Always baking

True to my self-imposed nickname I'm a weekend baker.

Every Wednesday night I take the sourdough out of the refrigerator and feed it. Thursday morning, Thursday night and Friday morning I feed it again. Every Friday night I make two batches of sourdough bread with my slow-rise technique. Every Saturday morning I wake up, pre-heat the oven and shape & proof the loaves.

This sort of routine has almost turned into a ritual. Last night I recited my recipe (listed on the right) from memory for my wife who was helping me mix the batch. There's something very satisfying about the smell of fresh baked bread to me. Cutting into the loaf and savoring the complex aromas and flavor that I coax from just four ingredients.

I may not be a weekend blogger, but I am and always will be a weekend baker.

-Matt the weekend baker

Sourdough Starter Rising

Just a bit of fun today. This is what Sourdough Starter looks like while it's rising. There are many factors that go into cultivating a good sourdough starter, time, temperature, food, water...

As Mike Avery shows on his http://www.sourdoughhome.com/ blog:
Time & Temperature are interdependent.



When I made the time-lapse video above my kitchen was approximately 75 degrees Fahrenheit (next time I'll display a thermometer). You can tell about 4.5 hours in (about 10am) the doubling had completed (the green rubber band is where it started).

I have such a long rise time (12-13 hours) because I can't come home from work in the middle of the day to refresh & feed the starter. So I compensate for the fast doubling time by increasing the ratio of flour & water to starter when feeding.

Most starter feed schedules call for doubling, I actually quadruple to keep the starter at it's fully doubled position for the 12-13 hours I use in my schedule. You can tell at the very end of the video that if I let it go for much longer (4 more hours) it would go 'flat' and eventually return to it's original level.

Go ahead, give it a try - it's not as hard as you think it is, my simple-to-follow instructions and schedule are in this post: http://matts-bread-log.blogspot.com/2008/08/weekly-sourdough-starter-schedule.html

-Matt the Weekend Baker

Weekly Sourdough Starter Schedule

Timing is EVERYTHING with sourdough starters & bread. Here's my weekly schedule to produce some great loaves each weekend:

Wed 2100 - Take sourdough out of the refrigerator

Thur 0500 - Feed Sourdough (stir, save 1/4 cup, add 1 cup water, 1 cup AP flour, stir)
Thur 1900 - Feed Sourdough (13h) (save 1/4 cup, add 1 cup water, 1 cup AP)

Fri 0800 - Feed Sourdough (13h) (save 1/4 cup, add 1 cup water, 1 cup AP)
Fri 2100 - Mix dough & Feed Sourdough (13h) - 100g used per loaf

Sat 0940 - Turn on oven to 450 with Dutch-Oven
Sat 1000 - Flour & kneed dough and let rest, Store Sourdough in the refrigerator
Sat 1030 - Transfer dough to Dutch-Oven and score
Sat 1100 - Remove lid from Dutch-Oven
Sat 1115 - Remove loaf from Dutch-Oven and rest on a wire rack
(Let cool completely)
Sat 1400 - Eat! (save any left-overs in a ziplock freezer bag, should be good for 5 days).

Enjoy!
-Matt the Weekend Baker