Day 3 - We Have Achieved Fermentation!!!

Well, last night when I took the pictures I was excited...

These are taken at the 32 hour mark. Clearly the yeast has settled in and there is bonafide fermentation taking place. Hooray!You can tell just by looking at the level and the bubbles from the side view that something has changed radically since the same time the day before. From the directions that I am following I was expecting it to be days before this would happen. Not sure what this means about the cleanliness of my house.

Now check out what was happening just 4 hours later! Man, it's the Attack of the Killer Yeast! Very exciting. I went to bed expecting that this morning the starter will have blown up to the rim of the container and I can give it a feeding and put it away.

But then..

This morning it looked the same. I went ahead and fed it a cup of water and a cup of flour, and let it set out at room temp for a few hours. I did not see additional activity at this point and was a little concerned. Hmmm.

I went ahead and mixed up a little dough to see what would happen. The recipe I used is loosely based on a formula for "No-Knead" Bread from Jim Lahey at Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC! This is the bread I intend to make first.

Sounds really easy and really awesome! Check out the video from Jim and the New York Times at YouTube.

Here is the formula that I am using as an ingredient modification with Jim's method unaltered:

1 cup Sourdough Starter
1 cup Distilled Water
2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
3 cups Flour

I think that I will prefer King Arthur bread flour, but that's not what I had on hand to start with today. I just used some all-purpose schwag. Just testing basic principles at this point.

I put all this stuff together at about 3:00 pm. It is now 12:30 am and to be honest not a lot has happened. Also, the newly fed starter hung out in a warm place for about 5 hours with no significant change. I'm a little worried. Hope I didn't kill the little guys somehow.

I'm really hoping for a miracle of life to be happening in that bowl come morning. Check back this time tomorrow...there'll either be a cool pic of a crusty loaf, or a very short description of Sourdough Starter - Take #2!

Sourdough - Day 2

Well, here we are. 24 hours after beginning the great sourdough adventure we have what appears to be a minimal amount of activity.

I stirred the mixture a little to allow any yeast that has settled a little better coverage within the muck. Though the starter still has a healthy and untainted flour smell, and the level of volume hasn't changed, there do seem to be some bubbles forming.
Bubbles would be evidence of yeast, but could also just be escaping air that was whipped into the starter in either the original manufacturing process or the subsequent "folding".

For those of you unfamiliar, here is the life cycle of yeast and what is happening along the way:

Yeast is in fact a living organism and is classified scientifically as a fungi. It is estimated that there are approximately 1,500 species, but only around 1% of them have been documented.

Dry yeast is yeast that is dehydrated and packaged for maximum shelf life and ease of use for primarily baking applications. The yeast cells are in a dormant state and will become vibrantly active when exposed to moisture.

There is also cake yeast, which is a moist block of yeast, and liquid yeast as well which is largely used in brewing, distilling, and winemaking.

Yeast, like most living organisms, requires certain conditions in which to live and reproduce. The main 4 are moisture, food , neutral pH, and an agreeable temperature. In this case the ideal temperature is between 70 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit and the required meal is sugar.

When exposed to the proper conditions, and with or without a partner, the yeast cell feeds on sugar, reproduces, and gives off carbon dioxide and alcohol as byproducts. This process is called fermentation.

When the carbon dioxide gets trapped within the structure of dough it causes layers of the dough to separate (or rise), and expands further when heated in baking. The resulting alcohol creates a pleasant flavor as well. Without this process bread would be dense and flavorless

When the gas is trapped in a seal container of liquid it results in carbonation as in beer, Champagne, and out-of-date orange juice. The process that I am undertaking to gather wild yeast is all that there was for making bread until Charles L. Fleischmann introduced commercial yeast to the market in 1876.

So, check back tomorrow and let's see if anything else develops!

I'm Bored

Couldn't think of a better title.

Being out of work is really taking its toll. In my job search of over two months now I'm finding that the market is flooded with overqualified, out-of-work chefs.

All this time off has help to inspire me to cook at home more, something I have seldom done a lot of over the years.

