Sourdough

So, I've been making sourdough breads only for about two months now, so I'm far from an expert. But I do think I have reached a good method after a few failures!

I'll start with the sourdough starter. After reading Wild Fermentation, I decided I really wanted to try to capture wild yeasts instead of going with the "add a pinch of dry active yeast to your starter" sort of recipe. So I mixed up equal parts of flour and water, around 1 c of each, and set them out on the counter, covered with a piece of cloth and a rubber band. Each night I fed the starter, about 2 T more flour and water. For the first few days I stirred it whenever I thought of it, as directed in Wild Fermentation. I tried for 2 weeks while my mother was here to capture wild yeasts, and at one point I did see evidence of their presence, but then I didn't the next time. Exasperated, I tried adding a pinch of yeast, and low and behold, my yeast did grow, but then the next night I would check it, and it would be watery on top, with lots of goopy flour-water mixture at the bottom. Finally, it occurred to me that I was actually letting my yeast die, I was starving it to death! So I restarted my starter, with about 1/2c of flour and not quite as much water, so that my mix was between the consistency of pancake batter and toothpaste. The I fed it, about 2 T flour and some water, every 8-12 hours. This was key! By the third feeding, just 24 hours later, I had captured wild yeast and it was growing! So I whipped up a batch of sourdough rye (recipe instructions to follow), then added more flour and water to my starter container for the next batch. It's been going great ever since. I bake bread frequently, so I do not put my starter in the fridge. If I'm not going to bake a loaf for a few days, I just feed it a little less, about 1 T, twice a day. If I have a lot of starter, I just make a larger loaf, or some sourdough pancakes. :)

So this is what your starter should look like when the yeast is colonizing it:

Now, I've made a few different recipes, including the recipe in Wild Fermentation. I really, really like the 1-2-3 sourdough recipe seen here at youtube. It is so easy, and really does work every time, even with different flour blends (I've used whole wheat, spelt, rye, and kamut). Of course, being that I can not ever follow a recipe without improving upon it, I add other stuff. A little oil (tablespoon or so), seasonings (rosemary, or carraway, or poppy seeds.. whatever strikes the fancy), and flax seeds and hulled hemp seed.

Here's today's success, an all-kamut sourdough. Very tasty, though a little thick. I think it could have benefitted from a second rise, or a bit more sourdough starter (I didn't have as much as it looked like I did).