First off, I thought a sour dough starter would be fairly simple. I remember my mother doing a friendship bread back before she married my step father and we had bread all the time. And seemed simple enough. So starting a sour dough starter seemed up my alley. Well...my first blunder was not knowing the dough would expand twice its volume. It of course volcano-ed slowly on top of the fridge. I then fed it again and moved it to two containers which then it got bigger. Moved to a third in hopes I would have time to run out to the store and buy a bigger jar. Luckily I found two large mason's at a hardware store. Got home and was able to fit all into one.
I also read that I could do a wheat or rye starter which was great because at this rate, I'll feed this starter all my all purpose flour mix. So this morning, I took a cup out for my first try at
sour dough bread (with flax meal) and did the next feeding consisted which consisted of whole wheat flour that was half the volume of what was currently in the container. Well, it started to blow up and I needed to remove some of the starter. So I started a 2nd bread of
Flax Seed Bread. I'm nervous now for various reasons....
On further reading, I discovered that it takes 30days to culture a good sour dough starter. This will prove to be difficult since you have to feed it every 12 to 24 hours. Meaning when you feed it, it must double in volume. Well, had I known this...I would have started with 1T of flour and 1T of water then built up from there. My current status is 6c+ depending on the rising stage. It can easily pour out of the jar. So I've had the light on top of the fridge on all this morning watching the silly thing while I've been making two breads.
Sour Dough Bread (1 loaf)
1c active starter (consisted of only unbleached all purpose flour)
1tsp yeast + `0.5c warm water + a pinch of sugar (5minutes)
1/3c rye + 2.25c unbleached all purpose (I made this mix up last night and can't remember if I mixed in whole white wheat flour or not) + 1.5t salt + 1T flax seed meal
Stirred the mix together. Kneaded for 10minutes with whole wheat flour. Canola oiled the bowl and let rise for 2hours or till dough has doubled in size. Punched and kneaded again for 10minutes with whole wheat flour. Canola oiled pan and sprinkled corn meal on the bottom of pan. Shaped dough and dropped in pan. Resting for another 2hours or till dough has doubled in size.
Brush with egg wash (1 large egg + 1T water), heat oven to 425* for 20min then turn down to 375* for 10min
Meanwhile....I had to do some math since the recipe for the Flax Seed Bread was meant for four 2lb loafs. And since I didn't want to make more than two loafs of bread. I took the recipe and divided by four to make one loaf and changed the recipe to use whole wheat flour instead of just all purpose flour.
Flax Seed Bread (1 loaf)
1c active (consisted of 1/2whole wheat and 1/2 all purpose sour dough starter mix)
add to active 20ml olive oil, 20ml honey, 5/8c cold filtered water
stir in toasted 1Tsunflower seeds, 2T gold flax seeds, 1/2T poppy seeds (toast on stove but not too much)
add 1/4c flax meal and pinch of salt
then mix in 3/4c whole wheat flour (stir till absorbed), add 1/2 white wheat flour (stir till absorbed)
The consistency should be sticky. After mix is stirred well, place on well floured (whole wheat) board. Knead for 10minutes. Olive oil bowl and rest in bowl with towel over the top for 2hours or till dough has doubled in size. Punch the dough and knead again for 10minutes. Oil pan with olive oil and let rest in pan for another 2 hours or until dough has doubled in size. Brush with egg wash (1 large egg + 1T water), bake at 375* for 30minutes
Note: I'm excited that I don't have to save the egg wash. When I baked the Rye bread, I had left over egg wash. I ended up using it to make pasta. This time I can just use it on both breads and was hoping not to save any of it. Though still to much. It probably is enough to cover four loafs of bread. I wonder if I just don't add any water to the wash and just use egg.
It looks like I'll probably have to make some sour dough recipes just to continue getting rid of the starter. And funny enough you can make sour dough starter into all kinds of doughy goodness. I'd love to try
King Cake,
Sourdough biscuits! And I bet you could do the same with
whole wheat ciabatta if you substituted the fermented step with sour dough. I'm also wanting to try pretzels but
And now....the "fruit of my labor"
Sour Dough Bread
It has a nice chewy crust, super soft fluffy center with a hint of sour. Almost couldn't tell that it was Sour Dough but the mix hasn't aged long enough to reach its taste perfection. Overall, very satisfying bread.
I found it interesting how I used egg wash on the rye as well as cut the top and it split and crackled nicely but the sour dough didn't act the same.
Flax Seed Bread
Such a nutty bread, you can see that when your kneading and letting it rise before baking. I was curious to know what the egg wash was going to do since it sat in the fridge for just under two hours. So it being cold verses it being room temp when I put it on the first loaf. Surprisingly, the outside stuck to the pan and didn't rise as much but I think that was due to it being mostly whole wheat and not all purpose white. It was much more shiny than the sour dough. A bit more dense but it was much easier to cut thinner slices
Look at that nutty goodness :)
I also like stuffing the crust with cheese. Last time, I used shredded which melted to quick and left an air pocket in the crust. However, using string cheese or chunks of cheese in the crust will maintain the consistency desired, no air pocket. Though, this time I used a softer cheese (Monterrey jack) that wasn't hard enough to make it the way I was hoping it would turn out.