The other day I made some Mexican Fudge. It was my third attempt in a week, and I still don't have it right. What I'm trying to make is a duplication of this incredible fudge they sell on the streets in Mexico, and also in Hispanic markets here in the states. Mexicans call it Jamoncillo, or "little hams". I don't get the ham reference.

What I have had ranges from a taupe to light-brown sugar color, is very sweet, and has a creamy texture but with a pleasant graininess from the minute sugar crystals. Most recently I had the best ever. I bought it in a Latin market here in Charlotte when I went in to get some skirt steak and some chicharones (incredible fresh fried pork skins the size of your hand).

These were little slabs of individually wrapped candy called Crema de Leche. This term literally refers to what we call whipping cream or heavy cream, so the name is really a marketing term for this product. It was light in color and had a texture similar to maple candy. You know those little candies you get at the Cracker Barrel that are outrageously expensive and even more tasty - and there's always one in the center of the box shaped like a maple leaf?

You know - the one's with a delicate, thin, crunchy layer of crystallized sugar on the outside and rich, creamy goodness and silky smooth maple love in the middle?

Hold on...I'll be right back...

Okay, so it was like that except cheaper and without the maple flavor. And I tried three times to reproduce it and failed. Not really even sure I learned anything. One recipe had baking soda in it. I had to translate it from Spanish. It foamed up, boiled over, turned dark caramel brown, and began to scorch before it got to the correct temperature.

The most popular recipe I found online for Jamoncillo consisted of condensed milk, milk, and pecans. I don't know for sure if they have pecans in Mexico, but I never saw any - especially not in fudge.

I was supposed to boil one cup of condensed milk while blending (in a blender) 1/4 cup of whole milk for exactly 2 minutes. Not sure what that was supposed to do. Once the condensed milk boils you mix the two together, pour into a wax paper lined dish, garnish with the nuts (I opted to leave them out altogether), and allow to set up to a sliceable texture.

You might be saying to yourself, "That ain't ever gonna work", and you'd be right.

Moving on...

I looked up Mexican Fudge this time and found a recipe that seemed plausible from my limited experience with fudge making (a universally common procedure). I think it might have been not so bad if I had a thermometer, but I lack the intuition to estimate sugar temperatures by sight - a skill that comes easy with a little experience.

Having put off fudge making for a bit I'm moving on to sourdough.

I made a small batch of sourdough starter. Here's a topic that without a whole lot of effort you can find enough material on to fill an entire bookshelf with. Yeast, no yeast, certain types of yeast, pineapple juice, grapes, certain types of flour, certain brands of flour, pH tests, chemistry, ad infinitum.

The one thing I know for sure about bread is that it is one of the oldest foods known to man. I don't know of a single culture on the planet that doesn't eat some type of bread at some point on some occasion. The poorest, stupidest people on Earth have had bread to eat since about day 9. This can't be that difficult.

I'll keep you posted.

[This coming from someone who couldn't put 3 ingredients (2 of them sugar) together and boil them up into an edible form of candy. Heck, it'll be something to write about for a few days at least.]

The idea I chose to run with is the one that was the easiest, most practical, most traditional, and made the most sense. One cup of warm water (I elected to use distilled to avoid chemicals that might kill yeast), and one cup of flour (I used Gold Medal brand unbleached bread flour because it's what I had). Mix it up and let it sit at room temperature until it smells and bubbles. Should take no more than a week to ten days - probably less. Sounds easy right?

I put the starter in a plastic container and covered it with cheesecloth. The point here is that naturally occurring, airborne wild yeasts will fall, fly, crawl, or be thrown into my starter. Once there they will feed off of the natural sugars and starches from which flour is composed, and grow to a sizable population of sugar eating, carbon dioxide producing creatures that will leaven dough and produce a pleasant flavor and aroma in the finished bread. The cheesecloth lets some air and some yeast in while keeping larger critters and debris out. Later on it will be fully covered for safe keeping.

I took some pictures, although I didn't think about it until about 8 hours after I mixed the stuff up. Already there seems to be a little bit of activity. I'll take some everyday and post them. If you're out of work and bored like me we can watch this puddle of much grow together!

