Can I tutochki, with the permission of Viki, I'll post my experience. Maybe someone will come in handy
When growing a starter culture, questions arise, but they are nothing compared to those that arise during its application. "Bread Maker" site is just wonderful. But this is a forum, there is no article here - "do this, and you will have this and that", but there is a lot of invaluable experience, practical application and savvy developments
I grew my second Frenchwoman at 26-27 degrees (this is our room temperature). Everything went like clockwork.
The question arose about loaves. I wrote out a bunch of recipes, googled on "Breadmaker",
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And here are my modest developments:
To understand how sourdough works, you can start with the simplest recipe:
starter cultures - 340 gr
flour - 400 gr
water - 200 gr (I added 230, I like softer dough - this way more airy, porous bread turns out)
salt - 1.5 - 2 tsp.
Optional - sugar - 1 tbsp. l., oil - 1 tbsp. l.
1) in the morning I take 1 tbsp. l. starter culture (20 - 25 grams) - mature, well-risen, filled with bubbles, slightly sour taste. I breed 50 gr. water, whip with a fork "without fanaticism" (thanks to Viki, otherwise I would have scored my poor thing). I add the remaining 100 grams of water. I mix well. It turns out a whitish liquid without pieces of dough. I add 150 grams of flour - wheat flour of the highest or first grade. Stir until smooth. This is the future leaven. I leave it at room temperature (I have 26-27 degrees) until the evening. In total, I have it ready in 10 hours. If it is on the windowsill - the temperature is 23-25 degrees - 12 hours. If it is cooler, even longer. If it is colder in your house, it makes sense to add more "starter" - the initial starter culture. Not 1 tbsp. l., and 2-3 tbsp. l. The leaven will also ferment faster. In any case, I focus on its consistency, volume and taste. A good ripe sourdough is raised twice (for good visibility I use transparent containers, I have a liter jar on which I marked 50 ml marks with a marker, and I will add sourdough to bread in it). It is porous, raised with a hat, and has a slightly sour taste (I always try it).
Why it is important to use a good sourdough - I understood from my own bitter experience: the unfermented and fermented do not raise bread well, the crumb is dull. Fermented also gives the bread a sour taste - no sweetness of wheat bread
So, the leaven is ready:
2) I take the leaven, stir it with a fork in 200 (230) grams of water. I add 400 grams of flour. Stir until flour is wet. I leave the great dough for 20-30 minutes.
I take a mixer (I am now kneading the dough with it), sprinkle the dough with salt and sugar on top. I'm starting to knead. After a while I add some oil. It turns out to knead not very long (I'm lazy).
3) I spread the dough on the board, fold in a circle in the middle of the edge. A ball is formed. I put it in a greased bowl. Proofing - 3 hours or until doubled.
I set this time for myself by rereading many different recipes. So far, it suits me and falls under the "2 times increase".
4) I take out the dough. I flatten it a little. For round bread, fold the edges in the middle again. I turn it over, roll it up with my hands so that it is rounder. I put it in a greased bowl, seam up.Proofing - 2 hours, or again - until doubled. If I doubt the timing, I use the "typing" method: slightly press with your finger. If the hole rises quickly, it did not reach it; if it doesn’t rise, it has stopped. If it rises slowly but surely - ready!
5) 20 - 30 minutes before planting the bread, I heat up the oven with a 6 liter cauldron at the highest temperature. The bread came up, I put it on baking paper, and on it - into the cauldron, cover it with a lid, into the oven. I reduced the gas to 200 degrees and forgot it for 15 minutes (there is a good timer, you don't have to worry). After 15 minutes I remove the lid and bake without it for 35 minutes.
The finished bread is light, toasted, if you knock on the bottom - the sound is definite (as if you knock on the surface, behind which there is emptiness).
It's in the oven.
In the bread maker - the same thing.
I put salt in the bucket, then flour. Stir the leaven with water and pour over the flour. I have Panasonic, so the dry components are down. But sometimes I do the opposite. Does not affect the result. I put a program that immediately makes a batch (any - I use "dumplings"). After kneading, I turn off the bread maker and leave it for 3 hours. When the bread has risen twice, you can put on the "baking" program - 1 hour - 1 hour 15 minutes. It is better to set the time longer and then turn it off when necessary, than to set it less, and it will not be enough.
If I do not have time or want to leave the bread maker "unattended", then I add half a portion of yeast (in this recipe - 3/4 - 1 tsp. Dry), set the main program and go to do my own thing.
How do I store:
I take a little - less than half a teaspoon of a good mature sourdough, mix it with 20 grams of water (1 tablespoon), add 20 grams of flour (the same is about 1 tablespoon). I leave it on the windowsill (about 25 degrees) for 12 hours. After this time, I again take half a teaspoon…. I throw away the rest. But more often I leave my daughter - she adores her and begs her every day. You can give it to animals, you can dry it and then add it to yeast bread, you can store and bake waffles - that's how anyone likes, and for this there is a whole topic on the forum.
If I make a little more and twice as thick - for 1 part of water - 2 parts of flour, then I keep it warm for 1 hour and put it on the balcony for 3 days. There I have 12 - 15 degrees. But I check it every day, because the temperature is not stable, and the leaven may rise earlier. If you leave it, it will peroxide.
That is, the feeding regime is as follows: at 25 degrees - 2 times a day in a ratio of 1: 4: 4, 1: 5: 5 (leaven: water: flour), at 12 degrees - 3 days in a ratio of 1: 4: 8
Once a week I make a "full dressing": a drop of honey and a little rye flour. This is very useful for the leaven. Also, once a week, you can (or you can not do) softening - for a small part of the leaven, most of the water and flour are taken - 1:10:10. Such a procedure is carried out with a "crusty-sad" leaven, or simply to maintain tone. It turns out that I use a large proportion of sourdough for bread. Therefore, I do not rejuvenate
I always feed it with premium wheat flour. In the first grade, the sourdough ripens faster, and with the addition of rye flour or whole grain flour even faster. You have to watch the flour very carefully. There was once a case when the leaven did not like the flour, it became sad with it. When I changed the flour, it began to grow again, as if nothing had happened.
With my sourdough I bake not only wheat bread, but also pure rye and whole grain bread. For this I feed the starter with rye or whole grain flour. It is especially noted that whole grain feeding should be carried out with budded sourdough. That is, you need to select part of the sourdough and feed it with whole grain flour, and keep the other part in "pure form". This is done because whole grain flour is full of its own bacteria and they can drown out starter cultures, spoil our starter culture.
I collected all this information bit by bit on the forum, here and there. There are a lot of useful things - from Viki, Raisin, Arka, Admin and many, many other members of the forum. Something, of course, I forgot and did not write.
There are a lot of little things that become common with experience, made on the machine, and are not reflected in any recipe. But to a person who is just going to start the leaven or just brought it out, they do not seem self-evident, but seem very complicated. And so it was.
Good luck to all yeast breeders !!!!!
