Food In Many Forms

Now that I've made a few loaves, watched way too many Youtube videos and read a few blogs, here is what I've gleaned about sourdough so far: - The water in recipes is more of a suggestion than a rule - judgment and feel is everything - Add some of the water, and keep the rest to the side, adjust as needed - Bread flour has more protein than all-purpose flour, allowing for more gluten development - Whole wheat flour decreases gluten development, and should be used in combination with other flours - A levain can be the starter itself, or it can refer to the step where you soak flour, water, and starter together for a period of time prior to adding the rest of the ingredients - The autolyze step can range from 30 minutes to 4 hours - The dough should be sticky and wet in the initial phase - Proof the dough at room temperature for more sour bread, and at 80-90 degrees for less sour flavor - When proofing overnight in the fridge, make sure to lock in the mois...

On Monday, I said I would make another attempt at a loaf. After much debate on technique, we ultimately decided to try the "baking with babish" technique of using a levain but it kind of veered off of the recipe pretty quickly from there. After being refrigerated overnight, and multiple rounds of folding, we proofed half of the dough in the oven like America's test kitchen, and the other half we stuck in the fridge to make the next day. The first loaf came out short, but super airy, with a nice crunch - perfect for bruschetta, dipping in soup, with slices of cheese or tapenade. The second loaf was taller, and had the beautifully darkened crust, and sour flavor, but had fewer, smaller air pockets - more like a sandwich bread.

I waited about 8 1/2 days for my sourdough to ripen. From Saturday until 2 Mondays later, I analyzed every bubble, and the consistency of every discard. Although the bubbles started after 24 hours, and persisted for the first 7 days, the loaf we attempted on Day 7 was a bit flat. After proofing overnight, the second half of that batch showed some small holes that were not visible before. I knew we were close. Today when fed the yeast at noon, I can finally say that it is doubling in size and bubbling not only on top but also throughout the container. Success! Meanwhile, I have been working hard to use up the leftover starter. - Last Wednesday, I made date walnut bread - minus the fresh cranberries ( https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-date-nut-cranberry-muffins-recipe ) - Then Thursday I made another loaf to give away - Friday we made homemade pizza crust with just flour, water, salt and olive oil ( https://www.food.com/recipe/sourdough-pizza-crust-987...

Working from home during the quarantine has also allowed me to entertain the idea of making breads that I never would have thought to make. It seems like bread-making is super trendy right now, and with little prospect of buying yeast, I jumped on the sourdough wagon and began feeding my own starter a few days ago. I used sprouted wheat flour to start, and it was already bubbling throughout at the 24 hour mark. Link :  https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-starter-recipe ) I read a post or two on the guilt involved in discarding so much flour throughout this process. So I am interested to see if I will be able to use the sourdough discard for anything useful. I have seen sourdough pizza, crackers and all sorts of things, but it is harder to find recipes that use the early discard that is not fully matured. What I was making before is a lot of breakfast breads or tea cakes (whatever you want to call them), and I figure the first few discards will be perfect for those...