Fwd: my bread

[Guest guest]

LOL. Ok to make the sourdough starter I mixed 1 cup of freshly strained

kefir (made with real kefir grains not a powdered culture) with 1 cup of

freshly ground whole wheat flour. I put it in a jar, covered with a coffee

filter held on by an elastic and put it in the cupboard for a few days,

stirring it once a day. It would get bubbly and rise, I'd just stir it down

and put it back in th cupboard. After a few days I put it into a bowl added

one cup of water (don't use chorinated!) and 1 cup fresh ground flour.

Covered and let go overnight. next morning I put one cup of that in another

bowl, 1 cup in a mason jar and put the jar in the fridge for future bread,

to the starter in the bowl I added 3/4 cup water, 1 tsp sea salt, 1 1/5 t

honey (not raw), 2 tbsp olive oil or melted butter and mixed well. Stir in 2

1/2 cups flour (now I did cheat this time and used half fresh ground whole

wheat and half white bread flour, with all my previous failures at sourdough

I wanted to make sure this rose as much as possible LOL) When you can't stir

anymore in knead on a flourd surface until good and elastic. Put in an oiled

bowl, turning so top of dough is coated and place covered in a warm spot

until doubled (took about 6 hours). Punch down and knead in a bit more flour

if needed until nice and elastic again. Form into a loaf and place in a

buttered bread pan (I used stoneware, it;s the best for making sourdough). I

let rise again, about 3 hours then baked at 350 until nice and brown. When

the top was well browned, I took it out and removed the bread from the pan.

I inserted a thermometer into the bottom of the loaf, you want 190F (unless

you are at a high altitude then you want 195 or even 200) it wasn't there

yet so I put it back in the oven (not in the pan) and draped some tin foil

on top because the top was well browned already. I baked until the

thermometer read 190. Then cooled it on a rack and sliced it. Next time I

will make sure to put a shallow pan of water on the bottom rack of the oven,

it makes for a nicer crust on sourdough.

--

D. Siemens

WAPF Chapter Leader

http://www.freewebs.com/wapfontario/index.htm

Wife of Tim, Mother of Zack and Lydia, Child of God.