Our faithful readership has, I am sure, been sitting white
knuckled waiting in anticipation for news on Arthur’s sourdough project. Alex too has looked on in great interest and
constantly worried about what happens when she leaves Arthur alone for a few
hours. You will be happy to know that
both man and yeast are doing quite well.
Arthur had been hoping to see evidence of activity about 2 days from the beginning of the experiment. It took about 4 days to see signs of microbe life. The first evidences of life appeared as a small thin layer of foam on the surface of the flour-juice combination. We stirred once again the next morning and large bubbles appeared on the surface. When lifting the plastic wrap to stir the concoction it smelled of freshly baked bread (kind of). Who would have thought that the wonderful smell that I have loved for so long was actually “yeast farts”?
Eventually the flour and liquid would settle out. I'm fairly sure the liquid layer was basically straight hooch, which apparently indicates the yeast had pretty much used up their food storage. We would finally be able to get to some bread making.
I "fed" my yeast some more flour and enough water to maintain the consistency and gave it 24 hours. Then it was time for typical bread making, with a 24 hour rise time thrown in. Commercial bread yeast obviously has been bred to decrease rise times, so my sourdough took a lot longer. The advantage sourdough is supposed to have is in the variety of microbes active; the hope is this will result in a greater variety of flavors, the most apparent being a strain of yeast that produces lactic acid and is responsible for making sourdough sour.
Anyway, the bread was a great success. I had nice hole size in my bread, very comparable to what I would have obtained with baker's yeast. Using just flour, sugar, and salt, the flavor was far from bland. It was all I could hope for.
Since then, I have made sourdough biscuits, and while tasty, I probably didn't use good baking soda and got a poor rise. We'll see what the future holds. Omnia Vincit Amor.
r.
Arthur had been hoping to see evidence of activity about 2 days from the beginning of the experiment. It took about 4 days to see signs of microbe life. The first evidences of life appeared as a small thin layer of foam on the surface of the flour-juice combination. We stirred once again the next morning and large bubbles appeared on the surface. When lifting the plastic wrap to stir the concoction it smelled of freshly baked bread (kind of). Who would have thought that the wonderful smell that I have loved for so long was actually “yeast farts”?
Eventually the flour and liquid would settle out. I'm fairly sure the liquid layer was basically straight hooch, which apparently indicates the yeast had pretty much used up their food storage. We would finally be able to get to some bread making.
I "fed" my yeast some more flour and enough water to maintain the consistency and gave it 24 hours. Then it was time for typical bread making, with a 24 hour rise time thrown in. Commercial bread yeast obviously has been bred to decrease rise times, so my sourdough took a lot longer. The advantage sourdough is supposed to have is in the variety of microbes active; the hope is this will result in a greater variety of flavors, the most apparent being a strain of yeast that produces lactic acid and is responsible for making sourdough sour.
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Since then, I have made sourdough biscuits, and while tasty, I probably didn't use good baking soda and got a poor rise. We'll see what the future holds. Omnia Vincit Amor.
r.
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