Bread -or - Where the Wild Things Grow

By Jen -
This is for you, Nicki -

So... you are taking home some nicely fermented yeasty bread starter and you want to know how to care for it in order to make bread...

There are all sorts of details, facts, and interesting tidbits about fermentation and making bread out there online and in books so I'm not going to go into all of the scientific names and notes. I think Michael Pollen does a nice job of explaining this process in Cooked. What you will find here is just the basic instructions on how to keep your starter going with a few resources for what then happens next.

Let's see...

1. Container: Find a nice jar or container that won't explode if the yeast goes a little crazy. I like my 1 liter Weck jar that I got over at World Imports. It has clips on top that will pop off before the glass jar breaks. Your starter is making gas - so this is a valid concern. Any 1 qt. mason jar will do, really.

2. Equipment: With bread making you need an instant read thermometer for water temperatures (until you can guesstimate the right temperature), a small spatula, measuring cups (one for wet and one for dry ingredients), feeding flour, a container to keep your left over starter* - or a way to dispose of it that isn't down your kitchen drain.

*Excess starter is actually pretty tasty. Try storing your left over starter in another jar in the fridge and when you get a cup or two of it, add some to pancake batter or a quick bread recipe.

3. Feeding: Yeast goes through a very particular cycle - it eats, it produces gas and alcohol as a by-product, it reproduces and then dies. Your starter is going to visually show you this cycle as it grows, bubbling up and then deflating. Smell it at the different stages - the starter will go from a light fruity smell to that pungent "ripe" odor that we associate with sourdough. Sometimes it goes a little too far -  (a layer of alcohol covering the starter or its gotten really gray) and that's when you need to "wash" your starter to bring it back from the edge. I won't go into that procedure but you can find out more here on the King Arthur bread baking blog: Maintaining your sourdough starter and check out the part on reviving your starter.

Because you are starting with a well established starter, you can take it home and tuck it in the fridge for a couple days. When you aren't pulling your starter out to make bread, you can keep it in the fridge and feed it once a week. Feeding is actually very simple but can get messy - so figure out what you need before you start the procedure. That item list above is a good start.

 Feeding your starter means that you are taking out about half of the contents of your starter and replacing it with equal parts flour and water. I never maintain more than about a cup of starter in my jar which means I'm usually replacing about a half cup of the mix. (This means 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 water = 1/2 cup). The amount you keep is not precise, the point is to mix in the equal amounts of flour and water to replace the volume taken out. Think thick pancake batter.

Use water that is about 70 degrees and try using a flour that isn't bleached white flour. I like Rye Flour from Fairhaven Mills - and my starter seems to like it too. Rye or whole wheat flours will help keep the acidity and pungent elements of your starter better. There's nothing wrong with a bread flour - but think twice before using a bleached white flour. There just isn't all that much left in that kind of product for your starter to eat.


A day before you want to make bread, take your starter out in the morning and feed it in the morning and in the evening ( a 12 hour cycle). Check out how it looks, smell it, learn how it cycles. Note how a warm room makes it react faster.

4. Making a Leaven: There are some incredible bakers out there who are wonderful at helping the home baker master the process of making homemade artisan bread. With a true loaf of sourdough, you will never open up a packet of dry yeast. All that crusty deliciousness will come from a couple tablespoons of your starter. But here's the thing - it takes time. Its worth it, but you need to plot out how you are going to spend your day.

If I want to bake bread later in the day, I make my leaven the night before. My preferred method is to make my leaven in the morning and then make the bread dough around one in the afternoon. Pay attention to how the leaven should float when dropped in water. After I do all the initial turning and rests, I form my loaves and put them in the refrigerator for the bulk fermentation. I get up early, set my ovens for 500 degrees and bake.

Resources:

My go-to book on bread-making is Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson.
A great website for questions and explanations:King Arthur Flour Guide to Sourdough
And, if you want to buy awesome flour: Central Milling
Michael Pollen's book Cooked and the netflix series: chapter Air  - Cooked


A couple items worth the investment:

  • A dutch oven for the steam cycle of baking
  • A kitchen scale that measures grams
  • Metal bowls
  • A proofing oven. 

And Finally - if you ever want to come up and spend some time baking - or if you have any questions - just let me know! Making bread is one of the most satisfying things I have done - and I'm happy to help pass on what I learned to someone else!

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