The final post in this chapter So in my final moments of this project I look back at what I've learned, accomplished, and what hurdles I needed to jump to make it here. I learned that deviation too far from the path (ahem, pure bread flour starter) can create undesirable results, but at the same time it also has given me a basis as to why that deviation shouldn't occur and I have first hand experience if I need an answer to that question if it ever is brought up. I also re-learned how much I love fresh baked bread. It's been so long since I've had something so fresh and with the experience along the way, I've grown more confident and I've noticed that the steps, technique, and the knowledge of what to look for at certain steps in the process is something I don't have to refer to anymore (besides the measurements which I always have to double check for my own sake). Admittedly I'm not the most organized person, and it usually takes me a few attempts to ...
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Please refer to my Ted Talk for an in depth look into this week's work. As you can see, some of my starters were more active than others. I think that had to do with hydration as I had mentioned before. And texturally they were all different as well. This has been a long task, but I'm glad I've stuck with it for this long. As midway through this week I'll be actually making bread! I plan on making 2 loaves each day and trying them out on their own and with some butter. Maybe I'll expand my 'tasting' to making one of favourite and simple open faced sandwiches, sliced tomato sandwiches with some salt and pepper and I'll see how well they toast up or grill as well. Really excited to try the fruits of my labour.
The First Steps I had trouble finding different flours at a grocery store, but luckily there was a bulk barn that just opened up recently near my house so I paid it a visit and found everything that I was looking for. I found the flour I wanted to use: From left to right, Whole Wheat Bread Flour, 12 Grain Flour, Unbleached White Bread Flour, and Stone Milled Dark Rye Flour The Jars I'll be using for 'feeding': I labelled the jars to remember which flour is in which. It's a good idea to weigh the empty jars too so that you know how much to remove/add during feedings because after you zero your scale for your initial starter, it'll be a lot of extra steps having to remove it all to zero the scale again just to weigh what you are adding to it. These 1L jars were 440g. If you were following my previous post then you might be wondering why there's only six jars instead of the 8 I decided on before. Well...this is taking up a lot of space in the kitchen to do such an...
Sourdough Bread! Bread flour, AP(all purpose), cake, WW(whole wheat), rye, a blend of flour, organic or non-organic...plenty of options to choose from. There's plenty of information out there on which flour works best, but I want to find that one out for myself by the end of this project. The more important pieces of information I'm looking for are is what kind of equipment will I need for this, what is the process of making a sourdough starter, and most importantly, what IS sourdough to begin with. So let's get this out of the way... What is Sourdough? Joy. (2018, September 25). Sourdough bread [online image]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/33993074@N00/30900963888 Sourdough is a naturally leavened bread. Meaning it doesn't use a commercial yeast like active dry or fresh yeast you might find at the grocery to rise. Instead it uses a 'starter' to kick start the leavening process in your dough mixture. So that brings me to the next question, what...
Hello and welcome to my Genius Hour Project! Maurizio Leo. (2022, October 19). The Perfect Loaf [Online Image]. Retrieved from https://www.theperfectloaf.com/best-sourdough-recipe/ My name is Robert Barski, and bread has always been a staple growing up. I remember going to a local bakery after church and being allowed to walk into the back where there were rolling racks of beautiful golden loaves cooling down and the smell is something I can’t forget. Sometimes we’d get there and they’d be slicing it to be put in bags, literally the freshest bread you could enjoy and I’d be eating it on the car ride home. This was my ‘white bread’ that I grew up with, but it was a sourdough light rye. Every sandwich I ate growing up had this bread and this bread has become the baseline to what I compare any sandwich bread I have now. In most kitchens these days the art of breadmaking is a lost art as demand is very high and the skilled labour and equipment to keep up with the demand isn’t availabl...