Italian Easter Bread using Sourdough Starter instead of yeast
Hi, I am new to this site and new to keeping a starter. I successfully, finally!!! created a starter in January. Every batch of bread I make is even more beautiful and delicious than the last. I'm very happy I finally succeeded.
When I look at my starter on the counter I get all the feels and I am so excited about it but I'd like to use it for more than just bread.
I've been trying to recreate an Easter bread my Nonna's sister would make every year.
I found a recipe online but I was hoping someone would help me convert the yeast into sourdough. I've been researching most of the day but I think I don't have enough experience to be successful. I don't want to waste flour because of the quarantine-- that's why I am posting. Thanks in advance. The recipe I'd like to try is below. My SDS is made up of 50 g starter, 50g KA AP, 50g Rye Flour, and 100g water.
Lina
____________________________________________________________
The ingredients for two small or one large Easter Pigna.
For 1 and a half kg of finished dough:
Yeast (to be prepared 24 hours before and kept at room temperature):
200 g Manitoba flour
50 g flour 00
250 g water
7 g brewer's yeast
After 24 hours add in total but alternating the ingredients as in the video and working well and for a long time between insertions:
380/400 g. flour (half manitoba and half 00);
13 g. brewer's yeast dissolved in 60 g of milk;
250 g of icing sugar;
3 eggs and one yolk,
30 g of juice of an orange pressed;
75 g soft butter (I replaced the margarine and probably even the lard),
a pinch of salt,
the seeds of a vanilla bean (or vanillin as a recipe),
the peel of 2 oranges and a grated lemon (I omitted the liqueur aroma to taste).
Hi Lina..
I just saw your post and no reply so here's my attempt at helping. But first, great news about your starter. I think sourdough bread baking is so much more rewarding (in my opinion) than using instant dry yeast! It's a great hobby and I can't express enough how much joy it brings me! Well done and good luck!
Easter bread using a starter - good question!
So looking at your recipe you'll appreciate that they're breaking this up into two steps.
First - they want you to make the yeast which is essentially a biga (ie preferment with no salt). A typical biga will have hydration at about 45% and instant dry yeast at 3-5% - approximately. If i were making a biga with sourdough I'd have 10% sourdough starter.
So in your recipe I would start with 200g Manitoba flour + 50g 00 flour + 110g water and 25g ripe starter. I'd leave that out for only about 15 hours or so. You're not mixing a lot here - just get everything incorporated and stop. Make sure your room isn't too warm or the yeast will be too active - so maybe between 65 degrees F. And cover it with wrap or a dish towel. If you don't have a place that cool then it might be ready a few hours earlier. You'll have to play that by ear.
When it's ready you essentially have a fully developed biga that will be about 385g or so..
Second, they want you to add the rest of the flour - about 380 to 400g so lets call it another 385g. So essentially they're asking you to now to do a 1:1 (think of your starter being ready and then adding the same amount of flour to it). But what about the water? In the first step you added only 110g so are short 140g and they want you to add another 60g of milk and 30g of juice. So your original recipe has another 140+60+30 or 230 to add. I'd add that all now. And then add everything else in stages like the video would likely have shown that you referenced. Continue to make the dough and bread they way they describe in the full instruction. I would not add more starter or any instant yeast in this second step. During this second phase I would keep the dough at room temp - somewhere in the low 70s to help it develop. If it seems to be going too slow I'd put it in a warmer spot - maybe closer to 75-78. If you don't have a warm enough spot or proofer, I'd put it in the oven with the light off for a bit to help warm it up from time to time (but it can get hot in there so keep an eye on it).
That's how I'd approach this. I think this would work. But like making bread, watch the dough to tell you when it's ready. It might take longer or shorter than the original recipe tells you. Without doing it myself I'm not sure. So I hope this would work for you. It's my best guess to modify the recipe.
Good luck and please post a picture and/or let me know how it went! frank!