November 13, 2016 - 10:34am
What is your most favorite recipe?
If you are going to make a basic sourdough bread, what is your most favorite recipe? I have looked at so many, my head is spinning!
I've made one, very sad, very poor loaf of bread. It ended up that way because I didn't follow a single recipe, rather tried to combine ideas and techniques from several.
So, to better understand, and further my learning, I'm in search of a good, basic recipe. (I already have mother starter).
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it works very well - 1 part starter: 2 parts water:3 parts flour with 2% (of the flour weight) salt.
there are many posts here on this website for this bread so read up and follow the simple methodology and all should be well.
If you have access to Hamelman's book "Bread" his Pain au Levain is also a very good starting recipe, it was my first sucessful sourdough loaf.
good luck and happy baking
Leslie
Thank you for directing me to a place to actually dig in and start! I've been reading Hamelman, and the Pain au Levain is very intriguing. Appreciate your advice!
https://youtu.be/pHFWAkKnkXg
Try this recipe out. A quarter cup starter is about 65g if going by weight and using a 100% hydration bread flour starter. Make sure your starter has been fed and is nice and active before using. You can either feed your starter and use. Or take some off and feed that to the desired requirement. It all depends on how you wish to keep, maintain and use your starter. I can advise a starter build if you're unsure. Let me know what you think of the video and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.
Thank you! I will watch the video, and let you know how it goes! I sincerely appreciate all your help so far, and your offer for more! That will definitely be happening (asking you a zillion questions). Take care now!
I watched this one. It is very good for step by step. I will most likely try it, although I have a ton of questions... like why no autolyse, etc. However, I think the answer is, "practice drawing circles before attempting to paint the Mona Lisa."
Watch the first one for ideas but after rethinking what might be good for a first time recipe I think this might be better.
https://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/sourdough-pain-naturel/
So you've got your basic visual of a sourdough process but I don't like the timing for many reasons especially for the first time you're doing a sourdough. This one I've just attached give everything from a starter build (they call it a Poolish but that's a misnomer) to formingbthe dough and baking. Have a look.
Hamelman talks about a poolish... I'll have a look at this one too, thanks!
This is what you'd actually call a starter build. Like a starter feed but you're taking some off and building a preferment with it.
Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough is a very good one. So many recipes out there but the Vermont Sourdough would be a perfect place to start. It also has a preferment which he gives in the recipe.
Many people here enjoy the Vermont Sourdough since you are reading Hamelman. If your starter is 100% hydration instead of 125% like Hamelman's, then check out the Norwich Sourdough that has taken Hamelman's formula and made the adjustments for the 100% hydration starter:
http://www.wildyeastblog.com/my-new-favorite-sourdough/
The blog/site is full of good stuff too. I find that recipe to be very easy to replicate and is a great place to start. The 123 is a little higher hydration than I recommend beginning with unless you are using a good portion of whole grain.
It might help if you told us what kind of bread you like. Straight white? Sour/Not sour? Multigrain? Big holes? More uniform holes? etc.
I like nearly all kinds, but the favorite would be a bread with some whole wheat, and bigger holes than not. Not so big you can drive a car through, but still holey.
Sourness, I prefer milder than so tart it bites you back. The loaf I did make was too sour for my taste, but others really liked it. It was an ugly, poor bugger, but soft crumb (too dense, and nearly gummy) and edible...
I thought I knew what I was talking about when I said the baker's starter was 65% hydration. Perhaps, I got that wrong. I tried to take notes, but he was busy, too. Perhaps, he meant that as a beginner I should work with a 65% hydration for the dough. I distinctly remember him saying that 100% hydration would be too hard to work with.
So, as I sort through all the disjointed information rolling through my brain, some of it is starting to make a little sense.
Norwich SD when I saw this post. It is my go to bread and current favorite of uncomplicated breads to bake.
hester
whichever I'm making at the time!
And don't worry about those sad 'trial' loaves, we have all had them. I refer to mine as 'UFO's, which soon became loaves with a little practice and the purchase of a scale to measure by weight, rather than volume. I do enjoy freewheeling using ingredients on hand and to suit a given purpose, and I've found the 1:2:3 formula to be helpful to guide the process.
Welcome and enjoy sourdough baking!
Cathy
Oh, I don't worry about the trials. I actually laugh a bit, make my notes of what I think went wrong and the solution for correcting it for next time. (I keep a journal for my sourdough notes).
You got it right - or was it Tillie posting:-)
Hi! I'm not sure who Lucy or Tillie are, but I'm glad you think I've got it right! Thank you!
love with what ever bread I just baked. But I am a floozy and easily fooled -can't speak for Cathy. Tillie is Cathy's baking apprentice and Lucy is mine...hers is a cat and mine is a dog but they both think they can sleep all day and get away with anything:-)
'favorite' suggests the ability (or willingness) to recall the past. Being a cat, Tillie lives for the moment, so every day, every bread, every nap is new and wonderful. This is one reason why she makes such a good apprentice - she's supportive, creative, and (still) works for low wages and a warm lap.
For me, each bread is an adventure that begins with a good idea. I feel fortunate to have learned a lot from the kind folk here, from books, and from daring to plunge in and see where it leads. This week's bake (for Homemade Bread Day, post yet to come) was indeed an adventure that was poised to fail, but rescued (thank you, experience!), even Daisy (my reluctant other feline apprentice, who would prefer that I quit such nonsense and do something useful, like provide a lap for her to nap on) pitched in to supervise the bake. More on that later.
As for being (or not being) a floozy and easily fooled - I'm thinking 'accommodating' is a gentler term. Now, who's up for a Bread Challenge?
Cathy
Lazy Loafer started a great thread of 1-2-3 Bread.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/48829/challenge-123-bread
Happy Baking,
DoR
recipe, i reckon. you can do it as a white loaf or just use whatever mix of flour you like - as Maverick suggested, a bit of wholewheat or rye is really nice. I love this recipe for its simplicity and flexibility. It can be done in a day or with an overnight retard then baked straight from the fridge.
Leslie
Edit: i agree that the Vermont SD from Hamelman is another good one.
but then, I make dozens of these 5 days a week.
This is the one-loaf version: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/44111/easy-sourdough-part-1
-Gordon
Thank you all for your great suggestions and helpful leads on recipes! Surely, if I work my way through each of these, I'll have some great practice and may even get a good loaf going!