Rav's Sourdough: formula, methods, baking with charcoal, free bread

[Ravella and X]

Aloha cooks, bakers, eaters. I thought I'd make a thread to keep all of my sourdough posts and comments corralled in one place. Eventually, all aspects of doing sourdough bread my way as a nomad with no oven should end up here. Questions and methods other than mine are welcome! This is also where I will post free bread when I bake, wherever I'm camped- unless I'm so far out that nobody at all is around.
I bake all of our bread. Unfermented wheat hurts me to digest, and most of the sourdough bread in stores is not real, long fermented sourdough. At first it seemed hard and fussy, but with a mental adjustment that was aided by the online cookbook "Efficiency is Everything", I adjusted and adjusted, experimented and experimented, tried and tried until I got a fairly reliable and easy-going daily bread.
My underlying hope is to influence other nomads to take up this enjoyable and healthy and inexpensive practice.

 

[eDJ_]

I'm intrigued.  Will you be using a Dutch Oven ?

 

[highdesertranger]

I'm in. great idea. I have baked bread in a Dutch oven before but not sourdough. I'm always looking for great new tips. highdesertranger

 

[abnorm]

I will 'humbly" offer my services as Taste Tester..............

 

[WanderingRose]

Great idea for a thread, and kudos to you for baking all of your own bread!

I am an avid bread baker, as well, and have done sourdough but actually prefer using the starter in baked goods other than bread.

Applesauce spice cake, banana bread, English muffins, biscuits, etc.

Looking forward to your posts.

 

[Ravella and X]

Yay! I'm so glad someone is interested!
I'll start at the starter: there are instuctions for making your own starter all over the internet. Pick the easiet one, because the magic is in the flour and air, not in the spells you cast and dance you do. My easy on the nomadic lifestyle way is to mix unbleached white flour with water in a jar to the consistency of a soft dough. Use water that doesn't smell like chlorine. (To remove chlorine from water the easy way, just leave it for 24 hours in an open container.)
Just a little of the mixture to start- about a quarter cup. Cover jar with a cloth or paper towel.
Set jar in a warmish spot. Not hot tho- too hot kills the beasts!
24 hours or so later, feed it the same amounts of water and flour. Next day, discard half, and feed again. Repeat and repeat. Within the first couple-few days, you will get some bubbles/air. And it might smell funny. This first activity isnt the good bacteria and yeast that make sourdough yummy. After this first activity, the starter might go dormant for days again. Keep feeding it. Keep discarding half so you don't get a van-sized yeast beast monster. Depending on the ambient day and night temps, you should have a thing that doubles in size in 12 hours or less in a couple of weeks. More if your temps aren't particularly friendly to yeast and bacterial growth. Be patient. Don't stress.
Once your starter is doubling reliably, you could start feeding it twice a day like most of the internet, but the only times I have to do that are when I find myself caught in 90+ degree days with 68+ degree nights.
Your starter is ready when its rise is reliable. Stop discarding the discard. Save it to make sourdough pancakes!
After all of that, I have a standing offer to give starter to anyone who wants some. I'm in Quartzsite until April 2021.

 

[Ravella and X]

I am  an avid bread baker, as well, and have done sourdough but actually prefer using the starter in baked goods other than bread.

Post recipes here!
I also make other sourdough stuff. My favorite is sourdough bombolini with homemade lemon curd filling. (They're doughnuts!) But I also make other things occasionally, like whole wheat sourdough tortillas and other flat breads, biscuits, etc. I used to make crackers when I had an oven. Still, the bread is the staple for me.

 

[Ravella and X]

I will 'humbly" offer my services as Taste Tester..............

Doug, you and Paulette are the official Quartzsite taste testers and critics.  =)

 

[Ravella and X]

I'm intrigued.  Will you be using a Dutch Oven ?

Yes. I use a 10" deep dish camp style Dutch oven on a lodge Dutch oven table (because my squatting to cook days are over!) I use kingsford charcoal because it's uniform and I can count the coals and get it right most times with only the weather to consider. Neither the table nor the kingsford are really necessary- it could be done on the ground with campfire wood coals by someone more adventurous than me. I prefer to be comfortable and have really good odds of the right heat to get a beautifully baked boule.

