Simpler Sourdough Starter Wild Yeast Food

WILD SOURDOUGH STARTER

Steps:

• To begin: Mix together 125 grams flour and 125 grams water with a clean hand in a medium glass bowl. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let sit undisturbed at room temperature until the mixture is full of bubbles and has nearly doubled in size, usually 2 to 3 days. During this time, yeasts and bacteria from the air and from the flour and probably from you will set up housekeeping in the bowl (see Cook's Note).
• For daily feeding: Peel back any crust that may have formed and transfer 20% of the culture (50 grams) to a clean, wide-mouthed jar. Stir in 100 grams flour and 100 grams water, loosely screw on the lid and stash at room temperature for 24 hours. (The culture will have a stinky-sour smell at this point.) Discard the rest of the original mixture.
• Repeat step 2 every 24 hours for 5 days. By then the culture should smell yeasty-sweet-sour, which means you're ready to put the starter to work.

SOURDOUGH (WILD YEAST) BREAD

Steps:

• DAY ONE: You will need 2/3 cups of active starter so refresh your starter with 2/3 cup flour and 2/3 cup bottled water. Cover and allow to ferment for 6-8 hours. Once the starter has been refreshed you can continue with the recipe, or refrigerate the bowl over night.
• MAKE FIRM STARTER:.
• If you have refrigerated the starter, remove it from the refrigerator and measure out 2/3 cups and place in a small bowl, cover with towel or plastic wrap and allow to warm up for one hour. If the starter is room termperatue then continue as noted below.
• Add one cup flour to the bowl; add the starter and mix together, adding only enough additional water so that you can knead this into a small ball. Should be about the texture of french bread dough. No need to work very long, just be sure that the flour is hydrated and the starter is evenly distributed.
• Place dough in small bowl sprayed with non-stick cooking oi, turn dough once and cover with plastic; allow to rise until doubled in size, approximately 4 hours.
• Place in the refrigerator overnight.
• NEXT DAY:.
• Remove the firm starter from the refrigerator and cut into about 10 small pieces with a pastry scraper. Mist with non-stick spray, cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let sit for 1 hour to take off the chill from the dough.
• To a large mixing bowel stir together the flour and salt.
• With a large spoon, stir in the starter pieces and enough water to bring everything together into a ball.
• Hand Kneading: Sprinkle counter lightly with flour and knead for 12 to 15 minutes.
• Kitchen Aid Mixer: Sprinkle dough lightly and knead with DOUGH HOOK for 4 minutes on medium-low speed; allow dough to rest for 5-10 minutes, and then mix for another 4 minutes.
• Additions such as garlic, nuts or cheese, should be added during the last two minutes of mixing.
• With both methods, adjust the flour and water as needed. The dough should be firm but tacky, like firm French bread dough. The temperature of the bread dough should be between 77º and 81º F.
• Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling around to coat with oil.
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to ferment at room temperature for 3 to 4 hours, or until dough has doubled in size.
• Gently remove the dough from the bowl and divide into 2 equal parts (approximately 22 oz. each), being careful not to degas the dough.
• Gently shape dough into a boule, baguette, batard or rolls.
• Proof the dough in bannetons or proofing bowls, or on parchment-lined sheet pans that have been dusted with semolina flour or cornmeal.
• Mist the exposed part of the dough with spray oil and loosely cover the dough with a towel or plastic wrap.
• At this point you can either proof the loaves until doubles (2 to 3 hours), or retard overnight in the refrigerator. Or you may wish to do as I do, bake one now and retard the other for tomorrow.
• If retarding, remove them from the refrigerator approximately 4 hours before you plan to bake them.
• BAKING:.
• Place baking stone on middle shelf.
• Place oven-proof skillet or broiler pan in bottom of oven to use as a steam pan. (*I use a cast iron skillet,but a broiler pan will work just fine.).
• Preheat oven 500º F.
• Ten minutes before baking remove plastic covers.
• Carefully move dough to peel dusted with cornmeal or semolina flour.
• Score the top of the dough.
• Slide the dough onto preheat baking stone.
• Pour 1 cup hot water into the steam pan and close the door.
• After 30 seconds spray the oven walls with water and close the door (careful not to spray glass window).
• Repeat twice more at 30 second intervals.
• After the final spray reduce the temperature to 450º F and bake for 20-30 minutes or until the loaves are done.
• The centers should register 200º in the center on an instant read thermometer.
• When done they will be a rich golden brown and sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.
• Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack and cool for 45 minutes before slicing.

WILD YEAST SOURDOUGH STARTER

Steps:

• I bought whole wheat berries at the health food store and ground my own flour in a coffee grinder from them because I wanted the yeast on the flour to be really fresh, but this probably isn't really necessary. The pre-ground flour at the health food store is probably quite fresh, also, and you can buy very small quantities in bulk.
• DAY ONE: Mix 2 Tablespoons whole grain flour and 2 Tablespoons pineapple juice. Stir well, cover and let sit for 24 hours at room temperature.
• DAY TWO: Add 2 Tablespoons whole grain flour and 2 Tablespoons pineapple juice. Stir well, cover and let sit another 24 hours at room temperature. You may, or may not start to see small bubbles at this point.
• DAY THREE: Add 2 Tablespoons whole grain flour and 2 Tablespoons pineapple juice. Stir well and let sit 24 hours at room temperature.
• DAY FOUR: Stir mixture and measure out 1/4 cup--discard the rest. To the 1/4 cup, stir in 1/4 cup unbleached AP flour and 1/4 cup water. Let sit 24 hours at room temperature.
• REPEAT Day Four until mixture expands to double its size and smells yeasty. Mixture may start to bubble after a couple of days and then go flat and look totally dead for a couple more days. If this happens, at about Day 6 add the 1/4 teaspoons vinegar with your daily feeding. This will lower the PH and wake up the yeast, which will then start to grow.
• Once the yeast starts growing, starter should be fed equal parts of flour and water in a quantity sufficient to make enough starter for your recipe. Store the starter in the refrigerator when you are not using it. It needs to be fed equal parts flour and water once a week to keep it alive. Either use or discard at least half of it when feeding--THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT to maintian a healthy starter! If you forget to feed it for a few weeks, it probably will be fine but may take several feedings to get it back up to par.