Good morning lovely friends!!!! I hope and pray that this finds you all doing hunkey dorey for a cold wet day in the south. it's not the coldest day we've had, but it's still a little chilly right now. earlier, we actually had lots of rain. I'm happy that's all we had. in some places across the US they've had snow and have been measuring snow by the feet and not the typical inches. that's pretty scary. so I'll happily take some rain. but I do lift all the ones affected by the heavy rain and snowfall in prayer. it can be so devastating when roofs start collapsing and power lines come down due to trees falling and all that comes with that. so I just pray that God will take care of them all and that people will help others, like we've seen happening in North Carolina since day one of the devastation of Helene. God bless all those that helped and those that continue to help. I continue to hold those all in my prayers also.
this blog post was started on 12/13/24. so I've come back to it several times. it may be a never ending post. you may have to try to decipher what I'm trying to get at. I have so much stuff swirling around in my head about sourdough. I'm definitely not a professional bread maker, but I've learned a lot over the years and this is what I'm trying to share. my tried and true lessons for me. that's all. this may not be what works for you, but it works for me. so as I come back to this, I'll start trying to remember to date it. not that it will make any difference, but it may help me in keeping track with what I share. I don't know.
I've been thinking about the state of my blog. hahaha I want to get back to it regularly, but I just can't seem to get motivated. so what I thought I would try to do is just share some of the stuff that I have learned over the years. as I was walking this morning and praying, my blog was at the forefront of my mind. I've always shared about some of the things that I've done and I enjoy that. I'm not a teacher, but I try to share what little I know and so far, it's been sporadic at best and all over the place. hahaha so I thought I would try to harness my thoughts on a few subjects. we'll see how that goes. I'm already struggling with it. hahaha
for this blog post, I want to talk about sourdough bread from scratch. I had been wanting to get a good sourdough starter going again and I finally just went for it. I have always loved making sourdough, but I have always hated the waste that comes from feeding and discarding. so I finally found a recipe that calls for starting out with small amts and doubling the amt each day till you have about a pint or a little more.
one of things that I'll stress right off the bat, is to use a digital scale and weigh all you ingredients in GRAMS. you'll be surprised at how different the weights are in grams as opposed to a half cup of something. just for fun, take a measuring cup and measure out a half cup of water and then a half cup of flour. find 2 containers that you can set on you scale, one at a time and zero out the weight of the container and pour in the half cup of water. water will always weigh the same. make a notation of what that half cup of water weights in grams and set is aside. next take another container and set it on the digital scale and zero out the weight of the container and put that half cup of flour in that container and make a notation of the weight in grams of the half cup of flour. now compare the weights in grams of both the flour and water. sometimes the looks of the amt of flour to water ratio can look to be off. they are not the same weight when measured in standard cup or 1/2 cup measures. remember this little experiment when getting your supplies together to make a sourdough starter. but, when measuring in grams, when a recipe calls for 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water, a gram is a gram is a gram, and the weight is the same.
measuring in grams will take into account that on humid days, flour may weigh more than it does on less humid days. and just for fun, I took my measuring cup and scooped out 3 different 1/2 cup measures of flour and weighed them in grams and there was a significant difference between the 3, 1/2 cup measures of flour. weighing the flour in grams, what ever your measure is, you get that every single time. and just to prove that humidity affects the weight of flour, take a half cup of flour and weigh it in grams. make a notation of that weight and then leave it sitting out all night on the counter, covered with a towel. weigh it again the next morning. depending on if it's humid or dry, the weight of the flour in grams will probably have changed. and it could be a significant change. if there is a change in the weight of the flour, then take out or add to, what ever is necessary to bring it back to what ever your starting grams was.
that's why it's important to weigh in grams. if the weight has gone up or down due to humidity or lack of humidity, then the water amount will be off. but, weighing in grams will account for any humidity change in the flour. so weigh that same flour in grams again and take out or add more flour, based on the weight in grams. that's where we get into a lot of trouble with our dough. we'll start adding more water or more flour and the first thing you know, the texture of the dough is thrown way off. that's definitely something that we can have problems with. it will affect the overall texture and taste of the finished product.
