320g starter (fed 14-18 hours prior)(most recipes call for less starter)
480g water (more for wheat flour, we’ve been playing with the amount of water)
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
After years of making our house sourdough the same way (too dry), we’re now playing with a few things including the amount of water (more is better but without a loaf pan, the boules tend to flatten when they come out of the basket) as well as a technique Babs found that makes holes inside (stretch out thin and fold over and over loosely). We’re also playing with how often to feed the starter and when the last feeding should be before making dough. We’ve stopped doing punch-downs and are going straight into shaping baskets next to the fire. They usually rise in about three hours. We’re playing with rise time too. It’s hard to tell when they are ready for the oven but we try to catch them toward the end of the rise (not after it’s finished or too early). All of these things are critical and we need to be careful not to get stuck in old habits like we did when we first started.
The large batch was on sweet side not very vinegary and had good fizz. We took tart cherry juice 32 ounces and mixed in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Poured a 1/3 cup per bottle with 1/2 tablespoon of sugar. We made 12 bottles.
The plain batch was a little stronger so we used 1/2 tablespoon of sugar and made 10 bottles.
We pulled the cherry at 5 and half days. It had good fizz but could have used more vanilla.
Found nice big Cara cara oranges at the market to make this weeks large batch buch! We added 1/3 cup of Cara cara orange juice per bottle and a tablespoon of sugar. We made 15 bottles.
We pulled the Cara Cara at 5 days and it was highly explosive. Greg said all fruit should be pulled at 3 days. Will pull first one at 3 days to test. Previous Cara Cara blogs said we pulled ‘at least a week’ and was not explosive and another said anywhere from 5-7 days. This maybe due to sugar content – in the ‘at least a week’ only a teaspoon of sugar was used, in the ‘5-7 days’ batch we used 2 teaspoons of sugar. Greg has temperature app will start checking and logging temperature as well.
Plane batch we made 7 bottles and added 1/2 tablespoon of sugar.
Our neighbor Rindon brought over frozen pureed blackberries and raspberries that he strained to removed the seeds. We used this to flavor the large batch 1/3 cup of blackberry (or raspberry) plus a tablespoon of sugar. We made 8 bottles of raspberry and 7 bottles of blackberry.
We pulled the raspberry and blackberry after two days. Was not explosive, the raspberry had enough fizz and was delicious, however, the blackberry was flat but tasted really excellent.
The medium batch was also strong so we used 1/2 tablespoon to each bottle. We made 8 bottles.
The large batch tasted just right and was very good. We took the large batch and added 1/3 cup pureed raspberries and 1 Tbspn of sugar. This is the first time we are using frozen raspberries. We made 14 bottles.
The medium batch was strong and vinegary so we used 1/2 Tbspn of sugar and we made 8 bottles.
We used the large batch which was not very strong to make 13 bottles of tangerine. Each bottle has 1/3 cup tangerine juice and 1/2 tablespoon of sugar.
We pulled a bottle of tangerine at 3 days and while it tasted good there was no pop. We pulled the rest at 5 1/2 days – very tasty no explosion.
We made 9 bottles of plain (tasted good but didn’t have much fizz) 1/2 tablespoon of sugar.
Large batch was slightly sweet, we used 9 ruby grapefruit and got around 6 cups of juice. We used 1/3 cup grapefruit juice and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Made 14 bottles.
The medium batch was just right and added 1/2 tablespoon of sugar and made 8 bottles.
The grapefruit is a bit explosive at 5 days but tasted great. Maybe try pulling 4.5 days.
The large batch made 13 bottles of lemon-blueberry. We pureed 2 pounds of frozen blueberry and added the juice of one and a half lemons. we used 1/3 cup of the lemon-blueberry and 1 Tablespoon of sugar.
We pulled at 5 days which was a mistake and it exploded on the ceiling. Blueberry is like strawberry and needs to be pulled 2-3 days. It tasted very good though and the lemon blueberry was delicious.
We used part of the large batch and medium batch to make 4 bottles of ginger kombucha. 1 teaspoon of grated ginger with 1/2 tablespoon sugar. We pulled this after 7 days, we could have used 1 tablespoon of sugar or pulled a bit sooner as it was slightly vinegary.
The remaining medium batch we used 1/2 tablespoon of sugar making 6 bottles.
The large batch tasted like strong sweet tea with little fermentation. We made 9 bottles of pineapple (from flash frozen pineapples) with 1/3 cup of pineapple puree and added 1/2 tablespoon of sugar. We also tried frozen mangoes pureed them and made 5 bottles with 1/3 cup puree and 1/2 tablespoon of sugar.
The medium batch was strong and we added 1/2 tablespoon sugar to make 8 bottles of plain.
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