Looking for patience. I need some.
Starting a starter takes a long time. Recipes, videos, instructions from various sources must be consulted for ingredients, proportions and containers - not to mention for purposes of procrastination and abject fear. Finally, recognizing that a New Year's resolution was made and that nice size jars have been saved and are taking up space in the pantry and a kitchen drawer, it is time to face one's anxieties and actually begin.
Variety of recipes and advice
Once one falls down into the black hole universe of the starter world, all manner of instructions and ingredients are offered for what is essentially growing one's own yeast, really a productive chia pet made out of flour and water and substances from the air.
[Bubbles provide early encouragement.]
Water and flour, generally recommended are whole grain flours such as wheat, spelt and rye, represent the only essential ingredients for a starter and there is a strong contingent who advise only using those two ingredients. Others suggest using some natural sweetener, whether honey or fruit, to give the yeast some favorable type of food to feast upon, be fruitful and multiply into many thousands or millions of little one-celled happy creatures who will make superfluous the use of instant yeast and remind one of the thousands of years of bread making before supermarkets, parking lots and all manner of instantaneous food products. That and a starter will add a complexity of taste to a bread, giving it superior deliciousness and perhaps bestow upon its baker a sense of great accomplishment.
[Okay, one must look carefully for those bubbles, first signs of success.]
Another aspect of starters on which the experts do not agree is whether to mix the mixture and how frequently. The instructions I chose, from the River Cottage Handbook, said to mix for 10 minutes and leave the mixture for anywhere from a few hours to a few days, but not more, to become bubbly or, in more technical parlance, to become active.
All agree not to refrigerate a starter until it is active and some say not to refrigerate for the first week at all. One actually need never refrigerate a starter, however one will become the slave of a living substance that grows and must be pruned and fed on a very frequent basis - as in at least once a day, though some advise twice daily. Reading such descriptions one is reminded either of civilization before refrigeration or of people who are so addicted to a substance or activity that they give up everything else in life. . Refrigeration allows feeding to be reduced to once or twice a week depending on whose advice is followed.
[Transfer starter sample to a jar. Brilliant minds advice placing a rubber band on the jar to indicate where the beginning amount goes up to. Makes it easier to figure out if the starter has doubled in volume, that is if it increases at all.]
Day 1: Mix ingredients and watch
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup water at room temperature
Saw a few bubbles one hour later. At six hours later, many small bubbles, but not bubbling or frothy. Added, as recommended:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup water at room temperature
Couple of hours later there are a few bubbles and it is difficult not to check every five minutes or when finishing every task, no matter how minimal, including, but not limited to, going to the bathroom. Feeling like a third grader excited about a science fair project, except I was totally never that kid.
[View of starter from top of jar, prior to a decline into inactivity and sickness.]
Day 2: Uncertainty sets in
Some bubbles, but not a bunch of large ones, and it has not doubled in volume, I don't think. There is brownish liquid on top, which, I have learned, is not unusual. Skimmed the liquid, then removed half of the starter (can be composted) and added:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup water at room temperature
The next morning, mixed with the immersion blender for five minutes. Returned home to find the starter had some wimpy bubbles, seemed a little bigger, but no great hurrah of a plenitude of large, happy bubbles. Uncertain whether to feed it according to "troubleshooter" instructions or whether to leave it for one more day. Decide to show some patience.
Day 3: No clear path
There is a little liquid at the top that needs to go, but there are bubbles and a little frothiness. There has definitely been no doubling in volume. In fact, little or no change in that regard. The question is whether to leave this until tonight or do some troubleshooting now. Can either mix for several minutes, letting in more air, or to take some of the starter and place in a new container with equal parts water and flour mixed in - dissolving first the starter in the water.
Decide to do both.
1/4 cup existing starter
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
Removed 1/4 cup starter and put in a clean jar. First poured in the water and dissolved starter. Just a stir or two will do. Add the flour and mix. Place a rubber band on the jar to show the level of this mushy mix, the easier to tell if it has grown. Cover with lid, but not tightly. Every set of starter instructions bears a stern warning about explosions. Since my concern is not aggressive starter, but one that is becoming active, I forget to heed the last instruction and hurry off to work, later becoming worried that the glass jar will shatter across the inside of the fridge. Later, as in 9 a.m., leaving the rest of the day to pray for a healthy starter that does not get over eager.
Remainder of the starter ready for compost
Intending to compost the remainder of the starter when I get home in the evening, I notice some good bubbles right after mixing to remove the 1/4 cup starter for the new mix. Since it will sit there anyway for the rest of the day, I continue to stir until the latest moment that will ensure being pretty much on time for work. Covered loosely with plastic, the bowl was left in the sink for the remainder of the day - headed either for the compost or the victory tour.
When returned home, threw the remaining starter in the compost and found the jarred starter had maybe three bubbles, with a generous definition of bubble. There's a reason why bread authors counsel that starters force one to learn patience. Only the first attempt.
