Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Sourdough Bread Jerms Style

Jerms on Jun-20-2006 at 07:35 PM RST @ 24.249.73.221 oooh, that's right, i keep forgetting you sent me that grape-mash starter...

timing is fairly key..

2 cups flour, 1.5 cups water, 3 tablespoons of starter overnight.

no more than 12 hours, that should be enough time for the starter to hit it's peak, will double in volume.. if you go too long and it collapses, this is a problem

reserve a few tablespoons of this the next morning, store in fridge

to the rest of it, i add 2c water, 6c flour and a palm full of salt.

stir together, let rest for 45 min, turn out and spread on the counter, fold in sides and top. rest 45 min, turn out, spread on counter, fold in sides and top. rest 45 min, turn out, spread on counter, fold in sides and top. let rise till double, form loaves, let rise, slash and bake at 450&degF for 30-45 min, till blistered...

8 comments:

Farmer Jones said...

That all sounds so simple, and yet if I tried it I would only make more doorstops. The God of Bread has cursed me, I can't even make decent bread in a bread machine.

ShoeRat said...

Shoe on Jun-29-2006 at 09:51 PM RST @ 68.188.252.137
How do you create a new starter were you to find yourself without one?

Jerms on Jun-29-2006 at 09:52 PM RST @ 24.249.73.221
stone ground organic rye flour & water

Jerms on Jun-29-2006 at 09:52 PM RST @ 24.249.73.221
equal parts by weight... start out with like 4 ounces of each...

Jerms on Jun-29-2006 at 09:53 PM RST @ 24.249.73.221
let sit 24 hours, add more rye flour & water same proportions, 3 days running..

should see nice bubbling by 3rd day..

start feeding white flour then...


ready in a week

ShoeRat said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ShoeRat said...

Jerms on Jul-24-2006 at 10:32 PM RST @ 24.249.73.221
Jerms on Jun-29-2006 at 09:52 PM RST @ 24.249.73.221
stone ground organic rye flour & water

Jerms on Jun-29-2006 at 09:52 PM RST @ 24.249.73.221
equal parts by weight... start out with like 4 ounces of each...

Jerms on Jun-29-2006 at 09:53 PM RST @ 24.249.73.221
let sit 24 hours, add more rye flour & water same proportions, 3 days running..

that's too much.. you can do 2oz each

ShoeRat said...

Made my own starter from rye flour and water. I worked with very small quantities, since the yeast and bacteria exist throughout the flour. I used two pill bottles to hold the starter (I use a larger pill bottle to hold Jerm's other starter in the fridge inbetween bakings.)

Thursday night I mixed two tsp rye flour and two tsp water in one bottle. Friday night it smelled aweful but had expanded a little. I mixed it up, and took one tsp of the mixture and put it in the other bottle. I added two tsp rye flour and two tsp water, and mixed. I dumped the contents of the first bottle and cleaned it out. Within a couple hours the starter had visibly expanded. Saturday morning it had completely filled the pill bottle, more than tripling in volume. I stirred it down, took out one tsp and put in the other bottle, added two tsp wheat flour (weaning it off rye now that it is started) and two tsp water, and mixed. Will keep up this diluting and feeding every 12 hours until the flavor and odor have stabilized. Will use nothing but wheat flour from now on.

ShoeRat said...

Starter died out on my while transitioning to white flour. Jerms said to try again, and not switch to white flour until the starter is vigorous enough to rise twice on its own between feedings.

ShoeRat said...

Worked fine!

ShoeRat said...

I learned recently that there is a first, false rising when creating a starter from scratch. The levening during the first false rising is from a bacteria that can not survive in the final sourdough. It may be several days of feeding afterwards before the sourdough yeast takes over.