i just cut some gossamer thin slices of home made bread which i'm toasting [cremating!] on top of the toaster. i'll have to just try my luck with the nongreased pyrex dish then i suppose?
and i wanted to paste this in here for future reference:
"This is how we prepare yeast. Mix together three level tablespoons of sugar, three heaped tablespoons of flour, one cup of water to make a paste. Add a small quantity of potato peelings. If you can get lemons, use eight drops of lemon juice instead of the potato peelings. Pour the mixture into a bottle. Cork it and tie the cork on firmly. Leave it for twelve hours. Now empty the bottle, but do not wash it. Make up a new mixture of flour, sugar, water and potato peelings, pour it into the bottle and leave for another twelve hours. Now empty the bottle again and repeat the process for a third time. At the end of thirty-six hours the paste is ready to use. It should contain enough yeast to make ten small loaves. If you are going to make your own bread all the time, keep on using the same bottle and make up the mixture twelve hours before you need it."
0800xford,
Jan 11, 12:10am
so, i throw away the first and second batch, but keep and use the third [and subsequent] batches, correct? where do i leave it? airing cupboard? pantry? windowsill?
i never peel potatoes [as if you would!] and i have no citrus...
buzzy110,
Jan 11, 12:26am
Or conversely you could get a fantastic, strong and rampant starter from me.
OR, once you have got a viable starter going you could just refresh it the way everyone has been doing for centuries.
Because I am uncertain about what the final starter that you are making will contain -i.e. potato peel, etc, which could go just a tad toxic in a new starter that is being left alone for a couple of weeks at a time, I'd suggest you do this with your very first batch of dough made from your starter:
Make your dough then cut off a small amount, say two tablespoons full, and mix it in with a mixture of equal quantities of pre-boiled water that has been left to cool to 28C or colder and flour. You can use high grade flour or plain flour. It just depends on whether you will be using that starter to make another loaf or making a fresh batch from which to make your next batch of bread. Following me so far?
Mix it all up with a whisk (don't worry about lumps, the growing yeast will deal to those) and put it in a jar or jug with a lid that lets in some air and stow it in the back of your fridge. Mine used to take a week to get 'buoyant' but now, even in the arctic conditions of my fridge, it is working like crazy inside of 2 days. So don't worry if nothing happens for a few days, it will. I keep mine, like that, untouched, for two weeks and then I refresh by taking out a tablespoon full, adding it to another mix of water and flour and returning to fridge.
If I want to make bread with the refreshed starter (as opposed to tossing most of it away and refresh again) I use whatever flour I want my bread to be - i.e. rye, wholemeal or white flour, or a mix, etc.
I find that the cheapest supermarket flour works well just for refreshing the starter. Don't use bleached or sterilised flours (some have tried this but I don't even know where to get them from) as they are essentially dead and will not feed your yeast.
buzzy110,
Jan 11, 12:28am
Do you want a link to the site that I used for basic sour dough and white bread recipe?
0800xford,
Jan 11, 12:49am
i'm trying to digest all that, can you believe we -eat- this foul stuff?! another loaf is proving now, [the frying pan is going into the oven after the loaf is done] i'd like to try and make yeast from scratch i'll just buy a lemon for it.
post the link and i'll have a have a read, thanks.
ha ha ha YUK! that is so horrible but i'll give it a go
buzzy110,
Jan 11, 1:24am
??? Now you've lost me. What is yuk? - As opposed to yak that is.
0800xford,
Jan 11, 1:27am
growing stuff in the fridge
buzzy110,
Jan 11, 1:42am
Oh but it is my pet and it would die if I left it out. It is my substitute cat - 'cause I'm not allowed to get another one just yet, not till I'm in my dotage'. So I lavish all my love an attention on my pet, who lives in my fridge.
0800xford,
Jan 11, 1:54am
that pet recipe up there says flour + water = starter cool, i'll do that right now!
0800xford,
Jan 11, 2:57am
RIGHT! an oil free but heavily floured loaf in a non greased pyrex loaf pan worked well. i had to use a nice flat butter knife all the way round to coax it out but none of it stuck.
