windyacres

My first attempt at baking sourdough bread turned out not so good. The problem was I cooked it in a Dutch oven with a lid the first 20 minutes, then took the lid off and cooked it until I thought it was done. Well, it stuck to the bottom and sides of the Dutch oven. I had to tear it up to get it out. I have a round cast iron griddle I could have cooked it on, but have no way to cover it during the first half of baking. Suggestions? The bread actually tastes pretty good, although it is somewhat gummy.

Thanks to everyone for the advice. I ended up taking 1 oz of the starter and feeding it 2 oz of ww flour and 2 oz of water. It is a ww starter. I saved the other oz in the frig in case I messed up the first oz. I fed it in the evening and let it set out overnight. All I can say is it was magical. The next morning the starter had doubled and was bubbly on top. I couldn't believe it! So, I did the same with the other oz and today it had doubled and was bubby. I put the second one in the frig and decided to try to make bread out of the first. I tried to go by this web site: http://www.breadwerx.com/make-50-whole-wheat-sourdough-video/ I followed the written directions, but probably should have watched the video first, because I didn't really understand what he meant by the "pre-round". Sigh. I think perhaps I over worked the dough. At any rate, it doesn't seem to have risen as much as it should. Getting ready to put it in the oven and will let you know how it turns out.

A friend gave me a 2 ounce sourdough starter. How much do I start out feeding it? I've been reading that you can feed it equal amounts of flour and water, or slightly more flour than water. But, obviously, I don't want to feed this small amount of starter a cup of each or even half a cup of each! I'm thinking perhaps start out with 2 TBS of each. Are there guidelines regarding amounts to feed sourdough depending on how much you have?

Well, phooey. I ordered 2 of the 6 qt round Cambro containers from Amazon. The lids were separate, so had to order 2 lids as well. When I got the order, the lids did not fit the containers. They were too big. I thought perhaps I had made a mistake and went to Amazon to check my order, but I had ordered the correct ones. So, either Amazon sent the wrong lids (there is no size specification on the lids themselves, so hard to know) or else Amazon has these lids wrongly filed in their system. I am sending these lids back, but am afraid to reorder them for fear the same thing will happen. I have one 6 qt Cambro container and the correct lid that I bought at a restaurant supply store in Oklahoma City, 60 miles from where I live. So, guess I will make a trip down there to get lids for these new containers. These are going to be expensive lids!

What size would be best for 5 lbs of flour?

Could someone recommend good storage containers for flour, sugar, cornmeal, etc. ? Either stainless steel or food-grade plastic. I don't want a canister "set" because I don't want the smaller containers that normally come with these. I've looked online, but it is difficult to tell how much a container holds in terms of pounds of flour, sugar, etc. Thanks in advance.

andiesenji - thank you for telling me how to avoid the over-proofing issue. It would never have occurred to me to turn the bread machine off and reset it to "bake only". That worked perfectly! Below is a picture of my latest loaf. I think it over-proofed just a little bit before I got around to testing it. I have even ventured out and am trying some other recipes besides the King Arthur WW recipe. I am so thankful for this group for the help you have given me. I was having horrible results trying to bake Whole Wheat breads before I found this group and thought I had wasted my money on this new bread machine. Now I that know to use the regular white bread cycle and to not let it over-proof, I am getting consistently good results. Thanks so much!

LOL. The can of cooking spray I used was several years old, too. I rarely use the stuff because I don't like to expose myself and family to the chemicals that are used as propellants. Mine has gone into the trash as well!

Thanks for the replies. I'm glad this is just an old cake pan lid that doubles as a cookie sheet sometimes. It comes in handy to set pies on and other items that are likely to boil over. I have better, heavier cookie sheets that I normally use. Guess I'll just leave it be.

I rarely use cooking spray, but used it on a cookie sheet yesterday. The pan now has a sticky film everywhere the food did not touch. It will not come off with regular detergent and is sticky to the touch. Does anyone know how to remove this from my cookie sheet? Actually, this is the aluminum lid that used to slip on an old rectangular cake pan. The cake pan is long gone, but use this lid as a cookie sheet occasionally. So, it has NO non-stick surface. I have attached a picture.

Thanks for the advice. I will try that next time.

I am so excited to share these pictures with you all! I finally had success making 100% ww bread. I used the King Arthur recipe a couple of you mentioned. Once I looked at it, I realized that I had tried this recipe before using the WW setting on the bread machine. This time I used the regular setting for white breads. I also used King Arthur "white" whole wheat flour. Actually, I bought it by mistake thinking I was getting the regular ww flour. However, it was a lot finer than regular ww flour. So, I don't know if that contributed to the success or not. I really feel it was using the regular white bread cycle. Obviously, something was not quite right because the top sunk in, but the texture is great and is a 100 times lighter and less dense than my previous attempts. If you can imagine the first picture being about 2/3 as tall as this one, that is what the other loaves I tried on the ww cycle turned out like. Now to just figure out why the top sunk in......

Thank you. I have noticed that homemade bread does tend to get stale much quicker. Therefore, I feel I have to eat it all within a day or two. Certainly not good for if you want to limit carbs to reasonable intake!

I am in awe of your baking expertise! It will be years before I feel competent enough to "add random flours out of my cupboard"! Ah, but I am determined to get this problem whipped. I am surprised that you mentioned using the basic setting instead of the ww setting. That has crossed my mind. I recall checking on one loaf of ww bread while it was rising. The loaf after the first rise cycle was at least an inch taller than the finished product. When I peeked at it during the first rise and saw how beautiful the loaf looked, I was so excited. Then when it was finished baking it was an inch shorter and very dense. I'm not enough of a bread expert to know what over-proofing the dough might cause. I thought that over-proofing would only affect the second rise cycle, after which the loaf bakes. I guess that is not the case?

Thanks, I will take a look.