Perfecting the Whole Wheat Recipe, Take 2

OK, yesterday's attempt was a failure.

My first thought was that my starter wasn't active enough.  I've been feeding it on half rations for the last couple of weeks, so that I don't need to throw anything away.  After making this short brick of a loaf, I immediately fed my starter with the full treatment of 4 oz. of water and 4 oz. of flour after discarding all but 4 oz. of the starter.  Six hours later, it grew just like it did in its youth.

That was just before going to bed, last night.  I think in the future, I am going to feed my starter before I prepare the sponge for my recipe, instead of feeding it while the sponge is growing.  That way, I have a lively starter to use with my recipe.  For today, the starter had been in the fridge overnight.  This morning, I took 4 oz. of the starter for my recipe, and just put the remains in the fridge without feeding it.  Next week, I'll do a feeding the night before I start my recipe.

The other change I am making is using an equal parts (by weight) of flour and water in my sponge.  I'm saving the remaining 3 oz. of water for the full recipe.  That keeps my sponge from being too limp, so I can see when it has doubled in size.  I marked the bowl for the starting point of my sponge, so I can judge its growth before continuing with the recipe.

This bowl shape makes deciding when the sponge has doubled in size a little difficult, but after 6 hours, it looks like this:

So, today's whole procedure is

	Whole Wheat
Preparation	The day before, discard all but 4 oz. of the starter from the fridge.  Add 4 oz. of water and 4 oz. of white flour.  Set in a warm place for 6-8 hours.
Sponge	Take 4 oz. of the fed starter.  Add 4 oz. of white flour and 4 oz. of water.  Set in a warm place for 6 hours. Place the remaining starter (unfed) in the fridge for next time.
Water	3 oz.
Whole wheat flour	2 ¼  cups
White flour	None
Salt	1 tsp
Butter	1 ½ Tbl
Honey	¼ cup

Well, this loaf is a little taller than yesterday's, but it's still about half as tall as I'd like. 

The loaf on the right is yesterday's.  Ideally, I'd like it to fill at least ¾ of the bread pad.  Today's loaf was just a little over half.  Perhaps the yeast need some fresh white flour to eat during the knead and rise cycle.  The dough ball still looked good during the mixing, so I think the water content is OK.  Maybe I'll try it with some vital gluten added.  I'm going to try one more ounce of water, as well.  When I was perfecting the commercial yeast version of this recipe, I reduced the water because the dough was rising too much and falling back.

Another thought is to just punt and give up on adapting this recipe for sourdough.  It worked so well with commercial yeast before I got on this sourdough kick.

I think this loaf is edible.  Check back in a couple of days once I've had a chance to make a couple of sandwiches.

Update: Yes it makes a decent sandwich.  I'd still like it to be lighter.

Next: Take 3

Perfecting the Whole Wheat Recipe

Last week, I tried tweaking my whole wheat recipe.  The dough turned out too stiff, and the bread didn't rise well enough.  It came out very dense.

I think that there wasn't enough water.  The previous recipe had me adding ¼ cup of white flour and a few ounces of water when I was preparing the dough recipe.  This week, I am going to incorporate all of the water and white bread flour into the first step of preparing the sourdough sponge.

First up, I start with 4 ounces of sourdough starter from the fridge.  I feed my sourdough starter with equal parts of water and flour by weight.  Thus, this amount of starter contains 2 ounces of water and 2 ounces of flour.  My original recipe calls for 9 ounces of water and 1¼ cups of white bread flour.  I convert the flour measurement to weight by simply weighing 1¼ cups of flour.  I came up with 6 ounces.  So, I need 9 ounces of water and 6 ounces of white flour.  The sourdough starter gives me 2 ounces of each, so I need to add 7 ounces of water and 4 ounces of flour.  Mix that up and set it in the warm spot for 6 to 8 hours.

Now, my recipe looks like this:

	Original recipe	Whole Wheat
Sourdough starter	None	Take 4 oz. of starter from fridge.  Add 4 oz. of white flour and 7 oz. of water
Water	9 oz.	Already in the sponge
Whole wheat flour	2 ¼ cups	2 ¼  cups
White flour	1 ¼ cups	Already in the sponge
Salt	1 ½ tsp	1 ½ tsp
Butter	1 ½ Tbl	1 ½ Tbl
Honey	¼ cup	¼ cup
Yeast	2 ½ tsp	Already in the sponge

This method produced a pretty good dough ball without any adjustments.  I didn't even need to scrape any ingredients away from the side of the pan as it  worked on its mixing cycle.  Perhaps that is a good indicator of when I have enough water.

