I wasn't even supposed to be here today

[madbaker]

I took yesterday off, and mostly lazed around instead of doing the post-event cleanup we need to do. However, we also saw Clerks II. It was funny. Not spectacular, but I enjoyed it. I thought the best part was the argument between the Lord of the Rings fans and the Star Wars fan -

SWF: "The whole trilogy was about walking. To a fucking volcano."
LOTRF: "Listen, Jar-Jar. The Academy gave Peter Jackson a Best Director Oscar, which George "Boytoy" Lucas has never and will never get."

It's funny 'cause it's all true.
Back to my 450 e-mails now.

What I'm reading: Brandon Sanderson, Elantris

Comments

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

I'll be seeing Clerks tonight with Johanna and misagillian. Looking forward to it (esp. the SW/LOTR rant :-) ).

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

Heh. Thanks for the review. I am planning on seeing it ...

[loup_noir]

How do you like Sanderson's Elantris? I heard him speak at Noreascon about getting this book published. Nice guy.

Oh, bread master, why is my sourdough not very sour and why is it not rising much? Tastes more like French bread than sourdough. I think the culture is too weak and I probably need to start a new one.

Baking powder in sourdough: good or bad? The little sheet that came with the starter never mentions it, but other recipes do.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

I'm about 25 pages into the book, so I don't know yet.

Sourdough cultures vary in sourness and rising potential. My mother used to be quite sour but not rise much; I took it to an SCA event at Rancho Seco, and it mutated into something less sour but with more leaven. Guess those lead panels need replacing.

How long are you letting your sponge rise? I give mine 18 to 24 hours for the initial rise; if you are only giving it dry yeast time of 3 hours, that explains much.

If you want to replace your culture, you can start from scratch, or buy a culture - I recommend Ed Wood's (http://www.sourdo.com/culture.htm) or the culture from King Arthure Flour. Baking powder adds leavening, but works much more quickly than sourdough. This means that the bread won't develop the full range of flavor that you should get from sourdough.

[loup_noir]

I take it out of the 'fridge, bring it up to temperature, take a cup and a half of the goo and mix it with a cup of warm water and *mumble* flour, stirring until smooth and then I leave it sit for at least twelve hours on a heating pad set to a notch above low. Then all but two cups of the goo goes pack into the mother, which lives in the 'fridge. After that, it's the more or less usual bread thang: proof yeast in a cup of warm water, add a tsp of salt and three tsp of sugar and the goo to the flour and yeast. I mix in the KitchenAid and let the stainless steel bowl sit on the heating pad for an hour and a half before kneading it (by hand to keep from flattening out all the gasses, something I don't have to do with my normal white bread or durum/white bread mix), halve it into two bread pans and then plop back onto the heating pad for its second rise.

Twenty-four hours? Wow, that's a lot longer than I'm used to. I thought twelve hours was a long time. I wonder if it just needs to sit out longer?

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

You shouldn't need to add any dry yeast a'tall. Just give the sourdough time to do its thing.
Here's (http://www.whirlwind-design.com/madbaker/breadfaq.html#Q3) my usual recipe. I use it for sandwich-type loaf bread as well as round boules.