A few months back someone started a Sourdough thread. I posted but dropped out because I just wasn't having much luck. However, after persevering my starter is brilliant, in fact too brilliant. One poster suggested that only a tablespoon of starter is needed to innoculate a new batch and I was quite skeptical but that is all that is needed. My sincere apologies to the poster who suggested that.
buzzy110,
Jul 1, 6:18am
I still have no idea what it is I am doing but I can now knock out beautifully formed and long lasting sourdough bread with consummate ease. I can use wholemeal flour and the result is perfect. I have decided to branch out and try adding various grains to my recipe and see how that turns out. gosh I feel so smug. Has the other poster had any success or have you given up?
rog.e,
Jul 1, 7:03am
Well done buzzy I threw mine out even though it was deliciously yeasty and looked good. I am going to start up again in a month or two - maybe sooner. You have done really well perservering. I had long-stay family visiting and just did not get to baking bread. V
gjsimps,
Jul 1, 8:27am
buzzyWould like to get your starter recipe. Tried with yeast flour and water. No good What worked for you?
gjsimps,
Jul 1, 8:28am
That is... Tryed ... . .
buzzy110,
Jul 1, 10:22pm
Have to go out now but when I return I will my version of my starter and how I managed to achieve success. Would also like to go into why I am seriously into sourdough bread now as opposed to breads made with commercial or modern extraction yeast if anyone is interested that is.
buzzy110,
Jul 2, 2:25am
This is the instructions I got off the net for the starter and what I discovered when I followed them. Blend one cup of warm water and a cup of flour and pour into a jar or plastic jar. Put lid on loosely to allow air in. Use unbleached, high grade flour (I checked and most flour in NZ is unbleached so supermarket flour will do). Leave on bench for 24 hours. Now it is time to feed your new 'pet'.
buzzy110,
Jul 2, 2:31am
Feeding your pet. Theoretically at least, the yeast present in the flour should have started to grow rapidly. Yeh right. Mine was as inert as a dead duck. But I followed the instructions. So throw away half your pet and add half a cup of flour mixed in half a cup of water. Do this every 24 hours for four more days. It was supposed to only take that longer but instructions suggested it could take longer so I did it for a week with no noticeable difference. Anyway I tried making bread and it was just a dense heavy lump of cooked flour and water. But I didn't give up. I continued for another week and repeated the bread making but same dreadful result. Not even the birds would eat it!
buzzy110,
Jul 2, 2:35am
At about this point I got quite despondent but decided that I had started and by god I was going to finish. After the second try at making an edible loaf I decided to feed my pet again only I used twice the amount of water to flour. I have two glass water jugs with lids that allow water out so I put my pet in one of those so the air could circulate and popped it in the back of my fridge and forgot about it for about ten days. At about that time I had an 8 day holiday planned so two days before leaving I fed my pet and returned it to the fridge. Nothing noticeable was happenening to my pet. No froth, no smell, nothing.
buzzy110,
Jul 2, 2:42am
Approximately 2 weeks after the last feed I hauled my pet out of the fridge and stirred it around wondering whether I should just give it away as a bad joke but I noticed that it seemed quite buoyant. I fed it again and put back in the fridge and checked it a week later. It had worked. There was good bubbles, frothy top and the starter was rising. I quickly made up the sponge and at the same time I blended the usual up half a cup of flour to one cup of warm water and added a tablespoon of starter, put it back into a clean jug and left it over night on the bench along with my sponge. In the morning they'd both gone crazy. I had to re-feed my starter the same as just described and put it in the fridge immediately. It grew overnight to 3 times its size and there it sits. When the water separates out I just mix it back in. I'll soon have used up all my bread and will make another batch.
buzzy110,
Jul 2, 2:49am
I have looked at several sourdough sites and basically the instructions all intimate that you will get a great yeasty mix after a few days but don't believe them. It takes longer. One also pointed out that eventually the yeast eats up all its food supply and begins to die off so try, once your starter is nice and strong to ensure you feed it at about the point just before it starts to sink back down again. That is what I am going to do. I think that will save me having to feed it all the time as we don't eat that much bread so I'm not making bread often enough to keep my starter always fed - i. e. taking out a tablespoon full and adding it to the new blend of flour and water.
buzzy110,
Jul 2, 2:53am
I hope this helps. I have been reading the bread thread and am going to start branching out soon, using some of Juliewn's ideas. They look fantastic, but I will not be using commercial yeast, instead I'll be using my own sourdough so that my bread is properly fermented, which partially breaks down the gluten in flour, making it more friendly to the human digestive system. Commercial yeasts do not do that.
