
Sourdough Starters, Recipes, and Baker's Handbook - gricardo99
http://www.sourdo.com
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JoshMnem
Another simple way to get started is to make no-knead sourdough bread that is
cooked in a Dutch oven. I used to make that regularly (before quitting all
flours and wheat), and it's great.

You use less starter and let it rise longer. Then bake it in the Dutch oven
the next day without kneading it.

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xref
great tip on the Dutch oven, I graduated from there to making
freeform/traditional sourdoughs and loved making both, really loved it. and
while i didn't give up wheat or anything I did just end up with a ton of bread
all the time which isn't good long term for me so mostly had to give it up.

~~~
dllthomas
Give it to neighbors, trade for pickled things or something :D

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ajsharp
For a more in-depth / intermediate book, I recently purchased "Open Crumb
Mastery" ([https://trevorjwilson.selz.com/item/open-crumb-mastery-
for-t...](https://trevorjwilson.selz.com/item/open-crumb-mastery-for-the-
intermediate-sourdough-baker-1-1)) by Trevor Jay Wilson
([https://www.instagram.com/trevorjaywilson/?hl=en](https://www.instagram.com/trevorjaywilson/?hl=en)).
It's a really deep dive into chasing that open crumb dragon. I'm really
enjoying it.

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KozmoNau7
I don't really get the open crumb fad. To me, the perfect bread is dense, rich
and has a crumb that is stout and slightly chewy, definitely more crumb than
air, and the air pockets should be small and even in size and distribution.

I want a reasonably even surface to spread butter on, with no gaping holes.

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KozmoNau7
My girlfriend and I been working through Lutz Geißler's BrotBackBuch, his
buttermilk bread (advanced version) is by far the tastiest and most satisfying
bread we have made so far. Dense, complex and just the right texture.

We started our own sourdough on whole grain rye, and have been adapting it for
wheat bread as well, as needed. It is rather fun keeping our little buddy
alive and happy.

The book has some amazing recipes and very solid chapters on theory and
practice in regards to yeast, sourdough, oven steam, baking methods and a
while host of other things. Highly recommended. I don't know if there's an
English version, but I'm finding it very helpful to improve my German skills
as well. He also has a blog at ploetzblog.de, which has even more recipes.

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nanomonkey
Maurizio over at the Perfect Loaf [1] has some great some great instructions
on capturing, feeding and cooking with sourdough starters.

[1][https://www.theperfectloaf.com](https://www.theperfectloaf.com)

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CommieBobDole
I have been extremely happy with Weekend Bakery's rye sourdough starter
recipe:

[http://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/rye-sourdough-starter-
in-...](http://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/rye-sourdough-starter-in-easy-
steps/)

I keep it in the fridge and feed it once a week or so with a 50/50 mix of rye
and white bread flour.

Have also had excellent results with their Pain Rustique recipe:

[http://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/our-version-of-a-pain-
rus...](http://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/our-version-of-a-pain-rustique/)

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toymachine
Wait, is this the second sourdough link to this the front page in two days? Am
I missing some important bread-tech connection?

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KozmoNau7
Baking is science, there is some surprisingly complex chemistry that goes into
a good loaf of bread.

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praptak
Anybody has any data on how do these cultures compare to starting your own
sourdough from cultures caught from the air?

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andness
I created my own starter about 4 years ago and have been feeding my little
family of four using it ever since. I'm very happy to not have to buy that
terrible bread that they offer in the stores anymore.

My understanding is that it really doesn't matter where you get the culture
from. It takes a couple of weeks to get a starter started so if you want to
get into sourdough baking I'd recommend just buying one if you can get one
from anywhere else.

(I created my own mostly out of curiosity, it's fun, but it takes a couple of
weeks)

I often hear about how for example the sourdough bread in San Francisco is
special and that this has something to do with the culture. I don't think this
is the case. My understanding is that you tweak the taste using temperature
and proofing time (and flour mix, obviously). Personally I don't want my bread
to be sour, so I generally feed the culture frequently and proof the dough at
around 27C. If you lower the temperature and proof for longer you get a more
sour tasting bread.

If you just want to make a tastier bread then simply using very small amounts
of baker's yeast and a long proofing time (at low temperature) will get you
very far. It takes time to develop the flavours and the main reason the store
bought bread is so bad is simply that it's produced so quickly.

Oh and I can also recommend the dutch oven trick, with sourdough or not, it
really is a very simple way to make great bread at home.

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convolvatron
I'm not sure if we agree or not. I'm not at all after the classic sourdough
taste, and am not really interested in keeping a friend. I buy bulk dried
yeast and always use yesterdays dough as a starter, do a slow ferment in the
fridge, or keep a fresh sponge fermenting for a day before I actually make
bread. lots of fermentation really does develop a richer flavor.

if I do want to grow a friend you suggest I turn my culture over often to stop
it getting too funky, and use proofing chamber to get rapid yeast development
when actually baking?

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setheron
I've purchased his book and a few dehydrated starters.

Definitely recommend both. The book is overly technically with various
temperatures but was a soft read otherwise. I've been baking now for the past
few months.

Still trying to get a very sour starter or loaf.

~~~
Yetanfou
If you want to make a very sour loaf all you have to do is use well-ripened
kefir [1] instead of water in the dough. Not only does this make the dough
extra sour, it also adds some extra raising power by virtue of the yeast in
the kefir.

For those who don't know, kefir is made by fermenting milk with kefir grains,
a combination of yeast and lactic acid bacteria which forms a symbiotic
colony.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir)

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ianai
Any idea if seitan recipes appear anywhere?

