Today is the all important Day 5 of our sour culture feeding! The feeding we do today will be will be continued for as long as you use it to keep the culture alive and strong. Once you feel more comfortable with the recipe, you do have the freedom to tweek the amounts a little bit and see how it affects your final product. Keep you eye on the blog, in the near future I will post an article on how to change the acidity levels in your sour culture. One quick thought to keep in mind, more acidity equals less volume and less acidity equals more volume!
Now, on to today's feeding! Let's get our MEP setup.
1. New Bowl
2. Scale
3. Water (227 gr or 1 cup)
4. Flour (340 gr or 1 1/2 heaping cups)
5. Culture (113 gr or 1/2 cup)
MEP is pretty much the same as yesterday, just a change in the amounts of ingredients! The ratio changes to 3 parts flour to 2 parts water to 1 part culture.
For mixing, scale the 113 gr of culture into the bowl, making sure to observe the culture using all of your senses! Once the culture is scaled, add your water on top and give it a quick hand mix. Now, place your flour on top and knead it together. The culture will now become what we call a stiff levain which means the culture will be more of a dough than days past. If you have a KitchenAid Mixer, it might be easier to mix it there with a paddle or dough hook.
Once you have it mixed, return it to the washed container and cover it until tomorrow. You can now throw away the old culture leftover from today. Everyday you will have a little culture leftover, and the leftovers can be thrown away or they can be used start another culture. If you want to try one with a different flour blend or even some additions, now would be the time. My suggestion would be to add a small percentage of Whole Wheat flour everyday, even just 5-10% is enough to change the acidity of the culture but not affect the overall color or flavor. It is you culture, have fun with it and take care of it.
For the next four to five days, feed the culture just like you did today. The culture is not strong enough to make your own sourdough yet, but next Saturday I will post a recipe for you. I will feed mine until then as well and make a loaf next Saturday with you.
After next Saturday, if you do not want to feed it everyday, feed it and immediately put it in the refrigerator in a sealed container. When you want to use it pull it out and let it sit at room temp for one full day. For the next two days, feed it like we did today, and your culture should be up and ready to go.
The culture can last in the fridge for 3 weeks, if you plan on having it in there longer, freeze it. When you want to use it again, pull it out for a day and then give it at least 3 to 4 days of feedings before you use it again.
You now officially have your own Sour Dough Culture!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Way to go! It wasn't that hard at all, no magic or secret tricks. Using and making your culture is one way to keep us connected to our past! This process has been used for thousands of years! Keep the tradition going, pass it on, share it with a friend! Baking is all about sharing! And Sharing is Caring!
If any of you want to post pictures of successful cultures, or in a week, pictures of successful sourdough loaves, be my guest! I would love to see them. Or, if you are having some problems, the best way I can help is by seeing the culture!
Have a great weekend and don't forget to take care of you culture!
Bake that Bread,
Josh
No comments:
Post a Comment