Grandpa Larry's blog

My wife claims that the older I get, the more like my mother I become. One of her idiosyncrasies was her distrust of any food not prepared by her.

I guess I am a little like that. I bake almost all of our bread, and I recently started culturing my own yogurt. I've noticed that, unless I strain some of the water out the yogurt is thinner than the supermarket variety, but it makes a perfect substitute for buttermilk in muffin, scone, pancake, and biscuit recipes. It's the consistency of store bought buttermilk.

I found this recipe today while going over some old recipe cards that appeared in the back of a kitchen drawer. I'm certain I copied it out of a paperback book on sourdough breads, years ago. I can't find the book nor do I remember its' title or author. I've never tried the recipe, though I'll likely give it a go soon.

Does anyone here know anything more about it?

BUTTERMILK YEAST

 2 Cups Buttermilk

3 Cups corn meal

1pkg dry yeast

½ tsp salt

¼ C warm water

Sterilized corn meal

white flour

I'm a huge fan of Inside The Jewish Bakery, by Stan Ginsberg and Norman Berg.  Today I had a taste  for  a rich white bread, and so I decided to bake up a couple loaves of the Vienna Bread (Vinnerbroyt.) It is described in the book thus:

"This sweet, enriched loaf has a lovely open crumb and soft texture. In the Jewish bakeries, it was used for sandwich loaves and, when left to ferment for 2 to 3 hours, for kaiser rolls." 

It sounded like just what I was after.

About a month ago I ran across the website "The Italian Dish" which contained a post titled Amazing Artisan Bread for 40 Cents a Loaf - No Kneading, No Fussing, No Kidding.

This is the author's take on the no knead bread baking technique and the book: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

I read the posts and blog entries on this forum pretty regularly, and I freely admit that there are far more sophisticated bakers posting here than I am. Many of the photos of breads, pizzas, and pastries I see look better; far better, and more appetizing than the products I see at local bakeries and restaurants.