Hey guys so I wanting to test my hand at baking some sour dough bread. The problem is making the starter. I know there are short cuts but does anyone know where I can buy an already made starter in Pretoria? Maybe artisanal bakeries?
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Sour Dough Starter Needed
- Thread starter Snyper564
- Start date
Thanks but its still not clear if anyone has any to share
so ill wait here, hopefully someone can help me out!In the interim I will try this out as I have a healthy kefir culture going
https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/milk-kefir/how-to-use-kefir-as-sourdough/
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I made my own with the below method
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/233/wild-yeast-sourdough-starter
Worked a charm for me
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/233/wild-yeast-sourdough-starter
Worked a charm for me
Thanks will def have a look!
Nice. You making milk or water kefir? Coconut kefir also sounds really nice.In the interim I will try this out as I have a healthy kefir culture going
It really isn't all that hard to do... That link to the thefreshloaf is a great method. I've also had success with simply using flour and water (equal parts by weight - 100g flour : 100g water)... the trick is all in the flour you're using.
I've found the most reliable is Eureka Mills Whole Meal Wheat Flour. It still contains all the bran and the germ from the wheat, which is where the wild yeast will be. Be patient and you should see bubbles starting to form. Then you just need to keep feeding/refreshing it...
A healthy sourdough starter consists of wild yeast and "good" bacteria. The good bacteria are actually what's giving the sourdough bread it's tang by producing lactic acid... The lactic acid is what kills off/keeps the "bad" bacteria away.
If the starter has a nasty funky smell initially, just keep feeding. Over successive feeds the "good" bacteria will become stronger killing off the bad bacteria and the smell will move to being a sweet vinegary smell.
Try it out, you've got nothing to lose other than some flour and a bit of water!
I've found the most reliable is Eureka Mills Whole Meal Wheat Flour. It still contains all the bran and the germ from the wheat, which is where the wild yeast will be. Be patient and you should see bubbles starting to form. Then you just need to keep feeding/refreshing it...
A healthy sourdough starter consists of wild yeast and "good" bacteria. The good bacteria are actually what's giving the sourdough bread it's tang by producing lactic acid... The lactic acid is what kills off/keeps the "bad" bacteria away.
If the starter has a nasty funky smell initially, just keep feeding. Over successive feeds the "good" bacteria will become stronger killing off the bad bacteria and the smell will move to being a sweet vinegary smell.
Try it out, you've got nothing to lose other than some flour and a bit of water!
Milk, have it as my mil replacement for breakfast with raw oats and muesli.
DrJohnZoidberg
Honorary Master
Don't you mean Sour Dough Starter Kneaded?
/insert drumroll here
/insert drumroll here
+1 Dum dum tis!
Awesome, let me do that! So much to try!
Good luck! Easy way to tell if your starter is ripe/strong enough to bake with:
• At room temp it should double in size in 8 to 12 hours (you can tell it's done feeding when it falls a bit flap/collapses after doubling).
• Once it's done feeding (i.e. doubled in size) pinch off a bit and drop it in some room temperature water - if it floats you're good to go!
Once you've gotten a healthy starter going you don't need to constantly keep it out and fed. If you put it in the fridge straight after a feed it'll slow down and you can easily feed it once a week. If you want to bake with it again "wake it up" by taking it out of the fridge a couple of days before baking and going through a few feeding cycles.
Also, you can alter the taste quite a bit with the type of flour you use... if you want to boost the sourdough tang use Rye flour to feed your starter... that will really boost the flavour even if you don't want to use rye in the actual bread recipe.
rrh
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Received the following URL from a friend who bakes sourdough loaves : http://www.sourdo.com
Ok so backtrack a bit. The inspiration for this thread was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APEavQg8rMw&t=485s, absolutely love this guys channel (Alex French Guy Cooking). You can really see the effort he puts into all his videos not surprised they have so many views.
So on the weekend I sort of gave up on kefir starter, didnt float did bubble etc. Im patient but I also like a short cut when available.
So my wife and I were shopping and I popped into "unnamed award winning artisinal bakery" and enquired about whether they had any starter for sale. At first the guy couldnt understand why I wanted any. After some chatting I managed to purchase a cup (more than enough, for anything!) I have now fed it. Split it and after the flour im feeding it Eureka Stoneground flour named the starter and its split portion -> 1. Yuri 2. Zhivago (apparently "bad luck" not to name your starter, dont believe in that just thought its cool to do
). Both chilling quite happily in the fridge after their first feeding and first two uses.
