Sourdough, Finally, but Worth the Wait

We have all had that scrumptious crust crackling chewy tang bread.  Having lived in places where bread is spongey, foamy and a good substitute for a rubber ball when squished together, I did like the bread variety in Milwaukee, and New York.  Now in Florida, there are some bakery breads, mass produced breads, the Costco variety of breads but none is really that wonderful sourdough flavor I seek.  Studying my bread books, reading blogs of bakers online and everything on he Fresh Loaf site, I began to consider a sourdough event in my won kitchen.  A friend and fellow baker, blogger and almost famous beekeeper in Louisville, KY(http://www.flourtodaybreadtomorrow.blogspot.com/) makes sourdough breads, brownies, etc.  We chatted via email about sourdough starter strategies and I took the leap.  At first, it didn't look to good... but I persevered.  Followed his advise.  I split, fed, stirred and repeated for a sequence of days.  Then finally, yesterday, August 31, 2010, I had BUBBLES of LIFE!
Here is how you create a wild yeast starter: 

from Elwood at Flour Today, Bread Tomorrow

"I used Classic Sourdoughs A Home Baker's Handbook by Ed Wood for instructions.

I took 2 cups of flour and 1 1/2 cup warm water and stirred it well, put it in a jar with cheesecloth on the top set it outside and then stirred it every now and again.  I brought it in at night, but if you don't have any critter problems I guess you could leave it out.  After about 2 days you should see some bubbling. Add another cup of flour and enough water to keep the consistency. You might have to do that several times over a couple of days. You know you have a good active starter when there is a 1 to 2 inch layer of foam on the top." 

Mine took about 6 days.  I divided a cup of a rather thin slurry into a sterile glass  container.  I added  1 cup of whole wheat flour and a half cup water.  To get the results in the above photo.  I continued to whole wheat flour to feed the starter.
Next, I prepared the sourdough bread dough knowing a long rise time was needed.  Four hours, six hours and little happened.  I allowed more time.  Night, late night arrived so I placed the entire batch in an oiled zip bag, and placed it in the fridge.  It came out with hope of life this morning. I allowed it to come to room temperature at which time I formed two loaves. 

By the time I had the second loaf formed, the first had shown a tiny bit of rise.  Now, came the excitement!  But disaster loomed.  The dough was sticking to the corn meal sprinkled peel. MMM???  Time to call on an old friend, parchment paper.  With that placed beneath the loaves, I spritzed them with oil, covered with platic and waited.

And there was RISE! This made me happy.  I performed a careful diagonal slash on one and a full length midline on the other.  The oven was at temperature with the steam feature ready.  POOOWHWWWSSHH!  Door closed, timer set, we wait.  Ah yes, soon there was a wonderful aroma filling the house.  Wait,     w   a   i   t  .   Out of the oven they come.

You can see the difference in the size of the loaves and the slashes.  The crust is a bit pale.  The bottoms are nutty brown and crisp in appearance.  We tried to wait for the loaves to cool but that didn't happen.

The aroma was too alluring and I was anxous to see if I achieved holes.

The knife made firm contact with a crunchy draw across the crust, some crumbs popped.  I think that is a good sign.  The first piece fell away and the center looked dense.  I sliced a another and VIOLA!

HOLES!  Despite  the    l   o   n   g    rise time, that the loaf is a tad heavy, the crumb texture dense and the outer top crust a bit pale, I still count this as a sucess for the first effort is ages for a sourdough.  The Combsman's commment, "You have made sourdough many times and it never tasted this sour."  SCORE! Doing the victory dance, oh yeah, oh yeah!!  Yum and yum. . . .