Next time, I think I am going to stick with my 50-50 method for the sponge.  I'll add 4 oz. of flour and 4 oz. of water, and add 3 oz. of water when I add the rest of the ingredients.

Having an excess of water in the sponge meant that it didn't rise to double its original size.  I don't think that's a problem, since there was still evidence of yeast activity.  The sponge was nice and bubbly when I added the rest of the ingredients, but I'd be more confident in the timing of the sponge if it were twice as big.  Adding some water to the rest of the ingredients also gives me something to work with if I need to encourage the last bits of honey out of a near-empty bottle.

I think I am going to take my starter off of its diet, as well.  Next week, I am going back to the feeding regimen of 4 oz. of water and 4 oz. of flour.  I'll be throwing out some starter every week, but it is only a waste of 3/8 of a cup of flour.  I might go back to trying to do something with the discards, but I think my starter will be healthier with a more robust feeding.

The Result

Call me shorty.

It's supposed to look more like this:

OK, it appears that my task of perfecting this recipe is going in the wrong direction.  This loaf is about half the height that it ought to be.  I think this is destined to be croutons or bread pudding or something.  I'm jumping right into my plan for improving on this, tomorrow.  I've already taken my freshly-half-ration-fed starter out of the fridge.  I discarded all but 4 oz. and fed it with 4 oz. of flour and 4 oz. of water--a full feeding.  Tomorrow, I'm trying it, again.

I think I am going to cut the salt back to 1 tsp.  In the pre-sourdough days of this recipe, I increased the salt, because the dough was rising too much, and then falling back.  That's not the problem here.

Here are a few more pictures to show the scale:
The bread along with a can of liquid bread.

This picture gave me an idea of what to do with this loaf.  I've been nursing a wrist injury for a little while.  This loaf will make a handy 1½ pound weight for wrist curls.

Next: Tomorrow's version.  Spoiler alert: It still isn't right.

Tweaking and Tinkering - Whole Wheat

I've tried all of the recipes from the book that interested me, except for one that calls for sour cream.  I don't have any sour cream in the house, so that one will have to wait.  Now, it is time to fiddle with my existing recipes until they are perfected.

I'm going to start with my tried-and-true whole wheat recipe that I have been making for years with commercial yeast.  This is the first recipe that I used with my sourdough starter, but I supplemented it with commercial yeast.  Today, I'm going to try it with just sourdough yeast.

My book suggests that 1-1/2 cups of starter is about equivalent to a cup of flour and a cup of water.  My starter uses white flour, so I am adapting my old recipe as follows:

	Original recipe	Sourdough recipe
Sourdough starter	None	1 ½ Cup
Water	9 oz.	Start with none, and add as needed.
Whole wheat flour	2 ¼ cups	2 ¼  cups
White flour	1 ¼ cups	¼ cup
Salt	1 ½ tsp	1 ½ tsp
Butter	1 ½ Tbl	1 ½ Tbl
Honey	¼ cup	¼ cup
Yeast	2 ½ tsp	None

I prepare the starter as usual by taking 4 oz. of starter from the fridge, adding 4 oz. (3/4 Cup) white bread flour, and 4 oz. water.  I have been mixing this in the bread machine, but I am tired of my paddle getting glued to the pan by the sourdough starter, so today, I mixed it in a bowl.  I set the mixture in a warm place for about 8 hours until it doubles in bulk.  When I add the rest of the ingredients, I start by lubricating the spindle for the paddle with the butter and adding the sourdough starter last to keep it away from the paddle.

That extra ¼ cup of white flour was kind of a nuisance, and I needed to add another ounce of water. This is the dough ball before adding the 1 oz. (2 Tbl.) of water,

and this is after the water.

In the future, I am going to adjust the recipe so that I don't have to add any additional white flour. 

