My Sourdough, from scratch

[anutcanfly]

God love you! You crack me up! 

[Crystal]

Caerphilly not impressing me... Looooooooooooooong flocc time, not a good sign! Will see how it goes i spose...

[anutcanfly]

Not much else you can do once you've started. Goodluck! 

[Crystal]

Got it done! Was especially gentle! I cut @ the time i was meant to and had super soft curds, so no stirring. just a lot of jiggling and swishing until they firmed up enough for a gentle stir. Im quite impressed actually. its in the press now... My first stacked and milled cheese and i did ok i reckon!

[Tomer1]

Got it done!

[anutcanfly]

Congratulations!     Go Crystal!

[Crystal]

LOL, tomer!

Any suggestions as to what i can do with the outside of the cheese? i dont want to wax it... but dont want to let it go yucky? rub salt..?

[anutcanfly]

I just finished baking a 9 grain, whole wheat & honey bread after a 10 day ferment. Before the ferment I soaked 1/2 cup 9 grain cereal in 1/2 cup boiling water and let it soak until cool.  Made the dough as per my recipe posted earlier, and threw it in the fridge.  After the ferment I added roughly 2 teaspoons of baking soda, and 2-3 tablespoons of honey and kneaded just long enough to mix it in.  Used oat flour for finishing the dough and rolled the exterior in quick oats.  It worked great!    It's not the prettiest looking loaf and you can see the swirls of honey that didn't get mixed in totally (honey browns more).  The texture and taste are... AWESOME!  Happy Dance! You would never know it started life as a sourdough.  It's sweet and rich--very complex and hard to describe.  Hopefully the extended ferment will make it easier for my gluten sensitive boyfriend to handle.  Time will tell!  I'll do even longer ferments in the future.

Update:  Too much honey!  Tastes wonderful with butter or peanut butter, but too sweet for sandwiches.  Next round I will reduce honey to 1 tablespoon or so.

[Crystal]

Im confused a bit anut... why so long for the ferment? whats the benefits of leaving it that long? why use the baking soda?

Dont get me wrong, 9 grains and honey is DEF my kinda thing, i LOVE it, and i think yours looks umm, RUSTIC! i love the 'look' of home made bread. Ive been slack with the breadmaking of late, been babysitting a caerphilly... and im lazy... lol! No, really, ive been doing yard work, which is on hold again for the rain, which wont go away! Bread today, a no knead to go in the fridge and will do some cheese naan for dinner!

[anutcanfly]

Long fermentation is supposed render partly harmless the part of gluten that triggers the immune response. Since he's sensitive but can still have wheat in small amounts, I am hoping this will allow him to enjoy bread without penalty.  Unfortunately, my sweet does not like sourdough bread.  So the challenge was to sweeten the bread after a long ferment.  I added honey to sweeten it and baking soda to neutralize the acidity, and thereby sweeten it further.

He loved it! This is the best tasting 9 grain I've ever made, so I think I will do the extended ferments on all my breads!  I don't think I'll ever make bread the traditional way again!

Me too, it's almost time to start preparing the berry vines, trees and raised beds for spring.

[DeejayDebi]

Aww looks great! I love real multigrain breads with the little bits of crunchy nutty grains! My son says I just like bird seed biscuits.

[MrsKK]

Crystal, to return to your orange rind cleaner...do I remember correctly that after you strain out the rind, you mix the liquid with an equal part of vinegar?  So the only liquid used for this is vinegar?

I have a half gallon jar of orange rind soaking in vinegar as we speak.

[Crystal]

Oh, yep MrsKK, just Vinegar! 50/50 with the orange vinegar and plain vinegar. Just store the rest in a dark place (under the sink )

[anutcanfly]

Here's my second long ferment experiment.  I think two weeks was just a bit too long.   The girls (chickens) will love it.  They love all my failures... aren't they sweet, always trying to spare my feelings! 

[Crystal]

Was it hard like my last one?