Well, I was going to go to a hockey game

[unicornduke]

But traffic is already backing up down near NYC and I'm not into that. 

I was planning to go to the CT Whale vs BOS Pride game down in Stamford. It is a 2 1/2 hour drive with no traffic. That would mean I'd have only five hours of driving. But I just checked the traffic and it's backing up by ten minutes already. Especially because it added five minutes back up in the last half hour. So that would put me at around six hours of driving and I'm tired already. The ticket was only $20 and while I hate to waste it, it's only $20. 

As much as I enjoy watching the Whale play, I suspect it will be a bit of a blowout and neither of the teams is my favorite. Now if I could get to the Buffalo-Whitecaps game, I would definitely drive six hours for that. Yesterday's game was so amazing to watch on tv! 

So I'm staying home. And baking things probably. I've got a GF sourdough starter going that should be at the perfect point to use in just a few minutes. And I've got stuff for ice cream. 

Comments

[unicornduke]

so far the starter looked good. the sourdough I attempted to make today does not. I'm going to let it rise overnight and see if that changes anything lol

[tielan]

yeah, sourdough can be weird. You mix it, then let it rise, then knead it down, then let it rise overnight, then let it come back up to room temperature then...?

The sourdough breads I've made have been interesting. Not always what I wanted, but still tasty.

[graydon]

When I made pure-rye sourdough (about a thousand years ago), I borrowed a trick from a commercial bakery I'd been on a tour of and let it rise in the fridge. It took three and a half days, but it apparently works better for (some) difficult-rising breads like pure rye. The yeast doesn't go into sprint mode or something.

[tielan]

Three days, huh? I was told overnight - and for a sourdough stollen/fruit bread - but it didn't rise much and turned out very dense, so three days might very well work better....

[graydon]

You know how someone who likes what they do will realize they're saying too much in the way of trade secrets and reword three times and then shut up abruptly? The baker on that tour was like that.

They settled on "until it's doubled, and a week is too long"; what I recall from their setup (big colour-coded dough tubs in a custom fridge; it's apparently bad to mix strains of sourdough) is that their stuff tended to run between fifty and eighty hours. Only wheat breads got overnight-or-a-day, which I took to mean something like between ten and thirty but maybe twenty hours. And they did it by volume, rather than time. ("is it touching the lid?" seems to have been the test.)

(This was a small commercial bakery with its own bakery storefront; they didn't make much bread by commercial standards but they charged a lot for it and stayed in business, so I figure they have to have known something.)

[tielan]

Yeah, but those small commerical bakeries are the BEST.

And I should have done it by volume rather than time, but I was a bit pressed for time then... Ah well, we live and learn. (And I rather think the starter I put in the fridge may very well be dead by now. It hasn't been fed in more than a week...)

[graydon]

I suspect most of them have fantasies of opening in Paris and not being destroyed by an angry mob.

Used to keep sourdough in the freezer; took it out when needed, took out half for the bread, fed the remainder, waited until it went bloop in a steady and determined way, and stuck it back in the freezer. Yeast is tough.

I'd mix up a batch of whatever you feed your starters and stick a teaspoonful of the fridge starter in it, cover, leave on the counter, and wait for bloop. If goes, and it's not horrible tasting, you can very likely use the new and the old.

[tielan]

"wait for bloop" That is WONDERFUL. :D

[graydon]

Thank you!

It's a bit reductive, but the basic purpose of bread yeast (or wine or beer yeast...) is to cause bloop. (Sometimes very small bloop, where one cannot actually hear the bubble bursting, but usually with sourdough culture I could.)

[unicornduke]

lol wait for bloop. I'll have to keep this in mind! My starter is hanging in the fridge now, I had it on top of the microwave for the first few days. I'll keep checking the loaf. I did fuck it up a bit by forgetting I halved the recipe on the very last step with the water so I attempted to recover with a little more flour. We'll see.

[unicornduke]

Since it's gluten free, I can't really knead it as far as I can tell. I've been following this lady's instructions http://www.artofglutenfreebaking.com/2010/10/sourdough-starter-gluten-free/ and ignored the thing about the cabbage because I got bubbling without it just fine.

I've just got it out on the counter. Hmm. I fed it this morning around 7, made the dough around noon.

[graydon]

Ooh, nifty instructions.

Saved!

Thank you!

(totally sympathetic to ignoring the thing about the cabbage.)