Return to the Blogosphere

Hello again dear readers!

Yes, I know it has been a shamefully long time since I've posted anything (my brother pointed this out quite clearly to me in a recent conversation).  I apologize, and I hope you haven't entirely given up on me...

What can I say? ... The past several months have not been the most fulfilling ones of my life...

I have several half-developed potential post concepts of a theological/reflective nature, but I've decided to use this re-entry post to show off my baking developments (perhaps my only celebratory achievement category).


Whole Wheat
The most basic of my bread achievements.  It's a simple loaf bread, great for sandwiches, toast and average bread needs.  It's the same recipe as white bread, I just substitute some whole wheat flour in for white (all purpose or bread) flour.  Roughly half and half.

White Bread

Whole Wheat Bread

Honey Wheat Rolls
At one point mid-summer we decided we'd like to find something for an extra good lunch bread, some sort of soft sandwich roll or hoagie.  Came across this one on the internet.  It has since become one of our favorite bread varieties.  Good find!

They work as great hamburger buns too!

Sourdough
Of course, everyone loves a good sourdough bread.  The average person thinks of lovely, round loaves of holey San Francisco style sourdough, complete with slightly crunchy crust and chewy insides.  That is indeed a sourdough loaf.  However, as I began to explore the world of sourdough, I discovered that really any bread could be a sourdough bread!  To qualify as sourdough, a loaf just needs to be made with a sourdough starter as its leavening (rising power).

So, first things first: to bake a sourdough bread, you need a starter.  You can buy one from a company (like King Arthur Flour or Sourdoughs International) or you can try to start your own.  I decided to try starting my own, a) because I'm cheap, and b) because I like the bragging rights of doing things myself.  Next, there are a lot of different theories about what actually gets a starter going, the most popular belief is that one "catches" yeast spores from the air (in a mixture of flour and water, which is really all a starter amounts to).  In my reading, though, someone suggested that the bacteria (a good one!) is actually contributed by the flour.  That's why it's often easier to get a starter going using whole wheat flour - the hull (plus not being bleached) carries more of the natural bacteria.  (You don't need to worry about eating whole wheat, it takes some work to really get these bacteria going.)

The next question about starters is the thickness of the starter.  Starters can range from pretty watery to super thick.  Apparently, some were so thick that people would store their lump of starter just plopped in the flour bin!  From what I've read, it sounds like thicker starters are more forgiving and easier to take care of than their more liquid counterparts.  Yet one doesn't want it too thick, otherwise mixing and feeding it are more like an Olympic sport!

I started my first starter before I knew most of this.  I followed the instructions in my mom's Joy of Cooking (c. 1975).  It's a more liquidy one, and it used white flour.
I did get a pretty nice loaf of sourdough using the corresponding Joy of Cooking recipe, though at the time, I was a little disappointed because it was nothing like the San Francisco loaves I had in my mind.  But it did have a nice sour flavor.

My liquid starter, reduced and waiting for its feeding.

French Bread

Yum!

(When the kitchen is cold, I raise my bread in the oven [preheat 1 min, and leave light on].  Forgot about the ones on the right...  Oops!)

Pizza
I also switched our pizza crust recipe over to sourdough for a while.  However, since this starter takes a long time to raise the dough, we've since switched back to yeast so both mixing the dough and eating dinner occur at reasonable times for our Friday schedules...

Dad's favorite.  He's the expert slicer, as you see above.

So that was my seemingly tame introduction to sourdough.  And then the floodgates opened.  I wanted to try some other sourdough recipes, so I began poking around online.  Which is when I learned that almost any bread can be a sourdough.  And then I ran into the problem of trying to figure out how to convert recipes, which required knowing the amounts of flour and water in an amount of starter.

All I knew about my starter was that 2 cups of the liquid mixture was equivalent to a package of yeast.  I also knew that I feed 2 cups of starter with 2 cups of flour and 2 of water.  Yet, the amount of active starter produced from this was a bit more than 4 cups.  (You can't use all your starter in a recipe, otherwise you're back at square one, starting a new starter.  You always keep a designated portion to feed, using the excess in your recipe.  So, you essentially need twice as much starter as your recipe calls for.)  So, I couldn't just assume that two cups of starter was 2 cups of flour and 2 of water.  That little bit of extra defied easy calculation.  And then, I didn't know what to do if the recipe called for less than two cups of liquid!

So, the obvious answer was to cultivate another starter!  Yay!  Another enduring concoction sitting on the counter or in the fridge to affirm my culinary ego!

At this point, I really ought to acknowledge that while I have read fairly widely, much of my knowledge was gained from Sourdough Home (see sidebar as well).  I contemplated keeping my sources secret, so that you would have to ask me for baking advice, but I suppose that doesn't really fit with the empowering leadership style I've claimed in my PIF (pastoral resume), so I figured I ought to let you know.  It's also worth noting that it was around this time, when I was starting my second, thicker starter via the guidance of Sourdough Home, that I also began using weight measurements instead of volume measurements.  It required buying a digital scale (thanks mom and dad!), but it's well worth the investment.  I think it's easier, and it's definitely more accurate - results are more likely to be repeatable.

