Hi I'm new to the forum. I'm a homebaker and I bake all my bread. Recently I started making sourdough bread. They were OK:
Now I realized that the recipies are different.
I was doing like this:
Take the starter out of the fridge,
Mix in flour and water requiered,
Wainting overnight (it's cold),
Mixing in whatever I want , salt, sunflower kernels etc.,
Baking.
Sometimes the less traditional ways have disadvantages like they are more difficult to digest or whatever.
Should I always activate the dough first with a cupful of flour and the make the dough or is the above recipie OK as well?
I mix/kned always with the handmixer (I do it woth yeast breads as well)
My sourdough is a wheat sourdough.
I'm looking forward for any critics!
Category:
Replies
Welcome, fernanda!
We don't know how 'alive' your starter is to begin with but, generally, my starters which are kept in the fridge are slumbering and need to be refreshed once, if not twice, to be in peak condition. You said after mixing, you leave the bread to ferment overnight and you added a little note 'it's cold'. May I suggest that perhaps your starter is not perked up enough and as such takes longer to work. Do you have any pix to show? Would like to see the crumb.
Another thing is...I'm amazed that you use a handmixer to knead bread. Wow.
Hi, I tried it now a bit more recipe-like: sourdough out of the fridge and a cup of flour/water and the result was better.
Here in Australia I am making wheat sourdough and my husband who always disliked rye sourdough likes it (well ,he generally does not eat bread)
What is strange with the hand mixer?? It's the really quickest thing I made all my yeast doughs etc like that and it does take 5 minutes. I bake every bread on my own I can't find real bread here.
Nothing wrong with the handmixer if it works for you. From my experience (not as much as yours I suppose), kneading bread requires a firm stand mixer, if not, how can the hook grip the dough? I think if I were to use a handmixer, I'd be doing a tango with the dough and bowl. Perhaps I just don't have strong arms....
Fernanda,
Is your handmixer like mine? It's a white plastic "trough", into which fits a long shaft shaped like a camshaft (a cylinder with a bump on it). It has a long white handle which you turn by hand.
It's Australian, but I have forgotten the brand name. Does a good job, but you need to make sure it is firmly fixed to the bench.
Cheers, Tony
Fernanda and bibtracker, do you have a pix or a link? I've very limited experience with handmixers and those which I have encountered are pretty flimsy contraptions. Both of you seem to be talking about an entirely different animal. Thanks.