A newbie

Jeffe

Good Morning;
...from paradise, as I call it. That's S. Central Texas for those of you not in the know. I have lived here for over 30 years and still love it!! A great accolade from one who was born with the wander-lust. :)

As I have said somewhere on this site during my first hours here, I am 67, have 2 lovely daughters 17 & 12.....wife is 20 yrs. my jr. a retired pro. baker. Bread was her specialty. I am proud of her, she was the youngest head baker ever for Sweetish Hill in Austin, Tx. She was 21 at the time!!

I love to cook, and think I am pretty dang good at it....have not done much baking, for obvious reasons :). To bad, we have a double Blodgett standing in our kitchen. Well, I am going to rectify that with my new venture...I am on day 3 of a newly started sour dough starter....am excited about that. Trying to do this on my own, though will certainly call the wife in if/when I screw up.

Also have successfully made my first really good pie crust. Have tried 2 or 3 times and failed....this time I hit it on the nail. Was excellent. Did some kind of rolls of the dough with our homemade Habanero-Peach jelly in the center (yes I am a Pepper Belly. I make a oak smoked Habanero pepper flake that is to die for!).

At this point I was going to insert a couple of photos of my wife's bread. However, can make no heads or tales of the inst. in format for doing so....do I have to write out enitrely what is there to post an image I place on the web, or just the url? I am computer saavy, but up to a point. My older daughter and wife or consumate....the wife can build your site, host it, put a store on it,etc. Often for some things she even gets input from my 17 yr. old...both are a whiz at Photo Shop.

Okay, more to do then have to get at my day....a good time to all! Keep your fingers out of the oven!! :") Jeff

Replies

TeckPoh's picture
TeckPoh 2009 April 21

...and wifey, I think I should add...since she's THE main baker, eh?

Your mornin' is the siteowner's snoozetime, so, I'm afraid you'll have to wait, say, 6 hours or so, before you get help posting your pix. I know all of us are just dying to see them!

G'luck with your starter!

TP

Jeffe 2009 April 21

She is the main baker, but I'm trying this on my own. Like I said, I certainly won't hesitate to go to her for advice or to fix screw-ups.

She is amazing, can tell what's wrong by thumping or smelling the bread. We go into restaurants, they bring rolls or bread...I eat it, my wife sits there tearing it apart, litterally! :)J.

Jeffe 2009 April 21

Suppose the moniker 'newbie' explains it all....so I shall ask what you all mean by hydration percentages? The amount of wetness? If so, still, how can you tell that percentage, by eye?

Why so we use grams and cc, etc.? I am making a conversion chart for self, but still wonder? Are so many of you 'fureigners.' (attempt at levity)?
:) Jeff

Millciti's picture
Millciti 2009 April 21

Jeffe,

Are you able to put your pics in your gallery? We are working on getting Maedi up to speed on problems and issues we are currently having. If you can post them there, I can help walk you through the next part.

There are some really good reasons to use grams, and percentages are one of them. Hydration is the level of water to flour in starter. If you use 100g of flour and 100g of water your starter will be 100% hydrated.

Confusing at first to us in the U.S.- in aussie terms (yanks), but really not that bad for bread bakeing. And you thought no-one would ever call a Texan a YanK, didn't you! :)

Terri

Jeffe 2009 April 21

Only one I would let call me a yank!! That would be down under. :):)

My wife and oldest are computer genusii. Don't fret or spend time on me, they can help I know. Thank you for your response...now I realize where this site is coming from, duh!!

In future, I will give you time for the night's recharge. :) J.

Maedi's picture
Maedi 2009 April 22

Hey Jeff,

Great to hear from you! Regarding photos:

Please go to the Gallery and then click the 'Your album' link located in the top right of the page. From there you can upload a photo to your album. I've also written a tutorial.

Or feel free to send your photos to me: [email protected] and I'll put them up for you in this post.

