I bake sourdough bread the old fashioned way, with no added commercial yeast. I usually make two 2 lb. loaves at a time. It gets eaten up very quickly. Half a loaf before it even cools down. Tonight I'm mixing up an herb flavored rustic dough that will sit overnight in the fridge to bring out more flavor. I'm using my natural starter which is my captured native yeast. I also have San Fransisco and Finland cultures. The SF is slow and sour, the Finland is fast and sweeter. The native is mid speed but the most highly flavored. I make a white, wheat, rye and herb. I may try an onion bread soon.
Anyone else here a sourdough baker?
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No.

I can say, Lance makes some good bread though. :-)
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Never done sourdough. Would be eternally grateful to see your recipe.
Been dabbling in bread baking for a while.
Mostly make my mother's recipe for sweet-sour rye from the old country.
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My address is available on request! :-)

I love homemade bread, especially sourdough. Haven't made it in a while though .... gonna have to make something this weekend ...
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I still haven't made any, yet. BUT, I did begin a starter back in August. I have a recipe for sourdough, but want to see what others are out there. I want to see how to use my starter in a bread machine. Someone gave us one, and have yet to use it, either.
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I had a blog post with a recipe and schedule (as it takes a couple days of prep before actually baking), but since then I have changed it a bit. This is a rough version:

I take my starter out of the fridge Thu. morning and let it warm up. I then feed it Thu. night.
On Fri. morning it's going strong so I mix up 100 g (its best to weigh everything) starter with 150 g water and 150 g all purpose unbleached flour. This is frothy when I come home from work. I then mix this with 1000 g flour and 600 g water. After this has mixed up I add a tsp salt.
Usually it works like this:
Add water to mixer, turn on slow.
Add flour slowly until all in.
Add starter.
This should only take a couple of minutes.
After it is all mixed add salt, a short time later, turn it off and let it sit for 20-30 min. This causes the protein to form strands.
Turn the mixer back on for just a few turns, this stretches the protein. Let it sit another 20-30 min.
Total mixing time should be less than 5-6 minutes all added together.
Turn it out of the mixer onto a lightly floured surface and knead it a little to work it into the shape it will take, round ball, long loaf, bread pan, etc. The idea is to have the side that will be up stretched tight.
After it is shaped it needs to be put in a fridge or very cold room to rest overnight. It needs to be covered somehow to keep from drying out.
Sat. morning it gets taken out and warmed back up. It will then rise. I preheat my oven with a baking stone in it as hot as it gets for at least an hour. I put a pan of water in the bottom to make steam.
The bread is done rising when you can poke your finger in it and the dimple remains, or fills in very slowly. Too long and the bread will collapse in the oven.
I put the bread in the hot oven and turn the temp down to 450 and spray a little water in the bottom of the oven. Every 60 sec. for the first 5 min. I spray a little water to keep the steam up.
Bake time is 30-40 min depending on your oven. My oven runs a little cool so your temp may vary.
Your supposed to let the loaves cool about a half hour before cutting them but that never happens.

Time is a few minutes Thu and Fri morn. About two hours Fri night. Rising and baking time Sat.
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thanks....
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Sourdough works especially good for rye bread. You just substitute 1/4 to 1/3 rye flour. I add some to the starter when feeding, too.
My recipe is very rough. There is a lot of foreknowledge needed about the right feel to the dough, mixing technique, care and feeding of starters, kneading and shaping, rising (proofing), etc...
I forgot to add that the above recipe makes two kilos or two 2 lb. loaves.
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sourdough bread, avacado, fresh roasted turkey, mayo, lettuce, tomato, MMMM sandwich
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I just pulled this two pound beauty out of the oven.:-)
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:-)
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We need to talk!
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If you could only smell this. The main reason it gets eaten so quickly.
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You make mention of special yeast starters.

Where does one acquire these?

Sadly my wife doesn't enjoy sourdough bread, but I love it to death. I'm drooling just looking at that photo :-)
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:-)
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It's a labor of love. Buying it from the bakery is convenient enough.
I got the Finland and SF cultures with instructions from
http://www.sourdo.com
I captured wild culture using a method like the one described at
http://www.instructables.com/id/Catc...ing_sourdough/

PM you addy and I'll send you some starter and instructions to get it going.

It is very hard to get that really tangy Fisherman's Wharf style bread without the total control they have over every step of the process. My bread is always milder. I think they cheat and add extra flavor.
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I appreciate the offer, but time and limited kitchen space prevent me from doing anything like this at the moment. Was simply wondering for later down the road. :-)
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Great stuff Lance! :-)
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Dark rye with poppy and caraway seeds.
Image
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I love sourdough. Unfortunately pastry, and bread baking are two different animals, so I dont have any experience with it.

Once you have a San Fran starter going, will it continue growing, or will the native yeasts take over?
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Once it's going there is a symbiotic balance between the yeast and bacteria that is hard to upset. If the native yeast or any other can overturn this balance then it is probably better to go with that. My native culture has a sweeter taste anyway.
They all seem to have kept separate, so far. I am careful not to cross contaminate by cleaning everything thoroughly between cultures.
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