First sourdough loaves

The loaves of bread made on Sunday rose beautifully. The flavor however was not so great. The bread had a sour flavor, but also a bitter aftertaste. I was using rye flour that I had in the freezer and maybe it was rancid. Rye flour will go bad faster than white flour. I have decided to continue to feed the starter for another week with unbleached white flour and see if the bitter taste goes away. If it doesn't improve I may start the culture over with fresher flour. My son Tom and I are the only people in the family who ate the bread. It didn't bother Tom, although he thought it tasted weird. On the other hand, I had some digestive issues that might be related to the starter since I ate some of the bread warm and I know that yeast will stay active in bread for a day.

Mixing and Baking sourdough bread

It is now Sunday afternoon. This morning I removed the flour, water, starter mixture from the basement and set it upstairs in the kitchen to warm up a bit. At 10 a.m. I added 2 tsp. Real Salt, 1/3 Cup melted butter and 1/4 cup of honey to my Bosch Universal mixer and poured the starter mixture in with it. After adding one cup of whole grain, white, winter wheat flour to the bowl, just to create some friction, I turned on the mixer and set the timer for 10 minutes. For the first couple minutes I added additional flour until the dough cleaned the sides of the bowl and then I just let the Bosch do my kneading. After 10 minutes I turned off the machine and left for church not knowing how risen the dough would be when I got home.

Once home I wet my pointer finger and poked the dough. The dough sighed and collapsed a bit. Darn! Over Risen. Don't know now if it will rise properly in my bread pans but I am preheating the oven and the shaped dough is covered with a damp towel and rising in the pans. Only time will tell. Will it even taste good? Smelled pretty bad. I read on one sourdough website called Sourdough Home, that the good bacteria eventually overwhelms the bad bacteria and the starter will improve over time. It also recommended using processed white flour to feed the starter because the yeast in the starter comes in part from the grains themselves. By using dead white flour you are not introducing any new varieties of yeast that might compromise the starter. Not sure I really care at this point because I don't have enough experience to know what is good or bad in a starter.

I am going to bake this bread in the same way that I bake my Honey Wheat bread as far as timing and temperature goes. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Sourdough Starter

I have been fermenting freshly ground rye flour in water for a week now in a cheese cloth covered bowl. I started with a 1 Cup of rye and a 1 cup of water that I let sit out on the counter over night so the chlorine could gas off. The recipe called for filtered water, but this is what I have available. Everyday for a week now I removed 1/2 cup of starter and then fed the remaining mixer 1/2 cup of rye and 1/2 cup of water. If the bowl looked crusty I transferred the mixture to a fresh glass bowl. The starter is now bubbly, smelly, sour and somewhat bitter tasting. Ready to try making bread now. Tonight I will add 1/2 cup of starter to 4 cups of wheat flour and 2 cups of water. I want it to ferment nice and slow so I am going to put it in the basement closet where the temperature is about 63 degrees F right now. In the morning I plan to add the remaining ingredients and let ferment upstairs while we are at church. We will see what kind of science experiment we come home to after church. I will publish the process when I have achieved success!

French Toast in a Bowl

What do you do with bread that is a bit dry or crusts that your kids won't eat. You make French Toast in a Bowl!

First grease a microwave safe bowl with a finger full of butter. Crack in 1 egg and add milk in the quantity of about 1/2 the volume of the egg. Just eyeball it. Whip the egg and the milk together with a fork. Crumble in about one slice of bread or the equivalent amount in rolls, hamburger buns or odd pieces. Mix in the bread with a fork so that it is all uniformly moist. If you have a bit to much liquid in your bowl and don't want to add more bread push the mixture toward the sides of the bowl so there is a doughnut hole in the middle. It will fill in with cooked egg, otherwise it will just be soggy bread. Microwave the mixture in the bowl for 1 minute and 25 seconds. This is approximate, you can change it up or down by a couple of seconds. Take the bowl out of the microwave, slice the results right in the bowl, add butter and syrup and eat up! It is so easy a kid could do it.
For those of you who have sworn off microwaves throw the same mixture into a fry pan with some butter and cook until firm. Flip the pile over and cook the other side. It will still taste the same but won't be as convenient. You could try baking the mixture. I haven't tried this but it should work.

