Bread

Tomorrow: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009rd8h

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I used to bake loads but work etc has got in the way. I tried to revive my sourdough starter a few weeks ago but it was proper mouldy after ~1 year's neglect.

Anyone help me out with a new one? Can't be arsed starting from scratch.

Have some "heritage flour" (Bartholemew and April Bearded Wheat) so following the packet recipe to make a traditional loaf of the time. Needs clingfilm, presumably from the 16 & 17th centuries...

Sandwiches are getting slightly off topic but I can reccomend making one of these...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2010/apr/07/how-to-make-shooters-sandwich?intcmp=239

Mother of god....
I will be packing this in my saddlebag for rides from now on.

Loaf made, without using 17th century cling film, but with using a plastic mixing bowl, non-stick loaf tin, and electric oven from that era.

Any sourdough experts out there?

Just starting my second attempt at creating a starter. The first went well and seemed reasonably easy but I neglected feeding it regularly after about a year and it went bad.

Anyway, the question is, can I store my starter permanently in the fridge with no ill effects? I tend to bake once or twice a week and the 8-12 hour feeding schedule of a starter seems to be pretty wasteful with low quantities of baking.

At the moment it's living in the fridge and I'm feeding it a day or two prior to baking, removing it from the fridge the night before baking to bring it up to room temperature then baking, feeding it and putting it back in the fridge till I next bake.

At the moment I'm not getting all that much rise but the starter isn't very old yet, a few weeks.

My baking techniques may be at fault too - I use a no knead recipe (mix it all up, leave for 18 hours, fold and shape, leave to rise for 2 hours and bake) and just tend to make up required quantities of flour, water and starter till I have a nice dough consistency.

Any sourdough experts out there?

Just starting my second attempt at creating a starter. The first went well and seemed reasonably easy but I neglected feeding it regularly after about a year and it went bad.

Anyway, the question is, can I store my starter permanently in the fridge with no ill effects? I tend to bake once or twice a week and the 8-12 hour feeding schedule of a starter seems to be pretty wasteful with low quantities of baking.

At the moment it's living in the fridge and I'm feeding it a day or two prior to baking, removing it from the fridge the night before baking to bring it up to room temperature then baking, feeding it and putting it back in the fridge till I next bake.

At the moment I'm not getting all that much rise but the starter isn't very old yet, a few weeks.

My baking techniques may be at fault too - I use a no knead recipe (mix it all up, leave for 18 hours, fold and shape, leave to rise for 2 hours and bake) and just tend to make up required quantities of flour, water and starter till I have a nice dough consistency.

You should get 'Bread Matters', the book by the guy who runs the Real Bread Campaign. Its the best sourdough book i've come across, covers the chemistry and physics of it in brilliant detail. My starter took nearly 3 months to get fully lively. Try some spelt flour, that has heaps of yeasts in it.

Got both Bread Matters and Dan Leopard's book. Thanks for the recommendation...

Bread has improved significantly - pretty decent crumb now despite my simplistic approach and general lack of care looking after the starter.

Been getting back into the breadmaking thing. These are loaves of English muffin bread. Intended to be toasted. Made these first years ago, but since relatives were coming I thought it would be good for breakfast. Simple and good.

very nice.

Many mornings of good eating right there, toasted with kippers and poached egg or kippers and bernainse sauce

Moar bread. This time, a Roquefort bread. The method recommended making this if you are showing your house for sale, as it fills the place with the most wonderful smell. I'm not moving, but this is worth making certainly for the smell alone. When toasted, it returns. Lovely stuff.

First sourdough, from an apple starter. Think it might be slightly overprooved, but tastes amazing.

Oooh nice.

Also thanks for bringing up this thread again.

I forgot about this thread when I was all about the sourdough.

Upsidedown - How do you make the apple starter? What makes you think its over proved? Ive done the leaving it in the fridge/cold area so that the growth is slow and more flavoursome. My rule of thumb is that if the dough is twice the size it is ready to go.

Anyone here a die-hard bread maker?

I thought one day there should be an organisation like CAMRA for real breadheads

And there is

http://www.realbreadcampaign.org/

This is great initiative.

Got me thinking about starting a micro-bakery with some friends; love the idea.

The thing is though, where I live (Berlin, Germany) you already have access to organic "real bread" type bread,
produced by more-or-less local organic bakeries, sold at the many organic food stores.
So it's basically impossible to offer something at the price they do, and you don't actually have some sort of unique selling point to begin with.

Upsidedown - How do you make the apple starter? What makes you think its over proved? Ive done the leaving it in the fridge/cold area so that the growth is slow and more flavoursome. My rule of thumb is that if the dough is twice the size it is ready to go.

You just grate an apple and add it to your usual water/flour starter combo. Has to be organic though or the chemicals can kill off the yeasts.

Not sure if if it is over proved, it was left for about 18 hours but my house is pretty cold so it might have been able to rise a bit more. It seemed to rise outwards rather than upwards if that makes sense? It tastes great but it's quite dense. First sourdough so I'll see how the next few turn out.

Sorry if I missed anything, but what is the apple for?
Will the bread taste apple-y?

Does look like it was overproved with that big tunnel in the middle. Was the dough very wet? I have had too-wet dough/not enough structure spread out instead of spring up.

It does taste a bit appley, it was just what was recommended on the recipe I followed. It was a pretty wet dough, yeah. Going to try it with a bit of rye flour added later in the week.

Have not read about apple sour dough starters. The fruit is there to feed the bacteria that you get from the air and flour. Have used rhubarb as well as grapes before.

Did you prove it twice? knock it back between proves? How did you mix the ingredients?

Kneaded for about 10 minutes, left to rise for 5 hours, knocked back and then left to prove. I didn't do my timings very well so it proved from 6pm on Saturday until 11am on Sunday, I'll try and plan the next one a bit better.

What kneading method did you use?

Prove wise I use a doubling in size as the method to define when the prove is ready. I also score the top for the second prove helps in my opinion.

If you are about Londonish I have quite a few bread programs and PDF books.

Erm, i just sort of... kneaded it? Living in a cold student house probably doesn't help the yeast. Thanks for the advice and offer, not in London though unfortunately.