this is probably the most important paragraph so far. having done these experiments and proving to myself what can actually happen, I now look for starters that have everything measured in grams. it can be a pain at times, but it does work out so much better. you don't even have to think about the humidity in your home affecting the flour, because it will already be part of the overall weight of the flour. you don't have to worry about that because it's compensated for. where if you measure a half cup of flour, you may need more flour or you may need less flour. measuring in grams, whatever can affect the weight of the flour is instantly being compensated for in the "grams" measurement. I hope this makes a little sense. hopefully everything in bold cleared up anything that could have been confusing.
remember one thing, if nothing else: a gram is a gram is a gram. weighing in grams will be precise. measuring in standard measuring cups is not precise. you can take 3 people and each measure a cup of flour. doing all the things we're supposed to do. fluff the flour, spoon it into the measuring cup and rake and excess off with a knife. 3 people doing the exact same way, and you'll still 3 weights in grams if you take the time to measure in grams. try it. that's where the proof is at. well, now that I have sufficiently confused............hahaha. I hope that I can stay on track and get down in text that will eventually make sense. I said earlier, I'm not a teacher and this is proving that point. I just love to share what I know form my own experience.
so for now, this should bring us up to making a starter. it may take a while for you to get a good strong flavorful sourdough starter. it won't happen over night. but once you get a good starter going and keep it going, you should have any problem after that. most starters require feeding daily and removing up to half of the starter daily, know as "discard". I'm frugal. not cheap, but frugal. there's a difference. with that difference comes the fact that I can't stand waste. so for the last couple of years I've been searching for the elusive perfect no waste sourdough starter.
I think I've found it. it's a starter that you have to weigh out in grams every day. you essentially double the amt of flour and water daily. it will take a few days to see bubble action, but it will happen. you stay on top of it daily. start it in pretty good sized container. I prefer a container that has straight sides and that will hold about a quart. I also sit that container in a shallow dish to catch any overflows. because that will eventually happen. a loose fitting lid just laid on top of the container so it can breathe, a coffee filter, or a piece of cloth laid over the top is what's required. the sourdough has to be able to breathe and pick up natural yeast in the environment. that's what actually makes the "sourdough" is the natural yeast coming from your environment. at some point in time, there will lots of natural sourdough yeast spores in your kitchen environment. the house we lived at before the one we live in now, I had made and baked sourdough bead for years. we built the house from the dirt up, so I was the one that got the sourdough yeast established. 24 years later, I wonder if any sourdough has been made in that house since. but once you get the sourdough yeast established, it's pretty easy to start another starter from scratch. but if you've not ever baked sourdough and you're working on a new starter, it can be challenging at best.
I just started my recent foray into sourdough again on Dec 1, 2024. so I'm still working on getting a good sourdough starter established. I have made english muffins, put some in my cornbread wedges and I baked 3 small loaves of bread the other day and all of those turned out really well. there's just not enough sour to it yet. they are really good, just not with the sour note yet. so I keep adding to my starter every day. I feel like it's getting stronger too.
in the process of adding to my starter every day, I'm taking out some of it every day. I'm dehydrating about 100 grams daily. I take my solid dehydrating tray from one of my dehydrators and cover it with starter and spread it out really thin and pop it in the oven with just the light bulb on. believe it or not, that's enough heat to dehydrate a tray of starter. I'll dehydrate it till it's crispy and break it up into pieces and put it in a jar with a good lid that will seal good. I'll be able to use that if I need to jump start a starter one of these days. I can just rehydrate about 15 grams with 15 grams of water and add to the beginning of a new starter and it should jumpstart it. if I want to, I could just rehydrate the same 15 grams of dehydrated starter and add that to a cornbread mix, a pancake mix or just whatever I want to add it to. it should give a little bit of a sourdough taste. I'm anxious to find that out.
