Stalking the Wild Kentucky Yeast

Early on in my baking adventures, I developed a fascination with sourdough and wild yeast starters. Twenty years ago I kept a culture that my Mother had given me. It was the kind that required feeding with potato flakes and sugar. It was vigorous and had a great rise, and though the baked loaves, or cloverleaf rolls that I loved to make, were very good, they hardly tasted like sourdough. After some months of neglect it expired and I went for years with no starter in my fridge. Then the bug bit again and I ordered a starter and book from Sourdoughs International. They have quite a selection, but I chose the original San Francisco sourdough. This culture served me well. But again, neglect and life got in the way and I discovered that starter way in the back of the fridge, looking like a science experiment gone very wrong. So once more I went for several years culture free.


Now, after baking for this blog, I felt the call of the siren’s song. This time I decided to attempt a capture of my own yeast. Armed with info gleaned from many resources, most contradictory, the journey began. I mixed 2 cups of all purpose flour and 1 ½ cups of warm water in a plastic jar I found in the cabinet. No doubt left empty by the lost lives of past starters. Covered with cheesecloth, it went out on the deck. After one day there seemed to be some activity, could this be? Or had I captured some mutant urban bacteria hungry for my flour?

I added another cup of flour and ¾ cup of water. The next morning, definite signs of life! I did this for two more days and had a respectful head of foam and rise. I took one cup of this and added 2 cups of flour and 1 ½ cups of warm water. The next morning it was ready as far as I could tell. Using the recipe for World Bread from Classic Sourdoughs, A Home Bakers Handbook by Ed Wood, I started my dough. It behaved beautifully and made two nice high loaves, each with a nice sourdough twang. I only got a picture of one loaf, since the other was scarfed up while still warm, with plenty of butter.

Now, once again, there is a starter snuggled comfortably in the fridge, waiting for this weekend’s feeding.

Steamy

The heat and humidity are on! We’ve been having temps hovering around 90 for the past week. The tomatoes and other summer veggies are loving it, but the lettuces, broccoli, and other greens are a some worse for the wear. My raised bed is now full, with petunias, marigolds, peppers, okra, basil, rosemary, cucumbers and tomatoes, all still small plants yet, but with great promise! The bees are going gangbusters after a rough winter, and the rabbits are growing by leaps and bounds.


This time around our HBinFive breads were made with the master recipe. Like the other blogfolk, I’m glad to get back to the basic recipe. However, this assignment’s breads are far from basic. I knew that I would like the cherry black pepper Focaccia, but with ingredients like shallots, dried cherries and red wine, I was a little concerned about MJOL, but he thought it was scrumptious and ate it up. This is definitely a make again recipe.

The cinnamon raisin bagels were a challenge for me. Since I’m a little OCD, I wanted them to be perfectly shaped. I had to let go of that dream! It was the first time I’ve ever made bagels and it was an adventure. I have to say though; once I lowered the perfection threshold it was a lot of fun. They also were very tasty, toasted with cream cheese slathered on them, or toasted with honey…that hint of cinnamon and just sweet enough….delish! MJOL liked these toasted with butter for breakfast with his bacon and eggs.

The moon and stars bread was easy to shape and came out pretty, but really…it’s just a regular bread shaped differently.

Check out what other bakers did with these recipes at Big Black Dogs.



Until our next baking adventure…

New Additions

Well, I'm way late in posting this bread assignment. We now have some new additions to our family, three florida white rabbits. One male, Hemingway, and 2 females, Bette and Judy. Yes, they are in seperate hutches, so no baby bunnies until we decide. So, one excuse for not getting this post done sooner was that I was testing my carpentry skills building a shelter for the rabbits. Now, I never claimed to be that efficient with power tools, but it came out pretty well. A little off plumb, but then again, so I am; it fits right in!

The other excuse for not getting this post done was that I didn't have most of the ingredients for gluten free bread, and I knew that it would probably go over like a lead balloon, so I ducked out. Bad me. :) To see what the other bakers did with the bread check out their posts here, http://www.bigblackdogs.net/search/label/HBinFive.

Instead of the gluten free bread, I saw Ina Garten make some Irish soda bread that looked really good, so I made it. Although it's not leavened with yeast, it's still no knead. :) MJOL really liked it and so did I. The recipe is available on the Food Network website, here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/irish-soda-bread-recipe/index.html. It has a touch of orange and some currants. Very tasty.

I also made the soft whole wheat sandwich bread which was a big hit at our house. This time I used molasses instead of honey. I know, how awful since I'm a beekeeper, but I use honey all the time, so thought I would use something different. It was tasty, but I think I like it with honey better. :) I think that I'm a little partial!

For those of you not from Kentucky, we here in the Bluegrass are gearing up for The Kentucky Derby. All this week there are festivities, a parade, a steamboat race, hot air balloon races, chow wagons, concerts and lots and lots of parties. Yesterday Churchill Downs opened for the spring meet and we attended. It's always a lot of fun. Check out the goings on here: http://kdf.org/ and be sure to watch the Derby on May 1st.

Until our next baking adventure.