Sourdough Goof

So, last night I mixed up some bread dough with a dose of Grover, my sourdough. It sat overnight and rose nicely, though not excessively. I wasn't worried because it was progressing the same way the first loaf did and that one was yummy.

Everything went smoothly until about lunchtime when I set it in the oven, under the light, for the second rise. I didn't think to take a picture, but it looked like a normal blob of bread dough.

The kids and I had some errands to run. Just a couple. They shouldn't have taken very long. Really. But there was no parking. And then some yutz parked in the drive lane on a one-way weird shaped parking lot, thus requiring everybody else to back up the wrong way. And then we stopped at the library and got lost in cookbooks. You know, things happen...

So when we got home, this is what was waiting for me in the oven, which wasn't turned on- just the light was on.

I had debated leaving the plastic wrap on it in the oven, but was glad I had because the dough clung to the wrap instead of glopping all over my oven. I'm not really an oven cleaning kind of gal.

So, the decision had to be made- throw it out or throw it in to bake? I knew that long rises made for more sour sourdough. But having made only one loaf before this, I had no basis of comparison. So, I decided to go ahead and bake it. After I trimmed off the dough sliding down the side of the pan. After I did that, I got a better look at the depth of oops I was dealing with.

Yeah, I know... If you're a successful sourdough baker, I'm pretty sure you are holding the sides of your monitor and screaming "Throw it out and run away!!" If only you'd said it sooner! Here's what greeted me after baking...

The Girl was in the kitchen when I pulled this baby out of the oven. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Doesn't that look terrible?
Girl: It kind of looks like flooring.
Me: Can I quote you?
Girl: Yeaaah?...I guess...only if you mention I said it in the nicest way possible...

 Sooo, being the adventurous type (cough), I sliced a piece off . It actually looked pretty good inside.

 But it sooo, sooo wasn't good. It was terrible. Sour enough to make me cry if I forced myself to eat it. Which I didn't do. Because I'm absent-minded, but not stupid. The dogs like it though. I have no idea why. Brain damage maybe, from knocking their heads together all the time. Whatever the reason, they're welcome to it.

I had a little chat with Grover about this minor disaster. He swears it wasn't his fault. That I should have paid more attention to the rise time. I'd like to blame him for this goof. Thing is, I think he's right. We'll try again soon and see how it turns out.









 

Sourdough Starter

Isn't it adorable? Thursday's assignment for the 28-Day Real Food Challenge is to start or otherwise acquire a sourdough starter. No directions were included so, although I knew the basic idea behind sourdough, I hit the web for instructions. There are lots and lots of instructions out there and no two are the same! Ultimately, I stumbled into this article from Eric at breadtopia.com (which, though I haven't fully explored it yet, looks to be a great resource for those who'd like to bake their own bread).

The method Eric demos, in both article and video form, is incredibly simple- but surprisingly includes pineapple juice. The purpose of the juice is to create the right level of acidity in the culture for the yeast to start working. If you are interested in the science behind that- and it really is fascinating- Eric mentions in his post that Debra Wink, the discoverer of this method (a chemist and baker), had sent him an essay on the topic that he would forward on upon request.

I didn't get my starter started until the middle of the day. Even so, several hours later when I stopped by to check on it there was already action. When I initially combined the ingredients, the starter looked similar to the picture above. When I checked on it later, the picture below is what I found. It appeared to have already started fermenting a bit as there was what appeared to be a bit of hooch (alcohol resulting from fermentation) on top. I stirred the mix (resulting in the above photo) and set it back safely on top of the fridge.

 

Starting sourdough starter from scratch is apparently a pretty tricky thing. The failure rate appears to be high. After reading Debra Wink's essay on the subject I have to wonder if perhaps many of those failures are not actually failures, but rather people tossing the starter before the yeast they want really get going. When not using the pineapple juice method, other bacteria get working before those desired by the bread baker. Ultimately, the initial bacteria turn the starter too acidic for their own survival, paving the way for our yeast to take off. It's an amazing journey that also happens work out beautifully for humans.