I am taking a month-long sabbatical from work to de-stress, and in the process try and learn new things. Among the things I am trying to learn bread making is one. I have baked some things in the past but never made bread, that too sourdough. Here goes nothing.
The first step, making my own starter.
I am following Pro Home Cooks on YouTube to learn.
Day 1 (Apr 23): Combined 33g of whole wheat flour, 32 g of refined wheat flour, and 75g of water to form a thick paste close to a pancake mix.
Day 2 (Apr 24): I can see bubbles, yay! Yeast has started to thrive in my little glass colony. Fed the starter the same thing again. 75g flour (whole wheat and refined mixed) and 75g water.
Day 3 (Apr 25): I fed the starter again. It is smelling yeasty. I also bragged about how I am making my own starter to my friends over a Saturday night zoom call. The universe didn’t take well to my bragging, and Cattoo (my bigger cat) jumped over the kitchen counter causing the glass jar to fall to the ground and break into a hundred pieces. It took me about 45 minutes to clean the mess up. I was too tired to start again on the same night. I also did not have any clean glass jars left.
Day 1 again (Apr 26): Found a jar with some real old besan. Discarded the besan, cleaned the jar and now I am starting all over again. And this time I am keeping notes all to myself. My friend, neena, has also started a starter of his own. So, we are comparing notes and photos.
Day 2 (Apr 27): My new day 2. I see bubbles again. After feeding my starter, I have started keeping these notes to see how it goes from now on.
after 24 hours (second attempt)
Day 3 (Apr 28): My yeast colony is coming along well. Fed it its usual diet. Today I have marked the level of the starter with a rubber band. Let’s see if my starter rises double between 3rd and 4th day. I hope the jar doesn’t break this time around. I have also been reading up on fermentation in general. This lock-down is making me consider making my own wine.
Day 4 (Apr 29): I was really hoping that the starter will double in size overnight, but it hasn’t happened yet. So, I feed and wait.
Day 5 (Apr 30): Did I forget to feed the starter today? Or, did I forget to add the note?
Day 6 (May 1): I reduced the starter in half today. Used the discarded half to make sourdough pancakes with some onions and sesame seeds. Fed the remaining starter the same diet.
sourdough starter discard savory pancake — it was quite delicious even if it doesn’t look that way
Day 7 (May 2): Fed.
Day 8 (May 3): Made sourdough crackers with half inactive starter using this recipe. Fed the rest.
Day 9 (May 4): This is the first week day of my short sabbatical. No work for another 4 weeks. I am thinking this is the right time to start making my own sourdough bread. Among all the required equipment I don’t have a proofing basket, but I will improvise. Pro Home Cooks has very generously created timelines and checklists for different time schedules for sourdough baking. I will follow The Nighthawk Baker. Let’s see how this goes. Will update more at the end of the day.
I changed my mind. I have no good in-oven equipment. Neither a dutch oven nor a cast iron pan. I was aware of this even before, but somehow I thought I would be able to improvise. Oh well. So, I did some quick search on what other kinds of bread can I make with the sourdough starter. I can make ciabatta, baguette, focaccia, literally anything I want. Which is why I am going to start with a baguette. I am following Mr. John Kirkwood’s recipe. I have set up my poolish to rise overnight. Let’s see how the baguettes turn out tomorrow.
Day 10 (May 5): Since I started my poolish at 4 pm yesterday, I had put in the fridge overnight to slow down the yeast activity. I put it out again in room temperature to get the activity going again. I can see bubbles arising in about an hour. Just waiting for enough bubbles to appear before starting the dough prep for the baguettes.
I started making the dough at 2:30 pm. So, the poolish was out at room temperature for only about 4 hours. I thought that was enough for making my bread rise, but I was mistaken. The baguettes after 4–5 hours of effort came out kinda dense and stiff. :sadface:
Day 11 (May 6): I still hadn’t lost all hope. And had set aside some poolish last night for sourdough crumpets. So, I spent the whole morning making crumpets. And they turned out pretty damn good. Phew, I needed that win. Sourdough baking is pretty damn hard. I will take this win and rest on it for a while. And so in the fridge goes my starter. Need some break from constant feeding.
Day 12 (May 7): Had the leftover crumpets for breakfast with jam and some fresh mangoes.
