Quarantiny

I spent much of my summer eating keto style because my camping pod people are eating keto. I definitely saw the benefits of reducing my carbohydrate intake. However, I enjoy baking and love to make bread. It’s all about balance, right? I started binge watching the Great British Baking Show (or Great British Bake Off in the U.K.) and that really fed my desire to bake and ward off pandemic and winter-in-the-upper-midwest of the United States boredom.

I tried a traditional ciabatta with a biga and everything! It tasted and looked OK – didn’t rise much – but it seems ciabatta dough is tricky and practice will help.

A few weeks ago I decided to make the Cook’s Illustrated mini sourdough starter recipe, what they fondly call “Quarantiny.”
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/articles/2268-make-your-own-mini-sourdough-starter-with-the-quarantinystarter-project

I am not a big fan of the standard sourdough starter process that discards 50% of the mixture at every feeding, so I use the traditional process as a guideline. If you do the research and use your smell and sight senses, it should work out fine. Starter is very resilient. I found an informative site for tips and explanations, like, if you want more tang in your bread, use less flour. Alcohol builds up when the starter is hungry. Baking is chemistry, you know!
https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/sourdough/sourdough-faq/

Quarantiny started December 24 2020
Just after this morning’s feeding

One response to “Quarantiny

  1. Pingback: First loaf with starter! | Just Beth

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