The old fashion is lengthy and does not include any jest and that makes it lengthy but better. How does it work. In out air we have natural jest, plenty of it. If one exposes a none bleached flower mixed with water, it will attracted those jest, over time. Its rather simple and rather natural. But one has to be patience. Simple rule 1 part of none bleached flower and water, mix it well. The water should be around 80F. In a bowel, around 140ml and 140 mg. I will use metric. After mixing it should be a paste, if it is to watery a water film will set up on the top, no big deal, it will just prevent the jest in the air to get to its feeding grounds, seals it. Just add a little flower mix it and of you go. Even after a day. This is called a starter, or a Sauer.. You have to cover it, not air tight and put it at a warm plave, 75F to 80F, 25C to 30C. To cover it I use a kitchen towel and a pot lid. Let it sit for 20 to 24 hours, so it can attract the jest in the air and start cooking. When you pull the cover of after a day, it should smell sour and have bubbles all over and have in increased in volume. So, make sure the bowl is big enough.. Now its feeding time again for the jest. Jest is a bacteria, a living organism, it needs to be tended for. Again the the same load of flower and water. Give the warm water first and then mix every thing in the bowel, till it is a soupe and then add the flower. Mix it and cover it. Do it again the next day. 3 days. What do you have to look for, temp is important, 75 to 80, the bubbling and the smell, it has to bubble and it has to have a strong soure smell, if you cannot get that your flower is just bad., bleached, not natural etc. But what is this all about. 1. a bread as it should be, water and flower 2. you get the natural starter, the sauer, which one can continue to grow for the next bread. Just add flower and water, feed the jest, that is around us. After 3 days, take a few spoons of the Sauer and put it in a glass jar, lid on and it is fine. If you want to bake a nother bread within a day just feed it, spoon of water mix it and a spoon of flower. If you bake a bread once a week, into the fridge. Give it time to warm up feed it and of you go. Do your bread mix with a spoon of your Sauer and in 12 hours you are ready to go. Always keep a Sauer and feed it regularly, get it out of the fridge let it warm up, feed it with warm water and flower and let it sit for 24h before it goes back to the fridge. To be continued.
After 3 days you have a Sauer. Now take a glass with screw on lid and put 3 spoons of the sauer in it, add 2 spoons of lower, mix it all up, screw the lid on and let it sit outside the fridge for a few hours. This is called a starter, It will accelerate the whole process, it takes only 12 hours till your dough is ready, because the starter has already millions of yeast bacteria. Now add 400 gram of flour to the rest and mix it up very well, by hand or machine, don't forget to put around 3 teaspoons of salt in the mix. After you have it all nicely mix up, knead it well and then let it rest, cover it with a towel. How long? If the kitchen is at 75F 2 hours, if less 3hours. Knead it lightly and stretch and fold again and then cover it well with flower, so it is not sticky and put it in glass, ceramic bowl and let it rest for 2-3 hours. Always keep it covered. Flower is not flower, if you use wheat flower you will notice it will not hold shape, rye will hold its shape. For wheat I use a backing form, its backing metal sheet with a detachable outer ring as the last container to let it rest. Stove at 480f, with a water pan, It put parchment paper on the stove grill, water into the pan at 480 and the dough on the grill in the middle. After 10 minutes, I pull the water pan and with wheat I take the ring of, turn down to 380F and bake for 40 minutes. Take the bread out, stand it up and knock on the bottom if sounds like drum its done, if not back into the oven and check 10 mins later. Let the bread cool down before you slice it enjoy
We use a bread maker. Put the ingredients in, hit go, and it's done. But, I bought a Kitchen Aid this week, mainly for making nann breads. So we'll be trying pizza dough and bread over the coming weeks and months.
Here is a trick I use.. I've had the same starter for better than 20 years, yes, TWENTY YEARS Starters are a bunch of work keeping them active, mine are fed every 24 hours until I get burned out and I take a break from baking.. Folks suggest refrigerate, but I hate having mason jars with old starter and alcohol smelling up my fridge.. The fix.. Once you get your starter were you want, spread a couple cup of it out on a piece of freezer paper and set off some place clean and breeze free.. It will dry like plaster in four day or less depending on humidity in your area. Once dried I powder it in a coffee grinder and store the powder in a vacuum bag indefinitely.. I can bring back a starter in less than three feeding (36 hours using the 2 to 1 method), one part powder/starter, two part filtered water.. I read an article on the King Arther website about a women that found a gram of starter she had bought and it had sat in her kitchen drawer for almost 15 years, and when she fed it, it took right off.. I too have the same success.. Toss them stinky refrigerator mothers out, go dried
