[aaronatthedoublef]

My starter is water and whole wheat flour. I have a little bit of sugar in the water and 100% hydration. It's from Serious Eats. I read somewhere that whole grains work better because the bran gives the yeast some food.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Found this link on pineapple juice starters from Debra Wink. Pretty cool.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made my first sourdough bread! Putting it in the oven with the light on helped. Thanks Mike. Normally I would not have been nervous but this is my first zero yeast, starter bread.

I shaped it and let it rise over night but this was too long as it fell back a little from when I checked it at 11. It didn't have enough oomf for any oven spring. And I didn't feel like staying up for another 40-50 minutes to bake it.

I'll cut into it after it's cooled.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Challah looks great. I think I will make some with my daughter this week. I may try for a rainbow challah.

I've started my first sourdough loaf with my starter but the house is cold. Can't tell if it's not rising or just rising slowly. I miss my pilot light oven which was great for being just warm enough to raise dough. I did not add any yeast.

We can do a trial zoom call tonight or tomorrow night. Mike you have my email. I can connect whomever wants to try.

[aaronatthedoublef]

As someone with an allergy to shellfish it's actually really tricky to figure out what I can and cannot eat. Fried calamari does not seem to bother me, for example. Small portions of other things will make me very uncomfortable.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I baked more whole wheat bread. This has become a weekly staple. I was going to bake Sunday morning but, first my wife said "no scones we have enough other stuff" so no scones. I was going to try some sourdough bread but the furnace was broken so the house was too cold for anything to rise. It wasn't until about 2:00 in the afternoon until we broke 65 in the house. Although thinking about it now I could have built a proofer. I'll work on that for the future. I've put the rising bowl in a bowl of warm water before and that worked. I also want to build a box with a heating pad in it but I have to figure out how to adjust the temp down some.

We've talked about it before but baguettes are really hard because they are so simple. I worked on a six person crew and only the lead was allowed to slash them. But he was not a good teacher. The shift lead before him was much better about trying to teach us and allowing us to do other things. He's the one who patiently and with much practice taught me to shape a passable baguette. But I was making about 50 a night. He left to study in Germany which was good for him and bad for us.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Well, we had snow last night. Not as much as Choco but snow. And this morning the furnace isn't working. I'm going to play with it a bit before I call the furnace guy but I have the fireplace going.

It's 60 in our kitchen this morning. I'm going to hold off on more bread making until later in the day. I was going to make scones for mother's day but we have bagels and muffins already so Mom, aka my wife said no scones.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Sure. Let me check on our weekend plans.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I do eat but usually while I'm making pizza. My boys (the girls do not eat meatzza) actually reserve half the meatzza for me. They each take a quarter to make sure there is some for their dad. When the last two pizzas are in the oven I start to break things down and clean up. So I do not usually sit during pizza night but we can figure something out.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The limits on Zoom kick in when using video (which we want to use). That said I have a paid Zoom account that should work.

My concern is that during pizza night I am not much fun at a party. But my wife is charming and my kids can be entertaining when they are not fighting.

I'm just trying to keep up... 🙂

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA. This is great. I have to test it.

The Epicurious article on starters said that hooch is bad for sourdough as it kills the yeast.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BTW, Serious Eats has a starter at 100% hydration and it is wet and heavy. It's a little easier to see it's risen because the jar has some measurement markings on the side. But until I learned how to read it I couldn't tell the starter had risen until I stirred it.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Really cool. They sort of answer one of my questions. Most recipes I've read say to use an "unfed starter" but don't tell me how long after a feeding my starter is "unfed". But they talk about it based on activity. I never have a ton of activity but my house is cold - right now it's 65 in the kitchen. They say 78 is the optimal temp.

I need a heating pad that goes to about 75 degrees that I can rest it on. Or maybe I could use a normal heating pad and insulate it.

Here is an interesting guide to flour. I was looking for the difference between tipo OO and "semolina regrind" which they do not explain. But based on what they say it seems that the main difference is in the grind, at least with Caputo. They are both 12.5% protein. I haven't tried the semolina regrind yet but the tipo OO is elastic but easier to stretch than bread or high gluten protein. I wonder if that is due to the grind. It feels the same as cake flour in my hand.

They also do not discuss the different types of gluten but that may be too geeky for their audience.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Yes. The people in the northeast who introduced me to corn bread called it just that. The first time they offered me some I was looking for cornbread and was very confused. "Secrets of a Jewish Baker" calls it Jewish Corn Bread...

[aaronatthedoublef]

Looks good. I never really understood corn bread over rye bread. I remember deli ryes growing up but never saw corn bread until I came east.

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