homemade bread

xrjtg

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

I'm making sourdough atm, and if you can invest a week of your time (and are happy to dispose of some of the starter to get you going) it'll be the best bread you've tasted .

Something I've discovered recently: keep excess sourdough starter in a separate container in the fridge and use it to make soda bread by adding salt, bicarb and enough flour to form a dough. Very quick, avoids throwing starter away, and I'm actually finding it's better than my conventionally risen sourdough at the moment.

Guinea_2

Just wondered if anyone has a suitable recipe for olive bread to use in a breadmaker? We're off to a friends for dinner tomorrow & have offered to make some.:o

Penelope_Penguin

xrjtg wrote: »

Something I've discovered recently: keep excess sourdough starter in a separate container in the fridge and use it to make soda bread by adding salt, bicarb and enough flour to form a dough. Very quick, avoids throwing starter away, and I'm actually finding it's better than my conventionally risen sourdough at the moment.

Sorry, didn;t make myself clear To make a starter from scratch, you need to remove half and add fresh flour and water every day. You need to dispose of the portion that you remove, otherwise you end up with a fridge full.

This bit:

2. Your starter now needs regular feeding. Begin by whisking in another 100g or so of fresh flour and enough water to retain that thick batter consistency. You can now switch to using cool water, and to keeping the starter at normal room temperature - though nowhere too cold or draughty. Leave it again, then, 24 hours or so later, scoop out and discard half of the starter and stir in another fresh 100g flour and some more water. Repeat this discard-and-feed routine every day, maintaining the sloppy consistency and keeping your starter at room temperature and after 7-10 days you should have something that smells good - sweet, fruity, yeasty, rather than harsh or acrid. It's now ready to bake with.

Hugh F-W says that you can't actually use it for anything, and I'd agree with him. It's partly fermented, and smells a bit odd. I fed mine to the chooks, and they didn't reject it, though.

I now keep my starter in the fridge and hope to keep it for ever :T

Penelope_Penguin

Guinea wrote: »

Just wondered if anyone has a suitable recipe for olive bread to use in a breadmaker? We're off to a friends for dinner tomorrow & have offered to make some.:o

Add some chopped olives, olive oil and herbs of your choice

If you have an oven and a baking sheet, make freeform bread - it looks really impressive and is really easy to make.

Hold on while I find a link

Penelope_Penguin

Here you go This is a sweet version, but is just as good savoury :T

xrjtg

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Sorry, didn;t make myself clear To make a starter from scratch, you need to remove half and add fresh flour and water every day. You need to dispose of the portion that you remove, otherwise you end up with a fridge full.

I'm not sure who this was aimed at, so I'll take my turn to clarify! Sourdough starter is a symbiotic culture of yeast and lactobacillus living in a batter of flour and water. In the fridge the bacteria does better than the yeast, which causes the acidity of the starter to increase. So old sourdough starter left in the fridge for a while can be used as the source of acidity for making soda bread, and this also helps to dispose of any excess starter generated when you need to feed your starter but don't want to bake with it.

The excess you get when you are just getting a starter going is slightly different, but not very. It would probably make passable soda bread, and I've certainly always eaten all the starter I've made (adding dried yeast to the first batch to ensure a good rise).

Saving the excess doesn't lead to a starter explosion because you still avoid doubling the quantity each day; you have one pot of active, and one of abandoned starter (the second of which you keep in the fridge).

Penelope_Penguin

xrjtg wrote: »

I'm not sure who this was aimed at, so I'll take my turn to clarify! Sourdough starter is a symbiotic culture of yeast and lactobacillus living in a batter of flour and water. In the fridge the bacteria does better than the yeast, which causes the acidity of the starter to increase. So old sourdough starter left in the fridge for a while can be used as the source of acidity for making soda bread, and this also helps to dispose of any excess starter generated when you need to feed your starter but don't want to bake with it.

The excess you get when you are just getting a starter going is slightly different, but not very. It would probably make passable soda bread, and I've certainly always eaten all the starter I've made (adding dried yeast to the first batch to ensure a good rise).

Saving the excess doesn't lead to a starter explosion because you still avoid doubling the quantity each day; you have one pot of active, and one of abandoned starter (the second of which you keep in the fridge).

We're talking about differnt things, then, so I'll stop trying to clarify what I mean

xrjtg

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

We're talking about differnt things, then, so I'll stop trying to clarify what I mean

I'm fairly sure we're not! I've been making sourdough for years, and understand that it is not soda bread: it's conventional yeast-risen bread where the yeasts have been cultivated from those present naturally in flour. You're quite right in saying that if you want to feed but not bake then you need to discard starter to avoid it growing exponentially and filling your fridge: I'm only offering the suggestion that, if you keep this rather than throwing it away (don't think of it as starter anymore, think of it as proto-soda bread) you can turn it into excellent soda bread, using the natural acid content of the starter in place of buttermilk or whatever else you'd normally use.

Yes, I should let it drop, but you might find this useful.