Home Bread-Bakers v105.n041.13
[Advanced]

sourdough bread recipe

Mike Avery <mavery@mail.otherwhen.com>
Mon, 26 Sep 2005 10:59:23 -0600
v105.n041.13
"Ratliff, Betty" <betty.ratliff@mosescone.com> asked for a sourdough 
recipe that works in a bread machine.

As somewhat of a sourdough purist, I will focus on a real sourdough, 
one that is made without bakers yeast at any point.  My feeling is 
that if you add yeast, you don't have sourdough any longer, because 
the yeast works so quickly that the sourdough doesn't have time to 
produce the flavors sourdough lovers want.

So... can someone help?  Probably not.  It's kinda like that old joke 
about "You want it cheap, fast and good?  Pick two and call me back."

There are a number of issues with sourdough that a bread machine has 
trouble with.  Most sourdough rises are in excess of four 
hours.  Many bread machines can't handle that.

Many bread machines move the paddle throughout the rise, "bumping" 
the dough.  This will deflate the sourdough when it becomes more 
developed.  Many bread machines don't offer you the option of 
disabling this feature, which does help a yeasted dough develop.

Bread machines work on a fixed schedule.  Even if you get a 
programmable bread machine, the program you setup will be adhered to 
with machine like obedience.  If you tell it to wait 4 hours and then 
bake, it will bake in four hours, whether your dough is over risen 
and has spilled all over the inside of your bread machine, or if its 
only half risen - the machine has no way of knowing that the bread 
has risen enough, it can only go by time.  Sadly, most hobbyist 
bakers don't take very good care of their starters, so the starters 
don't behave in a consistent manner.

So, what's a baker to do?

Once the bread machine has kneaded your dough, you can remove it from 
the bread machine, form a loaf, let it rise, and then bake it in your 
oven.  This isn't as simple as you might like.

Once the bread machine has kneaded your dough, you can pull the dough 
out of the bread machine, remove the paddle, and then put the dough 
back in.  This isn't really difficult, but you are left with the 
inconsistencies most home bakers have with their starters.

You could let your starter get really, really sour and then use yeast 
to complete the rise.  This isn't a good way to get a sourdough 
taste, it is rather one dimensional, and is likely to lead to gluten 
degradation from the high initial acid load of the starter.

Some people do the remove the paddle trick and go one step 
further.  They unplug the bread machine from the wall.  When the 
dough has risen enough, they plug it back in and use the bread 
machine's "bake now" setting.  Not all bread machines have that 
option, and it may not meet your goal of "simple."

Given that all these approaches fall down in quality and/or 
simplicity, how do the commercial mixes, like Krusteaz, make 
sourdough?  They don't.  Some use sourdough extracts and some use a 
mix of malic, acetic, and fumaric acids, in attempt to create what a 
chemist thinks sourdough bread should taste like.  Some of them taste 
pretty good, but they really shouldn't be called 
sourdough.  "Sourdough style" or "sourdough inspired" or "artificial 
sourdough" or "reconstituted sourdough" might be better terms.

As a final note, some bread machines do offer a "sourdough" cycle.  I 
haven't examined them, but suspect they are based on a mix of 
sourdough and yeast, and/or suffer from the problems discussed 
above.  Sadly, there are some limitations to bread machines.  If you 
can work within them, you can make some very nice breads, but there 
are some things they really aren't suited to do.  Ultra dense breads, 
such as authentic pumpernickels, and sourdoughs are among the areas 
where bread machines have troubles.


While this wasn't the answer you were looking for, I do hope it helps.
Mike