Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

[PostmanPete]

Sourdough.jpg

[PanBiker]

Nice one Pete, just about to knock mine back.

[PanBiker]

I should have knocked mine back last night but it's took no fault with an extra few hours under a damp tea towel. Sourdough relies on a slow prove and develops a better flavour the longer you leave it. Here's mine after knocking back and forming for it's second rise.



Knocked back on a bed of semolina and flour and dusted with the same. It's mellowing on it's tray in a plastic bag for the next few hours.

[Big Kev]

[PanBiker]

I have to report a death, my sourdough starter has died! Tried all sorts to pep it up but it remains just inert flour and water. It's a bit like the Norwegian Blue, beautiful plumage but nevertheless an ex starter!

On a happier note I got a portion back from one of my baker friends who I had supplied a few weeks ago with some starter from when it was active. Made to go round as they say.

I have discarded my original and the new batch is resting in the Kilner. I will watch and nurture it for a few days to bring it on then decide what to make.

[chinatyke]

Just been looking at the photo of your dough on 27th June. Never noticed it before but it has got a grumpy face, is that why it is known as sour dough? Was it intentionally done?

[PanBiker]

Not my dough China, it was Postman Pete's funny meme that he found.

[chinatyke]

Yes, it was intentional! Thanks Postman Pete. (I'm just slow on the uptake!)

[Marilyn]

Not quite the same thing, but I discovered a Potato that reminded me of my husband...

[Stanley]

That's cruel Maz.

[plaques]

Did you find it on the couch?

[Marilyn]

Yes...surrounded by biscuit crumbs...and the Soccer was on...

[Tripps]

This made me smile this morning. sourdough

[Stanley]

I like it! Have they ever done a piece on dumb bells? I read once that they are the most bought and underused of all sports equipment. Evidently the world is littered with redundant dumb bells.

[PanBiker]

My sourdough starter was needing reducing so I made fifteen fruit scones with what would have been the discard. On a roll I followed that with two seeded (Sunflower and Pumpkin) Bloomer loaves. Freezer got eight scones in batches of four and one of the Bloomers. Started the other one for lunch today. Both have passed the taste test.

[Stanley]

Sally must be a happy woman!

[PanBiker]

I set of a sourdough "sponge" last night before I went to bed. That was just 225g strong flour, 320ml cold water and 125ml of sourdough starter. Roughly mixed and then covered and left overnight for the yeast to develop. By morning it was doing it's stuff, plenty of activity in the bowl so ready for the next stage. That was just adding another 225g of strong flour and stirring it in a bit at a time. The resultant dough is actually more like a very thick gloopy elastic batter than a traditional dough. You tip it out onto an oiled surface at this stage and knead it the best you can for about 10 minutes. You have to resist adding more flour. It should stiffen up slightly but still remain more of a batter than a dough. Rather than rising the whole lot in a bowl, I decided to let it do it's stuff in my loaf tin that makes six smaller loaves. Here it is in the tray and inside a large plastic bag to keep the moisture content up.



It's a slow rise to develop the yeast. It's been going for about four hours and I will leave them for a couple more hours before baking.

[PanBiker]

Learnt something with this bake. The small loaves are too small for sourdough! The nature of sourdough is that it produces a good crust and with the smaller loaves it means that you have too much crust and less crumb. They are edible and will be good with soup. If you cut them across on the short side you get just about the right balance between crust and crumb. The crumb has turned out how it should, lots of holes and quite chewy, a bit of a tang and reminiscent of a crumpet but with hard edges. If I do the sourdough in tins again I will make it just one or two, probably be best in a 2lb or two 1lb tins.

[Tripps]

I've been doing some experiments in Chapati making . As has become well known, I'm too impatient for long slow processes either in walks, or bread making. Any mention of hours or days in a process and I'm off.

My final result goes something like this.
Two cups of Elephant Atta medium flour. (Morrisons 10 kilos for £8)
Half a cup of dried milk powder.
Small scoop of dried yeast. Similar scoop of sugar. dash of salt.
Good glug of Olive oil. (or ordinary rapeseed oil - it makes little difference, but olive oil is more middle class).

Add the sugar and some warm water to the yeast. it will bubble in a few minutes.

Put all the dry stuff in a bowl. add the oil. Pour on the frothy yeast mixture and mix together first with a wooden spoon handle then finish off with your fingers. if too wet add a bit more flour, if too dry add a bit more water. You'll soon get the hang of it. Cut the resulting ball into four - and roll out as thin as it will go into something vaguely resembling a circle.
Actually you can do quite a good job just pressing it out with your hand.

Cook it in a hot lightly oiled frying pan or wok just a couple of minutes on each side, till it gets a bit of colour on. The whole process from start to eating takes about 10 minutes.

I'm currently having them for breakfast with two fried eggs on - or Normandy butter and Spanish marmalade. Don't ask me difficult questions about the yeast and rising and such. I've tried all ways and this works OK for me. Strange to relate but I've not put any weight on.

[Stanley]

"Strange to relate but I've not put any weight on. "
Funny you should say that David. I am conscious of the fact that much as I love bread it piles weight on me. I gave it up completely but gradually slipped back into using it and only last night decided it had to stop!
I love the Middle Class Olive Oil.....

[PanBiker]

I know this is a throw together method of making a type of flatbread and I recognise the cup as a standard measure. I am taken on with your arbitrary "small" scoop, probably similar to Stanley's "small" pies and your "glug" of oil, actually the "glug" makes more sense than the "small".

In all types of bread making you are dealing with chemistry, how you cook it also has an enormous effect on the result. I found that yesterdays sourdough batter could equally have been used to make a type of crumpet if I had cooked it on a hotplate rather than baking it.

[Tripps]

The small scoop came (I think) with a bread making machine a long time ago. I think it's a smallish teaspoonful. The 'glug' is of course an Imperial glug rather than a metric glug.

[PanBiker]

I'm fairly certain that your recipe would also work with sourdough starter as the fermenting component, all the rest of the stuff the same.

Interesting that the Elephant Atta website has the recipe for Chapatti's which doesn't include yeast of any kind or sugar, salt or oil. Just basically the flour mix which a blend of wholemeal and white flour and water.

Virtually no fat in the basic flour and water variety, adding oil, sugar milk powder and yeast must increase the fat content regardless of whether you put on weight or not.

[Tripps]

Points taken Ian. It's a mix of recipes taken from the internet, Youtube , etc. I'm making no claims for it - just seems to work. The yeast makes no sense, but makes the final thing taste better. Doesn't seem to rise as you would expect - even the portions left after cooking the first, don't 'rise' I add the dried milk powder because I bought lots when the lock in started on the recommendation of my lad. I've tried their wholemeal flour, and a half and half mixture. Neither is as good as the ordinary flour.

I'd like to make these, murtabak They are absolutely delicious - but as they used to say over there - 'never happen lah'

[PanBiker]

Outside of your comfort zone David, the dough has to be rested so best made the day before so that would count you out. They look good anyway, found this recipe with a quick search:

Homemade Murtabak

There must be hundreds of different flatbreads because you don't need anything special to produce the basic ones just a flat heated surface to cook on.

The dough is simple enough and can all be made in a mixer instead of all that nasty kneading that you don't like. The dough has conny onny as one of the ingredients so is like likely to be slightly sweet. Sweet and savoury mix, what is not to like? Standard bread flour so I might have a go at that.