Sourdough disaster!
It's always a bit de-motivating when you spend a lot of time on a project, and it doesn't go according to plan. I guess that happened to me. So have a look and learn, see how things can go when working with starters, chefs and sourdough recipes.
My Recipe was as follows;
1 kg of Fine what Flour
6,5 dl of Luke warm Water.
24 grams of salt
500 grams of sourdough starter made from fermented fruit. You can have look at a recipe for this starter earlier in my blog. http://www.glennbech.com/2006/04/baking-with-sour-dough-how-to-make.html
The first thing that struck me was that the dough was extremely wet... I know all of the recipes from that particular book emphasize on using wet dough, so I didn't think much of it.. After struggling a bit with it to form three loafs of bread, I covered it up to rest for an hour or so.
The next thing was that to follow the recipe, I had to use 100% of my starter. I was not very keen on that and wanted to keep 100 ml for further use, so I gambled that 430 grams of sourdough would be enough ( 70 grams short, or 14% less than stated ) .
The results were disastrous and the sourdough did not rise properly, the recipe told me to put the loaves on a sheet of baking paper, cover them up and let them rise. Instead of rising "upwards" these bastards chose to rise "outwards". Instead of bread, I got pancakes!
After 2-3 hours of "rising" I gave up, covered in plastic and went to bed. The next morning, not much had happened, and I threw the breads away without baking them.
I am going to make the qualified guess that three factors made this dough a disaster;
- The starter wasn't well enough developed. I kept it and have been feeding it, so I hope it will come along nicely after a few more days.
- I took a shortcut and kept 80 grams (1 dl) of starter. Used Less that the recipe stated.
- My starter is probably (for some strange reason) more liquid than the starter the recipe was based on, making the total amount of liquid in the dough higher than desirable. Hence the pancakes...
At least, these are my theories and the things I'll try differently next time!
Here is a step by step illustration of the baking disaster.
1. The loaves are a bit small, but I still hope they will rise, I took the dough out from my Kenwood kitchen machine, and made three loaves, you can only see two because I had another "accident" with the third. Not my day!
1. After half an hour or so of rest, I do the finishing touch on the dough and put them on a paper sheet and cover, so the rising process may begin. I was pretty happy with my result, and pleased with myself.
2. Im starting to suspect that this is not going to be the bread of my dreams .-)
3. Even After two hours the loaves are not rising at all but just floating out like giant pancakes ... This is pretty much how they looked 12 hours after as well.
Can't get much worse tha this ? to bad I don't have a profile shot of the doigh, mabe 1 cm (0,5 inches) high.
My Recipe was as follows;
1 kg of Fine what Flour
6,5 dl of Luke warm Water.
24 grams of salt
500 grams of sourdough starter made from fermented fruit. You can have look at a recipe for this starter earlier in my blog. http://www.glennbech.com/2006/04/baking-with-sour-dough-how-to-make.html
The first thing that struck me was that the dough was extremely wet... I know all of the recipes from that particular book emphasize on using wet dough, so I didn't think much of it.. After struggling a bit with it to form three loafs of bread, I covered it up to rest for an hour or so.
The next thing was that to follow the recipe, I had to use 100% of my starter. I was not very keen on that and wanted to keep 100 ml for further use, so I gambled that 430 grams of sourdough would be enough ( 70 grams short, or 14% less than stated ) .
The results were disastrous and the sourdough did not rise properly, the recipe told me to put the loaves on a sheet of baking paper, cover them up and let them rise. Instead of rising "upwards" these bastards chose to rise "outwards". Instead of bread, I got pancakes!
After 2-3 hours of "rising" I gave up, covered in plastic and went to bed. The next morning, not much had happened, and I threw the breads away without baking them.
I am going to make the qualified guess that three factors made this dough a disaster;
- The starter wasn't well enough developed. I kept it and have been feeding it, so I hope it will come along nicely after a few more days.
- I took a shortcut and kept 80 grams (1 dl) of starter. Used Less that the recipe stated.
- My starter is probably (for some strange reason) more liquid than the starter the recipe was based on, making the total amount of liquid in the dough higher than desirable. Hence the pancakes...
At least, these are my theories and the things I'll try differently next time!
Here is a step by step illustration of the baking disaster.
1. The loaves are a bit small, but I still hope they will rise, I took the dough out from my Kenwood kitchen machine, and made three loaves, you can only see two because I had another "accident" with the third. Not my day!
1. After half an hour or so of rest, I do the finishing touch on the dough and put them on a paper sheet and cover, so the rising process may begin. I was pretty happy with my result, and pleased with myself.
2. Im starting to suspect that this is not going to be the bread of my dreams .-)
3. Even After two hours the loaves are not rising at all but just floating out like giant pancakes ... This is pretty much how they looked 12 hours after as well.
Can't get much worse tha this ? to bad I don't have a profile shot of the doigh, mabe 1 cm (0,5 inches) high.
posted by Glenn Bech at
12:54 PM
2 Comments:
Just a few comments if somebody drops by; I now know the reason for the disaster .-)
The dough was made with a not fully activated starter. It's difficult, when you're a beginner, and play around with your own starter to know wether it's "ready" or not. I guess seeking help from others, and on the internet really helps, and is the only way to really succeed. .-)
By
Glenn Bech, at 10:37 PM
I ll try to make it as short as I can, I have been baking using sourdough for the last 4/5 years, 3 of em in a restaurant ( the bread was nice but was lacking of something) and 2 doing bread at home.
The easiest way I found was long but easier and the result always spot on.
process:
-make sure your starter is fully active ( feed it for 2 weeks twice daily with flour and water)
- day one and two: take 2 cup of the starter in a metal bowl , feed every 8 hours with 2 tbsp of flour and 2tbsp of flour.keep covered between feeding, keep at room temperature.
- day 3 ( morning) feed again but only with flour.
day 3 afternoon, feed again with flour.
day 3 evening: finish the dough with flour and salt until the consistency is right , I personnaly don t like the dough to be too wet. rest for 20/30 min. shape , but in a lined basket ( see proving basket) and cover with a cloth.
day 4 : time to bake .
I know there s no quantity for that recipe, I might have a check on what I am using and post an update next time.
By
Unknown, at 1:08 PM
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