About bread here on the blog mentioned is not enough, so I decided to contribute. To argue that is better or worse I'd hate, I just want to say that, in my opinion, any bread on homemade sourdough - bread is better than store-bought cakes. Do not pretend to the objectivity of my opinion, and just his voice.
I would like to tell you how I bake myuseful and delicious bread at home.
so, what is leaven? It is made the natural way: water, flour, heat (natural fermentation). This leaven may persist for a relatively long period, because with each baking we updated a starter, then leaving it in a cool place (refrigerator) until the next baking.
the Updated starter has a large power, so the bread rises faster, has a porous structure, becomes air.
unlike store-bought yeast, sourdough contains a sour-milk bacteria. They feed by-products of fermentation and, in turn, make the environment more acidic. These bacteria secrete lactic acid, which gives sourdough to sour, because the majority of microbes are not able to survive in such an environment.
Until recently, all bread was prepared in the leaven, and until the 19th century this process was unclear to scientists. And only with a microscope opened the bacteria that cause the dough to rise. From this time began to carry out the selection and cultivation of yeast in order to increase the reliability and speed of fermentation. But obviously suffered from this quality product.
Today, delving into the essence of the process, many have returned to baking homemade bread from wheat flour, natural sourdough. Sushestvuet a lot of ferment: the hops, raisins.
I will talk about the simplest recipe sourdough. So: you need to take 0.5 liters of warm water, better spring. The flour should be wholemeal (I take the rye) because sourdough made from white refined flour goes bad much faster.
First phase:
1.1. Dilute flour as rare on the pancakes, knead well.
1.2. Cover with a lid or with cling film, put the dishes in a warm place (22-26 degrees) for 36 hours.
The appearance on the surface of the mass of a small bulibasha suggests that the fermentation process goes.
1.3. 36 hours is added to the capacity of the flour and prepare the batter as thick pancakes. Again, put in heat for 12 hours. If the temperature is higher than 22-26 degrees, the fermentation processes are carried out faster. The main thing – not to disturb the yeast and allowed to ripen, depends on the quality of the product – bread.
Second stage:
After the readiness of the leaven (a small part of it, leave in the fridge for storage) knead the dough for bread. I do it like this:
2.1. Take the usual form for baking bread (I have a brick, but is in the form of cakes, a small round bread).
2.2. The form needs to wipe poorly, barely dipped in homemade vegetable oil palm. If you overdo it, the bread "stick" and it will be difficult to remove from the mold.
Third step:
3.1. Begin to knead the dough. Take 1 tbsp. of salt without slides, then 300-350g of spring water. Add the flour, and mix to obtain a fairly thick batter.
3.2. Next, I begin to create. Add to the dough a little more ground flax seed and a little ground coriander and cumin seeds, a lot of bran (5 tablespoons). Again thoroughly kneaded. Add 2 tbsp homemade fragrant sunflower oil.
3.3. Put the batter into the pan (the dough takes place in the form of a little more than half of the height), sprinkle with caraway seeds and coriander, sesame seeds(here you can add, someone like that). Preslaven palm, if doing kulichikah seeds, then crumbled.
3.4. Set in warm for 4-6 hours (depending on warmth of room). When the dough came – put the form in the oven on a low heat for 30 minutes. During this time the dough still fits. Then add fire and watch the bread not burnt. After about 15 minutes the bread is ready. Delicious, healthy product.
3.5. Then he needs to walk it off (so I was taught by an elderly technologist in the domain). Put it somewhere on skvoznyachok. This is done so that the bread is evenly hot and not cracked.
Update leaven:
After kneading the dough for bread, we take a piece of dough (a couple tablespoons)mixed with the flour in the starter, thereby updating it.
the Optimal mode of use of sourdough baking - in two days. Then the bread will be more airy, high, and the dough will quickly come.
That's about it.
Bon appetit and stay healthy!