Given that I'm making bread daily (and they don't go in much for packaged yeast here), I thought I'd learn more about natural leavening. And, goodness, am I learning a lot!
I have already killed one sourdough starter after having made some admittedly tasty things from it.
The most fun, though, has been learning new kneading techniques. It turns out that making bread from a levain (a natural starter that you keep in the fridge so that it doesn't sour) involves a LOT more water than a "standard" loaf you just churn out when you use packaged yeast. Creating a levain starts rather improbably by letting some apple peels ferment in water for a few days, and then mixing the (strained) water with flour. You add flour and water daily to the fruity-smelling glop until it is ready after about a week. To make bread with the levain, you remove some of the mixture and add it to flour, water, salt.
A standard loaf has a dough with some body to it, relatively unsticky. On the other hand, the levain-based bread is a lot stickier and does not enjoy being handled with heels of palms or that sort of motion we usually think of when we hear the word "kneading."
When you make a dough with the levain (per a recipe provided by my dear friend Angela), you end up with an ooze rather than a dough. It is sort of splooges out onto the counter (no additional flour), and you lift the whole bulb (or as much as lifts) and smack it down. When it is done repeatedly, you can increase your speed...which often results in the formation of "tentacles" that slap randomly over the counter in front of you: thick, luscious, sticky arms of dough to be removed and coaxed back into the body of the beast.
After a while, though, you have a homogeneous, relatively well-behaved mass of something that is silky smooth. It's so interesting to see the process.
The rising takes hours. And hours. And then a few more hours. If you're lucky, you remember to turn the oven on in time to put it in at the right point. If, on the other hand, you get distracted, you let it over-rise (a technical disaster, but the other members of the family have yet to complain) and then put it in too late -- feeling mildly guilty about it.
Regardless, you get a thick-crusted bread that is crunchy on the outside and has a great chew inside. That is the French peasant bread. I've also made baguettes, a natural-yeast "standard" bread, various other loaves, and sourdough. I have a new starter that is fermenting nicely and should be ready for our new sourdough loaf in just a few days. It, also, will probably be a similar process to the levain loaves.
Love,
Alexandra
I have already killed one sourdough starter after having made some admittedly tasty things from it.
The most fun, though, has been learning new kneading techniques. It turns out that making bread from a levain (a natural starter that you keep in the fridge so that it doesn't sour) involves a LOT more water than a "standard" loaf you just churn out when you use packaged yeast. Creating a levain starts rather improbably by letting some apple peels ferment in water for a few days, and then mixing the (strained) water with flour. You add flour and water daily to the fruity-smelling glop until it is ready after about a week. To make bread with the levain, you remove some of the mixture and add it to flour, water, salt.
A standard loaf has a dough with some body to it, relatively unsticky. On the other hand, the levain-based bread is a lot stickier and does not enjoy being handled with heels of palms or that sort of motion we usually think of when we hear the word "kneading."
When you make a dough with the levain (per a recipe provided by my dear friend Angela), you end up with an ooze rather than a dough. It is sort of splooges out onto the counter (no additional flour), and you lift the whole bulb (or as much as lifts) and smack it down. When it is done repeatedly, you can increase your speed...which often results in the formation of "tentacles" that slap randomly over the counter in front of you: thick, luscious, sticky arms of dough to be removed and coaxed back into the body of the beast.
After a while, though, you have a homogeneous, relatively well-behaved mass of something that is silky smooth. It's so interesting to see the process.
The rising takes hours. And hours. And then a few more hours. If you're lucky, you remember to turn the oven on in time to put it in at the right point. If, on the other hand, you get distracted, you let it over-rise (a technical disaster, but the other members of the family have yet to complain) and then put it in too late -- feeling mildly guilty about it.
Regardless, you get a thick-crusted bread that is crunchy on the outside and has a great chew inside. That is the French peasant bread. I've also made baguettes, a natural-yeast "standard" bread, various other loaves, and sourdough. I have a new starter that is fermenting nicely and should be ready for our new sourdough loaf in just a few days. It, also, will probably be a similar process to the levain loaves.
Love,
Alexandra
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