Skip to main content

Down a Sourdough Rabbit Hole (Sourdough Rabbit Hole Prologue)

When I first began my sourdough starter in March, I did not know quarantine sourdoughing was a thing. But I found myself home more like a lot of others and I had been wanting to try doing it and now I was home more to give it a try. Luckily, I had stocked up on flour as it got a little difficult to always count on being able to get it a few weeks in when everyone started stockpiling everything. I was not exempt from  the food hoarding phenomena and while I did not go completely crazy, I did keep on hand many more things that I normally would. It certainly was disconcerting to find yourself at a grocery store with shelves completely cleared out of many items and rationing in place. It makes you realize just how spoiled you are being able to get what you want on a whim.    

So I started the process and now have been keeping it going for several months.  While sometimes it does seem like a chore to feed it, I mostly find it very interesting to see it grow and use it in many different recipes. I am always amazed at what flour and water can do.  I also don't like to throw things away so I have used pretty much all of my discarded starter in different recipes. There are some recipes I make over an over and some that were a complete miss. 

Here are few tips I have after creating my starter and reading lots of other posts.

* It is not that hard 

*Be patient and adjust and do not give up. (Also good rules for life these days) My starter grew right away and then stopped for a few days, I kept feeding it and and adjusted the feedings and it is now a robust starter that I keep in the fridge to feed and bake with weekly

*You have to get to know your starter.  It does not always following the same timing pattern, so you have to watch it and know when it is ready

* I used a 100% hydration starter with a 50-50 split of whole wheat and regular AP flour.  I think this can be a choice but it worked well for me. It is also easy to feed as you are always using equal starter, water and flour so no matter how much starter you use, just measure out the same amounts of water and flour.

*Use a scale to measure the starter, flour and water!  Measuring in cups will not yield consistent results.

Below are some pics of the established starter right after feeding and then 4 hours later.  Amazing how this works.  This a rise in the summer with warm weather and very consistent feeding.  The rise is not as quick when the temps are cooler. But we all have our days when we wake up quicker and the days when we wake up slower and the sourdough starter is no different. 


             


In the next posts, I will show you some recipes that worked and some that didn't. 



 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Don't Waffle about your favorite recipe (Down a Sourdough Rabbit Hole #3)

I tried two different waffle recipes, One was using an overnight sponge and one was mixed 1/2 hour before making. The 1st time I made the overnight sponge recipe, I thought thye were really good but the the next few times, they were ok. I saw this quicker recipe without the overnight wait and gave it a try. I think I like the quicker version better. They seem to hold up better if sharing them and if eating over the next few days. This may already be a known idea, but reheating the waffles using the waffle iron the next day makes them turn out like you just made them. I also experimented with some whipped butters. I made a maple with maple syrup, a raspberry with raspberry jam and a lemon with a bit of lemon juice and zest. The raspberry was the biggest hit. Here are the two recipes I tried: Overnight Sponge Waffles And here is the 30 minute version  30 Minute Waffles My opinion is that the overnight ones seems a bit lighter, but the 30 minute ones were tastier and easier.  Th
Post a Comment
Read more

Pate de Choux (British Baking Show - Bake #4)

I used the less fussy pate de choux recipe that I made growing up before I knew the correct french term for cream puff dough.   I have made it the fussy way and the way I will describe below and I don't really notice much difference.   Here is is:  Put one stick of butter in 1 cup of water and bring to a boil; add 1 cup of flour and stir until combined; remove from heat and add 4 eggs one at time making sure that each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. If you have never made these before, the dough gets slimy when you add the add and then you keep stirring and in a blink it incorporates into the dough.     For this bake, I made chocolate eclairs with chocolate glaze and regular cream puffs with a cardamom cream filling.   Pipe eclairs or puff onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment and cook until golden.  Cook time depends on the size of the puff but make sure to not take them out too early so they are able to have the right crisp and not be doughty inside. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Your Guests Will Be Impressed (Sourdough Rabbit Hole Recipe #1)

I have made several sourdough recipes - breads, cakes, cookies, crepes, scones, waffles, biscuits, muffins, etc.  There a millions of recipes out there for starter, unfed to ripe. I am not looking to retype a recipe for you and call it my own, but rather link you to ones that worked (and did not work) for me with some simple tips that I found helpful. I find it really annoying to have to scan pages of pictures in order to get to a recipe so I am adding a few photos here but not photo after photo.  While some photos are helpful to see what dough looks like in a particular stage, I think you end up just getting a feel for it with the more recipes you try.   My 1st suggestion four a sourdough starter recipe is a focaccia.  It is not fussy to make and the finished product looks and tastes great.  If we ever have dinner parties again, this is a good one to pull out and your guests will be impressed even though it is pretty easy to make.  The photos below show the bubbly dough in the 1st ris
Post a Comment
Read more