Bread ****

[indica86]

Why not make a sourdough culture and use that? Ferments longs and slow, provides better access to nutrients and is yummy.

 

[OzPaleAle]

True, I guess a sourdough culture is really just a mixture of yeast strains that have evolved to suite the environment they are in as the strains that aren't die off eventually.

 

[indica86]

It is now thought to bed yeast from wheat / rye. Hence why organic grains are used to create the culture, and why a covered container will work.
Lactobacillus eventually grows in there too. And they last for ages, mine is well over two years old and lives in the fridge quite happily.

 

[Airgead]

And they last for ages, mine is well over two years old and lives in the fridge quite happily.

Mine's nearly 20....

And yes. The bugs present are mostly from the flour rather than the air. I have fired up starters in completely sealed containers. Flour has plenty of native lactobacillus and yeast in it already.

 

[DeGarre]

I bought a sourdough starter from ebay for 6 bucks from a seller in California Sierra Nevadas. The starter originates from 1980 and is from a pancake restaurant. Rises like mad, is very sour and is called Larry.

I've baked with this starter 2 times, both no'knead. This one in a dutch oven:

This one sort of a 2x ciabatta + 1 roll as I messed up getting the dough out of the bowl:

 

[xa_jg66]

Has anyone successfully used their grain mill to make flour for bread? I have a millmaster and would love to make a sourdough "from paddock to plate"

 

[Not For Horses]

Has anyone successfully used their grain mill to make flour for bread? I have a millmaster and would love to make a sourdough "from paddock to plate"

Tried this. Would not recommend it.
It works but there is a lot of sifting and grinding then yet more sifting and grinding involved.
I wouldn't do it, but then I do live about 5 minutes drive away from a very good flour mill so maybe I'm just spoilt!

 

[Mardoo]

You really need a composition or natural stone mill to get good flour at home. Barley mills crush, flour mills grind. It's a big difference. The only reason you get flour from crushing malt is because of the enzymatic changes that increase the friability of the barley corn. Coronas don't work well either. They're made for cracking grain. One if my biggest regrets is leaving behind my stone mill when I moved here!

 

[Mardoo]

Or a small laboratory hammer mill. Totally cool, but way pricey.

 

[pat_00]

I've been thinking of making pumperknickel, as you can grind the rye fine enough in a grain crusher

 

[Bridges]

Have had my first crack at bread today. Starter was fired up 6 days ago and seems to be coming along well. The advice i'd had was that I had to chuck some of my starter to keep it healthy so I thought I'd use it. Put the starter in plus a quarter of the recommended yeast. Tried to keep it simple hence pretty standard white loaf. Very happy with the result. I can see striving to make the perfect loaf keeping me doing this for a long while.

Not sure this is quite ****... Yet

 

[indica86]

Packet yeast negates the point of using starter. It will become more active a lot faster then the starter could ever hope to.

 

[Bridges]

Starter is going well but I wasn't confident it would be strong enough to go on it's own, the starter recipe I'm following says to throw half of it out as it is getting fed daily and getting larger, something to do with maintaining ph levels by getting rid of some. I wasn't expecting to bake with it at all, just couldn't bring myself to chuck it out so thought I'd bung it into some bread dough. No it wasn't sourdough, it was a really nice loaf of bread regardless. Hopefully in another week I'll go again with just the starter no yeast. It's a fun game.

 

[indica86]

Fair call mate.
Keep going, mine is 4 years old and works faithfully.

 

[Mardoo]

Starters are like beer ferments, they're living things and you have to get used to the cycles and how you best like to use them. For example do they add better flavor on day 4 after a feed or day 6 or 8. They do need to be fed regularly, which is why you use or dump half and then feed them again. So you're not just adjusting pH but maintaining the little biome. Yep, a friend in the fridge, always there for a good conversation

 

[Bridges]

Mine is still living on the bench with a daily feed. There is so much different information out there on the technique required to get them going and keep them alive, I've read about pineapple juice, grapes, yogurt, instant mashed potato and many other weird and wonderful things "needed" to make a healthy starter. I'm running with a 1:1 ratio of flour and water with a daily feed keeping it at a steady 22 degrees (room temp) and it seems to be going OK I plan to keep this up for another week or so before moving it into the fridge. It's an enjoyable process though.

 

[indica86]

Flour and water is all you need.

 

[Bridges]

Flour and water is all you need.

Good, cause its all I'm using!

 

[seamad]

I feed mine at a 1:2 water/flour ratio and keep it in the fridge. Lasts at least 4 weeks without a feed, has been left longer over the years, just removed the dry mouldy crust and fed up for a while in those cases. It looks very dry to start with with a fair bit of dry unmixed flour, but gradually turns to a thickish paste. I use it on average every 1-2 weeks and find the dry method easier than having to feed more regularly when it sits in the fridge for longer.

 

[Danwood]

Corn bread.

A plain version and a fried onion, garlic and rosemary version.

The crispy, buttery edges are the best...and with the smokey, spicy, sweet beans and pork...faaark, I'm done !