so if you're interested in trying your hand at starting a "no waste sourdough starter", here it is. pick a day and start. get a good sized clean jar. (I prefer a straight sided jar, it's easier to get it all mixed in. try not to use metal to mix it with. try not to use regular tap water, because the chemicals in it can inhibit the formation of sourdough yeast. I always prefer an all purpose, unbleached flour. I use the least expensive I can find. I have found that one works as well as the other. and I get what's the easiest on our food budget. with all that behind us, now on to the recipe:
day 1: 5 grams of water and 5 grams of flour, mix well
day 2: 10 grams of water and 10 grams of flour. mix water in first and get that mixed and then add flour.
day 3: 20 grams of water and 20 grams of flour. mix water in first and then add flour.
day 4: 40 grams of water and 40 grams of flour. mix water in first and then add flour.
day 5: 80 grams of water and 80 grams of flour. mix water in first and then add flour.
day 6: 160 grams of water and 160 grams of flour. mix water in first and then add flour.
day 7: take out the amt of starter the recipe calls for. I always measure that in grams and make a notation of the weight that I took out on the side of the jar. then follow the instructions to make your bread.
this is the perfect "no waste starter". this is the only starter I'll ever use from now on. unless I go back to my original starter from about 40 years ago. if I ever go back to that one, I'll shart it with y'all too. for now, we'll concentrate on this recipe.
at some point in time, around day 3 or 4 you should see bubbles start. take out what you want to use and either put it in the fridge or feed it again. if you put it in the fridge, then take it out and let it come to room temp before you attempt feeding it. it needs to wake up. give it a few hours. I like to get mine scheduled where I'll get it woke up and then before bed time, I'll feed it. look at the number that you should have written on the side of the jar. the weight in grams of what you took out to use. if you took out, hypothetically 150 grams of starter, then you'll want to feed it with 75 grams of water and 75 grams of flour. stir the water in first and then stir the flour in. cover it loosely and sit it in a tray to catch any overflow. at some point in time, the starter will actually start bubbling to the point of overflowing and that's an awesome thing!! you just want to have something on the counter to catch it. hahaha it's a mess otherwise. another lesson learned.
so, now you've taken out a portion of starter to make a sourdough bread loaf. and again, I like to get this going close to bed time so it can rise all night. the first rise is a long rise. the starter has got ferment in the dough that you've just made. so, once again, weigh the water and flour, in grams, for the bread recipe just like you've been doing ever since you started making the sourdough starter. get all the ingredients mixed up really well in a big bowl till you have a nice looking dough ball. the dough will be semi sticky and a little loose. grease the sides of the bowl with oil so the dough doesn't stick. also roll the dough around in the oil so the top of the dough doesn't dry out. cover the dough with a cloth and leave it out on the counter all night for the dough to ferment. the next morning, punch the dough down and work it up pretty good. divide it into bread pans or make one loaf, what ever the recipe calls for. get the dough shaped good and in the pans you're going it in. cover it again with the towel and until it has doubled in size or more. for me, I give it about 4 or 5 hours and then I bake it. put it in a preheated 350* oven for about 25 to 35 minutes depending on your oven. it may take you more time or less time. just watch it, till you get the color crust you want.
if you done this, you should be smelling and looking at some amazing sourdough bread. congratulations!!!!!
I think I'm going to end this blog post right here. my brain is about fried. hahaha which it doesn't take much to do that. I've just about thought about sourdough all I can for now. but I hope to come back to it and address it again in a part 2. we'll see when that happens. I may post some pictures when I and if I do a part 2.
well, that's about it for now. remember, that God made a way for you to in right relationship with Him thru the shed blood of Jesus Christ, His Son. we just got thru celebrating the birth of Jesus and I pray that we all kept Jesus first and foremost in all the festivities of the season. here's to ending this year with a heart full of love for Jesus Christ and going into the New Year with great expectancy of what God is gonna do in our lives, thru Jesus Christ. may we praise His holy name every day of this year!!! I pray that we all have a great year ahead of us!!! God loves us all, and so do I!!! hugs and love, patty