 

[Ravella and X]

The mix tools...
Keep in mind that bread has been baked for thousands of years without without any fancy equipment. This list of stuff is what I use and why I use it.
A big mixing bowl -- I use a large bowl because I bake two boules on bake days. One for us and one to give away. A smaller bowl would do for one boule or batard or loaf.
A tablespoon -- to mix with and also stir the starter when feeding.
A scale -- I used to use measuring cups, but a scale makes the whole thing much easier and cuts down on dishwashing. A digital kitchen scale could be had for 8-12 bucks last I checked.
A dough scraper -- mine isn't a real dough scraper. Its a lodge pot scraper that does a lot more than scrape and cut dough! A dough scraper isn't strictly necessary, but it does help with shaping the dough and keeping your work surface clean.
Plastic gloves-- I use them for hand mixing and stretching & folding when boondocking. They cut way way down on water use.
Plastic wrap-- to cover the bowl. There are reusable alternatives. Could even cover with a plate if you can stand not seeing the dough rise!
Parchment paper -- not strictly necessary. Can grease the Dutch oven instead.
I also use two small plastic mixing bowls and two bandanas for the final proof, but if you're baking just one boule, you can do the final proof right in the Dutch oven.

 

[Ravella and X]

The ingredients
Flour, water, salt. Thats all that's needed for a delicious traditional sourdough bread. The flour and water you use are important though. Here is what I use, some variations I do, and why.
Flour -- King Arthur (KA) unbleached all purpose (AP) flour. Unbleached is said to be important as the bleaching process may impact the flour's performance with the yeast beasts in your starter. I have never tested the theory. King Arthur is pretty available most places I have traveled, from the Midwest to the south to the west. KA also keeps the protein content stable in every bag, by mixing crops until they achieve 11.7% protein. Protein content is important in gluten development and 11.7% is pretty high for an AP flour. When stores have KA bread flour at the same or similar good price as KA AP, I will buy that. For nomads charcoal baking, there are enough variables out of our control that controlling for the few things we can has a big impact on getting semi-consistant results. Stationary bakers can find a good local mill and work with their higher protein unbleached offerings.

Most all of my bakes have some percentage of whole grain. Usually 20-40%, but sometimes less and sometimes more. I have tried and failed a couple of times with 100% whole wheat. It is just too heavy and dense. It may be better if I were willing to add other engredients like honey and fats, but my choice is a lean and healthy traditional sourdough. The one exception I make is for dark sourdough rye bread. Yum. The whole grain most available at random stores across the country is whole wheat. Read the label and choose hard red or hard white wheat. The soft wheats and blends are not as good for bread. (I'm looking at you, Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flour.) I get rye flour when I can find it. Dark rye if available. Rye has magic I will get to later.

Water -- clean drinking water with no chlorine. Most sourdough internet gurus say "filtered water", but really, municipal tap water with the chlorine removed by evaporation or boiling is fine. Do what works for you, way out in the boonies.

Salt -- be as picky or un-picky as you want. I use kosher salt right now, because that's what is in my cabinet.

That's it for a lean sourdough. I do sometimes do add-ins, my favorite being jalapeno cheddar, but I don't enrich the dough with fats or sweets for daily eating bread. There will later links and recipes for some enriched sourdough treats.

 

[Freelander]

Save some for me!!!

 

[Ravella and X]

Holler when you get to Q and I will bake a boule for you =)
All you have to do is get here before I leave.

 

[Freelander]

I'll be there late Jan 2021.

 

[Ravella and X]

I will still be here

 

[Cammalu]

I finally made it to Quartzsite yesterday evening. Have a ton of stuff to do over the next couple days but I have your flour I can drop. Let me know where you are camped.

 

[WanderingRose]

Reading your cautions about water, Ravella, I wonder if my water is why my last starter never really got a good rise going.

I used unbleached white flour, where usually I just use white all purpose flour, and it would bubble and look active but never threaten to go over the sides of my jar like it has in the past.

I started it last spring, and just blamed the pandemic and 2020.

It’s in a quart mason jar in my freezer, waiting until I get an urge again to bake with it.

 

[Ravella and X]

I finally made it to Quartzsite yesterday evening. Have a ton of stuff to do over the next couple days but I have your flour I can drop. Let me know where you are camped.

Yay!  Glad you made it. No hurry for the flour. Get settled and comfy. I know where you are, so how about I come to your camp tomorrow?

 

[Cammalu]

We will be in and out. If I’m gone I’ll tell whoever is here to give you the flour.

 

[Cammalu]

Poor Maki came by at least two times today and missed me. I feel bad but I’ve gotta get this junk done. I have a lot of wood and hope to get u two over for a campfire and cookout. I’m pretty adamant about social distancing and masks. John and I both have lung issues and probably wouldn’t make it through Covid so have to be extra careful.

Neighbors have a trampoline and we’re jumping on it nekkid today. We aren’t in the magic circle but perhaps they think they are.