First, consider the guideline for how much flour and water is in 1 ½ cups of starter.  The book suggested that this amount of starter was equivalent to 1 cup of water and 1 cup of flour.  When I feed my starter, I add equal parts of flour and water by weight.  An ounce of water weighs an ounce, but four ounces of flour is only ¾ cup. So, 8 oz. of starter contains ¾ cup of flour and 4 oz. of water.  Therefore, my 12 oz. of starter in this recipe contains 1 and 1/8 cups of white flour and 6 oz. of water.  I think if I just skip the ¼ cup of white flour in the recipe, I'll be in good shape.  I'll try that next time.  I'll probably need to add some water, still.

This is the first week that I have put my starter on a diet.  In the past, I used 4 oz. for the recipe and discarded all but 4 oz. for feeding with 4 oz. of flour and 4 oz. of water.  I tried several experiments for using the discarded starter, pancakes, waffles, coffee cake.  I wasn't pleased with any of the results, so I decided to try to get my starter down to just 8 oz. after feeding by feeding it with just 2 oz. of flour and 2 oz. of water.  It didn't grow the way it used to.  The sponge for the recipe responded well, so I'm going to stick with this procedure until I run into trouble.

The result:

This weird shape is a sign that there was not enough water.  The yeast is fighting a dough that is too stiff.  This problem is especially apparent when viewed from the bottom.

The good news is that I succeeded in keeping the sourdough starter from gluing the paddle to the pan.

The other good news is that it tastes good and is not overly dense.  (Update after a few heavy sandwiches: Yes, it is too dense.)

I think next time I'll add 3 oz. of water right off the bat to get the total of 9 oz. that worked so well with the original recipe.

Next: Perfecting the recipe (well, not yet).

Yukon Herb Bread

This is another recipe from the sourdough bread machine book.  The gold prospectors were sometimes known as sourdoughs because of their propensity to make sourdough bread.  There are stories of the prospectors sleeping with their starter to make sure that it didn't die from the cold.

I kind of doubt that the Alaskan gold prospectors had access to these herbs, but I'm looking forward to the aroma when this bread starts to bake.

Yukon Herb Bread
Remove 4 oz. of starter from the fridge.  Add 4 oz. of white flour and 4 oz. of water.  Set in a warm place for about 6 hours until it doubles in size.  Then, add
White bread flour	2 ½ Cup
Butter	1 Tbl
Milk	½ Cup
Salt	½ tsp
Sugar	2 tsp
Thyme	½ tsp
Oregano	½ tsp
Basil	½ tsp
Water as needed	(I didn't need any)

This created a nice sticky dough ball without adding any additional water.  It still has a little bit of the pompadour crest, but overall looks like a normal loaf of bread.

The aroma wasn't as prominent as I expected, but I have a bad cold, so it might just be me.  The taste is pretty good--much like I expect from a white sourdough recipe.  I think next time I will leave out the herbs.  I'm not that fond of the thyme flavor.  I could be that I put too much in.  I spilled a bit when I was pouring it into the measuring spoon.  I tried to compensate by removing some of what was in the spoon, but still the thyme kind of overshadows the other herbs.

Update: This bread made a terrific grilled cheese sandwich.

Next: Tweaking the whole wheat recipe

Mr. D's Coffee Cake

One of the cooks for my college fraternity was known as "Mrs. D."  I'm not even sure if I knew what the D stood for back then.  I certainly don't know it, now.  Once a week, Mrs. D would make coffee cake to go with breakfast.  Some years later, I reunited with one of my fraternity brothers who happened to have Mrs. D's coffee cake recipe.  He said that it was a disaster when he made it.  There is the last step with the cinnamon that I've never been quite clear what to do with.  I've tried melting it and pouring it over the batter before baking and after baking.  I've also tried mixing the ingredients cold and sprinkling it over the batter.  I've had some success with all of these.

Now, I'm going to try to adapt it to use the discards from refreshing my sourdough starter.  Since I've experimented with the recipe enough on my own, I am now claiming this recipe as my own.  From here on, it will be known as Mister D's coffee cake.

Mr. D’s Coffee Cake
Remove 4 oz. of starter from the fridge. Add
Milk	2/3 Cup
Flour	¾ Cup (4 oz.)
Mix and set in warm place for 1 hour. Cream these items together
Sugar	1 Cup
Butter	2 Tbl
Salt	½ tsp
1 Egg
Combine the two mixtures and pour into a well-greased 9x9 baking pan. Cream the following ingredients together and sprinkle on top of the cake batter
Sugar	½ Cup
Butter	1 Tbl
Cinnamon	1 Tbl
Bake for 30 minutes at 350°F

My topping preparation was more coffee-cake like today.  I continued to mix the sugar, butter, and cinnamon until it was a homogeneous mixture.  It looked almost like sand.  (It would have been a good idea to take a picture, but it's too late for that, now.)  It covered the cake batter in a nice even layer.

