22T17:18:00.000-07:00

Pesto Bread

For the dough:
5/8 cup milk
scant 2/3 cup water
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 cups unbleached white bread flour
1 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp rapid rise dry yeast
7 tbsp ready made (or home made) pesto sauce (I would actually cut this to no more than 5 tbsp, it was bit too much when I made it)

For the topping:
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp coarse sea salt

1. Remove the milk from the refrigerator 30 minutes before using, to bring it to room temperature. Reserve some of the water and mix it with the yeas, pour the rest of the water, milk, and extra virgin olive oil in a bowl or bread machine pan.

2. Sprinkle the flour over the liquid, then put the sugar and salt on top of the flour.

3. Mix the ingredients together and knead until you have a nice dough. Should be about 4-8 minutes.

4. Put the dough in an oiled bowl and cover to rise for about an hour, or until doubled.

5. Punch back the dough gently. Then roll it out to a rectangle about 3/4inch thick and 10 inches long. Cover with oiled plastic wrap and leave to relax for a few minutes if it is difficult to roll out.

6. Spread the pesto sauce over the dough, leave a clear border of about 1/2 inch along one long edge. Roll up the dough lengthways, jelly-roll fashion, tuck the ends under and place seam down in a lightly oiled 10x4 loaf pan.

7. Cover with oiled clear film and set aside in a warm place to rise for 45 minutes or until the dough has more than doubled in size. Preheat oven to 425F/220C/Gas7.

8. Remove the clear film and brush the olive oil over the top of the loaf. Use a sharp knife to score the top with four diagonal cuts. Repeat the cuts in the opposite direction to make a criss cross pattern, sprinkle with sea salt. (I also sprinkled with some dried herbs. Added some to the dough as well, thyme, basil, oregano. Also added garlic and onion powder to the dough in small amounts)

9. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the bread is golden and sounds hollow when tapped on the base. Turn out on to a wire rack to cool.

Baguettes

2006-06-20T21:28:00.000-07:00

Baguettes

These are from a recipe in my other main bread book, of which I don't remember the title. I also am not sure where it is at the moment. Alas.

They turned out well, the one I had anyway. Gave one away. As with my other ones, still not as open of a crumb as I would like.

Baguettes

2006-06-20T21:25:00.000-07:00

Baguettes

These aren't sourdough. Just regular commercial yeast driven.

The recipe came from the Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. They tasted great, and the texture was fairly good. I still have a hard time getting as open of a crumb as pictures I see.
But they seemed a bit small to me, I know my previous baguettes have been larger than normal, but these seemed small.

Sourdough Baguettes

2006-06-08T17:12:00.000-07:00

Sourdough Baguettes

Two sourdough baguettes, made with the same recipe as my other baguettes, just with sourdough starter instead of yeast. Poor lighting so the picture is not the best, sorry. Not sure how they taste, haven't had the chance to try them yet, and gave one away.

Second Loaf of Sourdough

2006-05-31T23:05:00.000-07:00

Second Loaf of Sourdough

This is a loaf of sourdough pugliese. It rose quite a bit in the oven, was sort of flat beforehand. I think I let it rise a tad bit too long as it tore a bit on the other side. I guess I should have slashed it. Live and learn.

Went better than the last one, likely because I didn't need to do the whole fridge dance thing. Anyway, no idea how it tastes yet. Just finished it recently, will cut it later.

First REAL Sourdough Loaf

2006-05-21T22:53:00.000-07:00

First REAL Sourdough Loaf

This is the first real/pure sourdough loaf I made!

Only ingredients were water and flour (and of course 'wild yeast' from the flour).

Because of how it spread out in the fridge, it isn't that pretty. But it tastes wonderful, and, well... makes it so a slice is a rather light snack.

This loaf also used no recipe, just played it by ear. From here on out I'll try to mix my own stuff and recipes. And hopefully remember to add salt in the future...

Beginnings of a Loaf 11

2006-05-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

Beginnings of a Loaf 11

fter about 9 hours I was able to pull it out, let it warm up a bit, and then bake it. It had lost basically all of the previous shaping, the slashes were gone, and it had spread out quite a bit. Not much I could do about it though.

