Cooking with Fluffy

We have successfully used our sourdough starter, Fluffy, to make whole wheat bread and whole wheat rolls. They were delicious. By taste, there isn't any discernible difference between using yeast and using Fluffy. I was expecting some subtle difference and hoped it would be an improvement that you couldn't get using yeast.
Perhaps this will change over time as the starter matures and wild yeasts fight the domesticated yeast that gave Fluffy life. I picture this to be an epic struggle in the world contained in the crock stuck in the back of our fridge. It wouldn't surprise me to open the fridge and see the crock shaking and banging as these forces fight it out for dominance. Fluffy is restless tonight. When you take the lid off to see what's going on you get sucked in to the miniature struggle and before you know it, you have a trilogy of books and a major motion picture.

Anyway, cooking with a sourdough starter requires more time. Not your time, just more proofing time. It requires patience and planning. I didn't expect to have to develop and mature just to make bread. I operate by getting an idea and doing it as soon as I think of it. When a new idea pops into my head, I stop what I'm doing and leave everything where it is laying and start immediately on that idea.
Using sourdough starter is going require me to get the idea well in advance, start on it, leave it, monitor progress, and then comeback and finish it. It's the last part that I know will be a real trial for me. Once I stop and go on to something else, I would have to remember to come back and finish the bread. Well people change sometimes. Maybe I can change. Maybe developing patience and dabbling in planning could lead to wisdom. I am not thrilled with that idea. People with wisdom just aren't much fun and rarely do anything exciting. It wouldn't be wise.

It is more likely that I will put out a lot of under and over proofed bread. Temperature is the problem here. Fluffy is stored at 35 degrees in the fridge.
You have to let her warm up and feed her a bit so she will be at her best. It turns out, Fluffy is cold blooded and becomes more active as she gets warmer. If she gets too-warm she dies. The trick is to push her temp up into active mode and let her go for a while. Then, finally when the second proofing is over, bake off the bread. Depending on your starter, this might take six hours of proofing.

The process starts with making a sponge. You use the sponge instead of yeast. To make the sponge, take a cup of warm water and a cup of flour and mix together. Grab the crock in the back of the fridge. (If it is hopping around you might want to pick a different day to make bread) If it seems safe, dump all of your starter into the flour and water mixture. We wash Fluffy's home while it is empty. It's akin to cleaning the litter box. You do it when the cats not in the litter box.

Anyway, stir Fluffy and the new mixture together and let set until it froths up and reaches the desired sourness. This will take awhile. You need a warm place to put the sponge since you are trying to get it up to temperature. If you have any patience, apply it here.

Your recipe will require a lot of starter, usually a couple of cups per loaf. This contains a fair amount of flour already so after you run out of patience, stir the flour, salt and oil in slowly and bring it to dough consistency and knead it for a while adding small amounts of flour until it has lost its stickiness. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and set the bowl in a warm moist place and apply more patience-- it will rise at about the same speed glaciers advance.

Okay, day six: Punch the dough down. Yes, after letting it rise, you are going to punch it down. (Don't get tears on the dough, it makes it sticky.) Now pan it up and go read War and Peace while the dough rises again. If you have been developing patience or have any left, you need to apply it here.

When the dough doubles, bake it off. I haven't been able to wait until my dough doubles. I want to eat the bread while I am still young enough to use my own teeth.
My patience is still stuck in its adolescence next to my sense of humor.

You might recall, that we dumped all of the starter into the sponge. Since you only use two cups, you will return the starter to its newly cleaned home and Fluffy can go back in the fridge.

Despite having to rethink and adjust my starting time a bit, it is still fun to use Fluffy instead of yeast. It is a connection with our past. It replaces something you would need to buy with something you make and nurture. You feed it- it feeds you. You can understand why a sourdough starter would be handed down from generation to generation. (I imagine some doughs were handed down since they hadn't quite doubled yet.) So Fluffy will remain in the back of the fridge, colonies of wild yeast locked in mortal combat yet ready to serve when called upon. Kris and I, although cautious, are getting used to the idea.