I cant do this

Well I love baking bread and do it every two weeks but honestly it is because I hate whole wheat bread and i have been searching for an alternative to it that is wholewheat.. I am happy with my bread as it bakes now all I need to do is switch my sweetner to honey.. Really?? I will do it just because but that is all I will change. Hopefully, going forward I will continue to post bread recipes. but with ejd nap time sucking and jad on the way i am limited. so i will blab until i find the time to post the best recipes i have come up with.. I need a job..and finally At home dads rule who changed it from stay at home dad to at home dad???

Sourdough Lessons Learned

Sourdough has high acidity that is why certain things must be done to hold the rise.
Notice the Low rise on this bread in comparison to the picture posted with the sourdough recipe. Some of the things I did wrong with this bread are listed below:

First: You must use bread flour

Second: Use bottled water! I have NEVER had a bread rise properly when using tap water! I read that you can leave water sit in an open container for 12 hours and it will be fine. I have not tried this.

Third: commercial yeast to starter?? I add 1/4 to 1/2 tspn depending on situation. This way at least some yeast is growing so after a week something is happening and 5days = sourdough flavor. Just take the time that is flavor.

Fourth: refrigerate left over starter after you make bread if you will not be making bread for a week or longer. (dont forget to feed it though) I will pull the starter out 3-5 days before I want to start making bread and will feed twice a day.

Fifth: your starter is your yeast do not add yeast at any step because a rise is not taking place it will result in a loaf that tastes worse than the less risen loaf which is dense, has good flavor & great for toast.

Sixth: You must get your hands in the dough with sourdough. The texture is crucial to master. It is surprising how much flour (by hand) you can add to dough after you have finished with the dough in the mixer.

Seven: I have read a lot of baking methods and I like the fast and hot method. After all the time it takes to get the bread to the oven it is wonderful for it to be over with fast.

Redesign of my blog

I have been following a lot of other bloggers with how they post recipes and do their food blogs. The best method I have seen is to post the recipe and fill in necessary information with other posts.  So going forward I will just post how i make the bread and then post the lessons learned post which will contain all that I have learned while completing the recipe. This way you can eventually search for what you want get a recipe and information on things not to do.
Also, I will start adding recipes that have worked for my family now that the 2 under 2 dominate my life and have decreased my time to bake bread. questions comments & attitudes welcomed!

Sourdough bread recipe

Sourdough Bread
Just the steps to make the bread
*Definitions:
Starter: is a combination of flower and water stirred together that will be used to mix with bread flour to make your bread.
Business letter turn/fold: you stretch dough in to rectangle facing away long ways away from you. Fold up bottom 3rd. fold dough from top all the way down to bottom. turn so that sealed dough side is on right and repeat. It is like air is a gift and you are wrapping it to make sure it wont escape.

To Start: (STEP one)
Mix 3/4 cup bread flour and 1/2 cup bottled or filtered water in a glass 4 cup measuring cup leave next to coffee maker. MUST S: BREAD FLOUR/NO TAP WATER (Tap water will kill the yeast and non bread flour will not have the protein necessary to allow bread to rise use these ingredients throughout this recipe) I added a ¼ tspn commercial yeast to this mixture when I start out. it is not necessary but I have had limited success with growing a starter without using yeast from the start. This mixture is called the starter*

STEP two:
Twice a day, Every day for a minimum of 5 days I remove ¼ cup of starter* and add ¼ cup of flour and 1/8 of a cup of water. I leave it at the coffee maker because I set coffee to brew at night and make myself coffee in the morning so I see it and remember to feed it. I have done this feeding only once a day and no discolorations or rottenness has occurred. Colorful discolorations in the starter require you to throw it away and start over. There will be a multitude of smells this is okay. If after 5 days the mixture has grown larger than 2-1/4 cups move on to step 3. If not continue to feed twice a day until it does.

STEP Three: Pull off 1/2 cup of starter place in a new 4 cup measuring cup, (throw away remaining starter or add flour to it and place in refrigerator feeding once a week in order to use again) add 1/4 cup of bread flour to the mixture if all of the flour is not absorbed add a little non top water until it is. Let double in size about 6 hours. After bread has doubled pull off 1/2 cup and add 2/3 cup bread flour 1/3 cup non tap water mix with hands dough should not be sticky continue to add flour until dough feels very stiff still elastic but not dry this takes practice and I don’t know how else to explain it. Use hands so you can feel it and can create muscle memory for future bread. let double in size approximately 6 hours again.

STEP four: Refrigerate dough up to 24 hrs or until you have 12 hours to finish making bread. Hopefully just over night to make the next day.

STEP five: Pull dough from fridge one hour before you wish to mix dough beginning of 12 hour cycle. In mixer bowl add 2.5 cups of bread flour and 1-1/3 cups non tap water. Once hour is up add 2/3 cup of starter torn into pieces into mixing bowl with flour and water. Mix at #2 w/dough hook for about 10 minutes. If it starts to climb i will increase blender speed to throw dough to the side. No flour should be on the sides of bowl. Cover with plastic wrap let rest 1 hour.