Be patient.
Bread - Number 10: A rye sense of humor
Dedicated to that spark that got me out of bed to start the next batch of dough after taking it easy over the holidays and then holding off due to a mid-winter sinus thing that took a while to go away, like it was welcome at all.
As part of that hibernation-mode, mid-winter inertia, could not get myself to commence the sourdough starter process or make an ambitious bread. Like someone with writer's block who just has to write something, anything, I just had to figure out the recipe and start mixing ingredients. And then, on the day planned to mix up some dough, I was out and about the entire day and well into the evening, by which time the making of a bread had been entirely forgotten. Oops.
As if to add insult to injury, also forgot I had wanted to try the River Cottage Bread Handbook two-step dough mixing process. That is what happens with a very early morning wake up, dragging one's feet into the kitchen, eyes barely open. Looked at a few recipes for rye bread, as the rye flour has been waiting for a few weeks to be opened, and settled on the easy way out with a modified rye bread from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. As most rye bread recipes call for starters and I have not started on that process, the field was limited. This recipe uses about one third each of rye, white and whole wheat flours. I used bread flour instead of all-purpose white.
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups bread flour
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 3/8 cups rye flour (just use almost one half for that 3/8)
1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp caraway seeds (3/4 get mixed into dough)
1 tsp vital wheat gluten
2 cups water
Instructions
1. Mix dry ingredients thoroughly. Yes, trying a little, a reduced amount of vital wheat gluten. Have found that my breads taste better without it, but playing with less in case it actually adds something beneficial to the bread, which supposedly will be a better rise for a bread heavy on the whole grains.
2. Add water. Mine was a nice wet dough, so it took about five to 10 minutes to mix all through, but it was easy.
3. Cover bowl loosely with plastic. Really should use a plastic bag as reuse is possible, but have not gotten out of habit of using plastic wrap. Feeling environmental guilt in ruining the planet due to extreme laziness.
4. Let the dough stand for 12 to 18 hours. Mine needed 13 hours and that was in a warm kitchen. Refrigerate for up to four days or start the next step with the dough.
[Dough after rising for 12 hours.]
5. Sprinkle the dough with flour. This is a pretty sticky, wet dough so don't be shy. Sprinkle a wooden board or counter top area with flour and when ready to remove the dough from the bowl, cover your hands with flour as well.
6. Put the dough on the board or counter. Flatten the dough into a somewhat irregular, though loosely rectangular shape. Apologies to any geometry teachers. From either end of the not-quite-rectangle, fold in one third to the middle and then from the other side fold in a third to overlap the first fold, as if folding to make an envelope. Now with the new rectangle of dough, fold the long side in half. Feel free to shape a little more.
7. Let stand on the board or counter - loosely covered in plastic - for 15 minutes. Mine rose quite well.
8. Generously sprinkle flour into a bowl or proofing basket (still on my wish list) and transfer the dough into the bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and let stand for 60 to 90 minutes.
9. At about a half hour in, preheat oven to 500 degrees. If using a la cloche, put it in the oven to preheat as well.
10. While waiting, feel free to watch bread baking videos or ponder starting a sourdough starter, for which there are innumerable websites, recipes, and discussion forums.
11. Tilt bowl with dough onto well-floured baking peel or onto parchment paper placed on the baking peel. Since the dough was wet and not standing well (getting me nervous), I used parchment paper this time so that dough would not end up sticking to the peel.
12. Wet a baking brush with water. Brush on top of bread. Sprinkle top of bread with caraway seeds. Amount optional. (Another method I read about in the River Cottage Bread Handbook is to dunk the dough in a little bit of water and then roll it lightly in a bowl with seeds.)
13. Place dough onto baking stone or bottom of la cloche and then cover with already-heated top of la cloche. Leave for 30 minutes.
Note: While one may make bread without a baking stone or a la cloche, in my experience the results are so much better using these that it is not even worthy of discussion.
14. Reduce heat to 450 degrees, open oven and remove top of la cloche and the parchment paper if you used it.
Anxiety
While
the bread is baking is an appropriate time to confess doubts . It stayed quite wet and did not hold its own shape.
Worried about it and don't want to see a bread that shows tell tale
signs inside that it did not rise well. Perhaps should have allowed it
to rise for longer period initially. Feeling like a good bread baking
course would be in order.
15. Remove bread from oven after 10 to 15 minutes. Let stand on a rack for two hours if you can manage not to touch this amazing looking bread that smells like a rye bread strolled out of a bakery oven and into your kitchen.
[Bread right out of the oven.]
Ye of little faith
Oh my god, amazing. Tasted like an incredible rye bread. It is an incredible rye bread. Wow, this is a keeper and it is two-thirds whole grain. Despite fear that this bread would not rise, it rose so well and has a wonderful crumb with lots of air pockets.
[So proud, could not resist adding another photograph.]