More like a bannock in a way now.

Beginnings of a Loaf 10

2006-05-21T22:44:00.000-07:00

Beginnings of a Loaf 10

After it had risen again I added a tiny bit more flour and shaped the loaf (not that well, but...)
However, I had to head up to school. So back in the fridge it went.

The slashing went ok this time, but it hadn't risen yet.

Beginnings of a Loaf 9

2006-05-21T22:41:00.000-07:00

Beginnings of a Loaf 9

About 13 hours later, I pulled it out of the fridge. The dough still wasn't quite the consistency I wanted, so I refreshed it again, and left it to sit. I didn't get pictures of this step.

But really, it looked pretty much the same.

It was at this point, or earlier, that I forgot to add salt. I didn't remember until the day after I baked it....

Beginnings of a Loaf 8

2006-05-21T22:38:00.000-07:00

Beginnings of a Loaf 8

I wasn't going to have time to finish baking the bread that night, so I refreshed it trying to get it as close as possible to the consistency I wanted for the actual loaf, and then left it in the fridge overnight.

Beginnings of a Loaf 7

2006-05-21T22:37:00.000-07:00

Beginnings of a Loaf 7

About 4 hours later the starter was definitely ready for another refreshment.

It definitely is quite active, and smells nice now.

Beginnings of a Loaf 6

2006-05-21T22:36:00.000-07:00

Beginnings of a Loaf 6

This is after refreshing it again, and moving to a bigger bowl.

Sorry the picture is so awful.

Beginnings of a Loaf 5

2006-05-21T02:07:00.001-07:00

Beginnings of a Loaf 5

This is about 16 hours after the the third picture in this series. There is an intermediate refreshment I haven't posted yet, it was on a different camera. Anyway, that one took about 9 hours. So this was about another 7 hours from then. However, that is just when I got home. It was probably ready before that.

Definitely looking more like a poolish or biga or what not now. Smells quite nice too.

Beginnings of a Loaf 3

2006-05-21T02:06:00.000-07:00

Beginnings of a Loaf 3

After about another 12 hours the starter seemed ready for refreshment again. Once again, I forgot to take a picture after refreshing it.

Beginnings of a Loaf 2

2006-05-21T02:04:00.000-07:00

Beginnings of a Loaf 2

This is after about 19 hours, and it seemed ready for refreshment. I didn't get a picture from after I refreshed it. It may have been ready earlier, it was such a small amount it was somewhat hard to tell. And I was at work anyway.

Unnamed Starter

2006-05-21T02:03:00.000-07:00

Unnamed Starter

This is, again, the same starter. After refreshment, and before going back in the jar and the fridge.

Beginnings of a Loaf 1

2006-05-21T02:02:00.000-07:00

Beginnings of a Loaf 1

When refreshing the starter this time I removed aproximately a tablespoon of the starter to mix with some new flour and water so I could start down the road to making a loaf.

Unnamed Starter

2006-05-21T02:01:00.000-07:00

Unnamed Starter

This is still the same starter from April 09, Still unnamed. This is after I stirred it together, but before I refreshed it. It went nearly two weeks between feeding this time. Probably could have gone more. It does get kind of hoochy in the fridge, but stirs back together beautifully.

An as of yet Unnamed Starter

2006-05-21T01:57:00.000-07:00

An as of yet Unnamed Starter

This is the aforementioned starter right after it was first mixed. It was started on April 9th, I think. I started with a bit less this time. I also found the trick, for me at least, to keep a starter actually rising, is to use a thicker mix. The 1/1 flour/water mix, or even with more flour but still quite fluid seem to peter out fairly quickly. I'm not sure if it is a buildup of waste (acid, alcohol) or what. But this one is now larger and still continuing to chug.

Falling Down

2006-05-02T18:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been rather falling down on my duties for a while. I lack pictures for most of what has transpired since the last post. The few I do have, I will post soon. I think I have a new starter since the last post, can't remember for sure. However, whether it is new or not, it is established now.

