When you lift off the dust sheets and find.... something....

[orockthro]

 I have a DW. I keep forgetting. :) 
This is a quick post to remind myself of the existence of this corner of the internet, and a prompt to myself to figure out how best to use it. 

I've fallen off of Tumblr, and my phone isn't quick enough to handle Twitter. So I'm currently quite bereft. Maybe DW is the thing I've been missing. 

Things I'm doing:

• Finishing up a 6K ish Man from UNCLE and POB Aubreyad fusion fic that approximately 4 people will ever read. Heh!
• Making my first sourdough bread loaf after nursing along a starter for two weeks
• Drinking a beer
• Smiling at my very cute cat
• Watching my housemate play videogames.

Things are good and well.

Comments

[tassosss]

Hello again! DW is a little busier since the second LJ Exodus, so there's a few of us kicking around still.

Tell me about your bread! Inquiring minds want to know. I'm on my second starter after messing up my first one. It's a white bread sponge as opposed to sourdough but that may be on my horizon.

[orockthro]

:D Yay! I'm not alone!!

And yay bread experiments! It's serendipity that we're timing this together haha. This is my first time doing any bread without yeast packets, so it feels a bit like alchemy. But I'm kinda hooked. The outcome was pretty damned delicious!
I went with a basic sourdough-- so the starter took about a week and a half to really get going. I put it in the fridge now so I'm hoping *fingers crossed* I didn't kill it. Heh. Then, once it was a frothy thing, I followed this recipe: http://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2012/06/14/classic-sourdough-bread-time-steps-in-for-added-yeast/
I definitely didn't see the classic sourdough holes, or get the same rise. So I have some fiddling to do with round two. BUT that said, it still produced two very yummy loaves!



How does a sponge starter differ from sourdough? Is it still fermented? :D

[tassosss]

That looks gorgeous!! I've found that my loaves have generally tasted very good even if they don't completely look like they're supposed to.

The white bread sponge starter you mix up with commercial yeast to start with and you can use in as little as 6 hours after you first make it. Then you keep it and feed it and let it develop. My first one, I kept on the counter at room temperature and fed every day for a week. I think I misread the instructions and got the proportions wrong so it turned out soupier than it was supposed to, but it did develop a little of the sourdough flavor from sitting out. My second one has the right consistency and has been living in the fridge instead so I don't make a sponge monster eight cups big. I've only used it twice so far so I'll find out if I'm feeding it correctly this weekend.