Sourdough Process Thread

Making some bread with my homemade sourdough starter.

Start by getting out the Kitchen Aid and bread flour.
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Just making a half-batch, so two cups of flour go into the bowl.
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The homemade starter. Created by mixing flour and water together and letting sit out then waiting for yeast that's naturally in the bread and air to activate. Have had this for at least 3 years, probably 4.
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Yeasty beasties.
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Add a cup of starter to the flour. Then warm water, about 100 degrees or so.
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Put on the dough hook, and let 'er mix.
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Nice little ball of dough.
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At this point I usually put it in the fridge for a day to rise and actuvate. But I want this batch to rise about 3 times, so I'm setting it in the warmest spot in the kitchen right now. Had to feed the starter so both are resting on the fridge.
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Nice! I love making bread but am always too impatient to attempt sourdough.

It takes a few days, but the actual work is pretty quick and easy.
I make a killer Brioche, too. But that still rests for about a day in the fridge. Need to try some quicker breads someday.

Warm bread is the bestest.

Keep it goin'.

Oh, and sourdough pancakes are pretty yummy too, but you gotta plan a day in advance before you want 'em.

awesome

Sourdough wheat-flour pancakes are the greatest. There was a no-knead recipe in the NYT a year or two back. Just involves mixing up the ingredients and letting them ferment for like 16 hours. They said to use very, very little yeast, but I had a starter I substituted for it.

After 2.5 years alive, that starter later went bad because I left it sitting somewhere unrefrigerated for a few days. The smell when I uncovered the bowl ... I think it actually had a fist it knocked me unconscious with.

Oof, I can only imagine the smell. It's funky enough when it's still good.

It was bad. It smelled like rotting feet. How are you baking this bread project you got going? Just straight-up in the oven or inside a large pot or something?

In the oven at 450. I put a small bread pan of water in the bottom of the oven for the first half of the cooking time, then take it out for the second. If I leave it in the whole time the bread doesn't get a nice crust. More on that tomorrow.