[aaronatthedoublef]

At one point KAF claimed to have unearthed and revived one of their original starters dating back to colonial times. I'll have to see if I can find any mention on their website.

[aaronatthedoublef]

As Mike says, not all sourdoughs are created equal. In our town I've only found one sour sourdough. Most are pretty mild. A local bakery owner I know told me people here don't like the hard sour but a bakery up in Rhode Island delivers and sells out of a couple dozen loaves a day at the two local Whole Foods.

My sons and I like it. My wife and daughter do not.

And I can use a sourdough starter and still make a milder tasting bread if I shorten the proofing time. And that may be the real reason my baker friend makes a milder bread. It takes me three days to develop the flavor for a deli rye. But I'll play with it more, especially if it has potential health benefits!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Rather than edit it again - there is usually a waiting room but I've turned that off to make it easier. Of course that makes it easier to ZoomBomb us. Should be fun. It was fun to chat with Mike after all these years.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Meant to post this sooner.

Here is the invitation:

Topic: My Nebraska Kitchen Virtual Pizza Party
Time: May 16, 2020 06:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
Zoom link to Pizza Party

Meeting ID: 861 0615 3668
Password: 092412
One tap mobile
+13126266799,,86106153668#,,1#,092412# US (Chicago)
+16468769923,,86106153668#,,1#,092412# US (New York)

Dial by your location
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
Meeting ID: 861 0615 3668
Password: 092412
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbagPRTlXZ

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The sourdough is really sour (this is a good thing). The two boys like it. The girls do not. I can make it less sour by shortening the rises but I am not sure how much less.

I'll make pizza dough today. I may make challah too but I need to see about time.

[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, 8 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... 🙂

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