I followed that recipe to the T and I was handsomely rewarded with this:
Thanks for all the help guy!
So on the weekend I sort of gave up on kefir starter, didnt float did bubble etc. Im patient but I also like a short cut when available.
So my wife and I were shopping and I popped into "unnamed award winning artisinal bakery" and enquired about whether they had any starter for sale. At first the guy couldnt understand why I wanted any. After some chatting I managed to purchase a cup (more than enough, for anything!) I have now fed it. Split it and after the flour im feeding it Eureka Stoneground flour named the starter and its split portion -> 1. Yuri 2. Zhivago (apparently "bad luck" not to name your starter, dont believe in that just thought its cool to do
). Both chilling quite happily in the fridge after their first feeding and first two uses. I followed that recipe to the T and I was handsomely rewarded with this:
Thanks for all the help guy!
Ok so backtrack a bit. The inspiration for this thread was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APEavQg8rMw&t=485s, absolutely love this guys channel (Alex French Guy Cooking). You can really see the effort he puts into all his videos not surprised they have so many views.
So on the weekend I sort of gave up on kefir starter, didnt float did bubble etc. Im patient but I also like a short cut when available.
So my wife and I were shopping and I popped into "unnamed award winning artisinal bakery" and enquired about whether they had any starter for sale. At first the guy couldnt understand why I wanted any. After some chatting I managed to purchase a cup (more than enough, for anything!) I have now fed it. Split it and after the flour im feeding it Eureka Stoneground flour named the starter and its split portion -> 1. Yuri 2. Zhivago (apparently "bad luck" not to name your starter, dont believe in that just thought its cool to do
I followed that recipe to the T and I was handsomely rewarded with this:
View attachment 517919
Thanks for all the help guy!
I also tried a rosemary and garlic sourdough bread pic attached:
Will slice soon!
EDIT: I just checked Alex's video and see he covers off on much the same stuff. 
Nicely done!!
How are you baking your bread? I've your not using a cast iron pot inside the oven, you really should try and get a hold of one... you need to generate or capture steam in order to get a nice rise on your loafs... a cast iron pot with the lid on will keep the steam in the pot, which helps with oven spring (the steam keeps the crust of the loaf moist and soft, which allows it to rise - if you don't have the steam the crust will bake/harden too quickly before the loaf has finished rising in the oven, which also means you'll have a dense crumb structure and not that nice open/irregular crumb structure).
This was baked inside a normal flat bottom cast iron potjie pot:
https://imgur.com/a/cPArF
Also, this video has some great techniques on forming, scoring, baking etc. :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QpQ9Kd3t5I
Nicely done!!
How are you baking your bread? I've your not using a cast iron pot inside the oven, you really should try and get a hold of one... you need to generate or capture steam in order to get a nice rise on your loafs... a cast iron pot with the lid on will keep the steam in the pot, which helps with oven spring (the steam keeps the crust of the loaf moist and soft, which allows it to rise - if you don't have the steam the crust will bake/harden too quickly before the loaf has finished rising in the oven, which also means you'll have a dense crumb structure and not that nice open/irregular crumb structure).
This was baked inside a normal flat bottom cast iron potjie pot:
https://imgur.com/a/cPArF
Also, this video has some great techniques on forming, scoring, baking etc. :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QpQ9Kd3t5I
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EDIT: I just checked Alex's video and see he covers off on much the same stuff.
Nicely done!!
How are you baking your bread? I've your not using a cast iron pot inside the oven, you really should try and get a hold of one... you need to generate or capture steam in order to get a nice rise on your loafs... a cast iron pot with the lid on will keep the steam in the pot, which helps with oven spring (the steam keeps the crust of the loaf moist and soft, which allows it to rise - if you don't have the steam the crust will bake/harden too quickly before the loaf has finished rising in the oven, which also means you'll have a dense crumb structure and not that nice open/irregular crumb structure).
This was baked inside a normal flat bottom cast iron potjie pot:
https://imgur.com/a/cPArF
Also, this video has some great techniques on forming, scoring, baking etc. :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QpQ9Kd3t5I
That looks amazing! I am so excited to try out many more recipes now, first two out of the way, everything seems less daunting.
Thank you kindly. Yes this was done in a heavy cast iron pot, with a heavy lid. True cast to be exactly. Just had some now for lunch and I much say its the best I have ever tasted and I'm just getting started! I thought the crumb would be hard but it's firm and crisp and just amazing!
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