My bread was successful! I have now made 2 loaves, one small, the other big. Mumma Bear is next.
First, my starter started life over a month ago. 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of tepid water in a glass jar (or beer glass in my case) and place somewhere in your kitchen where it's not going to get too hot or too cold. Mine is behind the coffee machine.
Everyday, add some more flour & water and mix in. You can discard some starter, and if you're adding to it everyday, you're going to need to, otherwise you'll end up with a motherload of sour flour & water! If you're going to be away from your little 'pet' for a number of days, you can put it to sleep in the fridge. I had to do this when I went on holidays to Qld, and my baby recovered quite well.
When it's ready to be used, it will look a little like this:
See the little bubbles? It'll have a soury, vingary smell. If it smells bad it probably is, so chuck it and start again.
Ready to start your first loaf of bread? Great! Do you have bucketloads of patience? Double great!
Now to prepare the 'sponge'. Take a fair amount of your starter, about a cupful will be fine, put it in a bowl and add another cup of flour and water. Mix, and cover with a cloth and leave for several hours. Depending on how your starter is, it could take all day (or night) to reach the frothy, bubbly stage that you'll want to achieve. When there are bubbles throughout the sponge, and a froth on top, you're ready to start making the actual dough.
In a bowl, put some flour, I started with 1 1/2 cups, a little oil and a little salt (about a teaspoon, but you can adjust this as you progress in your bread making talent). You will probably need some cold water standing by as well. Pour your sponge into the bowl and start mixing and kneading. If the dough is too sticky, add some more flour, if too dry, add a small amount of water. Knead for 5-10 minutes, until you have a nice feeling dough.
Cover with a cloth (tea towel will do) and leave in a warm place to rise. I like to turn the oven on for a little bit, but don't make it too hot, you should be comfortable touching the racks & the oven door with your hands.
Rising can take several hours. My two loaves took totally different times to rise, the smallest took several hours, the bigger took only about 2.
When you poke a finger into the dough and it doesn't heal quickly, your dough is ready for the 2nd kneading.
Punch it down (this part is fun!) and knead for a bit, but not too much.
Flatten into an oval, and fold both sides into the middle. Place on a baking sheet, cover and let rise. The 2nd rising will not be as long as the first. It should double in size. Slice down the middle of the bread with a knife, a little like scouring.
Put your oven on medium, but don't preheat very much. Put a tray with some water in it below where your bread tray is going.
Put your bread in the oven and cook for 30-40 minutes. It should be golden brown, and someone suggested that you tap the bottom with a wooden spoon and if it sounds hollow, it's ready.
Leave to cool on a wire rack for about an hour before cutting.
Cut up your delicious, homemade, homegrown bread, and watch it quickly disappear. Lovely with cheese...
A few things to remember...
My first attempt failed because I was not patient enough, and didn't keep the dough in a nice, warm friendly spot. Well, friendly probably doesn't have anything to do with it, but warmth certainly does.
I got a lot of help from my Weezy, but also from this website:
http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm
Humans have Worked a long time on making bread. This may take a lot longer than sticking a few things in a bread maker and turning it on, or sticking your hand in your wallet and paying for it, but it's very satisfying to make, bake and eat your own bread.
The flavour is delicious.
I bet my next attempt flops. Which is a pity, cos I want to make some for my sister, as she's slogging through her last few weeks at Sydney Uni.
Ask me, and I'll give you some of my starter so you don't have to wait a month to grow your own. Every household's starter is different, because of the different bacteria etc. in the air, so in no time at all, my little baby will be completely yours. Sorry if you don't live near me, I don't think it will travel well, so this only goes out to people in the Sydney area...
This wasn't really that coherent. I'll work on the delivery.
I'm enjoying some of my bread, toasted, and a glass of red wine.
Cheers!