Day 13 (May 8): Thinking of making a pan loaf with the starter. Did not do that.
I took a break from sourdough for a while. My starter died in the fridge. It got this very thick looking layer on top with a pungent smell. So I had to discard it. I spent the break making scones which turned out nice and crumbly with a golden crust. I was happy with it. I also ordered a dutch oven from amazon which will be arriving soon!
how I love a scone with a golden crust and the melt in your mouth crumble
Now, we start again.
Day 1 (May 19): I am starting my starter again, but this time in a smaller quantity – 2 tbsp of refined flour, 2 tbsp of whole wheat flour and 3 tbsp of water. I have also removed the rubber ends of the lid of the jar to make it not so air tight.
Day 2 (May 20): Have good bubbles. Fed the starter. I have also changed the feeding time from afternoon to morning so it fits better in my routine. I have two other friends who are trying to make sourdough bread, coincidentally (this is all coincidental, I promise). So I have some guidance from non-YouTube tutorials, specially around what works for Indian temperatures and ovens.
Day 3 (May 21): I see good amount of bubbles. I am happy so far. Discarded half and fed the rest. Also, my dutch oven has arrived! Yay! Disinfecting the packaging and waiting for the virus to die before I open it. :D It is here and it is glorious, all 6 kgs of it.
Day 4 (May 22): Fed. Slightly larger amount. 1/2 cup mixed flour and 1/3 cup water.
Day 5 (May 23): I am slightly worried. There was a thin layer of flour on the top with bubbles trapped inside. And it smelled more pungent than usual. A quick look up on the internet suggested that it just need to be fed more. So, I am going to switch to a 12 hour feeding cycle. I will discard half and feed once in the morning. And I will feed again in the evening without any discard.
Day 6 (May 24): Discard and feed.
Day 7 (May 25): Today, I am gonna use the discarded starter to make sourdough banana bread. Yes, that’s a thing. I got this idea from a YouTube channel that I really like — Glen & Friends Cooking. Let’s see how that turns out. I am getting closer and closer to having the courage to make sourdough bread. I have no excuses left now. My dutch oven is here. My starter is doing well. Tomorrow I am going to do the float test on my discarded starter to see if it is ready to be used in the bread.
Day 8 (May 26): I did the float test on my starter, it did not pass. But that can be fixed by choosing the right time to use the starter. So no worries. I made panipuris today, so no bread. Fed the starter.
Day 9 (May 27): Today is the day. I woke up with some confidence that I can do this. So, I have taken out about 2–3 tbsp of the starter in a separate bowl, added 1 cup of mixed flour and 2/3rd cup of water. Fed the rest of the starter and put in the fridge. I don’t need to feed it daily now. Worked all day from 10:30 am to 12:30 in the night, mixing, stretching and folding, monitoring the rise. Already know one mistake I have made — the dough is more hydrated than I want it to be. Kept in the fridge for proofing overnight.
Day 10 (May 28): Didn’t get a good night’s sleep. Was too worried about the dough. :/ Woke up as early as I could to get the oven pre-heated and bake the bread. Here is the final product of my first attempt.
The crust came out nice and crispy. But overall the bread needed to be airier. My stretch and folds didn’t do their magic because the dough was wetter than it needed to be. Oh well, live and learn. Two things I am happy with – the scoring and crispiness of the crust, and the flavour of the bread. Here is a not-so-good-looking cross-section of the lightly toasted bread.
Sorry, took a bite before taking the picture. Couldn’t wait.
I will do better next time, hopefully.
Day 11 (May 29): Couldn’t wait much longer. Took 2–3 tbsp of starter from the fridge in a clean jar, fed it and waited for it to double up. Took about 7 hours. Started the dough process all over again. By the time the stretch and folds were over it was midnight, so I put the dough in the fridge for the bulk rise.
Day 12 (May 30): Shape and proof. And in it goes in the oven. This time the rise is definitely better than before. I also scored the dough much more confidently than before. But the bread is still not as airy as I would like it to be. Ah well, another time.
I burned my hand trying to get the cast iron dutch oven out of the oven. :( It will heal in a few days hopefully. I am in quite some amount of pain, hope the bread is worth it. But no more baking for me for a while. My sabbatical has also come to an end. I will practice my newly learned skills over the free weekends after a break from it.
Ta-ta for now.