Due to lack of yeast, and inspired by this board, I’ve been cultivating my own sourdough starter. But apart from for the first couple of days, it’s yet to rise. Into day 9 now, must be soon…
I’ve been baking more than usual, but only from mixes.
Today was cinnamon bread. With icing.
(But no pecans, they went off!)
Made buttermilk biscuits yesterday to go with the vegetable soup I made. Today I made a citrus cornmeal loaf cake, which is very easy and really tasty.
Beware
Supply chain seems back up to speed around here. Found Flour, eggs, butter and yeast all in one go. It’s instant yeast, (instead of active dry) which I never bought before, but it’ll do fine,
I made a cinnamon Dutch baby tonight, never made one before. Yum.
recipe please?
Can you describe what isn’t rising?
You have an active starter that you’ve been feeding every day right? It’s bubbling and smells/tastes sour, right? And are you pouring off a big portion of the starter and mixing in with flour? And that’s what is not rising?
I had to buy “rapid-rise” yeast, which I assume is basically what you got, instead of the “active dry” I’ve been using for decades. Follow the directions on the yeast and modify your recipe/routine accordingly and you should be fine. I got results comparable with my usual. As much for others reading this as for you.
TMI?
I used this recipe and added some cinnamon to the powdered sugar at the end.
A friend posted that she’d made one this week and I asked a similar question. Apparently it’s a regular term that I’ve just never encountered up til now. Odd name, yummy dish.
I may try chaffles (waffles made with cheese and eggs only) next week once I find some shredded cheese.
Well, I started myself a sourdough starter as well. Mine bubbles, but doesn’t seem to double in volume when fed yet. It does fluff up some, though, and tastes plenty sour. I actually didn’t discard for the first couple of days, I just started small and didn’t start discarding until it threatened to escape its container, which probably explains its slow progress.
I used some discard to make pretzels Saturday night. They were OK but not awesome. More like Auntie Anne’s than Superpretzel. I believe I need to coat them in a base to give them the tough crust I was looking for. We’ve still just about eaten them all, because who doesn’t like salty, chewy bread?
I took over the sourdough starter from my son. He had been following some starter recipe to the letter, and the starter was really thick and not taking off. I changed it to a more runny pancake consistency.
He also did a loaf on sat (following the video/recipe to the letter, which he does for all first tries), rose about 50% by Sunday. Baked up, nice crust, uneven crumb, a bit sour. It was a good first version. Next time will increase the amount of starter for the loaf.
I also sent away for starter from Friends of Carl. They did have a warning on the website that owing to covid, yeast starter shipments could be delayed.
A few bubbles on the top, but nothing else. Yes discarding half every day and then adding flour and water to get a fairly runny pancake mixture thing. I’m not sure the flour is up to scratch - all i can get is some polish import from my local corner shop - i can’t even read the label. For all i know it might not even be proper flour. So might sack it off until i can get something better quality. The shop does sell polish (or something east European) yeast however which makes them heroes in capes. And that stuff works cos i baked a normal loaf.
I don’t know where my shop gets its supply from, but they’re always well stocked, have a constant stream of customers and must be doing amazing business right now!
I’ve always called them Pannekoekens, after a restaurant that had them as their star breakfast item. Finely slice some apples, toss in cinnamon sugar, and layer them on before baking next time. Heaven!
I’ve been on a quick break kick. In the past month I’ve made banana bread (2x), pumpkin bread, lemon blueberry bread, cinnamon swirl bread, and apple bread. Made raspberry white chocolate scones. Meh. Scones are putzy.
Last night I made Rosemary focaccia, YUM! Pretty easy with the Kitchenaid mixer, I’ll have to make this again and next time add some garlic. This recipe would really benefit from fresh spices.
I’m not much of a baker and suddenly I’m making all of our bread, I needed to simplify the process. I noticed that the amount of dough depends only on the amount of liquid you start with. So only the liquids need to be measured. If more than one kind of flour is required it can be premixed as pantry flour and stored in a large container. So:
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Measure all liquids, butter, egg, sugar etc into the mixer bowl combine using small wisk and tip of dough hook
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Using dough hook to stir add flour until you have a soft paste. Add instant yeast.
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Add flour until you have desired dough. Run with dough hook for 8 minutes.
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Turn onto bread board, knead a bit, divide into pans.
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Proof in oven for 2 hours (my oven has a proof setting)
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Bake (turn at the half way point)
One bowl, two pans and a measuring cup for cleanup.
You don’t clean the dough hook and the surface you knead on? 
I use a small pot and a cooking thermometer to control liquid temperature for the yeast. One bowl, a measuring cup and set of measuring spoons for flour, salt, and yeast which also works for the water and oil measurement. One large, sturdy spoon (I have neither dough hook nor mixer - it’s all elbow grease for me). Loaf pan if I’m using one, otherwise a baking sheet. One large board reserved for baking purposes.
That’s what works for me. Like you, I prefer to not accumulate more stuff that needs cleaning at the end of the operation. But you are correct that it’s the amount of liquid (and to some extent yeast) that guides the rest of the quantities, and the fact is you can be somewhat approximate/sloppy and still get a good result at the end.
Well yeah, but the dough hook comes out pretty clean. I scrape the bread board with the pastry cutter.