Wild Yeast

anyone interested in sharing some of their starter?  Starting to get into the bread game and by the looks of this thread it will be much trial and error.  oh well, I've got time on my hands though as it wont stop snowing in MN.  We are in the top 10 for accumulation for the month of February and its only the 11th.....  

Hoster05 said:

anyone interested in sharing some of their starter?  Starting to get into the bread game and by the looks of this thread it will be much trial and error.  oh well, I've got time on my hands though as it wont stop snowing in MN.  We are in the top 10 for accumulation for the month of February and its only the 11th.....  

@Hoster05 I would but I'm sure others are better at it IE dehydrated starter

@caliking This article explains how to dry out your starter and reconstitute it.  Should make it easier to mail.

Query for the breadheads:

I have been wanting to make a Russian-style black bread for a while, and will  take a crack at it this weekend.

The KA website recipe calls for molasses and brown sugar. I was planning on a 24hr or so bulk ferment in the fridge, but not sure how the sugar in the recipe will fare. Fermented sugar= booze, which may bugger up this loaf.

Thoughts? 

blind99 said:

@caliking no idea but you're just the man to try it.  and i want to know how it works.  i don't think there will be a fermentation problem.  are you planning to use starter?  i wonder if it will have enough lifting power - you may need to add some commercial yeast

also, re sending starter, the KA method works great.  Spread about 100g or so on a sheet of parchment with a spatula and get it as thin as possible.  put it in the oven with the light on, and a fan if you can.  no heat.  mine dehydrated overnight.  i broke it up and shipped it out.  @jacksdad reanimated without a hitch.  

I had to defer the black bread plan, since we were out of cocoa. Plan is to use starter. This bread is traditionally pretty dense, so I'm not that worried about spring . Let me see how the first loaf turns out, then I'll tweak the recipe accordingly. 

I'm on day 2 of drying out the starter to ship out. It's taking a while. Probably because it's a bit thicker in some spots, and probably because it has been wet and humid here. I'll stick it in the oven overnight to speed things along .

Beautiful loaf brother Sci!  And I hope your life has been good busy.

SciAggie said:

bgebrent said:

Beautiful loaf brother Sci!  And I hope your life has been good busy.

Yes - it has been the good kind of busy. I plan to spend more time back with you degenerates soon. It seems I’ve missed a lot of drama from what I can gather. 

Proud to be counted in as one of the degenerates.  

20stone said:

My version in the photo, along w a baby slice w butter and Maldon salt. 

Worth a try if you are on a multi-grain kick. 

 I almost fell over when I saw that you had posted a loaf. 

Tried multiple versions of rye loaves, but most were kinda gummy after being baked. Good enough as toast, but left something to be desired when used for sammiches. I'll give this a whirl sometime. 

MBB II and III, the game is improving (plus something silly). 

After the last loaves I did, I was going to bang out another batch Saturday.  Mixed the levain on Fri AM expecting to get to it after work.  However, the levain (100g of starter, 50g rye, 50g sprouted WW, 100g H2O) had other ideas.  It got frisky on the window sill, and @20stonespice did all the work. 


Change 1 - Since the lev was ready to go, I asked her to add it to the auto.  I typically just auto flour and water and add the lev and salt (and, in this case, commercial yeast) after.  This dough really improved w the lev in auto.  Salt and commercial yeast waited until the mix. 

Change 2 - Bucket on the porch (warmer) between folds. Same ting - a few degrees really helped things out. 

We did a cold bulk from there (~8 hours IIRC). It rocked in the fridge in spite of the cold, and our guests didnt want to wait til morning, so into loaf pans for final, and into the oven on proofing setting. 

Change 3 - Final in the oven on the “proofing” setting, which turns on the light and runs the convect fan.  Worked like a champ. 

Change 4 - I had pumpkin seeds.  I like pumpkin seeds.  Water mist + rolling the top in pumpkin seeds = pretty tops

We ended up putting them in at 11, out at 11:30, and counting the minutes til I would allow it to be sliced (30 of them).


I know that saying multi grain bread can be really good with this crowd is like saying Tofurky is a great “meat” for Thanksgiving, but this was really good. So much so, that I was directed to make more....so at midnight I stirred up a 1.5x recipe of levain for Sat. 

Change 5 - Out of sesame seeds, so we used flax. A 1.5x recipe would have been 180g but I had 230g, so in they went (after being ina soaker w 230g of H2O). We really like the flax, but miss the sesame, so next time we’re doing a mix.

I had to get it done early (out of the oven by 5:30PM), so no cold bulk yesterday.

Change 6 - Bulk on the back porch, cutting the time way down (I’ll check my notebook later). 

Final again in the proofing oven, and this time I had to cut it back to get it baked, and, to my surprise, it rose like a champ.  I’m guessing that the vitality from the warm bulk carried through.  I will find a pick of the final loaves, but they rose appreciably more than Friday’s loaves (pictured above). 

Change 7 - I pulled them early.  I normally bake until about 200+F IT on bread, but pulled this at 190F, and like it better. 

...and the promised silliness. After all these loaf pans, I wanted to do a boule in a DO. 



...but, after filling three loaf pans, didn’t have a ton of dough available, so had to scale. 


Our little bouletto made 6 little amous bouches before our dinner. For the win!

I am starting to get some good sourdough results. It’s quite a process!

I’m just figuring out this sourdough baguette thing. It’s more complicated than yeast

SciAggie said:

A good loaf of bread always makes me happy. This is a great way to start the day. 

Nice! Just fed my starter today