Talk to me about sourdough - The Fermentation Club!

[purple_dress]

I'm still going. My husband used it to make a loaf at the weekend and it was annoyingly the best one yet!

[overthehill]

'Claudette' has been producing lovely loaves in the Dutch oven. I'm still not getting quite the same level of air bubbles that everyone else seems to manage, but they're generally recognisably sourdough loaves. I say generally, my problem, recently, has been timing. The last loaf I made, a couple of days ago, was left to autolyse for far too long, so it began to rise before I had done any 'kneading' (or whatever you call the folding method). It wasn't disastrous, but it lost that holey sourdough texture somewhere along the line.

[purple_dress]

Autolyse timings seem to vary so much between methods/recipes. I only leave it for an hour and then I do 3 lots of stretching over about 3 hours before shaping and proving in the fridge overnight. I bake in the Dutch oven straight from the fridge.

[lazzbo]

They really are like tamagotchis, these things.

I don't even understand most of the words you've used, despite having made sourdough bread before so I need to look into that.

[purple_dress]

The video I linked to on p13 of this thread is good for explaining lots of the terms and processes.

[lazzbo]

Cheers Purps! I will research.

[lazzbo]

Trying my first loaf today. It hasn't risen in the proving stage as much as I'd like, but I'm going to give it a go. I feel like my starter is frothy at the top, but not further down, if that makes sense? I only started it on Tuesday night, but I thought 5 days was meant to be long enough to get going.

Anyway, I used the discard to make a chocolate cake, so all is not lost.

[Duophonic]

I've had to let my starter go. It's been too cold to do any productive proving and I can't get flour anywhere so I'll pick up again later this year.

I look forward to everyone who's still continuing seeing bakes and whatnot.

[purple_dress]

I hope it goes well, lazz! My first loaf didn't rise in proving either and wasn't as good as latter loaves but still tasty and good.

We will see if the flour I've ordered comes on our ocado shop later, otherwise I'm going to put my starter in the fridge I think.

[purple_dress]

No flour

[emma_p]

I’m sorry about the flour

[purple_dress]

I think I can feed the starter with normal plain flour and I have one bag of strong white flour, so will bake tomorrow and then put it in the fridge until 2 days before the next time I want to bake.

[Mountain Goat]

You can feed with plain flour, I always do that. I mean, my starter did go weird, but...

[purple_dress]

I always used to, I think. Should be fine. I also have rye flour and strong wholemeal flour so might be time to get experimenting.

[lazzbo]

Flour is in short supply at Lazz Towers as well, purps, so I'm sorry to read that. :sad:

My loaf did not rise as I had hoped but I think it's eminently edible. Can I put my starter in the fridge in an unfed state, or does it need something to eat before hibernation?

[purple_dress]

Feed it first

[lazzbo]

Thanks, will do! I've just seen about the float test as well, I'll try that - might try to make another loaf in a couple of days before opting for the fridge. I'm going to end up freezing a lorra loaves if this continues.

[lazzbo]

I can't work out how to attach a pic from my phone but I made the closest thing to Las Vegas pancakes I've ever managed with some sourdough discard. Who cares about bread?!

[Cosmopolitan]

I made some waffles with discard for lunch yesterday. They were absolutely great, not just because I put Nutella and double cream on them. t.https://boingboing.net/2020/03/21/pande ... ffles.html

[purple_dress]

Oooh! I think I might need a waffle maker.

What are Las Vegas pancakes? They sound good.