Woman’s blog – STARCHDATE 131026.9
9:00 PM
I regret to inform you that today’s mission has failed.
I was unable to do my third set of experiments with my Classic Italian Loaf due to other duties as assigned.
I was able to use our leftover bread to make some pretty tasty croutons for dinner.
9:15 PM
Despite today’s failed mission, I do believe I am still going to attempt to start my sourdough starter though the hour is late.
My daughter has decided to join this mission as we have two different starter method experiments we want to try.
After much disagreement among all of the sourdough sages online…
Seriously, the contradicting “only” flour to use recommendations and the disgruntled discard discourse is enough to send a girl back to the bread aisle at Meijer.
We have settled on two methods.
- A purchased starter online that comes in powdered form and will help us get off to the right start.
- Either “the easiest thing ever” or “the completely not beginner friendly” task of making a starter from scratch on our own.
Wait.
Before we do anything… we should probably weigh our empty jars to have on hand, I fear we may eventually have an alarming about of math to do.
After trying to convince my scale to switch from ounces to grams for far too long I now know:
Jar 1 weighs 464 grams and Jar 2 comes in at a hefty 718 grams.
I know my scale can zero out the initial weight, however once I start needing a certain weight of my starter, knowing the original jar weight will help me figure things out…
I hope…
I did get a D in Pre-Algebra in the 7th grade…
Hence the career as writer… but I am getting off topic and it is late.
Onward.
9:25 PM
We decide to start with Captain Sourpants first.
No, I am NOT calling Mikey names, that is the name of the sourdough starter I purchased.
Dump the starter in my jar and add 2 Tablespoons room temperature water.
I am using distilled.
This is recommended by almost all of the sourdough sages if you aren’t sure about your water.
There are a few wild ones out there that tell you to just use tap… however…
Ever since the data center started building down the road, my neighbors have been posting some disturbing photos of their water quality… so distilled it is.
Uh oh… the sourdough sages have led me astray.
While they were fighting over whether to use whole grain flour or unbleached white bread flour… ole Captain Sourpants now tells me to use all purpose.
I purchased both dark rye (the best whole grain according to many sources) and unbleached bread flour, but no all purpose.
Well Captain, you probably need to lower your standards with this here math genius anyways, so you are getting the bread flour…
Great Value Bread Flour at that…because dang that dark rye was expensive.
Two tablespoons of Great Value Bread Flour into the jar.
Stir.
Scrape down the sides and put a lid on it.
9:30 PM
The daughter and I deliberate on the next part of the experiment.
We have decided that the sourdough sages are too contradictory to listen to all of them at once.
Particularly when it comes to starting a starter from scratch.
We need one wise one to follow in their path, forsaking all others.
So we choose our guru in the form of the written word of one Mr. Leo.
We do not know him and we totally paid for his book, this is NOT a paid endorsement… or frankly even an endorsement at all yet.
But Anna (we don’t know her either) said in her review:
“One of the BEST sourdough books”
and “And it also tell(s) you how to make your own starter. Something we’ve never been able to do successfully until reading this book.”
Well Anna, that’s exactly what we were looking for…
Sold.
Mr. Leo tells us on page 34 on Day One to… weigh our jar!
Oh hey! I think we are going to get along great.
Also I really like how Mr. Leo has the starter section laid out. Charts, photos AND a day by date instruction…
Sage on Mr. Leo.
Next we add 100 grams of rye flour and 125 grams of warm water (I used the same room temperature water)
And stir.
Now… this is where my daughter and I got a little crazy.
*whispers* We decided to stir with the same spatula we used when we made our first starter.
I know, I know.
We are wild women.
But… it might help things along AND it means less dishes… so…
I do realize this muddies our experimenting a bit, but we aren’t going to tell anyone except the whole world wide web.
We put a band (really a hair tie) to mark the mixture level.
And then we decide to place both jars on a seedling heat mat from the greenhouse because the house is chilly.
9:45 PM
Now for the most important part of the whole process…
We need to name our starters.
After much deliberation, we settle on…
Amelia Pond and Rory Williams
Rory is our Captain Sourpants.
Amy is our from scratch girl.
All in all, I think we accomplished a lot.
Experiment Updates for Future Bakes
- Amy will need fed in the morning. Then we will feed both Amy and Rory tomorrow evening.
- We are going to attempt the third round of our Italian Bread experiments tomorrow and test to make sure we didn’t get a bad batch of instant yeast.
- We are going to keep the water bath and use our upper oven’s residual heat to help the dough rise.
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