See the article that mentions me in the Denver Post

Last Monday, I was mentioned in the Denver Post. See it here.

The recipes mentioned there are not mine. My recipes are still here in the Better Bread Blog.

Blender Waffles or Pancakes

I got this recipe from Urbanhomemaker.com, and I think they got it from Sue Gregg and it is fabulous. Sue Gregg has a set of cookbooks which are sold by Urbanhomemaker that stress whole grains and healthy choices. Her recipes are good but need to be adapted for soaking grains. Once you try these waffles/pancakes you will never be happy eating at IHOP again. The key these waffles is making sure that the batter is thin enough to form a vortex in the blender. You can add a bit more liquid if necessary.

Mix and soak for 7 hours or overnight in your blender. Do not refrigerate:
1 1/2 C buttermilk, kefir or sour milk
1/2 C raw brown rice
1/2 C pastry wheat berries
1/2 C rolled oats

After soaking grains add and blend in blender the following ingredients. Blend for 1 - 3 minutes until smooth.:
1 egg
2 T olive oil or coconut oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 T honey
1 tsp salt

Stir in the following. You can expect the contents in the blender to double:
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp Rumford baking powder

Cook on lightly oiled waffle iron or skillet.

Try different grain variations totaling 1 1/2 C of grains except as noted. Here are some you might like:
Brown rice
Millet
Kamut, Spelt or hard or soft winter wheat
7 grain mix
Buckwheat (make with only 1 c because it expands)
barley (hulled, not pearled. Use only 1 c)
corn (whole corn, not corn meal)
Quinoa (must rinse thoroughly first before soaking)
Oats (Uncooked rolled oats or groats)

2 Loaf bread Recipe

The 2 loaf recipe is the same as the 5 loaf batch only it has been reduced to accommodate a Kitchen Aid mixer. The kitchen Aid is not powerful enough to knead 5 loaves for 10 minutes without getting very hot and possibly burning out. The instructions are the same as the 5 loaf batch. Soften the yeast right in the mixing bowl and mix in the dough using the dough hook. When it has finished kneading, disengage the dough hook and set it inside the bowl, then cover the bowl with a piece of plastic wrap or a plate to keep the dough from drying out.

You can divide the 2 loaf batch in half and use a food processor to mix and knead your dough. I use my old Cuisinart. You can use the dough blade or the chopping blade. I prefer to use the chopping blade because its weight keeps the dough from oozing down through the center stem and under the bowl when it rises. This process makes one very large, beautiful, loaf. There is the danger of over kneading the dough when using the food processor because it is so powerful. After you have added the ingredients to the processor bowl you will only need to pulse the machine a couple times, add flour a tablespoon at a time, pulsing after each addition, just until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl and follows the hook around the inside of the bowl. Mixing and adding flour will take about 2 minutes total, this is the entire kneading time. I suggest spraying the inside of the chopping blade with PAM spray so that it will be easier to remove after the bread has risen and is ready to shape and put into the baking pan. You will soften the yeast in the processor bowl using a very small amount of water. Use something to stir the yeast in with the water so that the yeast is all moistened and let it sit 5-10 minutes before adding the other ingredients to the bowl. Raise the dough in the processor with the lid on and knock it down by pulsing the machine a couple times before you remove the dough to shape.

Small Batch (2 loaf) ingredients:

Soak:
2 T. whey
1 1/2 C water
4 1/2 C. whole grain flour

Mix:
1 T yeast
2 T. warm water
dribble of honey
1 egg or 1 egg yolk
2 T honey
2 T olive oil or coconut oil
1 1/2 tsp. Real salt
1 T. bital gluten (optional)
extra flour