On Fri, 5 Apr 1996 17:32:27 -0900, Jim Goes <goes@ursus.jun.alaska.edu> wrote:
> Subject: bread machine sourdough
>
> Anyone have a good recipe for bread machine sourdough?
> I have a good strain and a DAK/R2D2 type of machine,
> but only have sourdough recipes for traditional baking.
Jim, there is a book, World Wide Sourdoughs for Your Bread Machine (see
URL:<http://mindlink.net/darrell_greenwood/sourdoughfaqs.html> under
Books for additional information) that covers bread machines and
sourdoughs quite well using three techniques.
That said, I will say that I have only had success with one technique.
Dough cycle. Using the dough cycle life is very simple.
1 1/2 cups of starter
2 to 2 1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp of salt
Knead, form and let rise (probably several hours). (I actually pull the
dough out as soon as the kneading is finished and don't let the machine
got through the rising and rounding cycles.)
The critical thing of course is "How much flour?" and the answer is
"You will have to determine that by consistency 5 minutes into the
kneading and adding flour or water as necessary".
Just recently I bought a new bag of flour, same brand, same store, and
the amount of flour I needed shifted by 1/4 cup for a loaf of bread. I
suspect the reason was the 'vintage' of the flour changed.
A couple of things really kill you in making sourdough full cycle in
bread machine --
1. The unknown (and probably varying) amount of water and flour in the starter.
2. The activity of the starter.
You can of course set up a regime to have a known amount of water and
flour in the starter but there are only a couple of starters that are
active enough (Russian and Saudi from Sourdoughs International) to
produce a reasonable bread using full cycle in a bread machine. Even
these starters have about 1/2 the activity of a commercial yeast that
the bread machine timers assume -- so you tend to get a dense loaf.
Cheers,
Darrell
--
Darrell Greenwood, Vancouver, BC darrell_greenwood@mindlink.net
My web homepage... http://mindlink.net/darrell_greenwood/