I haven't seen a book on sourdough but I also haven't looked. For science Mike pointed me towards an article by a woman who is a microbiologist that was amazing. It had pictures but the text was pretty dense so I am not sure how it would be for Will. I cannot remember her name but it was fascinating.
It seems like starters are like kids - figure out what you want to do and then find the expert to say it is "right". I think those of us with starters here all have different ones and we all produce results we like. I would play around more and try some other things but I've reached the limit of my wife's patience with the two jars on the kitchen counter!
I was reading about an Italian starter that is more solid, like dough. Mine is 100% hydrated and more like batter. I arrived at that by trial and error and figuring out what my family liked.
And I still cannot get my batards to hold their shape! 🙁 But they are eaten...
Has anyone made any Springele (sp), I received a rolling pin and a soft mat as presents. I'm assuming that these are meant to be used together.
Skeptic--I had a little of the porridge the first time I made the bread. I found it very sticky--almost gooey. It could have been my cooking. This time I simmered it uncovered for the five minutes. It was still goopy, but since I was using it only for bread, I stirred in the buttermilk (thus bringing down the porridge temperature before combining it with the other ingredients), and that took care of any sticking in the pan.
I plan to stick with my steel-cut oats and use the porridge strictly for bread, especially as it is more expensive.
I haven't started any Christmas baking either, although I baked pumpkin muffins last week in Christmas muffin cups. I'm thinking of baking a half recipe of Pfeffernusse and limiting myself to one or two per day. Shortbread, alas is out of the question. I'm planning Lucia Buns for Dec. 13.
Here's a little Cathy comedy about baking holiday cookies in advance:
https://www.gocomics.com/cathy-commiserations/2020/12/04
I wound up buying a small chest freezer at a Sams Club (in Omaha, the Lincoln stores didn't have it in stock) when our SubZero upright freezer needed servicing last spring, at this point I still have some of the things that were in the upright in the chest freezer, I've been using things up and the chest freezer will eventually be dedicated mostly to baking needs.
I may need to order a 25 or 50 pound bag of medium rye flour at some point when I resume rye baking, most of it will also go in the freezer. (I've found that the 62 ounce candy jars for things like M&M's make great flour storage containers for freezing, they stack well.)
I've got cataract surgery scheduled for late January and mid-February, I'm limiting my kitchen experiments for now because reading a new recipe is really hard.
The one at King Arthur does not appear to have beads at the tip of each strand, which IMHO get in the way. I'll put it on my watch list for the next time I order from them, probably next year. (They usually have a $3.14 shipping offer for an order or $31.41 or more around Pi day.)
I'm wondering if I put my too-stiff boar bristle brushes in some boiling water if they'd loosen up. Worst that happens is they come apart and I have to throw them away, but I'm close to doing that anyway.
I see Zyliss basting brushes on Amazon, not sure if they're what you have, these seem geared towards barbecue. Next time I'm near a Le Creuset store, I plan to see if they still have that small brush (It was in a display by the register.)
My wife is making another batch of black bean soup, she soaked the beans with a little baking soda this time, then rinsed them off several times.
They're breaking up MUCH faster. In addition to some chopped celery and carrot, I put in some frozen celery pulp and carrot pulp from my vinegar batches.
I took the rest of the pulp (about a pound of each) and added some onion pulp, some of the tomatoes that I picked in October before the frost that have been sitting in trays in the garage, some turnip, some left over leeks from potato-leek soup and a bunch of spices, to make a nice pot of vegetable stock.
I have a small silicone brush made by Zyliss that I bought from King Arthur a couple years ago. It works better than any silicone brush I have tried, maybe because it has a lot of "bristles," and it's easy to wash. (I put soap directly on it and rub it on, then rinse well.) I use it for egg washes and for brushing on oil. If KABC still sold it, I would buy a spare.
The King Arthur Baking Companion is easy to read and has good drawings. It also covers nearly every type of baking. Even my wife has taken to using it over The Joy of Cooking. (Although IMHO TJOC has gone downhill since the 50's, the editions we prefer were printed in the 40's.)
