First off, I’d like to thank everyone who engaged in the exchange of ideas and friendly debate in my last entry.  My blog normally doesn’t head into political topics but on occasion I like to express my idea.  I find that when people take a deep breath and exchange their ideas on a civil level, there’s an opportunity to learn much more from each other and to be more open to different ideas.

Let’s all keep that spirit of open-minded dialogue as we head into November.  Heck, let’s try to keep that all the time.

Let’s turn away from topical things and get back to the subject that is no less partisan and divisive, food!

I’ve been experimenting with sourdough bread as of late, not so much to recreate the sourdough I know and love from San Francisco (funny story, the first time Tawn visited me in SF and he tried the bread, he looked at me with this odd face and told me he thought the bread had gone bad), but just as a way to leaven and make more flavorful whole wheat bread. 

The whole wheat bread I buy here in Thailand is just awful.  Even some of the hotel bakeries, which cater to Europeans, still make pretty cardboard-ish whole grain bread.

A great website I found – www.sourdoughhome.com – is literally the home of everything sourdough.  Some much information and helpful descriptions and explanations from a former bakery owner and baking instructor!

I created my own sourdough starter, basically a jar of water and flour that is allowed to catch its own yeast spores from the air.  Over time it begins to ferment a bit and a sour air become more noticeable, picture on the left.

Every twelve hours I remove half the starter and replace is with a 2:3 mixture of water and flower.  Then I let it sit for twelve hours or so, during which time it should double in height (picture on the right).  Now that it has matured a bit I’ll send it to the refrigerator to hibernate for a few days at a time but I am sure to bring it out and start feeding it again a day or two before I want to make another loaf.

Below, close up of the starter.

My first few loaves had some problems.  One just never rose at all.  I think I used the started too far along in the 12-hour cycle after the activity had died down.  Another loaf looked pretty good but when I pulled the plastic wrap off the top of the loaf before placing it in the oven, I realized I hadn’t oiled the plastic.  The dough caught on it, ripped open, and the loaf deflated into a dense brick.

My most recent loaf turned out quite nicely.  It still isn’t as tall as I’d like, but since it had a very nice, light crumb inside I think the issue is that the recipe isn’t large enough for the pan.  I’ll try again next week and increase the recipe by about a third.

Below, a nice loaf but still a bit short.

There is nothing like the smell of fresh-baked bread in a house, even when the loaf turns out to be a doorstop.  My maternal grandmother used to bake quite often and I recall the smell and taste of fresh-baked bread at her house.