So, I feel like for the first time I’ve gotten it right with the sourdough thing. Don’t get me wrong – the other loaves have been beautiful, some have been sour, some have been boules … but I’ve not done any truly SOUR boules up until these. These babies … well, first off, they don’t have any sweet things in them whatsoever – nothing for the yeast to eat, even, except for the flour. (They were kick-started with commercial yeast, but that’s just by way of insurance.)
I’m going to give an ingredient list, just because I want to be able to come back to it and I’m told that I need to start writing these things down. Yes, I suppose I might want to … but then again, I should really start measuring out the flour – by weight – so that I’ll really know how to re-create these things.
Ingredients:
- 3 Cups of the sour (1.5 of whole wheat sour culture, 1.5 of white sour culture – yes, they’re different in flavor, and it’s worth maintaining two)
- 1 Cup of water (110°F)
- 2 Tbsp Active Dry Yeast (insurance, you know)
- 1 Cup Barley (with the hull still, please), steamed for 1.5 hours in 1.25 Cups water
- 2.5 Cups Oat Bran
- Whole Wheat Flour
- White Flour
- 1 Tbsp Brown Mustard Seeds
- 1 Tsp Caraway Seeds
- 1/4 Tsp Cumin Seeds
Go for a single, short rise, ’cause it seems to work better with sourdough than going for multiples – or, at least, it’s worked better for me. Of course, it could be said that I actually go for multiple rises, ’cause I give the sour & the yeast & the first dose of flour (whole wheat) some time to get acquainted in the mixing bowl … so I guess I’m saying to not give them three rises like I ordinarily would with something to which I’ve added honey & molasses. I know what I mean. If you need to know … well, let me know and I’ll explain more.
For tonite, I’m just glad that the pictures of these lovelies turned out so well, and that I’ll be making more tomorrow evening … ’cause there’s only about 1/2 a loaf left.
I must say that they make you mindful … of how you eat, because the barley hanging out on the crust? Way hard. I only steamed it for 1 hour in these loaves … so I’m saying 1.5 hours, above, so that you’ll have some dental happiness if you use the recipe.
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Yup, I’m jealous–but I don’t bake enough bread to keep starter around…oh well.
We tried this starter thing once before — can you say NASTY stuff? It’s all in learning how to do it — you could keep it in the fridge for quite some time, so even if you don’t bake regularly, it would be cool. Don’t buy that ‘crock on the counter top’ thing, it’s smelly and weird and unnecessarily difficult.