Sourdough; Bread, Biscuits and Pancakes

[Marmite the Dog]

Mmmmm.... That one looks excellent.

[friscofrankie]

OK. I think I'm gettin the hang of it:




Went well with some of FriscoFrankies Fusion Curried chicken wings..
These look so pretty:

Adding the sauce they look less so but damn they were good!

[chitown]

Do you think you might have some fresh made up by the third or fouth week in January??

[buad hai]

Uh, oh. There goes the stomach churning and hunger pangs again. Gotta stay clear of FF's food pics. Too fucking appetizing.

Great work on those baguettes.

[peterpan]

Yea, echo that BH, they look bloody loverly as does the chicken dish. have you posted the recipe for that one yet FF?

[friscofrankie]

have you posted the recipe for that one yet FF?

Nope, was hungry and kinda made it up as I went along. I was cooking them and as I tossed the mixture over it looked so tasty and colorful, looked like a good picture. Was a quick and dirty dish, easy as hell.

Next time, though; I'll keep a record. They were damn tasty; served over Khao Soy Noodles with plenty of bread to sop up the left over juices.

Do you think you might have some fresh made up by the third or fouth week in January?

Count on it

[sesame]

Virtuosos of bread ! Most impressive.

Doesn't sourdough bread come from Ireland (even less renowned for their cooking than the Brits ... but I do like good Brit fare ...)

And the pizza looked extremely good, too.

[BobbyTits]

Thinly disguised Bump:
I made two loaves today that show amarked improvement in the crumb department: Although still flatter than I like I am getting closer with each loaf.
Top loaf was baked without steam the bottom was baked with three sprays during the first three minutes of baking. No more "Bread Flour" straight soft wheat flour, different brand. Gonna stick with that. Wetter dough (tough to fuckin' handle).


Think I'll have to see how it goes with Pastrami, Chees & Peppers

Gotta give you some credit there, sure looks like some good sourdough bread.

Prolly could hollow one out and dump a nice clam chowder in one.

[friscofrankie]

Doesn't sourdough bread come from Ireland (even less renowned for their cooking than the Brits ... but I do like good Brit fare ...)

Goes back further than that. Sourdough was the first leavened bread really. Some one left a bit of dough out over night ig got bubbly and viola we had leavened bread.

Gotta give you some credit there, sure looks like some good sourdough bread

it was, but poor sandwich material I've been cranking out some pretty decent baguettes, sliced on a bias they make ok but small sandwiches. Have been playing with flour mixtures, rise times, salt and kneading. I think I'm going to try a full size, free-formed loaf this week. Think I've got the flat loaf syndrome rectified, maybe.

[friscofrankie]

Sad to report I have killed off the entire colony of my delicious yeasty friends. The demise of this thriving culture came about early yesterday morning (around 2:00 PM). Every week or so I will cycle my small, refrigerated back up into the overnight poolish along with the active culture that sits on the counter.

This I did, in the morning I added salt, flour kneaded & baked, neglecting to remove a few spoonfulls to the plastic tub I use for a crock. After maintaining the culture for fifteen months and getting used to it's appetites, learning it's rise cycle and the feel of the dough when it is just right for forming ready to rise so beautifully, I have killed my tiny bacterial friends.

We had a wake over this last chewy crusted, open crumbed baguette:


I was just too grief stricken to snap a shot of her internals but the crumb was open with a soft but chewable texture. It went well with Beefsteak tomatoes & basil leave salad drizzled with balsamic and olive oil. I will miss my old friend. Those early morning kneading sessions, those long, lingering meals of bread & wine, just the two of us just great for late night sandwiches and perfect for wiping the yolk off a messy breakfast plate.

The only thing left to do is get over my loss, move on; I know.
Boiled up a potato till it was damn near falling apart We'll have those fried for breakfast tomorrow the potato water and flour are now breeding me some new pets. I can only hope they will be as delicious as their predecessors.

Please no flowers, a donation to your favorite charity would be memorial enough.

[buad hai]

I had fully intended to buy a bread stone when I was in the US earlier this year, but bought this thing instead:



I think it's intended to be used for pizza, but it works great for bread. The bottom crust is nice and crisp and done just right. This is a loaf of sourdough rye bread that is in the oven as I type....

[Topper]

FF...you should give a seminar to us less than experienced bakers. I'd damn sure come!

[chitown]

Always these Frisco Frankie cooking threads popping up - mostly when I am starved and there ain't nothing to eat!!!!!!!!!!

[friscofrankie]

Just so y'all know, the new culture is doing fine, a bit slow on the rise on the first go 'round but made a piazza dough from it last night had to punch it down and knead a second time it was almost froth. Think this one will mature to a culture that will yield a decent crumb made a damn fine pizza...

