Sourdough Part 2: Deanna's Class

 Sourdough Class by Deanna (February 2022)

STARTER FROM SCRATCH and instructions on FEEDING BELOW...

Advocacy

• “If I gave you a bag of flour and water, and you had nothing else to live on, you could live on that for a while, but eventually you would die. But, if you take that same bag of flour and water and bake it into bread, you could live indefinitely.” - Michael Pollan

• “Roman soldiers had only sourdough bread to get protein...Don’t eat whole grains if you don’t know how...Why look for other sources of food when sourdough gives you most of the nutrients in a balanced form?” - Jack Bezian

• A small study in Italy showed that some people with celiacs can eat long-fermented sourdough breads with no ill effects. Less than 1% of the population suffers from celiac disease but 29% report avoiding gluten. 

• Grains and beans that have been fermented or sprouted are easier for your body to digest. They make the vitamins and minerals “bioavailable” and neutralize the phytic acid which would otherwise rob your body of calcium and prevent zinc and magnesium absorption. It also increases the protein content.

• Book: Josey Baker Bread by Josey Baker

Basics 

• “Starter” is a live culture made of flour and water. Starters need to be fed 1-3x a week at room temperature or once a month-ish if kept in the fridge to stay happy. 

• A starter is “refreshed” 12-24 hours after it’s been fed. 

• “Dough” is essentially starter plus salt. 

• Important - you can’t turn dough back into starter so you always need to remember to reserve some starter for next time before beginning a recipe. 

• Some recipes specify what hydration your starter should be. “Hydration” refers to how thick your starter is. A starter that is 100% hydration is equal parts flour and water and will be like thick pancake batter. A 60% hydration has less water and is more like bread dough.

• Sourdough reacts with metal so avoid it if possible.

• Bread is done baking when it reaches 190’ internally for white or 200’ for whole wheat.

• Use fresh flour if possible for maximum nutrition.

• Discarded starter can be saved in the fridge and used in the waffles recipe.

Method - Refresh starter 12-24 hours before baking. Mix dough. Let sit for 30 minutes or knead for 5 min. Stretch and fold 10x, rest 30 min. Repeat 3-4 times. Rise. Shape. Rise. Bake. Cool.  

(Notes: Rising times vary widely from 2-12 hours. Temperature and desired sourness will determine rising times. Dough rises faster when it’s warm. Dough is more sour the longer it rises. You may pick one of the rising times to have the dough in the fridge overnight (that will not make it more sour - unless you leave it in there for 3 days which is still totally fine). Do what is most convenient for you. Times really don’t matter a lot though. Your bread will still turn out as long as you leave it long enough - probably a minimum total of 6 hours between the two rises when on the counter or 2-3 hours on the counter and 10 hours in the fridge.)

STARTER FROM SCRATCH- 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup whole wheat (ww) flour. Mix and let sit loosely covered at room temperature for 2 days. Compost all but 1 TB. Add 1/2 cup water to the 1 TB starter. Mix well. Add 1/2 cup ww flour. Mix well. Loosely cover and ignore for 2 days. Repeat for 2 weeks, composting down to 1 TB and feeding it every 2-3 days. Then start baking.

Feed Me! - Get the starter from the fridge. Pour the dark liquid (hootch) off if desired. Mix at least 1 TB of starter with 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup flour. Let sit on the counter loosely covered for 12-24 hours. Return to the fridge or use it in a recipe. If you’re storing starter in the fridge, you may want to feed it for two days before using it in bread. If your starter gets way too stinky and you’re worried about it, pour off the hooch and when feeding, substitute 1 TB pineapple juice for some of the water. Or simply feed it for 3 days in a row with water and flour and it should become happy again.