Project for the near future

[wryter2000]

Thanks to this thread, I learned about Carl Griffiths' 1847 sourdough starter.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=236&topic_id=12142

My starter is growing as we "speak," so I thought I'd try it out with this recipe for English muffins.

http://www.recipesource.com/baked-goods/muffins/01/rec0174.html

[housewolf]

1. Yum, sourdough english muffins...

sounds great! Be sure and let us know how they turn out.

I'm trying my new French Bread recipe again this weekend, and a double batch of dinner rolls since I didn't get to bring any home from Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. And maybe something else too, I seem to have a bread-baking bug this weekend!

Hope your english muffins turn out GREAT!

[wryter2000]

2. I made them yesterday.

They were yummy but not the least bit sour. Maybe my yeast is too young? :shrug: I started it on Thursday night.

Some comments: 1) I had to knead in much more flour than the recipe called for. 2) It took most of the day for the muffins to rise (but I have this "problem" most of the time as I'm keeping my house pretty cold these days. I say "problem" because I don't mind waiting). 3) I think they would have browned a bit better if the temperature were a bit over 200. The tops and bottoms are pretty pale.

Overall, I'll definitely do this again. I have some wonderful English muffins large enough to use for sandwiches or hamburger buns. In fact, tonight I'm going to make myself a burger with ground turkey. I'm still getting a few tomatoes, so slices of tomato will go on there, too.

Next weekend, either pancakes or waffles.

[Mr. McD]

3. I haven’t found this to be a very sour starter (so far) but very active.

My bread doubled in about 2 hr. compared with 3 to 4 hr for my other two starters.

I normally ferment the dough 24 hr. total but with this starter I only went 10 hr. total. Next time I will go the whole 24. The longer you can ferment the more sour the flavor will be.

It is not the yeast that gives it the sour taste but the lacto-bacteria (lactic acid). Starters vary in sourness depending on the strains of bacteria they contain.

[wryter2000]

4. I love it anyway

At some point, I'll order the lactobacillus sanfrancisco and the yeast that works with it. I have to practice making French bread first.

I was wondering about sour pancakes and waffles, anyway. I think this stuff will be great for that.

[Mr. McD]

5. It makes very good pancakes

and biscuits.

[housewolf]

6. Sourdough starters

Hi Wryter2000,

I've been maintaining and baking with sourdough starters for about 8 years now, so I thought I'd add my 2 cents worth of info that might be of some help to you.

While you can make pretty darned good sourdough about 3 days after starting up a new starter and daily feedings, I've found that you get MUCH better bread if you feed your starter once or twice daily for a period of about 2 weeks. It seems to take that long for the micro-organisms in the starter to mature a little bit, stabilize and create a stabile environment where they're happy and doing their finest work. It's very wasteful of flour to dump out most of the starter and re-feed every day, but you don't have to mix up a large quantity, a small quantity works just as well, and you can use the cheapest flour that you can find because all they are interested in doing is breaking down the starch in the flour into sugars so they can eat it, so a low-protein all-purpose flour is fine until you make up your sponge for bread.

Several factors go into creating a starter that give a sour punch. Most important are the viscosity of the starter and the temperatur. For more sour, work with a more liquid starter and higher temperatures (up to about 85 degress f). It gets tricky because both of those factors result in a faster rise. Thicker starters and lower temps allow for more complexity of flavor to develop but not as much souring. You'll have to experiment some to find out how to maintain your starter and how to make your sponge and bread dough to create the bread that you like the most. The great thing is, although it's a learning experience, you'll have lots of good bread to enjoy along the way.

If you have questions or want advice, feel free to ask - or pm me and I'll email you back.

I had an absolute blast learning to work with sourdough, I hope you will too.

[wryter2000]

8. Thanks

You sure know your bread and baking. I'll pm you if I have questions. I've fed the starter a few times now. I'm going to try waffles this weekend and see what happens.

[NMDemDist2]

10. housewolf is the resident bread/yeast dough expert. she's a jewel

and has got me baking bread all winter

she RAWKS!! :yourock:

[Mr. McD]

7. There is a lot of good information at The Sourdough FAQ

http://www.nyx.net/~dgreenw/sourdoughqa.html

[wryter2000]

9. That's an awesome reference, thanks

I've been wondering about trying to make my own starter for the fun of it. That site has instructions on doing it.