While bread-making takes some time to master, the right recipe makes all the difference. I use all but 50 grams, leaving me just enough starter left to feed it again and put it back in the fridge until next time.If you have just started making bread in the comfort of your own home and feel like your skills are improving, you may be eager to take it to the next level. My mixture is a ratio of 1:1:1 where I combine 50g of mature starter, 50 g of warm water and 50 g of flour and let it rise for 10-12 hours or until doubled. This recipe calls for about 1/2 cup of active starter (100 grams). By the time I get up and get going, it has doubled and is ready to go. For this recipe, I pull the starter out of the fridge when I go to bed so that I can bake with it the next day. I mark the level of the amount of starter with an elastic band. I feed my starter every time I use it but then immediately move it to the refrigerator so that it does not rise. This is what they refer to when they say that you should use it for baking at the time of or just past the “peak”. When you feed it, it gets very active and happy and rises to at least double it’s volume like in the picture above. The thing with starter is that you need to “feed” it to use it. You can get sourdough starter from all sorts of places, a family member, a friend, a generous bakery… you can even buy it on Amazon. I built my starter from scratch because I love the science of it but you don’t have to. It adds a more complex flavor and texture and once you have some, you can make literally every baked good that you can think of with it. Sourdough starter is an established colony of wild yeast that can be used for baking. There are ways around everything! Don’t be afraid to use a workaround – it is a great way to learn and grow as a home cook. Spritzing the bread with a light mist of water before baking will also have the same effect as cooking for the first ten minutes with the cover on. If you want to use a cast iron pan and you don’t have a cover for it just be sure that the water in the pan below the rack you are going to bake on is good and steamy before you put your bread in (preheat + add an additional 10 minutes before putting the bread in to bake or start with boiling water when you preheat). You can use cast iron if you have it and it will stain a lot less. The dutch oven that I use is not an expensive one and it has gotten pretty stained on the enamel inside just from using it to bake, even with the parchment paper. I use an inexpensive metal brownie pan half filled with water on the rack under the dutch oven during baking, and the first few times that I made this recipe I checked to be sure that the bread was cooked all the way through with an instant read thermometer (should read between 205 and 210 degrees F when done). It is so satisfying to create something this beautiful and delicious in just a few hours!įor this recipe, I use a stand mixer equipped with a dough hook, parchment paper and a small 4.5 quart dutch oven with a cover to bake the bread in. Get your hands on some sourdough starter (make your own, get some from a friend or even order it online) and make this same day sourdough bread. I have learned so many things, one of which is that it can take a long time and I don’t want to wait! So what’s a girl to do? Create a recipe, of course, that involves taking the starter out of the fridge, letting it rise overnight and having bread by dinnertime the next day. Now that I have an active, healthy and mature starter I have been making all sorts of sourdough bread. I love science and building a sourdough starter from scratch is truly rewarding (and can be a little bit frustrating – not gonna lie). When our worlds came to a screeching halt with Coronavirus and I (and the rest of the world) could no longer find commercial yeast on the grocery store shelves, I decided to try my hand at building my own. I have a couple of favorite recipes that always work, like Jalapeno Cheddar Focaccia Bread, Parker House Dinner Rolls (thanks, Bobby Flay!) and Cheddar-Dill Dutch Oven Bread, but I can’t seem to make a loaf of white bread that comes anywhere close to the deliciousness of the grocery store bakery. If you have spent any amount of time with me, in person or on this site, I make no secret of the fact that bread is just one of those things that I don’t feel like I am good at. Like so many other people, baking bread has always intrigued me. Sourdough bread has been called a labor of love but if you have access to a good sourdough starter, baking artisan sourdough at home is a whole lot easier than you think!
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