I'm a sourdough beginner following recipes. One recipe used 500g fermented soy milk in the starter. I googled it and learned that fermented soy milk is made using lactic acid. I've been making kombucha (fermented tea using a fungus to produce lactic acid) for years. Well why not put the fungus into the soy milk to ferment it, I thought. It worked! I left it to ferment for a day and found a new fungus starting to grow on top the next morning. I made my starter using a rye levain and all went well. Does anyone else use a different method to ferment soy milk? And should I have fermented it longer than one day?
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Sorry don't have the answer about fermenting soy milk, but since you are saying that all went well, then I would think, that's what counts! Several times I have put a kombucha scoby into coconut water and made a most delicious fermented coconut drink.
I have also been brewing kombucha for years, and sometimes I add some kombucha to my sourdough. I don't add it to the starter, but use kombucha to replace some of the water when preparing the dough. Can't really tell the difference in the bread, but I like the idea of adding another ferment.
ist't it fun to experiment?
Sometimes I like to add some whole grains ( oat groats or rolled oats, rye, kamut etc.) to my breads, for different texture. I either pre-soak or sprout these grains first. Soaking, fermenting, or sprouting the grain before baking will neutralize the phytic acid, releasing nutrients for better absorption. It also makes for lighter texture. For pre-soaking it is recommended to add an acid medium such as kefir, buttermilk, or yoghurt, or apple cider vinegar to the water, to help with the process. . I use kombucha. pre-soak over night.
an interesting idea! Sprouting time will depend on temperature, but 4 hours for quinoa sounds very short to me. I usually rinse them really really well, several times, to get rid of the slippery stuff, then soak over night. Rinse again, then sprout for a day or two till I can see the little tails. Please keep us posted how it went with the quinoa sprouts in your sourdough.
I am thinking of adding soaked chia seeds next time. They are supposed to add moisture. Have done it with linseeds ( not soaked), or soaked sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.
Excitement mounting. Soaked and sprouted quinoa (half cup kombucha in the soak), whole spelt starter, mix of spelt and plain flour. Final rise taking place now.
Later... Woe is me! Because the recipe split the dough into three loaves I needed to use two oven racks. Halfway through baking I thought I had better swap them around and saw them collapse before my eyes. Ha! I imagine things like this will happen a few more times before I will no longer class myself as a beginner! They looked glorious though before I interfered. I will always have that memory I suppose.sorry about the collapse! And as you said , the memory will stay, as it has for me! I hardly dare to move the dough once it has gone through the final proving, at that point it is so very sensitive, a little shake and poof, it all sinks into itself.
Did my 1st experiment with using soaked gia seeds, also soaked pumpkin seeds, worked really well, the outsome is very pleasantly moist bread !