I was reading a blog recently where the lady said she sometimes makes up a bread dough (it's a looseish dough along the lines of Lucy's bread) and leaves it in the fridge until she's ready to bake it, whereupon she adds a bit more flour to it. She also said if she doesn't get round to baking for a few days, she sometimes stirs in some more flour/water to keep it going, as it were.
That got me thinking. I have found sourdough starters to be a bit hit and miss sometimes, they depend on so many factors to achieve a good viable actively bubbling starter. My last couple were not very successful (it was during the winter, so temperature probably had something to do with it) so I'd given up.
So I thought what if I made up a dough consisting of 250g bread flour, a level tsp yeast, tsp salt and enough water to make a loose, batter-like dough, stored it covered in the fridge and added, say, another 50g flour and more water to it every day, until it reached a total flour amount of 500g (so in the fridge for 6 days in total, counting the day I put it in as Day 1, and baking it on Day 6)? I'm hoping it will be a sort of sourdough loaf, but using the whole of the dough to make the loaf, rather than using some starter as part of the entire ingredients. Does that make sense?
Anyway, I started it yesterday......just taken it out of the fridge to add the first extra 50g flour and was pleased to see it was a seething, bubbling mass. Looks promising.
I will keep you informed!
learning to love veg…..except celery :-O
Well, I added more flour this morning.....quite a bit more, to get it to a manageable dough state rather than the loose batter that it was (think I'd added too much water during the week). Tipped it out onto the floured worktop and used my 2 plastic dough scrapers to fold and turn it, the dough was a beautifully smooth and soft texture. Put it on a baking tray and left it to rise for another 30 mins, then slashed the top and baked it at 180 deg for about an hour. It rose and grew very well in the oven.
Just cut a slice to try......the crumb looks good, with the characteristic sourdough holey texture, it was a bit doughy but I think that's just because it was still warm. It doesn't taste particularly like sourdough, but is a really good tasting bread with a lovely crunchy crust.
In conclusion, I think I need to add less water during the 5 day period, it also needed a bit more salt (I'd only used 1 tsp). It definitely is one of the best tasting breads I've made and I am going to continue doing it. I'll do it the same way this next time, using the same ordinary white bread flour but a bit more salt and less water during the subsequent days (so 50g more flour each day, but only about 25 ml or so water rather than the 50 or 60 ml I used this time). After seeing how that comes out, I'll then try it with a proportion of wholemeal flour, or perhaps some rye flour.
learning to love veg…..except celery :-O
It does sound like a cross between the 'herman' friendship cakes, a sourdough and the type of bread where you make a sponge the night before. I've never tried making a normal yeast 'starter' and feeding it for a week. I suppose it should be good for loaves with the chewy sourdough texture but without the sourdough flavour (which, even as a sourdough fan, I admit can be a bit strong with long fermenting times).
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I think the forum is punishing me for staying away for too long - I typed a reply, submitted it and then it seemed to vanish into the ether!
I said something along the lines of this sounding like a cross between the 'herman' style friendship cakes, sourdough and the types of bread where you make a sponge first.
It should be good for giving the chewy texture of a sourdough without the flavour which (as a sourdough enthusiast) can sometimes be a bit strong.
Visit my blog for food, drink, photography and hamsters.
Hmm now that's wierd. The forum didn't show my reply so I posted again, and that didn't appear either. I logged out and back in again to try again and both copies appeared!
I can't remember where I found the bit to change my name - possibly in the profile settings? I still have to login using my old bobquail name though.
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