Like many people, I found TFL in my quest to learn how to make sourdough.  I had a starter going and was sure I had killed it.  The advice I found here gave me the knowledge and confidence to make a starter that I've been using for months now, with ever-better results.

Although there is a wealth of information here, there was no one source that detailed the method I used, which was based on Reinhart's "barm" in BBA.  Now that I have succeeded in making several starters, I've been thinking about making a video tutorial to walk through the process step-by-step, day-by-day.  My own experience and that of others here has taught me one thing:  sourdough starters don't read baking books, so they don't know how they are "supposed" to behave.  I could have been spared the angst, the wasted time, and of course, pounds of precious flour, if only I had known what to expect and what to look for. 

I don't have the technical part of video-making worked out yet, so I have decided to do a tutorial blog.  This will be a real test, as I am trying out a modified starter that I haven't made before.  It's still based on Peter's starter, but I have altered the amounts, and possibly the times, to suit my own fancy.  If all goes well, I will end up with a more reasonable (i.e., much smaller) amount of starter, and I will get there with much less wasted flour.

So here goes (I'll add pictures when I have a chance):

Day 1: 

Ingredients:  1/3 cup rye flour and 1/4 cup water

For the flour, I use stone-ground rye.  Nothing special, just what I got from the grocery store.  My water is tap water run through a filter.  Before I had he filter on my sink, I used bottled drinking water.

Mix the flour and water in a bowl.  It will be thick and pasty, kind of like the oatmeal that's left in the pot if you don't come down for breakfast on time.  Once all the flour is mixed in, put it in a pint-sized or larger container and cover with plastic wrap.  And that's it for today.

Tomorrow:  more of a good thing....

Last weekend I baked with two ideas in mind.  One, to make use of some of my sourdough discard (more on that later).  And two, to make bagels.  I buy two bags of bagels every week; my family eats them like it's their job. 

For the starter, I found two recipes for sourdough English muffins.  They were similar and both looked good, so I thought I'd do one recipe of each.  I had made English muffins before and was really pleased with the results.  My wife ate them for several days, thinking they were Thomases' before she realized I had made them.  I followed both recipes, staggering my times so they would be ready to bake at different times.  Both came out about the same:  dense, doughy, and kind of flat.  They were still edible, but not nearly as good as the yeasted ones I had made before.  I think if I make them again, I'll either just make the yeasted ones or will add a bit of yeast to my sourdough discard.

The bagels, on the other hand, were a huge hit.  My parents and aunt were here visiting, and everyone said they were the best bagels they had ever tasted.  I used the BBA recipe, with the cinnamon raisin option, as that's the favorite around here.  The only thing I did differenty was that I made the dough and baked them on the same day, as my schedule didn't allow for the overnight retardation of the dough.  I am making them again this weekend, and will use the 2-day method to see how it compares.

I also made my weekly loaves of sourdough from my starter.  The one thing I did differently this week was that, after I took out the starter I needed to make the bread, I only refreshed the starter up to one cup, which gives me the 2/3 cup I need for my bread next weekend, and another 1/3 to refresh for the next batch.  Inspired by Mini and some of the other bakers, I'm trying to cut my sourdough starter back to the point where I don't have any discard.

A few weeks ago, inspired by Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice (BBA), I decided to make a seed culture-barm-sourdough starter.  My first attempt failed, due, I think, to my impatience rather than a true failure of the process.  My second attempt, seasoned with more patience, worked, and I am baking my first sourdough loaves today.

The BBA recipe for Basic Sourdough Bread states that you can knead the dough by hand for 12-15 minutes, or use the dough hook in your stand mixer and knead for 4 minutes, rest for 5-10, and knead an additional 4 minutes.  I have made bread off and on for about 30 years (since I was 10 years old), and I have always kneaded by hand.  Until recently, that is.  I took a French bread class, and the instructor kneaded the bread in the Kitchen Aid (KA) for the first 5-6 minutes, then finished with the "slap and roll" technique, where you take the dough by the edge in one hand, slam it on the counter for all you're worth, then use the other hand to do a jellyroll.  She said if you don't use the KA to start with, you would slap and roll about 100 times; starting with the KA, you only have to do it about 15-20 times.

I have been using this method for my French bread for a while now, with excellent results.  So I planned to use the KA for my kneading on the sourdough, as instructed in BBA.  But partway through the first 4-minute knead, something happened.  I suddenly realized that I missed kneading by hand, the old fashioned way!  So after the first knead, I put the dough to rest on the counter for a few minutes, then finished kneading by hand.  It was an almost-religious experience.  When the wild yeast started to come alive, the smell was absoulutely intoxicating.  And the time flew by.  The dough was ready to be set aside to ferment before I knew it.

It's good to get back to what I've always known and loved about bread baking.  That's not to say that I will never again opt for the convenience of the KA or the slap and roll, but when I have the time, I will always choose to knead by hand.