Sourdough Bread Day 2024 is on Monday, April 1, 2024: What is a good sourdough bread recipe?

Monday, April 1, 2024 is Sourdough Bread Day 2024. Anali's First Amendment: Bread Baking Day - Fruited Sourdough Bread like sourdough bread.

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Records from the consumption and eating of sourdough bread go as far back so far as the Sumerians in 2800bce. Sourdough is comparable to dough, with the exception that natural yeasts remain to ferment within the bread mix. Why don't you celebrate Sourdough Bread Day by mixing your own batch of sourdough and baking a loaf?

QUICK SOURDOUGH BREAD

Read more about it at www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1841,146160-253202,00.html

2 c. sourdough starter

1 tsp. dry yeast

3 tbsp. warm water

3 tbsp. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. salt

3 tsp. powdered milk

2 tsp. melted shortening or cooking oil

3 to 4 c. all-purpose flour

Measure out sourdough starter. In a small separate bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add to sourdough starter along with sugar, salt, powdered milk and shortening or cooking oil. Mix well. Slowly add the flour until the dough pulls away from side of the bowl.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, adding more flour if necessary. Shape the dough and place in a well greased loaf pan. Cover with a cloth. Set in a warm place free from drafts and let rise until doubled in size. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until done. Makes 1 loaf.

QUICK, OVERNIGHT SOURDOUGH STARTER:

1 pkg. + 1 tbsp. dry yeast

4 c. lukewarm water

4 c. all-purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in a small amount of lukewarm water. Stir flour into remaining water and add yeast mixture, mix well and cover. Let mixture stand in a draft free area that is near 85 degrees F. for at least 6 hours or overnight. Starter is now ready to use with your recipes.

SOURDOUGH BREAD BASIC STARTER

1 pkg. dry yeast

1/2 c. warm water

Dissolve yeast in warm water.

Add: 1 c. Pillsbury Bread Flour 2 c. instant potatoes 1 tsp. salt 1/2 c. sugar

Stir until smooth. Store at room temperature in a 1 gallon container with lid in a warm, draft-free place 3 to 4 days, stirring 2 or 3 times a day. (Cover during night, uncover during day.) Then, store in the refrigerator 3 to 5 days.

Take the Basic Starter out of the refrigerator, divide equally into 3 one quart jars and feed to each the following: (Mix real well together, then pour into starter.) 3 tbsp. instant potatoes 1 c. warm water

Let stand out of refrigerator 8 to 10 hours, with lid on very loosely, until bubbly. Take 1 cup starter to make bread and return rest to the refrigerator 3 to 4 days and feed again. (Always keep lid on starter loose.)

SOURDOUGH BREAD:

Using wooden spoon, in a large bowl, make a stiff batter of the following: 1/3 c. sugar 1/2 c. corn oil 1 tsp. salt 1 1/2 c. warm water 6 c. Pillsbury Bread Flour

Grease another large bowl with 1 teaspoon oil. Put dough in and turn over, leaving oily side on top. Cover lightly with waxed paper. (DO NOT REFRIGERATE.)

Next morning, punch dough down. Knead a little. Divide into 3 equal parts and knead each on a floured surface 8 to 10 times. Put into well oiled loaf pans. Brush tops with oil (or make into buns).

Let rise at least 8 hours (all day is fine), cover lightly with waxed paper. Dough rises slowly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes. Remove and brush with butter. Cool. (Can be frozen when cooled.)

Based on 36 servings. Per serving: 117 calories; 3 g fat; 74 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol.

Variation: Whole wheat flour can be substituted. Use 2 cups whole wheat and 4 cups bread flour.

QUICK SOURDOUGH BREAD

2 c. sourdough starter

1 tsp. dry yeast

3 tbsp. warm water

3 tbsp. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. salt

3 tsp. powdered milk

2 tsp. melted shortening or cooking oil

3 to 4 c. all-purpose flour

QUICK, OVERNIGHT SOURDOUGH STARTER:

1 pkg. + 1 tbsp. dry yeast

4 c. lukewarm water

4 c. all-purpose flour

Eight days to wait for sourdough bread, is that safe?

Hmmm something isn't right here. Sourdough bread is naturally leavened by the wild yeast cultures that naturally occur in flour. A mature sourdough starter can be left out at room temperature and feed on a daily basis forever, in the bakery I work our sour dough starter was left at room temperature for 25 years and was still used everyday.

In the sourdough starter lactic basillic acid will be present along with the wild yeast cultures, the LBA will prevent other forms of harmful bacteria from growing, however if your starter turns pink at any point it is no longer safe to consume.