In the future, I plan to make this whole process much simpler. There will be an 'Upload photo' field when posting.

Best wishes,
Maedi

Jeffe 2009 April 24

Me again! I appreciate your patience with the newbie! I will wean myself a.s.a.p. I am trying not to draw on the expertise of my wife. Besides, had a bad fall a year ago, unfortunately I have some extra time here and there so want to do this as much by self as possible.

One thing I have been doing is making my daughters breakfast on the go in the a.m. They would rather have a coke and let it go at that!!!~ Well, I have been successful so far, fixing them Pancetta, putting same on store bought toatsed eng. muffins, etc.

I am in process of making sour dough starter. I want to make buscuits with the 'throw off' from the starter when I rejuvenate the process every 24 hours. Can you pass on a good recipe for breakfast biscuits? How do I incorporate the starter slush in place of b. soda? Is this possible?

thanks - have a great day!! :)J

p.s. I will post some pics soon.....thanks

Jerry 2009 April 24

I have been baking for a really long time with yeast and have tried many times to
make sourdough bread. I ordered starter from KA and read everything I could find on the web but could never produce anything but a heavy dense inedible loaf.

I recently rediscovered no knead bread on YouTube and have been making really good artisan bread (using yeast) in my dutch oven for a couple of months now. In surfing the site I found a recipe that had adapted the recipe for sourdough bread.

So I decided to try to resurrect my old starter - way over a year old - sitting in the back of my fridge. I discarded most of it, fed it and kept it on the counter for probably a week, discarding most and adding flour and spring water a couple of time a day until one day I had the only active starter I've ever seen.

In making the dough I used 1/4 cup of starter instead of yeast in the regular no knead recipe. I got a very nice boule but it was a little on the sour side. I assume that was because I left it on the counter so long.(?) I fed the starter and refrigerated it.

Today I decided to bake bread in a Romertopf clay pot - using dough I started last evening - and it worked beautifully. My starter is so active I had to make the bread early this morning because the dough was fully risen after 10 hours.

If there's a lesson to be learned from all this this it's how to recognize an active starter when you see one.

I'm happy to find this website, discovered while searching for a french lame, and am looking forward to more baking adventures. Thanks for being here.

Jerry 2009 April 24

I meant to post this on the website. I did enjoy your blog, though, and will continue to follow it. I'm a 76 year old guy who loves to bake and was delighted to find a young fella of 67 who wants to bake good bread. My wife is happy with my baking but isn't crazy about my new sourdough. I've got to figure out how to sweeten it up a bit. I'm sure that someone will give me some advice before long.

Never thought about sourdough biscuits. I'll be following that story.

Maedi's picture
Maedi 2009 April 24

Hi Jerry. Thanks for signing up, and if I can help you with anything, just ask. Would you like me to move your posts over to your blog?

Jeffe 2009 April 24

Ah, another ol' fart! Too often anymore, I'm the oldest one at the scene! LOL.

Yes, biscuits, and pancakes, that sort of thing. I read somewhere in my searches recently, probably here, when one is starting a new starter, one needs to extract 90% or so each day at a certain period. It smells so good and is somewhat active, I can hardly bring myself to throw it away!! Besides, where? The toilet? Not a good mind set for potentially good food - outside? We live in the country, and would be inundated with every stray dog and raccoon for miles if I started dumping flour juice outside LOL. So why not use it in food? Like biscuits or pancakes, idea being it is surely active enough to propel that kind of food, for they don't need a lot of rise.....I would guess one should be prepared to let the dough set longer for same amount of rise with bake soda, as in biscuits for ex. Make sense? I am one of those who will search for an answer, but if one isn't forthcoming fairly soon, will jump right in! I'll keep you posted if I jump, what happened.

Good times to you! :) Jeff

Millciti's picture
Millciti 2009 April 25

Not much time to chat now, but for an interesting read and some ideas about biscuits...and other native breads. Check out post #10, John Downs gave me a rough guide for trail biscuits.

http://sourdough.com/forum/damper

You can find the discussion by just searching for damper on this website.

