Sourdough primer
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Sourdough starters are wild yeast cultures that require regular feeding of flour and water to stay active. They have been used for centuries to leaven bread and were considered valuable possessions. There are a few ways to obtain or create a starter, including asking friends, purchasing dried starters, or capturing wild yeasts from the air. Starters must be cared for by regular feedings and can be stored in the refrigerator, freezer, or dried. With occasional feedings, starters can last a long time but may need resuscitation if neglected for many months.
Sourdough primer
- 1. Baking tips, FAQS & hints Sour Dough Primer Introduction A sourdough starter is a wild yeast living in a batter of flour and water. If you can imagine a world without any packets of active dry yeast available, you can imagine how important your sourdough starter would be to you. Without it, you would be doomed to some pretty awful eating. It is no wonder that sourdough starters were treasured, fought over, and carried to all ends of the earth. To the early prospectors, a starter was such a valued possession (almost more than the gold they were seeking), that they slept with it to keep it from freezing on frigid winter nights. (Ironically, freezing won’t kill a sourdough starter, although too much heat will.) There are sourdoughs that are centuries old which have been zealously fed and cared for by generations. King Arthur Flour has one that never made it out west but can be traced back at least two-hundred forty years right here in New England. But there are starters around the Mediterranean today that make our American starters look like newborns. The area you come from plays a part in determining the personality of a sourdough starter. The particular strain of wild yeast thriving only in the San Francisco area of California can alone produce the unique flavor of San Francisco sourdough breads. Your area may harbor a wild yeast with its own exciting flavor. Keeping a sourdough starter is somewhat like having a pet because it needs to be fed and cared for. But its requirements are simple and not time consuming. With a minimum of effort, you can keep one in your refrigerator to use whenever the impulse strikes. Unlike more traditional pets, you can put your sourdough starter “on hold” by freezing or drying it. And like that ancient Mediterranean baker, you can capture a wild yeast at any time and create a new starter that will be ready to use in a few days. Baking with sourdough is a very simple process. All it takes is a little planning and timing. The results are so satisfying, you’ll grow to treasure your invisible pet the way our ancestors did. Fermentation: Wild Versus Domestic Yeast
- 2. Amazingly enough, no one knew until the middle of the nineteenth century that the magical rising action of a sourdough starter is due to a tiny, single-celled fungus called a yeast. As the yeast feeds on the natural sugars in a dough, it multiplies and gives off carbon dioxide just as we do. This process is called fermentation. The elastic wheat gluten in a dough entraps these carbon dioxide bubbles, causing the dough to expand as if it contained a million tiny balloons. Wild yeasts are rugged individualists that can withstand the most extreme of circumstances. There are many varieties of these tiny plants around us all the time. But because a wild yeast is a free agent, catching one to bake with is a bit haphazard as can be the results of baking with it. There are other ways to acquire one, however, which put the odds for success in your favor. Active dry yeast, the kind we can buy in packets at our grocer’s, is a domesticated descendant of these wild relatives, one that has been grown for flavor, speed of growth and predictability. There are others which have been developed to make yogurt and cheese out of milk as well as beer and wine from the juices of grains and fruit. But domestic yeasts are much more fragile and can’t be grown at home without eventually reverting to their original wild state. Both wild and domestic yeasts have their assets and liabilities. Beg, Borrow or Buy The easiest way to acquire a sourdough starter is to find a friend who already has one. Most sourdough devotees are more than willing to share. It’s always nice to offer something in exchange, a favorite recipe along with something warm from the oven, but usually your interest and enthusiasm is all it takes. People who love baking with sourdough love to have company. King Arthur Flour – The Baker’s Catalogue sells a 240-year-old sourdough starter 1-800-827-6836. If you don’t know anyone who has some active starter, you can often find small packets of dried sourdough starter in grocery or food specialty stores. When it’s dried, it’s still living but in a dormant state. Once you get it home, you can have it active and bubbling in no time by following the instructions that come with it. If there are no instructions, you can get the starter going by feeding it, just what you would do for yourself if you hadn’t had a meal in a long time. Activating a Dried Starter 2 cups warm water
