Sgt Prepper
08-04-2010, 09:40 PM
I have been experiementing with sourdough over the last few weeks. This stuff is amazing. I have made pancakes, bread, biscuits, scones and waffles all with 1/4 tsp of original yeast.
I make my start with this recipe:
Sourdough Start
1 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 cup high gluten unbleached flour.
Mix the starter in a glass or steel bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set it aside at room temperature until it is doubled and bubbly, maybe 4 to 6 hours.
Everytime I take some starter for a recipe, I replenish it with equal parts of flour and water. So if the recipe calls for 1 C of starter, I replenish the start with 1C of flour and 1C of water. If I am not going to use the sourdough start for a few days, I just put it in my fridge to slow down the fermenting and keep it from getting too soury. If I don't use it at all for a couple of weeks, I pull a 1C of starter out and replenish it to keep it fairly mild.
I keep my starter in a quart mason jar with cheese cloth on top so it can breath, secured with a rubber band.
Every once in a while your start will die and you will need to start over. It is easiest to use bread yeast to start it, but I have seen recipes using potato water and even people that catch wild yeast spores in the air. There are reports of some starts that are over 100 years old!
Here is where I think the real value of sourdough is. Today we made sourdough waffles for breakfast. Our kids had a couple of friends sleep over so we were feeding two 11 year olds, two 8 year olds, a 2 year old and my wife and I. We fed all seven of us with 1 C of starter, 1C of flour (I used bisquick for the flour) a little milk, a tsp of baking soda and 1/4 tsp salt. It took 1 additional cup of flour to replenish my start. There was even one waffle left over because we were so stuffed (and the neighbor kids raved at how good the waffles were, one even commented I'll never eat Krusteaz again). We also had about a pound of bacon and a little fruit for good measure.
I would not have believed it possible to feed that many people with so little. That, to me, is the real value of sourdough. It takes very little additional ingredients and it is very filling.
Here is a picture of the pancakes I cooked on Saturday last weekend:
Anyway, I have really enjoyed learning a skill that will be very useful in a long term disaster or food shortage situation.
Here are a few of the really easy and good recipes I have found:
#1 Easy Sourdough Bread:
For the sponge:
A sponge is a pre-ferment, a wet mixture of flour and yeast that acts as an incubation chamber to grow yeast at the desired rate. It is added to the dough.
1 cup of the starter
3/4 cup warm water
2 cups flour
Mix the one cup starter with the flour and water, cover, and set aside to ferment until it has tripled in volume. At room temperature, it will take four to eight hours. You can put it in a cool place--about fifty degrees--and let it perk all night. (In the winter, your garage may be just right.) You can also put it in the refrigerator overnight. At temperatures of forty degrees, the yeast will be inactive but the friendly bacteria will still be working and enhance the sour flavor of the bread. If you retard the growth with lower temperatures (“retard” is the correct term for slowing the growth of the yeast), simply bring the sponge to room temperature and let it expand to three times its original volume before proceeding.
For the dough:
All of the sponge
11/2 cups flour (more or less)
2 teaspoons salt
Mix the salt with the flour. Knead the combination into the sponge by hand until you have a smooth, elastic, slightly sticky dough, adding more flour as needed. Put the dough in an oiled bowl and let it rise again until doubled, about an hour.
Bakers note: Notice that the salt is not added until the last stage. Salt in the sponge would inhibit yeast growth.
Form the loaves:
Though you can make this bread in pans, it works best as a large freestanding round or oval loaf or two smaller loaves. Place a clean cotton cloth in a bowl or basket in which to hold the loaf. Lightly dust the interior of the bowl with flour. Place each formed loaf upside down in a bowl on top of the dusted flour. Cover the loaves with plastic and let them rise again until doubled. This rising will probably take less than an hour.
Bakers note: You want a light dusting of flour on the cloth to be transferred to the bread, not a heavy caking. Softly sifting flour from a strainer is the easiest way to achieve an even coating. You can find a small strainer in our kitchen tool section.
If you choose to bake the bread in pans, omit this step. Instead, let the dough rise in a greased bowl covered with plastic until doubled. Form the loaves for pans, place the loaves in greased pans, and let rise until well-expanded and puffy. Bake at 350 degrees until done, about 30 minutes.
#2 Sourdough Pancake Recipe:
Into a clean, medium size bowl pour one cup of room temp starter. Add two TBS of cooking oil and stir well. Beat one egg and stir in to the starter along with two TBS of sugar. Stir in 1 C of flour (I use Bisquick for the buttermilk flavor). Next mix one tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt in about a 1/2 C of water or milk (make sure the liquid is room temp) and quickly stir into the batter. The sourdough batter will now begin to foam and rise in the bowl. Let the batter stand for about 10 or 15 minutes. Fry as you would a regular pancake
#3 Quick Sourdough Scones
1C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsb sugar
Mix together and make a well in the middle
Pour into the well the following
1/4 C melted shortening
1C sourdough starter
2 eggs slightly beaten
Mix together and then knead in about another 1/2 C of flour until dough is no longer sticky. Pinch off golf ball sized pieces and flatten out to about 1/2 inch thick and fry in 375 degree oil until golden brown and done in the middle.
