Sourdough

[Saponomancer]

With the thread going around talking about bread (albeit gluten free bread) I thought I would share my sourdough experience (Although only six months long now)!

I have a very nice starter that I pay attention to off and on using the King Arthur bread instructions for making your own from scratch.

My favorite recipes are:

The King Arthur Waffles

The Cultures for Health Focaccia

And Sourdough Home's Black Canyon bread

 

[Arthur Dent]

Mmmmmmmm, sourdough! I have had my current starter going for about 7 years.

 

[Dahila]

my starter is almost 7 years old Many people on forum bake their own bread, a lot of them use sourdough starter
check it out http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=60353

 

[Kittish]

I don't keep a sourdough starter going anymore, though I have about a cup of my previous starter in the freezer. These days I use whey from making yogurt in my baked goods (just replace all the water/milk). It's not quite sourdough tangy, but still really nice, and helps me use the 2 quarts of whey I get every time I make yogurt.

 

[BattleGnome]

How do you guys store your starters?

My husband attempted the sourdough habit at one point but it got moldy fast. If I don't decide on the gluten free/low carb options I might try making bread again - at least then if I add too much sugar it will be for cinnamon rolls not a sandwich.

 

[Kittish]

When I had mine going, it spent the first month on the counter, away from sunlight and loosely covered. Stir and remove a cup every day, then add half a cup of flour (unbleached ap and sometimes whole wheat) and half a cup of water. Once it matured, I kept it in the fridge and fed it twice a week. I was dumping way more than I used, so I decided to freeze some and use up/get rid of the rest of it. With a two to three day cold ferment, it made very tasty loaves, though they didn't get very tall.

 

[Saponomancer]

It's so cool that you guys have kept yours going so long, Arthur and Dehila!

What are some of your favorite recipes?

Battlegnome: When I'm doing a lot of baking and can keep up with the twice daily feedings it lives on my counter, otherwise it lives in the fridge, I keep it in a big quart jar.

Kittish: That sounds pretty cool! I don't make yogurt and I get really tickled about being able to make bread without using commercial yeast. Theres just something about being able to make something so good with only flour and water that I'm really attracted to.

 

[navigator9]

I don't keep a sourdough starter going anymore, though I have about a cup of my previous starter in the freezer. These days I use whey from making yogurt in my baked goods (just replace all the water/milk). It's not quite sourdough tangy, but still really nice, and helps me use the 2 quarts of whey I get every time I make yogurt.

Gee, I never thought of that! When I make yogurt, I usually pour off the whey into smoothies, but bread sounds like a much tastier option. Thanks.

 

[Arthur Dent]

How do you guys store your starters?

Mine lives in a plastic quart storage container in the fridge. When I'm using it I feed it once a week, or the two days before using it. Otherwise it sits in the fridge happily being ignored. After being ignored for long enough it goes dormant, can stay that way for months, to be resurrected again by a few good feedings when the baking urge once again seizes hold. It has never developed mold or any other unpleasantness, or at least not that I recall. It might have done in the early days, and I have long since forgotten.

 

[Arthur Dent]

What are some of your favorite recipes?

I started with the basic no knead sourdough at Breadtopia found here:

http://breadtopia.com/sourdough-no-knead-bread/

I have played with it quite a bit over the years, subbing different flours and whatnot. One of my favorites was about 80% spelt flour with the rest regular bread flour, that was amazing. My go-to is just a bit tweaked version of that basic recipe though.

 

[Arthur Dent]

When I make yogurt, I usually pour off the whey...

??? When I make yogurt it doesn't separate, what am I missing?

 

[IrishLass]

Mine lives in a plastic quart storage container in the fridge. When I'm using it I feed it once a week, or the two days before using it. Otherwise it sits in the fridge happily being ignored. After being ignored for long enough it goes dormant, can stay that way for months, to be resurrected again by a few good feedings when the baking urge once again seizes hold. It has never developed mold or any other unpleasantness, or at least not that I recall. It might have done in the early days, and I have long since forgotten.

This has been my experience, too, although I keep mine (a rye starter) in a canning jar since I have so many of them just sitting around. lol

When I'm not in a baking mood, it happily sits dormant there in its jar in the fridge being totally ignored and unfed by me for months upon months without ever developing mold or any other weirdness. It does develop a watery layer of hooch on top, however, but an old-timer once told me that that's actually a good thing- it provides a layer of protection against any mold/bad bacteria from getting into the starter- so I always leave it there undisturbed until the next baking mood hits me.

I've given my starter the name of Lazarus, because it always comes back from the dead whenever I pay it any attention again.


IrishLass

 

[navigator9]

??? When I make yogurt it doesn't separate, what am I missing?

Mine doesn't separate until I "break" it. Once I scoop into it with a spoon, the next time I go to get some, there will be little pools of whey on top. Commercial yogurt does the same for me too. Sometimes I stir it back in, and now I know some new uses for it.

 

[Kittish]

??? When I make yogurt it doesn't separate, what am I missing?

Once my yogurt is done fermenting, I scoop/pour it into a colander lined with paper coffee filters (got a few hundred of them left from before I switched to a reusable filter). You could also use cheesecloth if you wanted, or even a towel (though towels that don't have the terrycloth fuzzy pile work better). Set the lined colander into a larger bowl to drip into and dump in the yogurt, and set the whole thing in the fridge for a day or so, or until the yogurt has thickened up as much as you want. I like mine really thick, so I let a lot of whey drain out. I wind up with about 2 quarts of yogurt and 2 quarts of whey out of a gallon batch of yogurt.

 

[Arthur Dent]

Once my yogurt is done fermenting...

Kittish, if you add a little salt to your yogurt before draining it you will have made labneh.
Like this: https://fankhauserblog.wordpress.com/2005/11/23/labneh-recipe-and-illustrations/

 

[Kittish]

Kittish, if you add a little salt to your yogurt before draining it you will have made labneh.

Almost. Looks like the labneh is a quite a bit drier than my yogurt. I go for more a greek yogurt texture/thickness than soft cheese. I could probably add a bit of salt to some of my yogurt and turn it into labneh easy enough, just set it up to drain some more.

 

[Soapmaker145]

Labneh is the same as greek yogurt as long as it is made by draining the whey. It is usually fairly soft. In the Middle East, they make a drier version that is formed into balls and stored in olive oil for the winter. It turns more sour similar to sour dough cultures.

Labneh is made with only acidophilus species (no bifidus or anything else) unlike our yogurt. I used to buy labneh from an Arabic store when I lived in Maryland. They also had the best triple cream ice cream with pistachios and rose water made in Michigan. I haven't been able to find it again.

I was able to duplicate the taste and texture of labneh starting with Kefir which is made with only acidophilus species. The flour sack towels from William-Sonoma are the best for draining the yogurt. They have a very fine weave that retains the milk solids. Mine are at least 10 years old.

I found it interesting and curious that almost all cultures drain the whey and dump it after recovering the solids.