Monday, September 13, 2010

Capturing Wild Yeast From Grapes –Sourdough Bread

A year ago I captured wild yeast from my organic grapes. It has been over a year since we have bought a loaf of bread. This “wild” sourdough is wonderful. It makes a mild sourdough bread and working with this yeast is so easy. Because this dough raises using a natural sourdough starter, it is very low in the glycemic index. Meaning, it helps keep your insulin in balance. I have really simplified the making of this bread. I use a heavy duty mixer with a dough hook.
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This bread was made with `100% whole wheat. I like mixing the flours, using a whole wheat white variety made by King Arthurs Flour. I buy the flour at Safeway.
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For this batch of bread I used whole wheat flours and a little bit of unbleached (I was running out of flours) It all works. Sometimes I use rye flours.  It is important to use an instant read thermometer.  I make sure it reads 200 degrees.  Gauging breads doneness by “smell” will not give you the best results.
Here is how it works.  About once a week I pull out my starter from the refrigerator. I take about 1 cup of the starter and put it into my large electric mixer bowl. To the starter I add about 1 of water and as much whole wheat as needed to make a batter.  Every couple of times I move the starter into another clean glass bowl. I return the refreshed starter to the refrigerator.
To the large mixing bowl with the cup of starter I add 4 cups of water. I add 1/3 cup brown sugar (you can use honey, molasses) I also add 1/3 cup light tasting olive oil. Now add flour, enough to make a wet batter. Cover the mixer bowl with a plate. Let set on the kitchen counter for 5 hours or more. Your goal is that the starter will become stronger. The mix will become filled with bubbles.  Now before I go to bed, I put the mixer bowl into the mixer. Add 2 teaspoons salt and using the dough hooks add as much flour as possible. Let the mixer “knead” the dough. You want dough to be stretchy.  Grab a little ball of dough and stretch it out with your fingers. You should be able to make an almost translucent window with the dough. Kneading the dough develops the gluten. When working with whole grains, you want to do a lot of kneading.
I line 3 bread pans with parchment paper.  Turn the dough onto a floured counter top. Divide into 3 clumps.  Finish adding as much flour as you can into each clump of dough. Turn dough into parchment lined bread pans.  Place pans in a cool oven to rise until morning.  In the morning, take the pans out of the cool oven.  Preheat the over to about 380 and bake for 40 to 45 minutes.  Test for temperature. Cool on a baking rack. I freeze 2 of the breads.
Recap of ingredients:  1 Cup Starter, 4 cups water, 1/3 C Brown Sugar, 1/3 C Olive Oil, 2 teaspoons salt. About 2 1/2 pounds of flours.  This recipe makes 3 loaves of bread. The bread is heavy, taste good and can be sliced thin without crumbling.  If your mixer is not heavy-duty you will want to cut down the ingredients and make one or two loaves.
You might want to make a more traditional sourdough bread with a thick chewy crust and textured with big holes. I made this bread using unbleached flour. The night before I took about 2 tablespoons of starter and added flour until it made a thick dough instead of a batter. I covered it, left it out overnight and in the morning added a bit of oil and more flour and made the bread. While this bread taste good and is fun to eat it really does lack substance.

Last night I took about a cup of starter added another cup of water and enough whole wheat flour to make a thick dough. I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and left it on the counter. This steps helps make more of the sourdough flavor. My usual bread is quite mild.  In the morning I added more water, a couple of tablespoons each of oil and sugar and a couple scant teaspoons of salt. I added more whole grain, some rye flour and a bit of unbleached flour. I gave it two raises. This evening I baked it. Yum! Lot of flavor! Not too sourdough and not too mild. The bit of rye come through and great texture.  Ted  says "I hope you can remember how to make this one a second time."  No problem!

15 comments:

  1. Dear Gloria, That you have not bought a loaf of bread for a year or more is amazing. How wonderful to have home baked bread at all times, not only because it is so much healthier and tastier, but also because, I am convinced, it is so much better for one. Added to that you have the delicious smell of its baking. Ted is a very lucky man!

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  2. Yummy! Your helpful post makes me long for the days when I baked my own bread. ;>)

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  3. I was brought up with my mum and grandma making their own bread - sadly they didn't pass their love of breadmaking unto me. I can remember the smell wafting through the hallway from the kitchen. I used to love having the crust of the homemade bread. Ted is very fortunate to have such lovely bread each day.

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  4. Dear Edith, thank you. I am sure that this bread is much more healthier than store bought. It is amazing that the yeast was captured from our grapes. That makes it special. Each sourdough culture is different due to the combination of the good bacteria in it.

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  5. Hi Carol - yes, it is yummy. When you first make bread it is hard to leave it alone!

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  6. Hi Rosie - yes the crust is the most yummy! I like to taste the bread before it has butter on it. A good bread will have flavor of it's own.

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  7. It sounds wonderful. I am gluten intolerant,so can't eat bread, and the only thing I really miss is sourdough!

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  8. Wow Gloria. I can almost smell those loaves! They look delicious. Ive been teaching myself breadbaking but have never tried a sourdough - you've inpsired me!

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  9. Connie, so sorry! It seems more and more persons are discovering that they cannot handle gluten. I think the very slow rising of this bread and the natural probiotics make it a bit easier to digest for those who can eat gluten.

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  10. freerangegirl - if you have access to organic grapes, try making your own natural sourdough. I put a link about the process in the beginning of my post. I hope to keep my culture many years. In the past, I had tried other sourdough cultures, but I really like this one.

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  11. Oh! Another bread baker! Great looking loaves Gloria. We don't buy bread any more either, baking loaves here 2-3 times a week instead. I started our current sourdough starter a couple of years ago, after my last one died of unsupervised neglect after the move. My neighbor started a La Brea Bakery grape yeast starter, and I made mine using just dark rye flour and water. I couldn't believe how much work her starter was in the beginning, but it was sweetly aromatic when it was first ready to bake with. However, when we compared the breads recently against each other, more than a year later, grape versus rye starter, you can't discern a palatable difference in flavor when they're used in the same recipe. Over time, with as often as sourdough is fed, the yeast from the grapes is gradually replaced by the natural wild yeasts in the flour, and just in the air where you live. That's in large part why sourdoughs have such diversity in flavor (assuming no additives like citric acid), as it largely depends on where they were made.

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  12. Hi Clare- How exciting to find another dedicated bread maker. It really is easy once you have it down. Do you make your bread the same way I do? I'd love to have your favorite recipe.

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  13. Oooh it looks yummy. I will have to try this myself . I've tried making other soughdough cultures but the've never lasted. I hope I can find organic grapes.

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  14. Melanie, this is grape season. Hopefully, someone has some growing in their backyard or there are some wild grapes somewhere in the woods.

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  15. Melanie, PS: you only need about 2 cups of grapes.

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