I've been making yeasted breads for a long time now and I think my bread is pretty good, even if I do say so myself. There's always room for improvement though so now I want to try my hand at making sourdough. Part of my simple living philosophy is a desire to make as much as I can here at home and to buy fewer products as the years go buy. I use a very good French yeast now but I can no longer justify that in terms of food miles, so when I finish the packet I'm using now, I won't buy it again.
Enter the sourdough. It is made with the wild yeasts in the air. These yeasts are captured in the sourdough starter, multiply, and when the starter is mature, the wild yeasts and other beneficial bacteria give the bread a unique taste and a good lift.
I started my starter this morning and I invite everyone who reads this to start one too. Together we'll see what we can make of it. I'm a novice when it comes to sourdough, I've never made it before, so we can all help each other and hopefully, we'll produce some decent bread.
I have a book on baking but all their recipes advised the addition of commercial yeast to boost the starter. I would like my sourdough to be authentic, so I searched for more information to see how artisan bakers make their bread. I'm not saying I'll never use yeast to boost the mix but I want to at least start out with the authentic starter. This is where I got my information from: http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm
Enter the sourdough. It is made with the wild yeasts in the air. These yeasts are captured in the sourdough starter, multiply, and when the starter is mature, the wild yeasts and other beneficial bacteria give the bread a unique taste and a good lift.
I started my starter this morning and I invite everyone who reads this to start one too. Together we'll see what we can make of it. I'm a novice when it comes to sourdough, I've never made it before, so we can all help each other and hopefully, we'll produce some decent bread.
I have a book on baking but all their recipes advised the addition of commercial yeast to boost the starter. I would like my sourdough to be authentic, so I searched for more information to see how artisan bakers make their bread. I'm not saying I'll never use yeast to boost the mix but I want to at least start out with the authentic starter. This is where I got my information from: http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm
So let me know if you're joining in and hopefully in a couple of weeks, we'll all have some good bread.