So start a new starter I did.  It is equal parts (by weight) flour and water (almost 2 parts flour to 1 part water by volume) - much easier to calculate recipe conversions.  I used whole wheat flour to get it started, and gradually transitioned over to bread flour after the yeast strain was pretty well established (this helps keep the good, strong bacteria going, and the addition of new bacteria down).  I like this one a lot.  It's easier to use, and I don't need as much of it, so it takes up less space in the refrigerator.  I still use the liquid one for a couple of recipes I've mastered with it, but I recently reduced this starter down since I don't use it as often.  (You're supposed to try to use a starter at least once a week - I figured if I have less starter, I can make half a batch of bread, which we'll eat quicker, so I can use it again sooner to help keep it healthy.)  In general, my newer starter is my go-to.

I really ought to name my starters. Suggestions will be accepted in the comments section...

Here are some of the breads I've used the thicker starter with:

I started off with a recipe called "Best Sourdough Ever."  Very disappointing results.  Not only not really "the best ever," but also the only bread of the bunch I've made that we've actually not really liked!  Something wasn't quite right.  I think it was the salt; it needed more.  It might be a salvageable recipe if I play with the amount of salt in it, but there are others we like better anyway.

It was not deserving of a picture.

I made a Pain au Levain.  I'm not actually sure how to pronouce that.  I'm pretty sure it's French.  However, of the bread I've made, I think it's the one most deserving of this name:  it is a slight "pain" to make, as it has many stages of preparation, and the timing must be carefully planned so I get to sleep.  The crust of my first attempt got a little burnt, but it was still pretty tasty and in general a good bread.  My second attempt was better - I covered it with foil after the crust reached a more perfect golden color.

I really need to learn how to photograph bread better. Suggestions?

The next is our thus far favorite:  Black Canyon Sourdough.  It has a nice texture as well as a subtle nutty flavor from a bit of whole wheat flour in with the rest.  It's great as toast, sandwich bread, and even cold, right out of the refrigerator.

Yum!!!  We can eat a half a loaf right out of the oven!

In addition to sourdough (which all my previous breads except the rolls have become), I have two more recent additions to my bread family:

My mom works at our public library, and has brought me home a few bread cook books.  One had a gorgeous picture of a Rosemary Bread.  It appeared to have a light, crispy crust, with a fabulously holey and soft interior.  I had to try it.
Mine looked nothing like the picture, but it was still pretty good. An ideal soup bread, and also lovely dipped in balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  I'll have to try it again and see if I can get something more like the picture.

I was asked to assist with the serving of Communion for my church's Women's Retreat, and I decided that I would take it upon myself to bake the bread too.  I think that in this joyful feast of thanksgiving, "Jesus" ought to taste really good.  There's nothing like a scrumptious Challah bread for communion.  It's a Jewish holiday/Sabbath egg bread.  I found a recipe in one of the books, and gave it a try.  I decided to half the recipe so that in case it wasn't the perfect one, we wouldn't have a ton of an inferior variety.  After mixing the prescribed ingredients together, the dough was really goopy.  Almost more a batter than a dough.  Some doughs are really soft, but develop nicely into a ball as they are kneaded.  This did not look promising.  I decided maybe something was off due to my halving the recipe, especially as eggs are hard to half.  So I added the ingredients to get to a full batch.  Still goopy.  Tried kneading it for a bit anyway to see if anything happened.  Nothing.  Resorted to adding a bunch of flour as I kneaded it until it was reasonably dough-like.
In the end, it turned out beautifully.  I managed to braid it nicely and everything.  The flavor, however, was definitely lacking something.  Bummer, that's the reason I had wanted to make a half-batch to start with!  Oh well, my dad likes it, so it will get eaten.

I poked around and found another recipe online - that got a lot of rave reviews.  I took the advice of one commenter, who had altered it a bit to make it extra good.  Definitely good advice.  This batch is DELICIOUS!! Definitely worthy of being Communion bread.  It seemed to go over pretty well at the retreat too.

Not only tasty but pretty too, don't you think?

Other Items
Now those are my main baking endeavors.  However, I decided to include a few of my less bread-related baking items.  Of course the carbohydrate portions are home-made, that's the basic qualification for their appearance here.

Ice Cream Roll

Rhubarb Pie.  My Favorite!!

Chocolate Decadence.  See previous post

Zucchini Pie.  Like a quiche.

Chicken pot pie for Halloween

Apple Dumplings = mini halved-apple pies

Apple Pie

Thanksgiving Roll attempt. Pretty but over baked. We made some better ones later.

If nothing else, I suppose this indefinite intervening time has been a tasty few months.

My summary thought for the summer
I'm usually an avid supporter of gender-neutral language when it comes to theology and the Bible.  However, when it comes to Luke 4:4, I don't mind the prevailing use of male language: "Man does not live on bread alone."  I'm so sorry guys.  Luckily, I'm not a man, and I'm pretty sure I might be able to!  :)

Thanks for reading!