It can double itself fairly quickly. It provided most of the rise for a loaf of bread. It smells quite nice, slightly fruity and sour. And it now resides in the fridge where it can go some time without feeding. Soon I will make my first real loaf, and with no commercial yeast (I hope).

Hopefully I can be better about updates in the future, we shall see.

Delbchaem after second feeding

2006-04-06T15:18:00.000-07:00

Delbchaem after second feeding

This is Delbchaem after the second feeding, the smell seems appropriate, but I have no idea if it is or not. I also slightly upped the % of white flour this time, about a 25/75 mixture now.

Delbchaem before second feeding

2006-04-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

Delbchaem before second feeding

This is after only about 12 hours. Delbchaem certainly seems to be more active than the previous starters! Must be the difference is using rye flour? I also have been letting the water sit out to allow lingering chlorine to evaporate. This is at least a doubling if not more.

Delbchaem after first feeding

2006-04-05T23:20:00.001-07:00

Delbchaem after first feeding

Looks like I didn't quite get rid of half of Delbchaem when feeding it, oh well. Fed at the same ratio as the original mix, let us hope it does well.

Delbchaem before first feeding

2006-04-05T23:20:00.000-07:00

Delbchaem before first feeding

Well, Delbchaem seems to be doing quite well. This is after about 28 hours. Lots of bubbles and quite a bit of rise. Smell is hard to place, but with yeast elements, so far, so good.

Delbchaem just made

2006-04-05T23:19:00.000-07:00

Delbchaem just made

This is sourdough starter #4, Delbchaem , just after I finished mixing it.

I sadly was not able to get of Rionach's progress. However it seemed to loose all activity, then I was gone from wednesday to sunday and had asked someone to feed it if it did anything, dump if it didn't.

They didn't dump it, so I expected it would smell really bad and tried to avoid smelling it as I dumped it. When there was only a little bit left I noticed it was smelling very yeasty and fruity and alcoholy... Oh well.

Anyway, Delbchaem is made from about 90% organic rye flour. And 10% bread flour. We'll see how she does.

From December: Challah

2006-03-26T20:31:00.000-08:00

Challah

This is the first time I tried to make Challah, it was for a friend. I don't know how it turned out because I didn't have any of it.

From January: Pugliese

2006-03-26T20:30:00.000-08:00

Pugliese

This is my first attempt at making Pugliese, flavor and crumb were both wonderful.

From February:

2006-03-26T20:27:00.000-08:00

Ciabatta
Originally uploaded by Sumisu Yoshi.

This is the best of the 3 loaves from the first time I made ciabatta. The flavor was amazing, the crumb was open but not quite as much as I would have liked.

#3 Rionach After First Feeding

2006-03-26T19:49:00.000-08:00

#3 Rionach After First Feeding

This is Rionach after the first feeding. Roughly half was dumped out, and replaced by the equivalent of a 25/25/50 white/wheat/water mixture. It has a smell now, though I can't quite place it.

#3 Rionach After 24 Hours

2006-03-26T19:47:00.000-08:00

#3 Rionach After 24 Hours

This is Rionach after 24 hours at room temperature, looks like roughly a quarter inch of hooch on top. Not too many bubbles and no rise.

#3 Rionach

2006-03-26T19:44:00.000-08:00

#3 Rionach Just Made

This is my third attempt at a sourdough starter (named Rionach) just after I finished making it. It is a mixture of ~ 25% white flour, 25% whole wheat flour, and 50% water. Not much smell at this point, obviously.

Starting out

2006-03-26T17:23:00.000-08:00

As my the title and description of the blog would indicate, this blog is mainly about sourdough. Right now I'm on my third attempt at a starter. The first was contaminated and the second had an unfortunate accident. I didn't think to take pictures until the third, but they will be posted later.

Once I get a sourdough starter going (if?) the focus will shift more towards making loaves of sourdough and other bread. With some interludes of other foods, plants, flowers, and landscapes. So, wish #3 (Rionach) the best of luck.