Sourdough and More Missing Chickens

One of the things I miss most about San Francisco is fresh baked sourdough bread. The pungent unmistakable sour aroma rising with steam off a hot loaf has got to be one of my nose's all time favorites. The initial crunch biting through a thick, flaky crust and finding a soft, chewy treasure of flavor inside. Whether sopping up some cioppino from your bowl, making the best eggs in a frame or even just a PB&J; sourdough makes everything even better. So before we left, on an expedition to Chinatown on a sunny August afternoon, we found some sourdough starter descended from the original 1849 gold rush culture which has been cared for and spread around the world by now. It is so synonymous with San Francisco, that even the yeast that makes the bread a living entity and causes it to rise is called Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis. So once I had a grip on making jams, I knew it was time to bust out the sourdough starter and figure out how to make something proper to drop our tasty fruit spreads on. What follows is a brief guide to making your own sourdough with a few tricks I learned experimenting with the recipe. The one thing you need that I am not sure how to make yourself is the actual starter. It should be easy to find in California, comes in a little paper envelope to which you add 3 cups flour and 3 cups water to get things started. Pretty easy as chemistry goes, eh? It becomes something called a "mother sponge" which is alive and needs to be fed and cared for daily if left unrefrigerated or at least weekly if you keep it in the fridge. When you want to make your first loaf, this is how to do it:

1) Take the "mother sponge" out of the fridge (if it was being kept there) and allow it to return to room temperature. If you have some clear liquid on the top of the mother sponge, no worries that it normal, just mix everything up thoroughly before you begin. Take 1 cup of starter out of the mother sponge and put into another large glass or plastic bowl you can cover. Now is a good time to feed the mother sponge if you haven't done so recently, just add a mixture of half a cup warm water and half a cup flour to replace the cup of starter you just took out.

2)To the starter you just removed from the "mother sponge", add 1.5 cups of flour and 1 cup of warm water. This is now your "baby sponge." Cover the baby sponge and allow to rest for 8-12 hours at 80-90 degrees.

3)The baby sponge is ready to use when the surface is bubbly and has a strong pungent, sour odor. The recipe I am using here will make a 1lb loaf, if you want a bigger loaf or 2 loaves just double everything listed below:
Sourdough Starter (aka: Baby Sponge): 1 cup
Warm Water: 1/3 cup
Salt: 1 teaspoon
Bread Flour: 2 cups
Instant Yeast: 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon

It is really important to use bread flour(11-13% protein)! I have tried recipe variations with regular and whole wheat flour and you need to add extra wheat gluten if you use anything but bread flour. Add 1 tablespoon of wheat gluten per cup of flour if you are not using bread flour.

4)Mix all ingredients (EXCEPT YEAST!) well until combined. Knead dough by hand for 15 minutes or 10 minutes if you are using a mixer with a dough hook. Dust with flour, cover and allow it to rest for 6-8 hours.

mixing it up

5) This is where we add the yeast, mix or knead well and transfer the dough to a loaf pan and allow it to rise. You can make baguette shapes or rounds if you prefer but I have had the best success just pouring the dough until it halfway fills a loaf pan and letting the yeast go to work until the rising action has almost filled the pan. Rising will take about 4-5 hours if you leave the loaf pan out or overnight if you refrigerate. Be careful about covering the rising dough. If you don't give it enough room to rise it will spread a stick mess all over what you cover it with and you will be stuck scraping half of your dough back into the loaf pan.

transferring the dough with added yeast to the pan before it rises

6) Now it's time to bake. Preheat the oven to 475 F and allow it to really get a good heat going. When you put in your loaf or loaves cut the heat to 425 F and check on it in 30 minutes. I usually bake for only 30-35 minutes but it may take up to 45. Pull it out and allow to cool a few minutes before enjoying your own homemade sourdough.

fresh sourdough goodness

If you can't find any starter, email me and I'll see if I can jar some up and mail it to you. I sold out my first 6 loaves at the Farmer's Market last week for $3 a loaf. I plan on expanding the line into whole wheat sourdough soon and maybe some specialty loaves with nuts and other stuff for the winter. Happy Baking!

On a much less awesome note, I discovered I was missing another 2 hens last night when I put them to bed. Excluding the 6 new baby chicks, this means I am down to only 15 laying hens out of the original 25 we started with back in March. This time it's lockdown for real. I can't be sure whether the culprit is a fox, coyote or human but I am pretty damn sure the hawks and owls around here can't take off with a 3-4 lb hens in their talons. We have been hearing some weird barks and howls later in the evenings and our dogs have been on higher alert than usual. This means they erupt in a barking explosion and dash out the door into the woods about 8 times a night instead of the usual 4. Since the hens are laying now and we are selling eggs at the Farmer's Market, I just can't afford to lose anymore of them. They have been squawking at me all day to let them out to free range but until I shoot the canine or person responsible, they are going to have to stay locked up in the coop. I am about to go out on a recon hike with the boys to see if I can find any bones or feathers or other evidence of the missing 2. I miss the Barred Rock already, she was a favorite of April and I. God rest her chicken soul. Vengeance will be mine just like with the snakes. There are no free chicken dinners on Cardinal Ridge Farm!

R.I.P - Betty the Barred Rock

So as not to leave this post on a total downer, here is one happy dog and some hot chicks...

Clyde and the baby chicks enjoy some summer sunshine