Hello everyone! I want to share with everyone my little experience of communication with leavens. How did it all start? Yes, with dissatisfaction with the received rye bread on dry yeast in a bread machine. I started looking for it and came across a leaven and, as always, realized that everything ingenious is simple !!! Today I have already baked the second bread, which turned out to be twice as large as the first one, exclusively on rye flour. I want to put here an excerpt I read on another site, I hope the authors will not be offended, I think it is very important for understanding the CREATION of the leaven:
Our daily bread. Part one.
It will be a long conversation - a conversation about bread. When I think of bread, then
I remember my profession, because only in thinking about homeopathy I
find the same deep symbolic connection between the material and the spiritual,
not theoretical and abstract, but simple, intelligible and definite, which has become
small facts. This is how music is written in notes, this is how feelings are expressed
hormonal background, so the microflora becomes the carrier of meanings.
Nobody needs to explain the symbolic meaning of bread - and if someone is
it is necessary to explain, then the real post is not worth reading, because it does not
self-evident things will be explained. In the end, even on
intuitively, we all understand the connection between bread and home, between
fermentation and the creation of a new life, between a woman's ability to create dough and
female maturity (note, by the way, in the margins the verb "create"). But there is
all these are some circumstances that are not known to everyone.
Note, first of all, that the so-called yeast, namely Saccharamyces
cerevisae were isolated and cultivated about 150 years ago, in
the infamous 19th century, which disfigured so much
many aspects of human life. The main purpose of industrial
yeast production was, as always, acceleration - long cycle,
needed full bread, did not suit the then rush, who
I wanted to ferment the flour unnaturally quickly and speed up the process to
one hour. Haste, as you know, is appropriate only when catching fleas,
therefore the great improvement ended very sadly, although
discovered this only a hundred years later.
Why is yeast bad?
It would be easier to ask what they are good for, except that they cause fermentation.
First of all, yeast is just one out of dozens of microorganisms,
who should participate in baking bread. And each of these
microorganisms have a role to play in fermenting the dough. The thing is that
raw flour is not very suitable for eating, it should be in
digested to a large extent by a variety of bacteria and fungi before
how it gets into our stomach. These are various types of yeast, and
acidophilic flora, and many other microorganisms. On such
flour processing takes time, usually quite long.
I will give just two examples from many possible ones. Everyone knows that
wheat bran stimulates intestinal peristalsis and rescues from constipation,
but not everyone knows that they are abrasive and can cause
chronic inflammation of the intestines with constant use precisely due to
its ability to stimulate the mucous membrane. When fermenting dough
with the help of all the necessary microflora, the bran lose their abrasive
properties and cease to lead to inflammation. This is not possible, unfortunately,
talk about an hour-long process in which only yeast is involved.
Wheat flour contains phytic acid, as we all know, and
phytic acid causes anemia, indigestion and nervous
diseases. What happens to her during fermentation?
Everything is quite predictable: a truncated cycle that takes place with the participation of only
yeast, retains 90% of the harmful substance, and full fermentation with
the participation of various microorganisms destroys 100% of phytic acid.
I will not go into all the details and mention the minerals that
released during natural fermentation, the breakdown of complex
carbohydrates and so on.
Let's take a look at the symbolic side of what is happening. Dough that
the mistress of the house creates, refuses to be full-fledged in industrial
replicated yeast fed with chemicals (note in the fields that
this yeast is extremely allergenic), because it is devoid of individuality and
too hastily fermented. No process in the world can happen
faster than it was conceived from above, and if it happens faster, then this
inevitably leads to a loss of quality and meaning - this is one of the sides
happening.
The other side is even more interesting.
The natural leaven, on which bread was baked for centuries, did not come from
some abstract sterile industrial place, she wandered and
matured on the microflora of this particular house and no other. So
the family received bread baked with their own bacteria and
fungi that carry information about the inhabitants of the house, its atmosphere, its properties,
that is, the bread that was truly the daily bread of this house and this family.
In the light of information theory, say in the fields, the exchange of microflora in general
plays the role of a bringing together factor - it is not in vain that we disdain to drink from one
glasses with a stranger and do not disdain with a friend, despite the fact that with a logical
point of view, a friend has exactly the same chances of being sick as
stranger. It is not in vain that the deepest intimacy between people implies
free exchange of body fluids. Not in vain disgust towards
body secretions seem synonymous with emotional distance.
It's high time to abandon the theory that dictates our disgust for
bacteria, and understand that human symbiosis with microflora is inevitable and
an extremely curious phenomenon, and many microorganisms carry the sea about us
information and quietly transmit it to the outside world or return it to us
by ourselves. Our microflora is us, these are our fingerprints. And bread
who ascended on it is our bread, this is flesh of flesh returning to
flesh.
Our daily bread. Part two.
In continuation of this post and by popular request of the most venerable
to the public, I decided to write about baking bread with homemade sourdough.
For both the leaven and the bread itself, it is important to use the highest quality
products. Wheat flour must be 100% whole grain, from organically
grown wheat, cold milled. No chemicals in wheat and
cold milling ensures that everything remains in the wheat flour
essential enzymes. In Israel, flour meets these requirements.
company "& # 1488; & # 1491; & # 1502; & # 1492;".