STEP six: after one hour scrape dough onto floured counter and fold dough counter and do two business letter turn/folds.* let rest another hour in mixing bowl. After this hour scrape dough and do two business letter turn/folds* again and Place dough in a seethru greased container mark spot on bowl so you know when it is doubled.. about 5 hrs


STEP seven: do not deflate dough round it into a ball by basically pulling down sides of dough so that it is tight and then pinching dough so it will stay in place and has a half of a ball shape. your going to invert dough into a colander with a floured towell pinched size up covered with oiled plastic wrap and let it rise 4 hours the pinching is where the rise will come thus eliminating the look of it.

one hour before bread is just about ready pre heat oven to 475 degrees (keep reading). and you will need two to 3 cooking sheets and/or a cast iron pan.

BEFORE PREHEATING
A cast iron pan on bottom of oven (or baking sheet(1))
a baking sheet(2) on the middle rack.
need to be in the oven.

keep baking sheet (3) out

STEP Eight: after the bread has risen appropriately you need to transfer it from colander to baking sheet (3) without losing the rise. you can do this but placing an oiled paper plate on the bottom of the dough then inverting it onto baking sheet (3) and then slide out. place baking sheet(3) perpendicular on top of other baking sheet(2) so it is easy to take off when you move bread to it. and add 1 cup water to pan on bottom of oven at same time. bake 5 minutes reduce temp to 450 cook 10 minutes. pull bread off of baking sheet(3) place on baking sheet (2) bake until sound hollow and long skewer pulls out clean about 15 more minutes.

Items yet to post

With the holidays and all it has been difficult to post but i have been baking the whole time.
i have made sandwich bread twice, bagels, and rye bread (Delicious) as well as a few sourdough loafs for family.

quick lessons learned.

refrigerated starter needs atleast two days outside the fridge fed twice a day to make a decent loaf.

when all doesnt work well adding even a 1/4 teaspoon of commercial yeast rises bread but it is not the same at all.

finally, you really need to take the time to pack that starter you are using to make bread full of flour as well as after the final mixing it must be STIFF! I cant say that enough.

i will be posting the quick sourdough recipe as well as all of my other experiences soon, now that things are back to normal. (if you consider speed crawling, computer cord eating, elizabeth, normal)

Getting Bread to OVEN

Definition: business letter fold. you stretch dough in to rectangle facing away long ways away from you. Fold up bottom 3rd. fold dough from top all the way down to bottom. turn so that sealed dough side is on right and repeat. i will add picks on this in the future.


Before you feed for the 2nd 6 hour rise make sure the dough is very stiff i keep adding flour to dough in a business envelope folding method until it just doesnt seem to be able to accept any more. Then let it rise the 6 hours and refrigerate as mentioned in the previous entry.

Pull dough from fridge 1 hour before you want to mix it!!

In a mixer add 2-1/2 cups of flour 1-1/3 cup water add 2/3 cups of starter in broken up pieces to help it mix. mix it at a slw/med speed for 7-10 minutes. make sure no dry flour is left in bowl. remove bowl from mixer pull out down then adds 1 tblspn oil roll bowl around in oil to cover all sides and cover with plastic wrap. let rise one hour.

AFter one hour scrape dough onto counter and do two buisness letter turn folds.(see above) Place dough in a see through container mark spot on bowl so you know when it is doubled.. about 5 hrs

do not deflate dough round it into a ball by basically pulling down sides of dough so that it is tight and then pinching dough so it will stay in place. and has a half of a ball shape. your going to invert dough into a colander with a floured towell pinched size up covered with oiled plastic wrap and let it rise 4 hours the pinching is where the rise will come thus eliminating the look of it.

one hour before bread is just about ready pre heat oven to 475 degrees (keep reading). and you will need two to 3 cooking sheets and/or a cast iron pan.

BEFORE PREHEATING
A cast iron pan on bottom of oven (or baking sheet(1))
a baking sheet(2) on the middle rack.
need to be in the oven.

keep baking sheet (3) out

after the bread has risen appropriately you need to transfer it from colander to baking sheet (3) without losing the rise. you can do this but placing an oiled paper plate on the bottom of the dough then inverting it onto baking sheet (3) and then slide out. if the dough sinks quite easily and spreads out one of two things was not done a. you did not use bread flour (king arthur) b. the dough was not stiff enough you did not add enough flour this is why i hand mix after using mixer so that i can feel the consistency you will be suprised how much flour the dough can take the rise will give you the softness and flour feeds the rise.

place baking sheet(3) perpendicular on top of other baking sheet(2) so it is easy to take off when you move bread to it. and add 1 cup water to pan on bottom of oven at same time. bake 5 minutes reduce temp to 450 cook 10 minutes. pull bread off of baking sheet(3) place on baking sheet (2) bake until sound hollow and long skewer pulls out clean about 15 more minutes.

Is your starter healthy are you ready to go

When making your first starter i truly believe that it is best to maintain it in a glass measuring cup so you can see when it really starts to grow so that you know the yeast is really active and the mixture started out after a feeding at one cup and rose to 2 or 3 cups. it should only take a couple days with the little bit of yeast you have added {if you followed my previous post}.

