Bread. Recipe Tuesday

I've always been fascinated by bread and bread making. Not because I have any great aptitude for it, but to take things that will, under certain circumstances make glue, and use them to make bread, well, it's just fascinating to me. Mom makes her own bread here and there, both the 'old fashioned way' by hand and all the risings, and the 'machine'. She has a bread machine and for awhile there, we ate nothing but bread machine bread. I didn't like the loaves it turned out. It had a round barrel shaped baking unit and the loaves were columns.

But she also made bread by hand too, and I always liked watching her make bread. It was the motions, the concentration into kneading it so the glutens properly stretched. She showed me the web that they form, explained the science behind it to me, although she's not a scientist by trade, and certainly only a 'sometimes' bread baker.

And I've been fascinated as well. My forays into anything except quick breads usually end in disaster. White soda bread is beyond me, for example. Imagine a 12" round hockey puck. It was seriously hard. But yeast breads... All the action is by yeasts, single celled organisms that produce gas which raises bread and the gluten web holds that gas in place creating a soft interior for a loaf, no matter how it may be shaped. People have been baking bread for centuries, I reasoned. There's no reason why I shouldn't be able to bake bread.

I told myself, "So let's do something that you've heard about all your life, your mom didn't necessarily like it, but did it anyway, just to say she did. People with no cooking experience beyond being able to feed themselves in the meanest of ways did this. You can do this.

"You can make sourdough." (is that crickets I hear in the background, Dear Reader?)

I turned to the Joy of Cooking, which I'm lucky enough to have on a computer disc and therefore don't have to decide to lug around the huge tome it is. There is a wealth of information in it. If you are close friends with someone who cooks who doesn't have a copy, remember this when it's time for birthdays or anniversaries or one of those myriad gift-giving holidays where you're supposed to wrack your brain for weeks to come up with the perfect gift and are always afraid you've missed the mark completely. If you have a friend who cooks and you know they don't have a copy, get them one.

Here's Sourdough Starter, the Joy of Cooking way (and bastardized by me, which is something I do and you all know it)

In a small clean mixing bowl, mix 1/2 cup sifted bread flour and 1/4 cup barely warm water (80 degrees). Knead it until it's elastic, put it back in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Poke holes in the wrap, let it sit in a dark, cool area for 12-15 hours. Mix in 1/2 cup sifted bread flour and 1/4 cup barely warm water. Cover, let sit for 12-15 hours.

Move it to a larger bowl. Continue feeding it with 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup water. Recover the bowl and let it sit for 24 hours. If you don't see some bubbling action going on after 24 hours, throw it out and start over. If it has started bubbling and rising, mix in 1/2 cup flour and 1/4 cup water.

Cover it, but don't poke holes in it. Let it rest for 12 hours. If there are bubbles all over, add in 1/2 cup flour and 1/4 cup water. Let it sit for 4-8 hours. It should have a sour tang and bubbles all over. You can make bread with it now. If not, continue on the 1/2 and 1/4 feeding schedule until you can use it.



The bastard version is mine. I'm using a mason jar instead of a bowl and regular flour. I figure if it was good enough for the original Sourdoughs, it's good enough for me.
Here it is after the first feeding.









After the third feeding (right before you leave it covered for 24 hours).





Checking it when I got home today. I think we've got bubbles (DUH!) and there is a SMIDGE of a sourness to it. Further deponent sayeth not. We will explore this bread experiment further next week. It lowered in volume, so I feed it when I get home from here at Sic_un's, then form loaves and such tomorrow morning.

So because this is taking some time to get the 'wild yeast' going, getting the SOUR of Sourdough going, I decided to do a comparison of a 'regular' bread using commercial yeast.

This is straight from Joy, no edits. Notes are at the end:

Quick Rising White Bread
1 pkg active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm (105-115 degree) water
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water in a large mixing bowl.


To this mixture, add:
3 cups bread flour
2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon melted butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
Mix by hand or on low speed for 1 minute.





Add 3 to 3 1/2 cups bread flour a 1/2 cup at a time until dough is moist but not sticky.




Knead for about 10 minutes or with a mixer dough hook on low to medium until the dough is smooth and elastic.




Transfer the dough to an oiled bown and turn it over once to cover with oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, 1 to 1/2 hours.




Grease 2 loaf pans. Punch the dough down, divide it in half and form 2 loaves. Place seam side down in the pans. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, 1 to 1/2 hours.



While it's rising, preheat oven to 450 degrees. When the dough has doubled, bake the loaves at 450 for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake until the bottoms of the loaves sound hollow when tapped, about 30 minutes more. Remove the loaves from the pans to a rack to cool.


NOTES ON QUICK RISING WHITE BREAD:
It's not quick. Sorry... It took 3 hours rise time. That isn't quick. It took 1 hour and 45 minutes bake time (even pulling the pan off the loaf to knock the bottom of it!). It's quicker than the other recipes they have, which all seem to include raising the dough in the refrigerator, but it's not 'quick'. Not by my definition of 'quick'. HOWEVER... It is quicker than the other recipes.
I ended up getting that last 3 cups of flour in by kneading it in until smooth. I like kneading.
It's got a crunchy crust, leading me to believe I should have baked it as a 'free form' loaf instead of in a pan.

ANY TIPS OR HINTS OR ASSISTANCE IN MAKING YEAST AND SOURDOUGH BREAD IS HOLLERED FOR!!!

Enjoy, Dear Reader.