I make my start with this recipe:
Sourdough Start
1 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 cup high gluten unbleached flour.
Mix the starter in a glass or steel bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set it aside at room temperature until it is doubled and bubbly, maybe 4 to 6 hours.
Everytime I take some starter for a recipe, I replenish it with equal parts of flour and water. So if the recipe calls for 1 C of starter, I replenish the start with 1C of flour and 1C of water. If I am not going to use the sourdough start for a few days, I just put it in my fridge to slow down the fermenting and keep it from getting too soury. If I don't use it at all for a couple of weeks, I pull a 1C of starter out and replenish it to keep it fairly mild.
I keep my starter in a quart mason jar with cheese cloth on top so it can breath, secured with a rubber band.
Every once in a while your start will die and you will need to start over. It is easiest to use bread yeast to start it, but I have seen recipes using potato water and even people that catch wild yeast spores in the air. There are reports of some starts that are over 100 years old!
Here is where I think the real value of sourdough is. Today we made sourdough waffles for breakfast. Our kids had a couple of friends sleep over so we were feeding two 11 year olds, two 8 year olds, a 2 year old and my wife and I. We fed all seven of us with 1 C of starter, 1C of flour (I used bisquick for the flour) a little milk, a tsp of baking soda and 1/4 tsp salt. It took 1 additional cup of flour to replenish my start. There was even one waffle left over because we were so stuffed (and the neighbor kids raved at how good the waffles were, one even commented I'll never eat Krusteaz again). We also had about a pound of bacon and a little fruit for good measure.
I would not have believed it possible to feed that many people with so little. That, to me, is the real value of sourdough. It takes very little additional ingredients and it is very filling.
Here is a picture of the pancakes I cooked on Saturday last weekend:
Anyway, I have really enjoyed learning a skill that will be very useful in a long term disaster or food shortage situation.
Here are a few of the really easy and good recipes I have found:
#1 Easy Sourdough Bread:
For the sponge:
A sponge is a pre-ferment, a wet mixture of flour and yeast that acts as an incubation chamber to grow yeast at the desired rate. It is added to the dough.
1 cup of the starter
3/4 cup warm water
2 cups flour
Mix the one cup starter with the flour and water, cover, and set aside to ferment until it has tripled in volume. At room temperature, it will take four to eight hours. You can put it in a cool place--about fifty degrees--and let it perk all night. (In the winter, your garage may be just right.) You can also put it in the refrigerator overnight. At temperatures of forty degrees, the yeast will be inactive but the friendly bacteria will still be working and enhance the sour flavor of the bread. If you retard the growth with lower temperatures (“retard” is the correct term for slowing the growth of the yeast), simply bring the sponge to room temperature and let it expand to three times its original volume before proceeding.
For the dough:
All of the sponge
11/2 cups flour (more or less)
2 teaspoons salt
Mix the salt with the flour. Knead the combination into the sponge by hand until you have a smooth, elastic, slightly sticky dough, adding more flour as needed. Put the dough in an oiled bowl and let it rise again until doubled, about an hour.
Bakers note: Notice that the salt is not added until the last stage. Salt in the sponge would inhibit yeast growth.
Form the loaves:
Though you can make this bread in pans, it works best as a large freestanding round or oval loaf or two smaller loaves. Place a clean cotton cloth in a bowl or basket in which to hold the loaf. Lightly dust the interior of the bowl with flour. Place each formed loaf upside down in a bowl on top of the dusted flour. Cover the loaves with plastic and let them rise again until doubled. This rising will probably take less than an hour.
Bakers note: You want a light dusting of flour on the cloth to be transferred to the bread, not a heavy caking. Softly sifting flour from a strainer is the easiest way to achieve an even coating. You can find a small strainer in our kitchen tool section.
If you choose to bake the bread in pans, omit this step. Instead, let the dough rise in a greased bowl covered with plastic until doubled. Form the loaves for pans, place the loaves in greased pans, and let rise until well-expanded and puffy. Bake at 350 degrees until done, about 30 minutes.
#2 Sourdough Pancake Recipe:
Into a clean, medium size bowl pour one cup of room temp starter. Add two TBS of cooking oil and stir well. Beat one egg and stir in to the starter along with two TBS of sugar. Stir in 1 C of flour (I use Bisquick for the buttermilk flavor). Next mix one tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt in about a 1/2 C of water or milk (make sure the liquid is room temp) and quickly stir into the batter. The sourdough batter will now begin to foam and rise in the bowl. Let the batter stand for about 10 or 15 minutes. Fry as you would a regular pancake
#3 Quick Sourdough Scones
1C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsb sugar
Mix together and make a well in the middle
Pour into the well the following
1/4 C melted shortening
1C sourdough starter
2 eggs slightly beaten
Mix together and then knead in about another 1/2 C of flour until dough is no longer sticky. Pinch off golf ball sized pieces and flatten out to about 1/2 inch thick and fry in 375 degree oil until golden brown and done in the middle.