- 3. 1 tablespoon sugar or honey (optional) 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 1 packet (or other) dried sourdough starter Pour the warm water (a temperature that feels comfortable on your wrist) into a glass or ceramic bowl. Add and dissolve the sugar or honey if you want to use it. This isn’t necessary but it gives the yeast an easy “first course.” Stir in the flour and the dried starter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it where you’d place a rising dough, someplace warm and free of drafts. Small telltale bubbles should begin to appear on the surface within a few hours. Once you see them you’ll know your starter is alive and well. Let this newly activated starter continue to grow for a further 24 to 36 hours. The mixture will begin to separate after a day or so. Give it a stir every once in a while to blend it back together and to help distribute the yeast evenly. When the starter has a good clean, sour aroma, pour it into a glass jar with a lid (a large glass, not plastic, peanut butter jar will work well) and put it in the refrigerator. Or Start Your Own Letting active dry yeast go wild Catching a wild yeast of your own If you can’t find a source for either active or dried starter, you can easily make your own. Letting Active Dry Yeast Go “Wild” The easiest and most successful method of making your own starter is to combine water, flour and a tablespoon (or packet) of active dry “domestic” yeast which is available at any grocery store. By letting this brew sit for several days as you would with a dried sourdough starter, the domestic yeast will go “wild” and develop the familiar tang of its truly wild cousins. You’ll probably catch some wild yeast in the process as well. 2 cups warm water 1 tablespoon of sugar or honey (optional) 1 tablespoon or packet active dry yeast 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour Pour the water into a two-quart glass or ceramic jar or bowl, add and dissolve the
- 4. sugar or honey and the yeast in that order. Stir in the flour gradually. Cover the jar or bowl with a clean dishcloth and place it somewhere warm. By using a dishcloth instead of plastic wrap, you’ll allow any wild yeast in the area to infiltrate and begin to work with the domestic yeast which itself is beginning to develop “wild” characteristics and flavors. The mixture will begin to bubble and brew almost immediately. Let it work anywhere from 2 to 5 days, stirring it about once a day as it will separate. When the bubbling has subsided and a yeasty, sour aromas has developed, stir your starter once more and refrigerate it until you are ready to use it. The starter should have the consistency of pancake batter. The clear amber liquid that floats to the surface of your sourdough starter contains 12% to 14% alcohol. When yeast is in contact with air, it produces carbon dioxide; when it’s not, it produces alcohol. When you blend the alcohol back into the starter, it helps produce the unique flavor you find in good sourdough breads. (The alcohol itself dissipates during the baking process.) For milder flavor, you can pour off some of the alcohol if you wish, although this will thicken the starter, requiring a bit more liquid to return it to its “pancake batter” consistency. The ‘49ers and “Sourdoughs” of Alaska used this alcohol in other ways as you might have guessed. Because other “spirits” weren’t generally available, they happily availed themselves of this source. It has about the same alcohol content as wine, but an unforgettable flavor if its own which is probably better in bread. Catching a "Wild" Yeast of Your Own A second way to get a starter going at home is to capture the wild yeast that resides in your own kitchen just as the Mediterranean baker did. Capturing wild yeast is fun though a bit unpredictable. The summer and fall are times of the year when there will be more of them around. If you bake with yeast fairly often there may be enough wild yeast in your kitchen to activate a starter. If you can afford the time and the haphazardness of the results, it’s worth a try. When you’ve captured some wild yeast successfully, you’ll feel very accomplished. Here’s how to set your trap. 2 cups warm water 1 tablespoon sugar or honey (optional) 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour Mix the water, flour and optional sweetener together thoroughly in a clean, scalded glass or ceramic bowl. The scalding will ensure that you’re starting “pure.” Cover
- 5. the bowl with a clean dishcloth. Put it in an area where there’s apt to be the highest concentration of airborne yeast as well as the warmth that is needed to begin fermentation. If the surface begins to look dry after a while, give the mixture a stir. It should begin to “work” in the first day or two if it’s going to at all. If it does, your trap has been successful. As you would with a dried starter or active dry yeast, let this mixture continue working for 3 or 4 days giving it a stir every day or so. When it’s developed a yeasty, sour aroma, put it in a clean jar with a lid and refrigerate it until you’re ready to use it. If the mixture begins to mold or develop a peculiar color or odor instead of a “clean, sour aroma,” give a sigh, throw it out and, if you’re patient, start again. Along with the vital yeasts, you may have inadvertently nurtured a strain of bacteria that will not be wonderful in food. This doesn’t happen very often though, so don’t let the possibility dissuade you from this adventure. Starter Variations There are a number of variations on the basic flour/liquid/yeast combinations that will produce sourdough starters with different personalities. Substitute 1 cup King Arthur Traditional Whole Wheat Flour for 1 cup of the unbleached all-purpose flour. Rather than tap water, use water leftover from cooking potatoes. It contains nutrients which any kind of yeast loves. It may make your dough darker in color but, along with making the yeast happy, it creates great flavor in bread. Substitute 1 cup of buttermilk for 1 cup of water in your starter mixture. Caring for your Starter A sourdough starter, like children or pets, must be fed and cared for. Storing Feeding Troubleshooting Storing Refrigerating - Once your sourdough starter is safely in the refrigerator, it will need