It isn't what I'd call a good first book, but Beard on Bread is a book every bread baker should read at some point, I'm one of many bakers who got excited about bread baking by that book. James Beard was one of the best food writers of all time, I have several of his books.
I find myself using Hamelman's book more than any of Peter Reinhart's books these days, though I wouldn't recommend either author as a first book on baking. The front matter of Hamelman messes with my mind every time I read it (which is a good thing.)
I haven't found a book I'd recommend as a starter (pun intended) on sourdough, most of them are better for bakers with some experience.
As you all know, Will has started to bake. On Sunday, he decided to pull the sourdough starter I created in late spring (right before I went back to work) from the back of the fridge and revive it. He's been following KABC instructions - his friend recommended KABC for baking info as well - and it's doing surprisingly well. Now, he wants to dive into sourdough and yeast as much from the science side as anything. I know several of you, especially Mike, have great libraries of baking books. I would love to have some recommendations for what I might get him for Christmas. The thing to keep in mind is that with his dyslexia, it can't be too dense in terms of text. He often finds he can understand videos more easily.
I can't wait to see your ideas! Thanks!!
I have several silicone brushes, I find they work better for some tasks, like brushing on egg wash, than others, like brushing on melted butter. The one I use most is a really small one from Le Creuset.
I have a really soft one that is ONLY used to brush excess flour off. I've been tempted to try my camera lens air blower (sometimes called a lens rocket because of the shape) for that, but if I do that I'll probably buy one just for that purpose as I don't want flour or oils anywhere near my lenses.
I find using boar bristle brushes for oils and butter tends to stiffen them over time, and I have a couple that are probably past due for replacement.
My theory with pastry brushes is you buy 'em when you find 'em. That applies to scrub brushes as well.
The way I currently store them is in a round utensil caddy, that way the brushes themselves aren't touching much of anything other than possibly each other.
I had a left over pork chop (yeah for left overs!) and made brussels sprouts and brown rice. Also made a tahini sauce that I put over the sprouts and rice.
I made two loaves of rye bread today. I got good oven spring (although nothing like the tremendous spring I get on my whole wheat bread) even though I started with a cold oven.
I'm glad that the second pan came out better, Italian Cook. Higher heat can encourage a faster oven spring. I discovered that my sourdough breads do better if the oven is initially at a higher heat, even if I then lower it after the loaves go in.
I promised my husband an apple pie, so I baked one early Monday afternoon, using Bernard Clayton’s streusel top recipe. I used my part whole wheat oil crust. The filling was 10 Jonathan apples, which I bought at the store before I knew we would be going to the apple place. (At least they are from Michigan.) I tried something new with the streusel topping. I made the regular amount, but I used 1 Tbs. melted butter and 3 Tbs. grapeseed oil.
We were also out of bread on Monday, so I baked my version of the KABC Pompanoosuc Porridge Bread. I have figured out that cooking ½ cup of the porridge in 1 cup of water gives the right amount of porridge for the recipe. I replaced 1 cup water with buttermilk and 2 Tbs. sugar with 1 ½ Tbs. maple syrup. I reduced the salt from 2 ½ tsps. (!) to 1 1/2 tsp. and reduced the yeast from 2 tsp. to 1 ¾ tsp. I replaced 2 Tbs. of butter with 1 ½ Tbs. olive oil, which I added after the initial mixing of the other ingredients. I use the Zo to do the mixing and kneading. I had baked this bread last spring, using my baking bowl (original recipe gives it as an option), but it is a lot of dough for the bowl, even if it made a high loaf. This time, I substituted my Emile Henry long baker without the lid. The long baker handles the amount of dough nicely, and the shape is better for sandwiches. I slashed it horizontally and baked for 40 minutes to 200F. I look forward to slicing it tomorrow at lunch.
Hard rolls at a higher temp makes sense to me but not buns where you want them to be soft.
I did the hot dog buns today, 17 minutes at 350. Didn't get quite as much rise as I was hoping for, but I made them kind of small (1.65 ounces each) so that probably impacted height somewhat.
I'll probably have one for supper with some vegetable beef soup.