Anyways, back to your question. There can't be any yeast in this bread if it is to sit for 8 days, because the commercial yeast will have died by this point whereas the wild yeast cultures will be just beginning to mature thus providing the leavening for the loaf. No you won't get sick from sourdough that is only 8 days old--Unless it's pink!-- Sourdough is a fermented product and that is where the unique flavor comes from

Sourdough Bread?

WHAT IS SOURDOUGH?

The history of "sourdough" is as old as the history of leavened bread itself. Way back in ancient days (around 6,000 years ago, some say) humans first figured out how to promote the fermentation and leavening of grains to first be brewed into beverages and then, later, to be baked into bread. This probably happened by accident time after time, until someone smart figured it out. Next our ancestors figured out how to save a portion of the fermented grains to use to "start" the fermentation of their next batch of bread. Since that time, humankind has been using and making "sourdough."

That fermented mix of grain and water that was saved and used to start the next batch of dough is what we now call a "sourdough starter" and bread made from such a starter, "sourdough bread."

From a scientific perspective, a sourdough starter is a natural leaven - a mixture of grains and liquid (usually flour and water) inhabited by so-called "wild" yeasts and bacteria which leaven and flavor bread dough. These yeasts are the yeasts that thrive naturally on the surface of grains, fruits and vegetables, in the air and in the soil. The bacteria are certain strains of the so-called benign or "friendly" bacteria Lactobacillus, rod-shaped bacteria that can convert simple sugars into lactic and other acids.

To understand more of what a sourdough is, we need to understand what yeast is. In simplest terms it is a plant. More specifically a fungus, a one-celled life form which digests sugars (such as those contained within the starch in flour) and produces a bit of ethanol (alcohol) and some carbon dioxide (which is what causes the bread to rise). The natural yeasts in a sourdough starter are strains of a yeast family whose scientific name is Sacchraromyces exiges. They are of the same family of yeast as commercial bakers' yeast, whose scientific name is Saccharomyces cerrivasae. The two have what might be called a distant family relationship but differ in one important way. Commercial bakers yeast cannot survive in a very acidic environment whereas natural yeast is very happy to live in such an environment. This is important because the lactobacilli in a sourdough culture produce a lot of lactic and acetic acids (which are what gives sourdough bread its flavor). The acids create an environment too acidic for commercial bakers' yeast, so only natural yeast can live with them.

In a healthy sourdough starter, yeast and lactobacilli thrive in a harmonious symbiotic relationship. This means that they do not compete for the same food and the yeast may actually help feed the lactobacilli. In turn, lactobacilli produce an acidic environment that the yeast like but which is inhospitable to other organisms. Thus the acids in the culture act as a sort of "antibiotic" so that lactobacilli contribute by providing a protective environment for the yeast.

Lactobacilli help bread rise, too. Just like yeast, they digest simple sugars found in flour and produce ethanol and carbon dioxide. In addition, the lactic and acetic acids that they produce flavor the bread with a rich complexity of flavors, sometimes giving it a sour tang.

WHAT'S IN A NAME (SAN FRANCISCO SOURDOUGH)?

While sourdough starters and bread made from starters has been around for thousands of years, the term "sourdough" has a pretty short history. It is an American term that came into use during the California Gold Rush days of the late 1800's.

Before the advent of commercial bakers' yeast, the folks who traveled and settled the Western U.S. in the 19th century carried starters with them for making bread

Folklore of the time abounds with stories of chuck wagon cooks making biscuits frombarrels of starters and Alaskan gold miners sleeping with their starters at night to keep them from freezing. More stories are told of the tragedies of pioneer families losing their starters and of passing down highly prized starters from generation to generation.

Many California and Yukon gold miners obtained provisions in the booming coastal town of San Francisco before heading up into the mountains to stake their claims. Over time, it was discovered that starters from that area produced bread with a unique and particularly sour tang. Thus the starters and bread from that area because known as "sourdough". Later the term was even applied to gold miners themselves. More recently the term has generalized across the U.S. to mean simply a bread starter.

Although the miners did not know it at the time, particular strains of yeast and lactobacilli took up residence in starters from the San Francisco Bay area and they are responsible for the unique flavor identified as "San Francisco Sourdough." In the 1970's the microbes were isolated and identified. The scientists studying San Francisco sourdough cultures identified the dominant yeast strain as a variety of Saccharomyces exigus called Torulopsis holmii (later they renamed it Candida milleri sp. nov). The dominant lactobacillus is a species that had not been seen before so they classified it Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis sp. nov (note: "sp nov" = "new species").