looks like we're taking our first step towards starting our own sourdough starter. went to the stores today and yeast is sold out, hard...so i got a lot of flour and we'll make it with the yeast we currently have. hopefully that will give us some solid sustainability over the next few weeks.
I did another commercially leavened French Country loaf last night. Kind of a rush job; about 5 hours start to finish including the poolish, proofing, and baking. Not quite as open as the one I made last week, but not bad for the time I put into it.
Mezzanine's sourdough starter is officially revived and ready for primetime. Planning on doing the Tartine baguette / english muffin recipe this weekend. 
I don't have a bread maker, or any yeast, but I do have a 24 pack of Yuengling! I present to you, my Cheddar Garlic Beer Bread!
This smells so much like the Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuits, it's awesome.
I normally don't have much time for bread, but with the social distancing it's opened up a lot of free time. I made boa buns earlier this week, and bagels today.
There's some great looking food in this thread; it's really been fun to follow it.
I wasn't even expecting more than a couple of replies, if any. Thanks to everyone who has posted.
I had a couple of loaves that were complete failures today. Tried to use a new method. That hasn't happened in a long time, and it's unfortunate when I don't know whether I'm going to be able to buy more flour soon.
I did have a very successful experiment this week making fresh pasta. I'd tried it once before, several years ago, and didn't roll it out enough.
This time, I spent three hours rolling it out with a rolling pin, and it was fantastic with some olive oil, butter, and parmesan.
Definitely want to have a pasta roller before I make it again. You can see the dough next to the plate waiting to be rolled out.
I also made a sourdough pizza crust that was excellent.
I make pizza like some people make soup. What's in the refrigerator? Going on the pizza.
Garlic, onions, asparagus, shredded carrot, grape tomatoes, a few dabs of tomato paste, and olives (only on half for my daughter and I).
Covered in mozzarella.
I guess I am getting in on the fun now
Simple no knead loaves but this is the first with the reserved yeast poolish using Glens method because it is fast enough for me to prep at night and the missus bakes in the morning when I'm at work
Working from home for two weeks, plus this thread gave me the motivation to attempt sourdough. After finally finding flour last week, and then feeding our new pet all week, mixed and proofed last night and finally baked this morning. I haven't sliced it open yet (waiting for lunch), but as long as it doesn't pull a Christmas Vacation Turkey, I'll be pretty happy for a first attempt at any type of bread ever!
Made for a pretty mean BLTA
It's not bread, but bread related, I made calzones a couple of days ago. I had leftover Bolognese and an excess of zucchini to use up so I layered Bolognese, zucchini slices and cheese in them like a lasagna. Delicious.
First ones were a little rough because I slightly overstuffed them and made my dough a little thin, but still delicious. Next ones I made were better, but alas I forgot to take pics of them cause I was a couple of glasses of wine in by the time I pulled them from the oven. (I pre-made them for a late evening snack!)
In reply to daeman :
Oh, I'd power on that! Looks great!
In reply to carczar_84 :
Wow, for a first attempt, that's fantastic!
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
Cheers Doc. Not going to lie, they were fantastic! Second ones I didn't roll the dough as thin so they had a better bread to fill ratio. Slightly chewier vs thin and crispy
I'm planing to revist them over the next couple of weeks but with a more pizza like filling.
I finally started making a starter today. I've watched a bunch of the youtubes about this and read about it and it still confuses me. Fingers crossed I figure out what to do when it comes time to start baking with it.
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
Thanks! I was really expecting impending disaster at any moment, haha!!
In reply to ProDarwin :
I was in the same boat last weekend, and then most of the week when I felt like it wasn't doing anything. But then by about Friday (day 6) the starter finally started really coming to life and yesterday (day 7) it took off so much so that it overflowed its container.
Couple points I found helpful:
I used this site for starter info and a pretty simple first recipe, but I also watched several videos and read a few other sites too. Let me know if you have any questions.
https://www.theclevercarrot.com/2014/01/sourdough-bread-a-beginners-guide/
https://www.theclevercarrot.com/2019/03/beginner-sourdough-starter-recipe/
Yeah I have multiple containers, and I use a scale.
My questions are more on how to use it. Once its fully active, I'd like to refrigerate it so I don't need to feed every day. If I want to make a pizza on Saturday night, how do I prepare for it? Do I take it out and feed it 4 hours before? Or do I just take it out and use it, then replace whatever I took with 50% flour 50% water (by weight)?
In reply to ProDarwin :
My understanding is that you'd want to get it out of the fridge at least the day before you want to use it, and feed it to get it back up to speed. But, I haven't tried that either yet, haha! After making the sourdough dough yesterday, I peeled off some for a new container, added the flour and water and then placed it in the fridge. I plan on feeding it once a week. We'll see how it goes!
I did use what I had left over after making the dough and my fridge starter to make a waffle batter last night, then grilled them up this morning. They were pretty good.
E36 M3 thats a lot of planning!
My other question is how much starter do I need? Do I generally want to have half of it left over after baking a loaf? When I make pizza or bread I usually use about 2tsp of yeast... what does that translate into (roughly) of starter?
In reply to ProDarwin :
Straight from King Arthur.
Since my starter lives in the fridge, at least 24 hours before I'm going to use it, I pull off 4 ounces of starter, feed it, and put it somewhere warm. I like to get at least twice before using it. A mason jar with a tape line will let you know when it's doubled in size.
RevRico said:Since my starter lives in the fridge, at least 24 hours before I'm going to use it, I pull off 4 ounces of starter, feed it, and put it somewhere warm. I like to get at least twice before using it. A mason jar with a tape line will let you know when it's doubled in size.
Ok, this makes a little more sense. You pull out what you plan on using and feed that. And just replace what you pulled out in your original starter.
Are those starter measurements fluid ounces or weight? Thats kind of confusing.
In reply to ProDarwin :
I do almost everything by weight. It's the only way to be accurate.
Last night's.
In reply to 914Driver :
Phunny you should post that, Dan. This is V2.0:
And in the news today, people can find a reason to biatch about anything. We are trend setters. And there is a lot of stoopid out there.
My 13 year old son wanted French toast, so he made brioche:
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