I know from working in a bakery that used starter (kept in a big bin and refreshed by the other baker's assistant -- the one with longer arms and less hair) that the mixture develops in complexity as it matures. It went into all of the French and Italian loaves we made, and with patient proofing and baking, the result was delicious. The loaves also had chewy crumb and gorgeous, crispy crust.
I'm looking to make the same sorts of loaves at home. We'll be getting a large pizza stone or brick insert soon. In the meantime, I need to start the starter. Which means I need to find one that works well in our climate (and in our house, which is rarely cooled or heated).
To help, I'm using Peter Reinhart's CRUST AND CRUMB and Daniel Wing's THE BREAD BUILDERS. I'm looking for a starter that will produce old-world, bubbly-crusted loaves. So, not the ubiquitous American friendship bread starter. It's too sweet for what I want, and tends to produce pasty-white bread. I've read that I can start a mixture by scraping the dusty coating from grape skins, so I'll probably try that, among other formulas.I hope to have some great loaves to share with you, if only in words and photos.
What about you? Bake your own bread? Do you prefer yeast or quick breads? What's your favorite?
7 ate pie:
I don't bake my own bread. I'm dangerous in the kitchen, ha ha. But my favorite bread is baguette.
I'm been doing a lot of Jim Lahey's no-knead bread lately. I like it because it's easy as long as you have 18 hours to let it rise. I've done a couple with starters but haven't been overly impressed, but they weren't the well-aged starters you've worked with (just bigas started a couple hours ahead of time).
Medeia - nothing beats a great baguette. :)
Von - I've done some overnight rises, too, but the kneading is my favorite part! Well, besides the eating. I've tried some bigas, but like you, haven't been impressed.
A couple years ago, I got sucked into one of those chain-letter style bread starters. You make a certain amount, then pass a little of the starter on to 5 other people who then make a certain amount and pass it on to 5 other people. I felt more than a little crazy walking around work with plastic bags of goo and trying to pass them off to people. I should have sent some to you! (Long story to say I have no idea how to make the starter...maybe you should try to get hooked up with a starter chain instead.)
Josephine - Heh-heh! Those friendly bags of goo are what I want to avoid :) I'm willing to flush the excess when I refresh the starter.
I had a starter a few years ago. Her name was Amy. She was started from flour and water and whatever yummy yeasts were floating around the house. No sugar, nothing other than flour and water. It took about two weeks to have a living starter, but once she got going, she was difficult to kill (and only met her demise due to a misunderstanding with a landlord, but that's another story altogether).
When I wasn't going to bake for a while, I would put her in the fridge...sometimes for months at a time and she'd start right back up.
I miss Amy.
Exactly the kind I'm looking for, Sarah. I think I'll jut start one today and see how it looks in a couple weeks.
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