Who here bakes sourdough bread?

oh man, i've been really tempted to try making hokkaido bread with tangzhong roux, but i don't often make sandwich loaves -- i'm trying to perfect my boule recipes. plus, my s.o. is vegan, and i'm not sure if i could to a milk bread with something like almond milk. any experience making this with dairy alternatives?

I have actually not used milk at all (by mistake) and still had a perfectly succulent loaf. But almond or soy milk could contribute a little extra flavor as well. Try to use a milk with full fat, it contributes more to the moisture of the final loaf.

Also, I always make my roux with water + flour. Some use milk, but I find that it has a bad tendency to get that "scorched" flavor when I do that, so water works better for me.

thanks for this! i might give it a try with almond milk, and try to figure out some way to add additional fat/moisture to the final dough. i figure coconut milk with the full fat might be too much.

OP here, just shaped my loaves and they’re going into the fridge for ~12 hours

Just made my first starter about an hour ago. I'm a little apprehensive, but we'll see how it turns out.

Which reminds me my regular loaf should be done rising by now.

My wife's vaginer XDD

how are you making your starter? and what kind of regular loaf are you baking today?

i've got two loaves proofing in the oven, they'll be ready to bake in an hour or so.

To start a sourdough, I let a spoonful of raisins wait a few hours in water with a bit of sugar, then remove them, and mix flour with this water.
I let it wait 24h, double the quantities of flour and water, wait 24h again, double quantities again, wait again, and on the third day it's usually ready to use.

three days seems like a very short amount of time to establish a strong colony of yeast. does your starter pass the float test after 3 days? how long does it take to double in size after you feed it?

Last time I did it, I had nothing but white flour and chlorinated tap water and it worked.

Float test ? I dunno.
And it doesn't change much in size, because I keep it liquid.

interesting! i keep feed my starters 1:1:1 starter:flour:water, and they rise and fall predictably. about 6 hours after feeding them, a spoonful of it floats when dropped into water, which is how i know the yeast is at its most active and is ready to bake with.

starters are very east to make. make 100% hydration dough, add some active dry yeast, mix and store in fridge. it will last for weeks like this.

if you want to bake some bread, the night before, mix in some flour and water into the starter and let it sit overnight. in the morning scoop most of it out and make your dough with it, and put the rest in the fridge for next time. my starter is over a year old.

I made a generic boule. Camera on my phone got broken last night so I can't get a good crumb shot, unfortunately.

It didn't come out super porous like sourdough should. Looks more like pic related (although I did not use multigrain flour, just bread flour.) It's dense, but the crust is flakey and crisp, and I feel like it would make really good open faced sandwiches. Has that trademark tangy flavor as well. All in all I am pretty satisfied with the turnout.

nice! it can be hard to get an open crumb with sourdough, it's something i'm still working on. i've found incorporating stretch and folds during bulk fermentation helps!

Yeah no, you are not going to get the same taste from using store-bought off the shelf 'active dry yeast'.

That would explain it! I made the dough before bed last night and woke up this morning to bake it while it had a good rise. This stuff is so addictive, though. Perfectly crispy. Next batch I think I will make bread bowls for gumbo or chili.

Give this recipe a try, or at least read through it to get some tips on working with the sourdough. This guy knows what he's doing.

theperfectloaf.com/best-sourdough-recipe/

i agree with . what you're doing is maintaining a culture of commercial yeast, not capturing and cultivating wild yeast. sure, it'll work, but it's not the same.

>theperfectloaf.com/best-sourdough-recipe/
Oh man those loaves are beautiful. Will bookmark this and keep it in mind for next time. Thanks!

>sourdough

When will this meme end?

Sourdough is good for Paté but that's about it.

my starter is over a year old. it takes hours for my bread to rise. it is no longer commercial yeast. it stopped being commercial yeast after like a month.

Your wild yeast won't be the same as my wild yeast, or your wild yeast in a different time of year and with a difference source of flour, or your wild yeast after you thoroughly clean your kitchen with bleach.

true!

youtube.com/watch?v=1FkGX3xGlog
youtube.com/watch?v=WytffmZQGwA

chef john is king. I am starting my starter TONIGHT!

I made this bread today. Not sure if it counts as "sourdough" but it was fermented overnight. I used 75% plain flour and 15% wholemeal flour and I cooked it in a cast iron pot.

...

good luck! chef john annoys me, but his process for this is pretty good.

looks good, user! how does it taste?

>looks good, user! how does it taste?
Thanks. Has a nice wheaty flavour kind of like some breakfast cereal. Just the right amount of saltiness / yeastiness.

OP here, just pulled the first loaf out of the oven

why the fuck did it rotate my photo, let's try this again

That looks awesome lad

Looks super awesome and toasty. Did you use a cast iron pot / dutch oven? What temperature did you do it at?

thanks! i'm pleased with the spring and the ear.

yep, i bake with a DO. i preheat the pot and lid at 475F setting (my oven is old and runs hot, so the temp is probably closer to 500F). i put the dough in, put the lid on, and turn the oven setting down to 450F and bake 30 minutes lid on, 12 minutes lid off.

crumb shot, if anyone is still monitoring this

Damn that looks tasty. Well done sir.

thanks! now i'm gonna make some soup to go along with it.

maybe someone could tell me why my sweet potato bread was falling apart

not enough baking time? the end pieces seemed fine but the center of the middle slices were crumbly

the temp was something like 185 iirc but was in there for a bit past the stated baking time so was getting shook id overcook it

what's your recipe and process?

don't put weird stuff in the dough. Put it on the bread when it's done.

It's a quickbread, right? Maybe the batter didn't have enough binder in it? Or too much flour? Haven't made anything like that in a long time so it's hard for me to say, but I figured I would throw my two cents in.

you don't put sweet potato on bread

I might have used a little bit more flour than called for but the dough was too sticky and not forming into a ball

hmm. when you say it was "crumbly", what exactly do you mean? was it dry or moist where it crumbled? i'm leaning towards saying you should have baked it a little longer.

it was moist kinda like a zucchini bread and the slices kinda flopped over after cutting each one

it was crumbly in the center so if trying to make a sandwich or something it would start to fall apart while eating or if trying to spread stuff on it would break off into pieces

almost like there was too much air in the middle like there were gaps in between the bread parts

I was thinking I didn't kneed enough but that took a while

could be, but also could be too much moisture. next time, try using a little less water and baking slightly longer!

>you don't put sweet potato on bread
you certainly can.

is that sweet potato and broccoli? looks delicious!