Because i use yeast i like to feed the starter twice daily for at least a week (7 days)to make sure there is enough of a sourdough flavor. I never refrigerate this first week. also, if you see any coloring of the starter like bright colors etc it has gone bad and you must start over. The starter will give off different smells and such but that is normal. I have never had a starter go bad so I cant give you a Picture of it. If you have gotten this far you may have active starter and want to try to bake bread.

STEP Three: pull off 1/4 cup of starter* add to it 1/4 cup of bread flour (once you start this phase it is crucial to use bread flour it counteracts the acidity of the sourdough bread so that it may rise)and 1/8 cup water (don't forget tap water can be bad see earlier posts) let double in size about 6 hours. When doing this i strongly advise mixing the flour then kneading by hand so you can feel the stiffness it should be very stiff. Densities always very, with starters and flours, and it is best to really get a feel for the way the dough feels so you can adjust in future if it doesn't finish exactly as you want.

*ALSO FEED THE original STARTER AND WAIT AN HOUR THEN REFRIGERATE STARTER UNTIL YOU WANT TO USE IT AGAIN IN LESS THAN A WEEK or you will have to warm re feed and the refrigerate for a week. I have been baking bread every couple days to master the bread so I am not sure of the best method of maintaining a starter for long periods of time without baking bread every couple of days but i will let you know


After bread has doubled pull off 1/4 cup again and add 2/3 cup bread flour 1/3 cup water let double in size approximately 6 hours again once it doubles refrigerate dough until you have 12 hours to finish making bread hopefully the next day not more than two days. The keys here are that it must double in size if it is not doubling something is wrong.

Refrigeration: i have refrigerated dough in a many different stages of making the sourdough bread and have determined this is the best time to refrigerate it and get the results you want to have to show off to your friends..

Finally i am giving a lot of information pretty quickly but will finish tomorrow and try to do a summary post also this week i think we will do homemade bagels as well and next week homemade wonder bread it should be fun i have never done either one before.

"original" lessons learned part of SD recipe

Bread baking I believe is easy but the amount of information on it will spin your head round and round. Every succesful and unsuccesful process for me took days even weeks to master a bread that may or may not taste good.

It is neccesary to post some of the lessons I have learned back when I was unable to manage a starter for long periods due to negligence. The bread that I referred to in my first post solely relied on commercial yeast, and we know from that had no sourdough flavor. Second, I tried to just grow the starter from scratch. OOps i had better give you my DEFINITION of a starter.

Starter: is a combination of flower and water stirred together that will be used to mix with bread flour to make your bread.
(How much flour and water to add? whether or not to add yeast? Feeding: how much? which amounts? how often? can you refrigerate? should you? these are all questions I hope to answer for you so you will not have to go through all of my mistakes.)

Back too Starter from scratch....I mixed equal portions of water and flour about a 1/2 cup each (later i learned to decrease amount of water to 1/4 cup) placed in an extememly clean glass measuring cup, atleast 2 cups covered with plastic wrap. I then fed it twice daily. (by removing a 1/4 cup of mixture and adding 1/4 cup of fresh flour and water) At some point in time the amount was suppose to increase or double go from a 1/2 a cup of mixture to a full cup or more thus telling me i had active yeast in my glass container. I would typically forget about long before it ever doubled.

Needless to say this never worked for me now I always add some small amount of commercial yeast to begin the process.

The most important thing I learned in the beginning, is WATER is crucial! Do not use City water even commercial yeast seems to suffer in city water bottled pure water only. If you believe, bottled water is the devil, it is said that you can leave tap water out for 6 hours or more and it will be fine. I have done this with my summer herbs replanted inside but i will probably never mix it with bread. To risky and has cost me a couple of really good loafs before I realized the cause.

So if you want something to due to begin baking bread my first blog bread Sourdough this is what you need to do. You MUST have these items (in my opinion to begin)

STEP ONE: warm 1/2 cup of bottled water(see above) stir 1/2 of one packet of active yeast if it gets frothy(bubly) in five minutes then it is active mix with one cup bread flour in clear container cover with plastic wrap tightly, do not refrigerate, leave on counter.

STEP TWO: remove 1/4 cup of mixture replace with 1/4 cup bread flour 1/8 cup bottled water. every 12 hours until doubled reaches 3 cups or so.

The beginning

Three years ago my wife, when living in Elgin, IL, used to have many meals out. I have always wanted to open my own restaurant and would try to remember what the restaurants we visited did well. One thing that always seemed to go with a great meal was great BREAD.



Then, I began my attempts to bake the perfect bread. I tried a lot of rustic breads etc but none of them hit the spot. Through my research online I found a quick sourdough bread. FYI the words quick and sourdough never go together. When it comes to sourdough quick is 24 hours vs 36 hours but you never really know. Sourdough breads flavor comes from its starter.



I used to work a 60 hr a week job that took away from my ability to remember the daily steps neccesary for bread baking specifically starter growing. In the last year my wife gave birth to our daughter and I left my job to be a Stay at home Dad.



I had no idea what I was getting myself into by choosing, the now popular role, to be a stay at home dad. I will say stay at home parenthood is ideal for BREAD BAKING!!!