Dwarf bread

[Sarahcook]

It was supposed to be sourdough bread, but right now it looks like something that the Dwarf Bread Museum of Whirlygig Alley, Ankmorpok, would be proud to have.

The starter is over a week old, fed every day and kept in the kitchen. It went bubbly and frothy when the flour and water was added to make the sponge, but took about 3 hours to do this.

It took overnight to rise.

I knocked it back and made a round loaf and popped it in an oven which had been on for a minute to warm, then turned off. It rose a bit.

It's in the oven now at 180C ish (darned fan oven!) and looks like a fine example of Throwing Bread from Koom Valley.

Any ideas where I went wrong? Any other sourdough bread makers out there? I used to make this all the time for my little one when he was dairy intolerant, but I've ben back at work for a couple of years :-( and haven't done it.

Cheers,

Sarah

[ohareward]

Hi Sarahcook. Here is two sites that might help you in your quest.

http://www.io.com/~john/sour.htm

http://www.howstuffworks.com/sourdough.htm


Robin

[Christopher]

I came up with the same result as you the first time I did sourdough.

Then I read a really good site somewhere (can't remember now), that advocated leaving the starter for a good month - just feeding and watering it. The idea was to get a good colony of bacteria etc going before attempting to make bread. The longer you leave it the better developed the colony.

Ka kite,
Christopher

[Wombat]

I also use a recipe that doesn't require the second knocking down but yes, I have made dwarf bread as well:mrgreen: , well it was almost as tasty as the real thing!

Nev

[ina]

Sourdough is always a bit more solid than yeast dough - I add a bit of yeast to it as well. But I prefer a solid bread that I can get my teeth into to cotton wool type stuff!

Why did you have to make sourdough bread for somebody who is dairy intolerant - is there a connection?

[Jack]

Gidday

Want expert advice? Go to this forum:-
http://www.danlepard.com/forum/search.p ... d=newposts

Get bloody great help there.

[wulf]

...But I prefer a solid bread that I can get my teeth into to cotton wool type stuff!

If it is dwarf bread, I imagine the problem is whether you can get your teeth out again in working order

Wulf

[ina]

OK, OK... It's still got to be bread rather than stone! But the only time I managed to make inedible bread was when I fell asleep while the loaf was in the oven.

[Sarahcook]

I made my own bread because I was cutting out as many outside influences on his diet as I could.

The short story is that from when he was born until he was 6 months, he slept from about 7-7 with a 0300 feed. No problemo. I was alert and bouncy, he was alert and bouncy. At 10 weeks he seemed to fit. I now think this wasn't fitting, but an extreme reaction to the amount of cheese I had eaten - Pizza Hut lunch and ham and cheese sandwiches for tea. Anyway, he turned bright red, looked utterly terrified and then his eyes glazed over, he was breathing in and in and in and suddenly screamed and screamed and wouldn't settle for a good 30 minutes. And then all was fine.

When I was told by the Health Visitor that he *should* be being weaned by 6 months (he was very happy on as much breastmilk as he could get down his little neck!) I started him on rice, veg and then fruit, then yoghurt and dairy. After a month he went from sleeping through to screaming in pain every 45 minutes. All day unless he was upright and moving. All night. Scream. Go in. Sit him up. burp/fart lie him down, sleep, scream, go in, you get the picture.

After 6 weeks I was an utter zombie and he was losing weight like it was going out of fashion. If he had an attack during the day I was having to put him down on the floor as he writhed too much to be able to hold him. he would scream himself to an exhausted sleep, then be awake inside 2 minutes with another spasm. and this would just continue on and on. Eventually there would be vile bowel movements of a grim and nasty and mucousy nature, and he would be calm again for a while.

So I stopped everything, breastfed exclusively for 2 weeks, and then slowly reintroduced fresh foods. I was told he was lactose intolerant, but htat was cobblers as he was fine with breastmilk. I also went on a fairly restricted diet myself.

In the end I bf'd for 2.5 years, fed him only on food I had prepared myself, earned myself a rep as a "Earth mother hippy freak" (not an easy title to carry on a RAF base!) and waited until it sorted itself out. He was 18 months before we had a diagnosis of low dairy tolerance verging on intolerance, and now he is nearly 4 and he's slowly growing out of it.

I made my own sourdough bread for him as I knew that the flour was local and windmilled and unbleached, and that basically the bread was made of flour and water!

That wasn't a very short version was it.

Hmmmmmm.



Sarah

[Stonehead]

It sounds like your starter hadn't developed enough - a week is not enough time IMO. My starter is a several years old now and still improving!

I'd go with Christopher - feed it and develop it for a month.

And if you want a really kicking starter, put half a kilo of organic raisins, half a litre of warm water and a couple of tablespoons of sugar in a large jar, cover with muslin and seal with a rubber band, then leave it somewhere warm but not hot for a week.

Then place a sieve over a pan or bowl, and empty the jar into the sieve. Force all the liquid through with a spoon.

Thoroughly mix a quarter of a kilo of unbleached flour, 100g of rye flour and 300ml of the raisin liquid. Pour this into the jar, seal and leave for 24 hours in a warm spot. After that, just do the normal feeding - remove two-thirds of the contents and add equal amounts of flour and water to the starter once a week.

After a month, you should be cooking with gas...

All you need to do then is replace the amount of starter you use with an equal quantity of flour and water.

[Jack]

Gidday

I have not had much success with the sourdough stuff either. Brilliant pizza bases but not with bread.

What is wrong with going with the good old fashioned bakers yeast anyway as I am sure there aint no additives in it.

[ina]

No, I can't imagine either that there is anything dairy in it... Otherwise none of the vegans I know would eat bread made with yeast, would they?

I just like the taste of sourdough, which is why I make sourdough bread just as often as "normal" yeast dough bread. Of course, the bought bread may well contain dairy products, and I know that a lot of the breadmaker recipes contain milk powder, for some unfathomable reason. I never put milk in bread - oh well, never say never, I do sometimes use whey if I have some knocking about that I find too good to throw away.

[Shirley]

Interesting starter there Stoney - I'll give that one a try. I've got a rye flour one sitting in a bowl with a cloth over the top at the moment - only started yesterday. The instructions were on the packet of doves farm rye flour and it says to use on the 3rd day. By the sounds of it that won't be long enough and so I'll keep it longer.

It asked for a cup of rye flour and a cup of water on day one, mix in, cover with damp cloth and leave in warm place overnight.... today another cup of flour and half a cup of water, warm place overnight... then tomorrow use equal quantities of flour and starter, add olive oil, warm water and tsp salt to make loaf.

What are your opinions on this - will it be edible or not?

[Shirley]

I made a loaf in the breadmaker last night - using the 'sandwich' bread recipe - 100% wholemeal (I used Bacheldre mill - ok it's not local but I wanted to compare to the Doves farm (also not local) - it didn't rise as much as the Dove's farm one but wow what taste and texture.

Making today's with Watermill flour from the lake district - a bit closer but not exactly local. I'll let you know the result later.

[Jo]

I've never made sourdough bread yet but would love to give it a go.

Stonehead (and others) - please can you post a recipe for a sourdough loaf for when I've got my starter all ready. I like tried and trusted recipes.

Thanks!

Jo