[Sca-cooks] Sourdough bread

[David Friedman]

I recently got the big cookbook put out by the King Arthur Flour 
company, in part because Marion of Edwinstowe strongly recommends 
their flour. It has a fairly detailed discussion of sourdough bread, 
using only sourdough and no other yeast. I've done the white flour 
version and the whole wheat version and liked both.

One major element to their approach is that you spend several days 
getting your sourdough starter sufficiently lively. If you normally 
keep it in the refrigerator, as I do, that means combining 1/2 c 
starter, 1 c flour, 1 c water, leaving it at room temperature for a 
day, repeating and leaving it for 12 hours, repeating and leaving it 
for 12 hours, repeating and leaving it for 6 hours, then using that 
(I think that's the full sequence--the book is downstairs). It's a 
little trouble, but not much, and it works.

When we did Platina's  bread using sourdough, years ago, rising too 
forever. With this approach, it's not that different from what I 
would expect with commercial yeast.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com