Thursday, May 1, 2008

Wild yeast

Ok Bread makers of the world. Do you use wild yeast for your sour dough starters? If so how do you go about doing that?
Also what is your favorite website/ book for bread making? While we are at it what kinds of bread do you make?

2 comments:

Ryan said...

Yes, we use wild yeast. To catch it you have to leave a 1:1 mixture of flour and water out on your counter for about a week. You need to divide and feed it once a day for the first few days, then twice a day in the middle, then once or twice more. After about a week it will get all bubbly and active and you can tell you have yeast. I will try and get the exact instructions for you when I get home.

Shalisa and I have made: Sourdough bread, baggettes, rolls, english muffins, pizza dough, focaccia, pita bread and last night we did pretzels. We still plan on doing bagels as well as any other great ideas anyone has or that we can find :p

Our two favorite websites for sourdough/bread making are: http://sourdoughmonkeywrangler.blogspot.com and http://www.wildyeastblog.com

They are about total opposites in the realm of bread making, so it is fun to read both of them. The sourdough monkey wrangler is a very free form, lets see what we can do throw this and that together. The Wild Yeast lady is very much measure this exact gram amount, measure that, exact time here and there. They both make wonderful looking bread, so it is fun to incorporate and use both sides of the both the "artistry" of bread making and the "science" of bread making.

Shalisa said...

Well, looks like Ryan beat me to the punch :).

Absolutely love the blogs. They are really great at tutorial and recipes. I prefer for some reason the english muffin recipe from the wild yeast lady.

It works best to make a sourdough starter with rye flour. Just get a little in bulk. The first 2 feeds are with rye, and then days 3-6 or 7 you will feed twice a day with white flour. Worked very well for us. I find once I got it going that it's better for me to maintain it in small proportions. Takes an extra day to get enough to make bread, but that's fine by me, I'm not baking every day usually. The Wild Yeast blog speaks on this frugal method.

And you CAN NOT go wrong with any of the King Arthur Flour cookbooks. They All - Purpose book is the one that led us to successful sourdough. Highly recomend them. Check it out from the library and you'll probably buy it. I also have their Cookie Companion. Fabulous.