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Bread Making Tips and Tricks
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Bread making is perhaps the most widely practiced art form at the Permaforest Trust.
This forum is intended as a space to exchange tips and tricks in the art of bread making.
The majority of bread made at the Trust is sourdough bread. Rumour has it this method is more forgiving?? but I think its mostly about the taste.
While this method saves us from buying yeast we do need to maintain the "starter". In winter we had been able to keep the starter in the cupboard. In summer it seems like it really, really does need to be kept in the fridge.
"Spelty" the sourdough starter has been revived. We do however mourn the loss of "b-rye-an", and the former rye starter "rye-an".
Yesterday I mixed rye flour into my spelt "pancake" (AKA "sponge").
I added more water and left it as a larger pancake overnight. The spelt sourdough organisms seemed to work on the rye flour but I am curious as to whether a spelt/rye sponge would have resulted in better bread???
Does anyone have any thoughts on whether a spelt/rye starter ??? could be maintained? (That is, a starter fed with both rye and spelt.)
Perhaps this could allow us the option of either spelt or rye bread without having to maintain 2 starters.
I have read somewhere (I think it was in Paul Pitchford's Healing With Wholefoods) that you can feed your started on just about any grain-type substance. So it could be fed with many different types of flour, and I think rice was even mentioned as a suitable feed for the sourdough starter. Maybe by feeding it different types of grain it becomes more versatile?
We could definitely try it and see whether it makes a difference. I'm pretty sure we can at least keep it alive though (I hope!).
- Steph
THE WATER TRICK
Putting a tray full of water at the bottom of the oven seems to REALLY help with the quality of bread. Loaves baked in this way so far seem to have a much better crust.
Not entirely sure how, but its pretty incredible when you open the door to see the oven steaming.
Apparently heat bricks, even just regular house bricks in the oven while the bread is baking, help too???
Re: Bread Making Tips and Tricks
Posted by
Anonymous
at
July 27. 2008
Some say that I should use 50% white spelt - is that the answer?
Looking mforward to some real answers from you experts!
Marj Drewitt.
hey, i love bread and would love to make sourdough. i have now been the proud creator of two loaves of olive sourdough and they tasted delicious but werent the biggest guys in the bag. the biggest thing id like to talk about though is that i have a shocking and unfortunate habit of killing my starters...i have now killed billions and millions of critters in four seperate starters all of them different recipes. how do you remember that a jar of stinky goo is actually like a chicken coop - ie so full of life you have to feed it regularly. i feed it when i remember and if its in the fridge it lasts better but then i have to take it out to feed it and remember to put it back in again....i should just give myself more time to make bread....my recipe takes two days...thats a long time. if anyone has any words of wisdom about how i can keep my starters healthy and alive even when i love bread so...but have a shocking memory...
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