Check back tomorrow. :)

Whole Lotta Rosie (or...The Hole In The Doughnut)

So I was going to write this blog about losing one of the top 5 worst jobs I've ever had. And I was probably going to say some things that I shouldn't say. But everything happens for a reason and I'm lucky to be away from the place! So I'm letting that one go.

Then I thought about writing this piece about the really awesome Christmas I had with my family. It was the first Christmas we've all spent together since 2001. And to be honest it was the first Christmas dinner I've ever cooked. With a great disdain for turkey, and for all things traditional, I conjured up an Italian feast for 8 that would've comfortably fed about 23.


In fact I did write that piece. Then I realized it was less about food and more about what I think of the watering down of this specifically Christian holiday, and the use of the word "holiday" instead of "Christmas".

So I came up with a nice story about doughnuts!

I helped out a buddy (who I swore I'd never work with again) with a Christmas party catering this year. Fact is he was banned from the place and called me in at the last minute, but that's not what this is about. He had gone out this little bakery to buy mini desserts for the event, and what he brought back were some of the most amazing little delights that have passed across my palate--doughnut holes!

I was raised in North Carolina, home of Krispy Kreme, and I don't want to hear about anything else. Dunkin' be damned. But somehow doughnuts have become my greatest obsession over this last month or six weeks. Now my buddy Unkle Chef just returned from New England with the story of some damned doughnut mecca he went to in Massachusetts. You can read all about that on his blog, but this is my story.

There's this little bakery here in Charlotte, on Park Road, called Suarez Bakery. I'm 41 and can't remember that bakery ever not being there, although it hasn't always been Suarez. It was a Federal Bakeshop when I was a kid, and I never went in but I remember the wedding cake in the window. I think the same one is still there. So I just recently got turned on to this place.

You walk into a bakery storefront that is probably twice the size it needs to be; cases filled with all the stuff you would expect in a retail bakery in the south. Cupcakes, cookies, cream horns, novelties for the kids...and doughnuts. Not a large selection mind you. Glazed doughnuts, doughnut holes, and Texas doughnuts (glazed doughnuts the size of hubcaps with the hole spectacularly resting on top...package deal). They are absolutely amazing for a shop that doesn't really "do" doughnuts as a focal point.

Today was a rainy day, much like the last 6 have been, and I stopped in after a job interview to pick up a couple dozen holes to take home. Some bitch had just been in and bought all but five of them. Damn it!

Dissappointed I drove home, went straight to the computer, and started looking up doughnut batter recipes. I said batter, not dough. See at Krispy Kreme you used to be able to watch the doughnuts being made. That was the big gimmick at KK before they stupidly sold out to the mainstream corporate demons and expanded more quickly than the market could support them. Now they're all but closed up here in Charlotte at least.

Hot & Now! When those words are lit up in green and red neon along the front of the store you can watch them mix the batter, drop the soft dough onto trays, and put them in huge rotating-shelf proof boxes to rise. After 20 minutes or so they drop the doughnuts into this lazy-river style trough of sizzling oil. Halfway down the line a little paddle comes up out of the oil and flips them, and at the end they're flipped again onto a wire conveyor. As they round the bend for the home stretch the doughnuts glide under a silky curtain of vanilla flavored sugar glaze, and then right to the box and into the hands of lusting customers.

You can watch it all right here...Krispy Kreme on YouTube

You can easily down a half-dozen of those suckers before you realize what happened. The glaze doesn't even set up if you do it right, and you need a stack of napkins and a garden hose before you can go to your car. They just kind of dissolve in your mouth and you don't know it until you come up for milk. This is what GQ Magazine called "The Appalachian love child of the soufflé and croissant", and this is what I wanted.

So I found this recipe that turned out not being batter, but a very light dough that claimed to mimmick Krispy Kremes.

Here's a link to the one I used...Doughnut Recipe

Texturally they ain't Krispy Kreme, but with the right amount of vanilla in the glaze they're actually pretty close flavorwise. The recipe says it makes 2-3 dozen. I think I got about 640 from the looks of things, and the feeling I have in my tummy some 8 hours later.

Maybe next I'll write a blog about the dangers of obsession.