The result looked OK when it first came out of the oven,

but it was kind of gooey inside.

It still tasted good.  After all, with all that sugar and butter and cinnamon, how could it taste bad.  I'm going back to Mrs. D's original recipe, next time, without the sourdough starter.

Mrs. D’s Coffee Cake
Cream these items together
Sugar	1 Cup
Butter	2 Tbl
1 Egg
Add to that mixture
Milk	1 Cup
Flour	1 ½ Cup
Salt	½ tsp
Baking Powder	2 tsp
Pour into a well-greased 9x9 baking pan.
Cream the following ingredients together until all of the butter clumps are gone.
Sugar	½ Cup
Butter	1 Tbl
Cinnamon	1 Tbl
Sprinkle on top of the cake batter and bake for 30 minutes at 350°F

I think I'm done with trying to figure out what to do with my starter discards.  I think I'll just cut back on how much flour and water I add to refresh the starter so that I have 8 ounces of starter after refresh--4 ounces for the next loaf of bread and 4 ounces to refresh.  I guess that means adding 2 ounces of water and 2 ounces of flour when I feed.  Let's hope that keeps the starter happy.

My Favorite Recipes

My Favorites

Now that I've tried a few bread recipes, I've decided to keep a list so I know what to come back to.  I'll keep this list updated as necessary.  They are roughly in order of preference.

Whole wheat

Adapted from my tried and true commercial yeast recipe.  This still needs to be attempted using just the sourdough starter.

Caraway Rye

Try adding a bit more water to this recipe so that the loaf doesn't look so rugged.

Tanya's Black Bread

It wasn't black at all.  It's more of a whole wheat bread with a bit of rye flavor.  There's no caraway seeds in this recipe.  There is a lot of flour in it.  It makes a very tall loaf.  Perhaps cut the quantities back in the future.

Recipes Worth Revisiting

These didn't quite come out like I expected, but are worth another try.

World Bread (white sourdough)

I tend to eat brown breads because they are healthier, but white sourdough is what I think of when I think of sourdough bread.  That's what we ate when I was in California for grad school.

Recipes That Were Not to My Liking

Swedish Lipa Bread

The orange peel and fennel were not suited to my taste.

Swedish Lipa Bread

Continuing through the book, and adapting for my purposes, on Saturday, I made Swedish Lipa Bread.  This recipe called for 1-1/2 cups of starter.  I created that by taking 4 oz. of starter from the fridge and adding 4 oz. of flour and 4 oz. of water.  Just a reminder, when I say ounces, I am measuring the weight.  For water, one fluid ounce of water weighs about one ounce, so it doesn't matter.  Four ounces of flour is about 3/4 cup.  Four ounces of starter is a sticky blob.  I don't want to put it into a measuring cup.  Not only that, the blob is smaller when you stir it down than when it comes right out of the fridge.  Weight is a more accurate way to measure it.

Light Swedish Limpa Bread
Remove 4 oz. of starter from the fridge.  Add 4 oz. of white flour and 4 oz. of water.  Set in a warm place for about 6 hours until it doubles in size.  Then, add
Water	3 Tbl
Vegetable Oil	1 Tbl
Orange Rind	1 orange
Brown Sugar	¼ Cup
Salt	½ tsp
Vital gluten	1½ tsp
Caraway Seed	1 tsp
Fennel Seed	2 tsp
Rye flour	2/3 Cup
White bread flour	2 Cup
Water as needed	I added 3 Tbl

Yep, that says orange rind.  I've never used that in a bread recipe, before.  I used the coarse side of a kitchen grater to remove the rind, as suggested by the book.  It creates shoestring like strips that are a few inches long.  Here is the result.  That pompadour look is getting to be a thing with my bread machine loaves.

How did it taste? Like orange peel, duh.  I wasn't crazy about the fennel taste, either.  I don't think I'll return to this recipe.

Next: Yukon Herb Bread