Don't put flour in the freezer - you will kill it! If you observe kosher, then
you know that halakha requires sifting flour so that it does not get into food
insects, but you may not know that attempts to deceive halakha with
freezers absolutely do not give anything - you still need flour
sift even if there are definitely no bugs in it, because
sifting enriches it with oxygen. In addition, during the manufacture
sourdough, and when kneading bread, flour and water should be warm, slightly
warmer than room temperature. The water should also not be chlorinated and
fluoridated - use regular bottled spring water.
1. Making a starter culture.
Sift half a glass of flour into a ceramic, glass or wooden bowl
and pour half a glass of water. Stir with a wooden spoon, cover
cotton or linen napkin and put in warm and well
ventilated place. If the temperature in the house is around 25-35
degrees, then any clean place will do. Leave for three days
stir daily. Pay attention to the materials from which you should
utensils to be made - contact with metal or plastic is unacceptable.
During these three days, the leaven must ferment - on its surface
foam or at least individual bubbles may appear, the smell should
change to yeast or fermented milk, but not putrid (if the smell
unpleasant or mold appears, then the leaven must be mercilessly poured out).
When the starter is ready, pour it into a glass jar with glass
lid and refrigerate.
From now on, the leaven does not require any maintenance, except weekly
feeding. 6-8 hours before baking bread, it must be removed from the refrigerator and
feed - add about half a glass of flour and water and leave to ferment
warm without a lid, covered with a napkin. This can be done directly at the bank, in
which the leaven lives. If you do not intend to bake bread this week, then
let the sourdough ferment and then pour in about a glass of liquid. If
you leave and cannot feed the starter, then it can be frozen for weeks
for three, then let her thaw and feed. If this procedure can be
avoid, then I would not advise freezing.
2. Baking bread.
Six to eight hours before kneading the bread, feed the sourdough and leave in
warm place. Remember that all proportions given here are valid for
my starter culture, but completely different yeast and
bacteria, so look at early attempts at baking bread as an experiment
and familiarity with the character of your own leaven, don't expect success with
the first time (although it is not excluded).
In a glass, ceramic, or wooden dough, combine about
a quarter glass of sourdough, a glass of spring water slightly warmer than room water
temperature and begin to gradually sift flour there, which is also not
should be cold. Stir with a wooden spoon while still
kneads the dough, and then knead with your hands. You need to add about three
glasses of flour. The dough should not stick to your hands, it should be very
elastic. Cover it with a cotton towel and leave it warm
place for two hours. It should increase slightly in volume.
After two hours, knead the dough, add quite a bit of sourdough, about
half a teaspoon of salt and any additives if you plan to
add (nuts, seeds, fried onions, dried tomatoes, fresh sage and
etc. - the scope for imagination is almost limitless). Form two
small or one large loaf - if it's challah, then braid the dough - and
place in a dish, previously oiled and dusted with flour.
Make a few cuts on the loaf and brush the top with oil. Can
lightly dampen the napkin with which you are covering the bread. Leave the dough for 4-6
hours (my sourdough lasts about 4.5 hours). The bread must be very strong
increase in volume. Attention! Do not use a Teflon mold! More
all heat-resistant glass is suitable for bread.
After 4-6 hours, put the bread in a cold oven and turn it on at 220
degrees. Put some dish in the oven with the bread,
preferably a large diameter, filled with boiling water - you need
so that the water begins to evaporate from the first minute of baking. In 15 minutes
lower the temperature to 180 degrees and bake the bread for 45 minutes.
Cover hot bread with a damp cloth and let cool completely.
Bread made with natural sourdough should be quite heavy and
slightly sour, it should not be too airy or too sour -
if so, then you need to reduce the amount of leaven and the fermentation time.
Too sour bread is unhealthy; it contains acetic acid.
Good bread usually has a very hard crust and a strong smell - pleasant
and fragrant. You can serve homemade bread with freshly beaten butter,
herbs, zaatar and dried tomatoes with thyme in olive oil, with
labane, tahini and olives, with hummus, goat or sheep cheese and
slices of tomato.
Once again I apologize for the volume! Now I want to add my observations.
I immediately put two sourdoughs from rye and wheat flour, not knowing then that it seemed like nothing would work on refined flour. I put the leaven in two clay pots to create a natural environment, because the pots breathe and self-regulate the temperature. Surprisingly, both sourdoughs worked with the difference that rye was more violent and voluminous. When the leaven is warm, I cover it with a wet towel, and put it in the refrigerator, covering it with a clay lid. I stir it with an exclusively wooden stick. I give the leaven to the children, they conjure over it, wave their hands and tell her how good and tasty it is. I mix the bread on the program with yeast dough, with the difference that first I add water, honey, flour, and after half an hour, salt and oil (always different, olive, mustard, pumpkin ...) And I also add handmade malt to it ... I don’t know if it’s possible to call it real, but I do it like that. I buy sprouted grain in a store (wheat) for two hours in the oven at a temperature of 40 degrees, then I give 8 hours of rest and dry it at a temperature of 70 degrees to a solid state, then grind it as much as necessary and add it to the bread every other day ... smells !!! This is an amazing smell. The smell of a newborn baby. This is how bread is born to me. And today is the beginning of the olive oil ... I took out a wheat leaven, fed it for the night in the morning and put a dough on it. And now a stack of amazing pancakes is smoking on the table.
One of the most important components in baking and in life is love! Love! And happy holidays !!!
