In this episode of the Free Culinary School Podcast, your questions about sourdough starters, bread and technique are answered. If you have anymore questions regarding sourdough, please feel free to ask them in the comment section of this post.
For more information on this subject, I recommend The Fresh Loaf.com.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello Chef Jacob: Just following up on two things with bread making.
1) In making the baguettes the bottoms were soft/wet because of sitting in the melted ice cubes. I believe I can remedy this on the next go around by propping the molds up on chopsticks. What say you?
2) Why aren’t you using the same technique of baguette molds and steam baking in hotel pans when making sourdough bread?
Much thanks for all the GREAT lessons in FCS.com. I’m a graduate of the professional program at The Institute of Culinary Education in NYC. Your lessons are precise, accurate and informative to everyone from the beginner to the professionally trained.
(The Rev. Dr.) David R. Adamovich
@ David,
Try steaming the baguettes for 5-10 minutes longer and raise your oven temp by 25 degrees during the steaming process. This just sounds like an oven issue to me. If this doesn’t work, let me know and we’ll go back to the drawing board.
Thank you Jacob, but you forgot to address the second question, Why aren’t you using the same technique of baguette molds and steam baking in hotel pans when making sourdough bread? For some reason you used a straight out baking process w/o steaming in the sourdough video.
Thanks,
David
@ David,
In the sourdough video I was showing a different technique for crust formation. Lately I’ve been steaming my sourdough bread much like I do in the baguette video, but there is more then one way to form a crust.
I recommend experimenting with different crust formation techniques and methods until you find one that works good for you.
For more information, listen to FCS Episode 20, where we do a whole discussion segment on crust and crumb formation.
Jason:
Revisiting the sourdough episodes I’m left with two dilemmas: 1) you say you make bread daily as you pull out a 1500 g glop of starter. Doing that there’s no time to replenish the poolish, it’d be gone in about 2 days. In fact you say to replenish it every 3-7 days. Where’s the replenished, matured starter coming from on a daily basis? 2) The original poolish is equal parts of flour by weight (800 g each) however further on down you say, “If you store your Poolish Sourdough Starter in the fridge once it’s active, you will need to feed it about every 3-7 days by removing half of the starter and replacing it with a equal parts water and flour.” This is leads to the definition of “equal parts water and flour.” Is that by weight or volume? Thanks for your time, I love the techniques and videos. Incidentally, the dough mixture used in the baguette series is incredibly easy to work with. It has body and life and is the best ratio of flour to water for sure.
Thanks,
David
Sorry, I seemed to have done it again, it’s NOT Jason, it’s JACOB. Accept my apology.
Throwdini
@David,
The replenishment cycle is only meant for when you are not using your starter. If you are using it on a daily basis then you just replace whatever you’ve taken out, usually around half the amount of the starter if you want it to recover in one day.
hey chef,
i just made my starter and am very excited to see how it turns out. Ive been a prep cook/dishwasher for a couple years and am going to Texas Culinary Academy next month. Your site is giving me an edge up at work and i am positive it will help in school thank you so much for taking the time to do this I am truly inspired.