There She is!

Well, here it is! The final outcome :) I think the bread was an absolute success, and I do plan to make more one day. Considering I've never made bread before, I'm very please with how both breads came out. It was a pleasure meeting everyone, and I enjoyed trying everyone's fermented projects! Good luck to everyone in their schooling and thank you Roy for being a great Microbiology teacher!

This is a picture of the dough as I was letting it rise 

 This is a picture of the dough right before I put it into the oven to bake

 

There she is!  

 



Round two!

 

Hello everyone!

Since last week, I have been continuing to feed my 2nd sourdough starter, and it did much better this time. It not only had bigger bubbles, but it wasn't as thick. I'm hoping this will help with the density of the bread. I won't be home until 10:00 tomorrow night due to work, so I started my bread tonight. It is rising as we speak!! I can't wait to try everyone's food on Wednesday. Below I have posted a picture of the starter I started last week. Notice the larger bubbles?

We have bread!

So, I know that I said I was going to make my bread the other night, but come to find out I didn't have enough sourdough starter ready yet... BUT tonight I did, and I made my first loaf of bread, EVER! It came out great, but it was a little dense. I think that for the next batch I make, I'm going to let the bread rise a little longer, and not knead it so strong. All in all, I think it came out great! Here are a few pictures throughout the process.

 This was right after I mixed together the sourdough starter, flour and salt

 

 

 I then put the dough, covered with plastic wrap, into the stove with the light on to create the heat it needed to rise.

 

 

 This is the dough after I let it rise for a few hours. I think that next time I make this I'm going to let it rise for a longer period of time so it has a lighter texture.

 

 

 After I took the dough out of the oven, I kneaded it into a ball. Next time I make bread, I'm not going to knead it so hard.

 

 

 This is a picture after I let the bread sit and rise for a 2nd time right before cooking. It had doubled in size.

 

 

 This picture is halfway through the cooking process.

 

 

 THE FINAL OUTCOME!!

 

 

The bread was just about perfect! It had just the right amount of crunch on the outside, and softness on the inside. Just wish it hadn't been so dense. Oh well! Now it's time to work on the next one :)

 

 

It's foaming!!

My sourdough bread starter is finally starting to foam like it's supposed to. Every 12 hours or so, I'm feeding it with 2 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of water and vigorously mixing it together. Once the foam gets to be about 1-2 inches deep I'll be able to start my bread. By the looks of things today, I think I'm going to try and make my bread tomorrow night! I'm excited to see how it all turns out. 

Here's a picture of this morning. The foam was almost an inch thick just from sitting in the oven over night!

Re-do!

My first sourdough starter was a dud, so here's a new update! The first batch wouldn't "bubble" up like it was supposed to, so I started a new one yesterday. I left it covered, in the heat yesterday & left it in the oven today with the light on to create the heat that it needs. The starter is doing MUCH better, and I will post pictures as it begins to progress. I'm glad it's finally working, I was getting worried!

Day 2 of the Sourdough Process

Just a quick update! Not much has changed. I've been vigorously whisking the sourdough starter every 6-12 hours to incorporate lots of air into the batter. I'm looking for bubbles to appear (typically 2-3 days) before I add in more flour and water.

And so it Begins!!

Today, I met up with one of my friends that makes sourdough bread every week. She helped me get my sourdough starter ready and gave me her cookbook to bring home with me. Because of this, the original recipe I was going to use is a little different. Here is what I'm going to be using:

New Ingredients

 

Sourdough starter:

1/4 cup flour

1/4 pineapple juice

Once the starter begins to bubble, add...

approximately 7 tablespoons of flour

approximately 5 tablespoons of water

 

Remaining ingredients:

1 2/3 cup flour
1/3 of water (scant)
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt

 

NOTE: I used pineapple juice in my sourdough starter because of the Leuconostoc bacteria. This bacteria can sometimes upset the ecological balance in a new starter. Pineapple juice has a low pH compared to most other fruit juices. By using the pineapple juice in place of water, the pH of the starter remains low from the beginning of the process. a low pH prevents Leuconostoc bacteria from overtaking the growth of other species of lactic acid bacteria and yeast. Leuconostoc bacteria will still be present, however, but in un-harmful quantities.



 

Here are a few pictures from my day! :)

This is the flour that I am using for the sourdough bread

This is me at my friends house mixing up the sourdough starter (flour and pineapple juice)

This is just another picture of me doing the same thing.

 This is what it looked like when it was all incorporated together... And now the wait begins!

The start of my bread making journey

Hello Everyone!

For my fermentation project, I've decided to make sourdough bread. I've always had a passion for cooking, and I've cooked many things, but oddly enough I've never made my own bread.
Sourdough bread is one of the few kinds I've never eaten, which is actually one of the reasons why I decided to make give it a try! I saw sourdough bread made on the cooking channel recently, and since that day I've always wanted to try it... I guess there's no better time than now.

To make this particular bread, there's a few things that you will need:

 

Ingredients

 

• 2 cups of bread flour
• 1 1/2 cups of a sourdough starter (the recipe follows)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

Basic sourdough starter

• 3 cups of warm water (approximately 110 degrees F)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of an active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 3 cups of all purpose flour

 

I'm excited to start this journey into the bread making world. I hope everyone enjoys it, and I can't wait to try everyone else's foods! Good luck :)