[chitown]

And am I invited up for a taste test????

[friscofrankie]

^ Yeah, Right. I'll save you a piece


Not really a chicago style Deep-dish but it was about an inch and a half deeps
Damn good too! Sourdough crust 'n all...

[buad hai]

Most of the bread I bake ends up in sandwiches, so I usually try for a higher, fine grained loaf. Yesterday I had a yearning for a coarser grained sourdough that I could sink my teeth into. Following FF's lead back early in this thread I tried the following: about a cup of very spongy starter, about three cups of all purpose flower, a half a cup of whole wheat flour, some salt and about a cup of water (no yeast). This made a very wet loaf that I handled just enough to get the ingredients mixed. I let it rise for about 12 hours, punched it down and formed it into a loaf and then let it rest, upside down, in a cloth covered colander for another 12 hours. As predicted, it came out flat, but with just the grain and texture I wanted:


On the left is a sourdough rye made with bread flour and kneaded a bit. This morning's loaf is on the right.

[friscofrankie]

INspired by BH's effort with a freeform loaf and in possession of a new culture caught with potato water and flour I thought I'd skip the Baguette forms this time and shoot for a higher sandwich loaf.

I dumped all my starter in to a large bowl and mixed up a thick batter/dough and left that to sit over night. about 15 hours after setting it out I added flour and salt to make a wet dough and turned that out to knead long enough to get a good cohesive dough. I let that rise in a cloth lined basket I bought for the purpose until it looked like a nice loaf.

This is made from 100% hard wheat flour. crumb is about the same as BH's loaf above but it didn;t flatten as much. I used my stone but did not preheat it in the oven I am having best results with placing the loaf in a slightly warm oven and letting the heat come up while baking this has consistently resulted in good oven spring. But putting hte cool stone in left a bit to be desired on the bottom of hte loaf. I'll try one more time with a preheated stone and oven for free form loaves and stick with a barely warm oven for the baguettes I think.


The loaf came out with enough height to make some decent sandwiches. Sliced on a bias, lightly toasted this will make a perfect BLT&E for tomorrow's breakfast.

[buad hai]

As I was reading FF's post this morning I just happened to have a loaf that was ready to bake. I normally place a loaf in an oven preheated to about 250C and then lower the heat to 175C after ten minutes or so. Following FF's lead I didn't preheat the oven at all this morning. Just put the loaf on the baking screen I bought in the States and cranked the oven up to 175. This worked just as FF described. The loaf continued to rise as the oven heated up. Not as much height as his, but still fine for sandwiches with a great flavor and texture. (I just can't resist slathering butter on a slice of hot, freshly baked bread -- no matter what the time of day!)

[peterpan]

Got Mangoes coming out our ears here, even if you buy them at the market, 20 bt a kilo, so made mango drinks, Mango ice cream and thought I would try for a bit of Mango bread. The mix is my standard one. 800 gm flour, 50 grm whole meal and 50 grm of Rye flour. Add in on chopped up Mango and the other usual suspects, Salt water etc.
I use a preferment, of 100 grm flour, water and a dollop of sour cream with a touch of yeast only about 1/4 teaspoon.
Leave that over nite and add into the dough mix. So mix all that up and give it a first rise of 1,5 hrs, as below.



After the first rise I give it a good moulding finished off with a flattening with the roller pin, roll it up seal it and pan. Leaving it for a 1hr second proof covered with a wet cloth. Pop it in the oven at a slightly reduced (from normal) temp of 200 deg C.

Finished product is 3 of these, good flavour and texture, not to sweet. The fruit adds to the softness.



Loaf looks alright, bit of tearing in the top crust due to insufficient water vapour, but the taste ws great, would do this one again.

[buad hai]

Looks lovely. How much do you chop up the mango?

[spacemanspiff33]

apologies for reviving a 2 year old thread......but it was a damn good thread, and I had to ask how the cultures are going? Still alive 2 years later?


Regardless, this was an awesome thread, and I now have a huge urge to give it a shot myself.....

[GringoAlto]

I have two active sourdough starters. Both are fron Sourdough International. One is the fast-acting Russian culture. The other is the Finland culture. I'd be pleased to share.
I'm looking for a very sour culture for making waffles.

[brake034]

Let's restart the sourdough thread a bit, I have my starter working for 5 days now and started a fresh one yesterday. Read this thread back with interest.
Any new starters around?

[bsnub]

Get it going brake! I miss all the old posters. FF was a classic. The kitchen threads were bumping back in the days.