From the category archives:

Wild Yeast

Converting bread recipes from commercial yeast to sourdough (wild yeast)

March 20, 2010

After much research, I learned that a good amount of sourdough starter is about 10 to 20% of the flour weight in fermented flour. … I like easy math. :) Let’s say you use this recipe to make bread: 1000 grams flour (about 10 cups, depending on how you measure flour) 650 grams water (2 3/4 cups) 20 grams salt (4 teaspoons) 2 packages dry yeast And let’s say your sourdough starter is 100% hydration (that is, a 1:1 ratio of flour to water by weight), then, with a 20% fermented flour target in mind, I would use this: 800 grams flour (1000-200, since I want 20% or 200 grams of the flour to be fermented in the sourdough starter) 450 grams water (650-200 because the starter is equal amounts of water and flour) 400 grams sourdough starter (200 grams flour + 200 grams water) 20 grams salt You can use less sourdough starter than 10% fermented flour for sure. … As well, fermented flour has gluten that’s been overdeveloped (gluten develops naturally when flour becomes wet), which isn’t a problem when the fermented flour is used at low amounts, but when a lot of fermented flour is used, it can’t support the dough properly, hence the ugly dimples and inability to rise.

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Kaiser Soze Rolls

October 17, 2009

I think "life is an experiment" is a phrase I take way too seriously. I needed a recipe for buns – I’d been craving a Subway meatball sub, and since the nearest Subway is in India, I figured the only way I was going to get a meatball sub would be to make my own. [...]

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Wild Yeast Coccodrillo Ciabatta Bread

September 19, 2009

On the Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge Twitter stream, there was a discussion about ciabatta breads and how the one in Peter Reinhart’s book wasn’t very wet, which also meant it couldn’t achieve the truly large holes that most people look for in ciabatta bread. @misterrios said: @LMAshton @gaaarp The one I normally make is the [...]

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Wild Yeast Naan

August 20, 2009

We sure do seem to go through a lot of flat breads in this house. Sometimes, it’s to go with Middle Eastern food, sometimes Indian or Sri Lankan, sometimes Mexican. I have a few different types of flat breads I make, depending on what else I’m making, and this is one of my favourites. The [...]

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Mutant Cinnamon Buns

March 29, 2009

One of the adventurous aspects of using sourdough as leaven instead of monoculture commercial yeast is that sourdough takes a bit longer to rise. And, to make matters slightly more complicated, how long it takes to rise can vary considerably. When it’s cool, cool for me being, say, 28C/82F, it takes longer for the bread [...]

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