Saturday 22 September 2012

Starter dough and the start of something

I have done it, I have started a yeast culture and I have grand plans to keep it with me for the rest of my life. I thought it was an apt time to start it,  it is the beginning of my last year of university and this could be the year of decisions, hard work and ends.  So my starter dough will be the constant in all the chaos, and a reminder of my baking aspirations in the dark times, or to be less dramatic, it is waiting so I can make sourdough whenever I want to.

I have taken a step into the unknown, I do not know how it should smell or look,  how long the starter should ferment for or when to feed it. I used the recipe from the River Cottage Handbook, it provides step by step instructions and photos and uses detailed descriptions to help you make important decisions for the best start for your starter.

To start, whisk equal measures of flour and water  for a long time by hand or ten minutes with an electric whisk, until the batter is light and thick. Left in warm place, the mixture should start to produce bubbles as the sugars in the flour break down to glucose, so yeast can feed and produce more yeast and carbon dioxide. So essentially, I am making my own raising agent.  Over the next few days, ‘refreshments’ are added, extra flour and water, to keep the culture alive.  Once the culture is a week old it can be added to more flour and water to make a sour dough loaf. This is the plan anyway.

Day Three, after one refreshing, the culture is dark and bubbling, it also smells bitter and terrible. The culture was very watery and had separated before I whisked it. Are these good signs? I will soon find out.


Day Four the starter is looking much the same, I have fed it for the last time, and will now leave it at room temperature. I will pay attention to its needs but more so a couple of days before I want to use it, to make sure it is at its most active for baking with.

Sourdough loaves that use a home-grown yeast cultures have a rich sour flavor, the longer they are kept alive, the richer the flavor, although I will not be waiting very much longer before I make my first sourdough loaf. The River Cottage people explain sourdough starters far better than I do: 


Friday 7 September 2012

Signing up


Yes it has been done, the Edinburgh 10K has been entered and I could say there is no way out but there is, I could just fail to turn up, however,  I would be letting myself and my team, my boyfriend and I (kind of team) down. In fact I am more excited by the free t-shirt I will receive and the accurate chip timing device. Its like I will be a real sporting enthusiast. 

Cookies, preferably eaten after being baked


Why is it so hard to transfer a batch of cookies to the oven intact, without any raw dough going amiss? It is just fact of baking science that makes it impossible to not leave a lot of dough in the bowl on purpose. 

I have searched for the perfect recipe, that is vanilla-ish and chewy with good sized chunks of dark chocolate, fruit and nuts.  Kind of like those cookies in the paper bags in the supermarkets, just without all of the fats and nastiness.  After a lot of searching I have learnt this:
 1.  American recipes that produce American style chewy cookies use vegetable shortening and hydrogenated fats. I do not like to use these in baking but recipes from the good and great of cookie making like David Lebovitz insist chilling the dough is a secret to success. Some recipes call for up to 24 hours of chilling.
2. If the recipe uses baking powder the cookie will have a cakey texture, for chewy, American style texture use bicarb or a combination of both.
3. Brown sugar is used in this recipe for its richer flavor and dark colour. It retains moisture better than caster sugar, to keep the cookies chewy and dense.