Not having the luxury of an outdoor brick oven like SOME people, it’s been 6 months since I could even think about baking.
I just pulled the sponge out of the fridge and am attempting to re-animate it. It had what looked like vinegar mother sitting on top, so I poured that off, warmed it up and fed it. Wish me luck!
Good luck!
I have something similar in my fridge. I need to wake it. :o
damn, I must be growing up (or at least older). I can remember a time when I opened my fridge carefully in fear of waking some of the life forms in there. 
It’s a-bubblin! ;D
First loaf is rising… Sourdough takes some planning! I just couldn’t find the time until today.
I’ll snap a picture tonight - hopefully of a risen loaf.
Jeff Renner has some great sourdough info here…
Is there anything Jeff Renner can’t ferment?
Honestly, I had no idea how to do this a few months back when I started, so I just ran my usual sour mash and made my starter from that. Seems to work pretty well, but I’m having trouble getting the sour/rise balance worked out correctly. I consulted Ye Olde Internetz and found this page, which seems to indicate that a much longer rise time is needed to fully develop both: http://sourdoughhome.com/sfsd1.html
So I’m trying this recipe out this time around and we shall see.
Is there a standard bread book to buy for the aspiring bread baker, you know, the one that every baker must have?
I know nothing of the bread baking process, so I need to start at ground zero. Thanks.
Out of many bread books we own, this by far takes the cake.
This method is incredibly simple and makes fantastic bread. I love it!
I’ve been working out of this book for 20+ years. As good a bread book as I’ve found anywhere. (I may be a bit biased cause the author used to live here in Hilo)
These days I mostly just look up recipes for special occasions. My favs from this book were committed to memory decades ago.
I’ve been baking bread for the last 5-6 years, but I’m still working on perfecting my sourdough baguette. Maybe once I do that, I’ll get a book to help move on to other styles.
I’m on my 3rd sourdough attempt this year, getting ready for the fourth. I’ve been making round loaves using the recipe in the link I posted above, but with all white bread flour. Rise for ~12hr, punch down, make 2 loaves, rise for another ~6hr and bake with steam and an egg wash.
The last attempt came out really good.
One thing that really improved mine was to start adding 1-2 Tbsp. of vital wheat gluten per batch.
What did the gluten do for it?
Mainly, gluten helps hold in the co2 cause the dough is stretchier, resulting in a better spring in the oven and a better crumb.
So adding gluten might have helped my sourdough? The dough seemed fine, but by the time it went through its rises it was kind of soggy didn’t rise well. It seemed like it was breaking down. Maybe it was over-proofed, but it didn’t really act like my normal bread doughs so I don’t know. :-\
It helps any risen bread. Doesn’t mean you have to use it though. With a mature active poolish you can create extra gluten. But try the gluten and don’t proof for so long. Punch it down sooner if you need to.
I like to take the dough to just short of “jiggly” if that makes sense.
Well, I’ve tossed the culture anyway - it felt like I was wasting too much flour and not getting enough bread out of it. I might start it up again some day. Thanks for the tip.
Ok, dumb question time - What’s “crumb” and how much oven spring should I be getting?
It really helped the hole structure in the bread, and as Euge mentioned the overall texture.