0800xford,
Jan 11, 4:02am
mine arrived today, i'm using it as a bookmark in their catalogue!
buzzy110,
Jan 11, 5:00am
Well congratulations you. You are a very intelligent and intuitive chap in the kitchen aren't you? I like the way you problem solve. Can your mother take some of the credit?
0800xford,
Jan 11, 5:30am
ha ha thanks, i'd like to say yes but it's all my doing.
oh and i just successfully used my stainless steel frying pan [the cremator of souls] to cook two chicken breasts perfectly, i used the lid and had the element on about 3! a diced onion and two pieces of garlic with a splash of olive oil. i'm pretty stoked that i discovered how to use this stainless steel frying pan properly.
i'm getting even better at slicing this bread too, today was the thinnest yet :o
owl32,
Jan 11, 10:24pm
great thread.... inspired me to make homemade pizza last night, and after reading through, I added more water than is in the recipe I use for bread. Probably about another 1/2 cup. I guess with pizza bread though, it's hard to tell, but I think it was lighter :) The mixture was stickier, but great. Am inspired by the size of your loaves op ...I wasn't having much success with my original loaves and I think reading through, that it was the yeast. I ended up buying the instant stuff , and made a difference, but it is more expensive I think?
0800xford,
Jan 11, 10:32pm
g'day, i tried just warm water with only 1 teaspoon of sugar to feed the yeast and it worked well, but not as well as 1 tablespoon of sugar.
yeast and sugar are best friends
oh and my sourdough starter yeast mix pet thing has started to bubble a bit and smells yeasty!
buzzy110,
Jan 11, 10:41pm
That is fantastic about the dough. Good dough hydration is definitely the secret to creating a lighter, 'fluffier' loaf.
0800xford,
Jan 11, 10:43pm
i've noticed when i add water to the flour in a bowl and mix it the dough is stickier than when i add water to the flour on the bench, strange huh.
buzzy110,
Jan 11, 10:46pm
oxy. It seems you have a knack for things. The numbers of people who tried to make the starter (which IMO is quite simple if you start in the summer, rather than the depths of winter as my experiments bore out) and failed miserably left me seriously depressed. But you have restored my faith in humanity.
Once your starter becomes strong (not very long at all btw) you will never need to use sugar at all. All the food your yeast needs will be in the flour alone.
When you have made your first successful loaf I'll tell you how to make s/d bread with lots of added mixed grains - e.g. kibbled wheat and rye and rolled oats, quinoa (which I don't like for nutritional reasons) and various meals.
It is not how everyone else would think. I learned this by accident and something juliewn posted in another thread.
buzzy110,
Jan 11, 10:55pm
Mmm. I wonder why that would be. I have a Kenwood and a dough hook and have always been lazy enough to make up my dough with that. Though I always hand knead 'cause I love doing that so I couldn't make any comment, except to think about doing some by hand on the bench the way my mother used to and see the difference.
Maybe I should alternate between oxy and ford10 (something to do with my enduring admiration of Douglas Adams!!!)
0800xford,
Jan 11, 11:34pm
hand kneading is fun, i could be into trying out some nutty loaves. i have about a dozen little bubbles in my starter, i'll be topping it up etc at about 3 pm today
owl32,
Jan 12, 3:34am
Yeah, I 've done it in the food processor too, and although the loaf turns out fine... I like hand kneading.
gotland3,
Jan 13, 1:58am
Bussy110 .. I use the same recipe in breadmaker (used to do the old way) but use only 3/4 teaspn salt and a GOOD splash of olive oil. Also table spoon of black strap. Chopped dates go well too, if not included too early. As i'm single, I usually have a warm loaf of bread for visitors to take away.
buzzy110,
Jan 13, 3:21am
Are you talking about the recipe in the sour dough link I posted earlier?
I know of others who make theirs in a breadmaker. I haven't got a breadmaker. Actually I sort of fell into sour dough by accident when I discovered a shop in Auckland that makes awesome sour dough. They had copies of the Sour Dough Bread and Health on their counter. I read it and the rest is history.
But I have been toying with the idea of buying an ice cream maker so that on the rare occasion I make ice cream, I don't have to keep remembering to haul it out of the freezer and whip it - I'm talking traditional custard ice cream here, not the semi freddo sort.
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