- 6. a little attention, although once it’s cold and relatively dormant, it can survive quite a long time between “feedings.” It is certainly not as demanding as children or more traditional pets, but it won’t just sit for months on end like a packet of commercially dried yeast either. Freezing - You may be able to ignore your starter for a month or even much longer, but if you know you’re going to be away for a time, you can store it, unlike children or pets, in the freezer. You may want to transfer it to a plastic container first since it will expand as it freezes. When you are ready to use it again, give it a day to revive, feed it a good meal, give it another day to build up an armada of fresh, new wild siblings and it will be ready to go to work. Drying - An alternative storage method is to dry your starter by spreading it out on a piece of heavy plastic wrap or waxed paper. Once it’s dry, crumble it up and put it in an airtight container. Store it someplace cool or, to be safe, in the freezer. To reactivate the culture, place the dried starter in a mixture of flour and water as described in the first section. To help the dried chunks dissolve, you can grind them into smaller particles with a hand cranked grinder, a blender or a food processor before you add them to the flour/water mixture. Feeding Ordinarily, you feed your starter when you remove some to bake with it. A good rule of thumb is to replenish its food and water at least once every two weeks, preferably because you have used the starter for a wonderful loaf of sourdough bread, a stack of pancakes or maybe Chocolate Sourdough Cake. While it’s been stored in the refrigerator, the alcohol will have separated and come to the surface. With a spoon or wire whisk, blend it back into the starter and then measure out the quantity of starter required by your recipe. Replace the amount taken with equal amounts of flour and water, by weight. Since most of our recipes are based on using 1 cup of starter, you would stir in 1 cup of flour (about 4 oz.) and 1/2 cup of water (about 4 oz.). Let the replenished starter sit at room temperature for at least 12 hours to give the yeast a chance to multiply and become active before you chill it again. Troubleshooting
- 7. It takes a lot to “do in” a sourdough starter. Even after the grossest of neglect, a little warmth and a good meal should perk it up and get it ready to go. Here are a few tips to help you keep your starter in peak condition. Feeding without Baking: If you have been busy or away, you can always feed your starter without baking anything. Stir the mixture together, take out and discard 1 cup of starter and replenish as above, stirring in 1 cup water and 1 cup flour. (Or instead of discarding the starter you removed, ask your neighbors if they would be interested in adopting a starter of their very own.) Let the resuscitated mixture sit at room temperature for several hours before you return it to the refrigerator. Treating a Sluggish Starter If you live in an area where water is chlorinated, let some sit out overnight to allow the chlorine to dissipate before you feed it to your starter. This will help keep it from interfering with the development of the sourdough microorganisms. Or, if at any time you feel that your sourdough starter is just not “up to snuff,” dissolve a teaspoon of yeast in the cup of water you mix into the starter when you feed it. Sweetening a Starter If your starter becomes too sour, take out 1 cup, dispose of the remainder, and add 2 cups each of flour and water to freshen it. Increasing your Starter: If you want to increase the amount of starter you have, either to give some to a friend or, to get ready for a lot of baking, simply increase the amount you feed it. Whenever you feed your starter, give it at least a day at room temperature to “work.” This time period allows the yeast to multiply and get ready for its next task. Resuscitating a Neglected Starter If your sourdough starter has sat in the refrigerator months beyond the point of health, give it a fighting chance for survival before you throw it out. A little warmth and a good meal of strong, high-energy carbohydrates may be all it needs to get it off and running again. The layer of liquid on the surface will probably be very dark, making it look as if
- 8. the starter must surely have expired. Quell your fear, wrestle the top off the jar and give it a sniff. If it smells the way it should, though exceptionally sour, it may just be sitting there is a dormant state waiting to be fed. The only way to know is to give it a meal. Blend it back together and pour it into a glass or ceramic bowl. (Take this opportunity to give its jar a good wash.) As the starter will probably be quiet then, mix in 2 cups of flour a 1 cup of water both to nourish and thicken it. Leave the bowl out on your counter where it will be warm and visible. In a couple of hours you may see some tiny bubbles appearing. If so, cheer it on by keeping it warm and covered overnight. In the morning, celebrate by making Sourdough Pancakes which are delicious and quick. Give the remaining starter another feeding, let it sit for another day to ensure its reawakened vigor and then tuck it back in the fridge. Then you can quietly heave a sigh of relief and congratulate yourself on your rescue.