Artisan Bread Bakers

[Bugbear]

Hmmm, I never had a problem with it. I usually kept the starter in a jar with the lid loosly screwed on, and you can keep in the fridg after it gets yeasty. There's no reason you couldnt start a starter with a yeast culture for bread, or even throw a grape in there with it.

You can grow the loaf over a couple of days to make it extra sour if you keep track of how much flower you are adding. I think I did half fresh flower and half starter a lot of times, maybe more. I always waited to ad the salt and oil until the last kneading though; I oild my hands to work with the dough.

Oh, and sometimes I rubbed the top of the bread with butter a short time before it was done baking so it had a hard crisp top.

It's been about ten or so years since I baked bread, so it's hard to remember all the little details...

[Dall_Piobaire]

The long rises help a lot with Spelt bread, Spelt is much higher in protein and lower in carbs, and thus sugars. I add honey to feed the yeast let it go a day then do the bread.

I really want to try the spelt as a sourdough, tasty and healthy, should ever the twain meet!

[Bugbear]

Ya, I like bread that has the flavor already in it.

[Bugbear]

I don't know about the chlorine, But the PH balance of the water might do something. I think bottled water tends to have a low PH, and our tap water has a very high PH down here.

I seem to remember doing much much longer rises with sour dough and letting the yeast populate the loaf a lot more... But like I said, it's been a long time.

[BEEDEE]

Most of the breads I bake now are two day breads with either a preferment or an overnight retarding in the refrigerator. And my sourdough starter is from Nancy Silverton's Breads from the LaBrea Bakery. Took two weeks to get the starter running. Now it lives in the refrigerator and takes about a day to bring it back. Wonderful starter that I can recommend to anyone who has the time to mess with it at the beginning.

Brian

[Dall_Piobaire]

As far as bottled water goes, spring water should work well. additionally, put about a half cup of water in the oven, in an oven proof container when you bake it helps.

Does anyone use bricks, or those brick sheets for baking on? I once had a pizza stone, made a huge difference!

BeeDee, that sourdough starter, it will last you forever if you feed it regularly won't it? Did you order it online?

[BEEDEE]

Does anyone use bricks, or those brick sheets for baking on? I once had a pizza stone, made a huge difference!

BeeDee, that sourdough starter, it will last you forever if you feed it regularly won't it? Did you order it online?

I use a large square pizza stone - it does make a difference. The sourdough starter was made from scratch using Nancy Silverton's directions. Among other things, it has grapes in it to start the fermentation! I've had it for over a year now.

Brian

[Bugbear]

You have to make a living, breathing yeast monster that literally reaches up out of it's bowl and grabs the cup of flower out of your hand... then belches.

I have a couple of slabs of ceramic that I made way back when... I guess they would be cone nine stonewearOne of them is out in the bonsai garden though.

Works better than the metal pans for crispy bottems.

[Bugbear]

The county has rezoned this area, so no chickens, goats etc, but there is still a farmer's market a couple of blocks up the street, and I do still here the roosters crowing up the way from time to time.

[Bugbear]

Out here, some people put ground mesquite pods in with the flour; it's a lot sweeter. We have carob trees (ST. John's Bread) out here too, I guess you could grind those pods up and throw them in for a coco-ish flavor...