The more I read about starters the more there seemed to be a better way than just water to create them. By using pineapple juice the acid level in the starter is increased and it give the yeast a more favorable environment to "blossom." Another way to get a starter is to purchase the special yeast from a bread company. Since, for me this is about doing it at home, I decided to try the pineapple juice. There are multiple versions out there:
NY Times Article that Gives a starter recipe from Peter Reinhart's book Artisan Breads Every Day
Fieldstone Organic Farm: http://www.fieldstoneorganicfarm.com/recipes/starter.htm
The Sourdough Lady's Blog: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/233
I decided to use The Sourdough Lady's blog because I had all the ingredients and I liked her daily steps.
So far the starter seems to be doing what it is supposed to be doing. I am learning some more "whys" about the growing of yeast. Starters can be grown and kept for a long time as long as you feed them water and flour. If they go flat then the pH level is probably too high (the acid in the juice raises it -- but there is apparently a good range) and you can add apple cider vinegar to improve the conditions and cause the yeast to become active again.
Now that I am past day four I will be able to start using my starter... but HOW DO I DO THAT?
So, since I used the SourdoLady's Blog's starter plan I thought I'd look into her recipe too. I was kind of surprised -- it included some things like potato flakes (the kind they use in the school cafeteria). It made me question if her bread baking was going to align with my goals of getting back to the basics and using wholesome quality ingredients.
I revisited the other starter recipe locations from my previous searches.
http://www.fieldstoneorganicfarm.com/recipes/recipes.htm has a wholesome sounding recipe ... much less detailed that SourdoLady's but ingredients like honey, water, wheat flour.
Sadly, the ingredients might be difficult for me to find. Hard Red What Flour? Hard White Wheat Flour? Cooking is about experimentation, so I may end up combining these recipes, but I feel like for a beginner I should follow someone's steps exactly... but who's?
I think my next step will be getting my head off the internet and checking out some of the books at the library.
As a bachelor, all of this seems like so much work for a standard piece of food! But then again, I never thought about how complex it can be to make ‘simple’ bread.
ReplyDeleteDo you think your students will feel as you do? Maybe in your project you can add a section on WHY making your own bread is worth doing. Give health reasons, personal tastes, accomplishment, ability to provide for yourself, etc.
I would also like if you include things that did NOT work. Dead ends the younger bakers can avoid. Also, do you think students will have access to the various supplies and equipment needed to make bread?
Your project shows a downside to an online class! How can we eat the bread in your final project???
Wow, I never would have thought to put pineapple juice in bread--very interesting! And potato flakes? I was also interested to see the very specialized ingredients that some of the recipes call for. Are you looking at some kind of specialized bread, or just a basic white or wheat loaf?
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about your project the other day when I attempted to make a loaf in my breadmaker and totally failed due to a part that went missing in our recent move... of course, reliance on the machine could be eliminated if I learned how to do it from scratch like you!
I'm not sure I understand. Does the whole starter go into your bread, or just a bit of it. I really like the idea of pineapple juice in bread, citrus sounds like a neat taste, but if it's in the starter do you actually get the flavoring?
ReplyDeleteLiz... the starter contains the active yeast. Most people would use only some of the starter to keep the rest growing... then they could use it again. However, you could use the entire starter. It would also depend on the starter. My starter was kind of a bust. It looked good on day 2, but after that didn't keep up. The books I read don't even push having a starter for beginners - so, since then I have just stuck with instant yeast.
ReplyDeleteThe pineapple juice is used to start the fermentation. It seems to have the best acidity and sugar levels to produce happy yeast. (Like using grapes and yeast to make wine)