I have been experimenting with scones and biscuits... I mostly add some portion of active liquid (120%+hydration) starter and cut the other liquids or leave them out. I also tend to cut the amount of soda/baking powder called for. It also seems to help if you cover them with a towel and let them rest/rise for a little while (30-45min), before you bake them.

Just remember that in Ozzie terms - biscuit usually means cookie in the U.S.

Also for Jerry try to find my recipe for ED Woods Sourdough Oatmeal bread. It makes a good mild tender loaf and uses cups for measure.

Terri

Jeffe 2009 April 25

Brownsville is way South, at the most Southern tip of paradise, next to Mexico. We are nearly center of the State. Brown. is at least a 5 hr. drive. I would like to go there often if it were closer...fantastic surf fishing!! :)J

Millciti's picture
Millciti 2009 April 25

I was in Texas twice but never traveled enough to get my bearings. The first time I lived near Tyler. I was there with Youth with a mission in the late 70's. Then when I was in the Navy, I was stationed in San Angelo for about 8 months and finally got to see the Alamo. You are probably closer to that area, near Houston. I remember more of Tyler it was hilly there and I remember the flowering blue grass and lovely pine trees. I remember they considered Tyler - East Texas. We spent a lot of time in Brownsville on Outreach to Matamoros Mexico.

Terri

Jeffe 2009 April 25

us. Tyler is N.W. of us, to the East of Dallas...we are 'bout 5 hours S. of Dallas. Now you said San Angelo, and you finally got to see the Alamo. Did you really mean San Antonio? Lot of military there, lots......Alamo is there also. :):)

San Angelo is 4-5 hours due West of us....San Antonio is a quick 90 minutes due South. We enjoy San Antonio...have been there a bunch. We like to go there and play. Know a couple of clean cheap motels...we stay a day or two on the weekend, visit the Alamo, other places we have come to find, eat great food, go to the zoo, etc. Always a lot of fun. For years I had a Jug Band, got to be pretty good, we were invited to S.A. each year for the Folk Life Festival....played there for 8 years running....what a hoot!

Now if you ever come back this way, remember you know someone in Bastrop that can show you the sites. Austin is the finest large city in the world...I have been in a few but none like it...and the food, and the music!!! Incomparable.

For me it is goodnight...early for a weekend night, but my body is aching, have a problem tooth, am miserable....gonna take one of those magic pills I have, take a shower and go to bed.

Good night to downunder!! :) Jeff

Millciti's picture
Millciti 2009 April 25

Okay I think you may have misunderstood something... Our ID's used to always tell you where we were, but Maedi has been updating the site. Some functions have been temporarily stripped out while he was moving stuff around, and some may be gone forever. But if you click on my name (millciti) you can see my profile, that will give you some idea who you are talking to, and where we are really from. Tech Po is in Malaysia and I am in Ohio. Maedi who designed the site is in Australia as well as Graham and many others.

So as much as I like Australia and really want to go there someday... I unfortunately really am a Yank! Yes I really did mean to say San Antonio - it was pretty late for me too. Actually I think Texas is bigger than Australia :D Just kidding!!! Australia is just slightly smaller than all 48 contiguous states -including Texas!

Terri

Jeffe 2009 April 26

Well, this doesn't have much to do with sour dough, but you have hit upon something. Tex. is larger than Australia....larger than anyone thinks. This is a purposeful deception. We don't want anyone to know how large and powerful Tx. is, as we plan to become an international country in a short while. If we let it be none we are what we are, the U.S. federal govt. would bleed us dry in 24 hours. LOLOL.

My 17 yr. old daughter has a black t-shirt that says; " I like you. When I take over the world your death will be quick and painless." LOLOL

Your safe, though, my wife has family in Ohio. I don't really care (see t-shirt quote), but she likes them.
:)J.

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