thejewellerybox,
Jul 2, 2:59am
Wow congrats! I've always wanted to try sour dough, but haven't attempted it yet!
gjsimps,
Jul 2, 3:03am
Thank you BuzzyWell done you certainly were determined. And it paid off. Congratulations! I will give it a go and let you know.
ange164,
Jul 2, 3:08am
andI want to know why sourdough and not yeast dough, please.
buzzy110,
Jul 3, 2:59am
The reason I have turned to sour dough over bread made with modern yeasts is because I can eat it with fewer side effects such as feeling tired, scratchy and bloated. Most people will say they can eat ordinary bread without those side effects but there are a lot of people who, if they were completely honest, would have to admit to wanting a nap in the afternoon, (usually after eating a sandwich or two for lunch), are mentally lethargic for a few hours after eating bread and have to have a caffeine drink (tea, coffee, coke) as a pick-me-up and are often bloated and windy.
buzzy110,
Jul 3, 3:08am
The reason why modern bread does this is the dreaded gluten found in all wheat. Gluten is not a substance that can be easily assimilated or digested by the human disgestive system and therefore acts, to all intents and purposes, exactly like a toxin putting a huge stress on the body with ongoing cumulative effects. There has been a huge increase in the number of people suffering allergies ranging from quite mild (bloating and wind) to severe - Excema, personality changes, asthma, chronic pain and a variety of other symptoms. The popularity of the food allergy thread demonstrates my point exactly. (Is it still going? )
buzzy110,
Jul 3, 3:12am
x1
Over the years I have eaten less and less bread and wheat products because as well as making me grouchy and uncomfortable they have also contributed greatly, or so I thought anyway, to increasing weight gain. Mostly I give up baked goods and bread the weight goes away, sort of. I always noticed how good I felt when I wasn't eating these things so naturally I have consciously diminished my intake but, human nature being what it is, I eventually start to ramp up my intake because bread is 'easy' and all the old problems come back.
buzzy110,
Jul 3, 3:18am
Now I'll just skip over a whole lot of other stuff and go straight to why I have decided to eat solely sourdough bread. Modern yeast can create a loaf in as little as two hours from go to woah. Modern yeasts are made from extractions of original yeast found in a sour dough starter which have since been modified and genetically engineered to an extent that makes them virtually unrecognizable from their humble origins, so are not that 'healthy' or natural anyway.
buzzy110,
Jul 3, 3:25am
Sour dough on the other hand is a 'slow' food. It takes time to make a good sour dough and the taste is exquisite in comparison to most of the 'samey' tasting breads we buy today. Even bread sold as sourdough is just the same with a chemical additive to give it that sour taste. The slowness of proving/rising and the naturalness of the yeast starter means that the bread is fermented as opposed to just risen. It is the fermenting process that not only gives sour dough its unique sour taste but it also ferments the gluten.
buzzy110,
Jul 3, 3:30am
And FERMENTING, in a nutshell, is the most important part of the process. Fermenting the wheat breaks down the gluten into something that the human body can more readily digest. Before modern yeasts, no-one was allergic to gluten because the gluten was already broken down and ready for eating. Before modern yeasts, humans were not noticeably obese like they are today and before modern yeasts allergies were relatively rare. So there you have it.
buzzy110,
Jul 3, 3:36am
Tomorrow, if anyone is even remotely interested I'll point out one or two other supposedly 'healthy' foods that, like wheat, actually aren't so healthy till they have been fermented naturally or had bacteria added that breaks down the elements in them that are toxic to most people.
malcovy,
Jul 3, 3:39am
Thats a very interesting read and it makes sense.
bernice1,
Jul 3, 3:52am
Hi Buzzy I too am converted to sourdough, and have been making it for around a year now. I was very lucky and was given a starter and since then I have not looked back. Like you, commercially made bread made me feel really terrible, and repeated on me dreadfully but the sourdough does not. Besides you only need one slice to fill you up plus it is very low GI. I bought a fabulous book called Wild Sourdough by Yoke Mardewi (she's Australian) which has been great not only for recipes but for explaining the "hows" and "whys". So glad you perservered.
gjsimps,
Jul 3, 11:40pm
Have my starter going. So what recipe did you use? for your bread. There are many. On youtube they say leave out of fridge to warm up before using. I notice my starter already has a yeast smell and it is only 4 days.
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